Urban Art Museum

Archive
December, 2009 Monthly archive

Have you ever considered what function the background on your computer’s desktop serves? I doubt it. Many people treat their desktop’s background as an expensive picture frame that displays imagery of their family or maybe a sports car that they will never ever be able to afford, but why not ask the desktop what it wants to be? It seems that the background of your computer’s desktop is an opportunity that architects have not yet capitalized on. In fact, I do not know of any profession that has thought about using the background of their computer’s desktop as anything other than a picture frame. This article discusses ten ways that you can make your desktop function for you.

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The de Young Museum designed by Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron is both underwhelming and overwhelming. The structure’s interiors are underwhelming at best, and there are few spaces on the interior that capture the same spirit that is embodied by the structure’s unique exterior appearance. The exterior form and treatment of the structure’s skin is overwhelming. The materiality, texture and the building’s seductive physique are used to create a building that one cannot help but to stare at. The de Young Museum is simply beautiful, its copper skin is unmatched in scale and execution, but the local and regional ecosystem must pay a great cost for its unique beauty.

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So, you want to be an Architect? The process of becoming an architect has become overly complicated since the days of Peter Keating and Howard Roark, but it is not impossible, yet. I have focused the last year of my life on obtaining my professional license, and may be deemed a licensed architect sometime this month, but instead of keeping my experiences to myself, I thought that I would pass along the lessons that I have learned during the past year in hopes that it will help other interns navigate this murky process.

One of the most difficult things about the architectural licensing process is that the road to becoming an architect is fragmented.

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