Home Addition

We were asked to design an addition to a ranch house for a couple in their 50's and 60's. It was to include a breakfast area, exterior deck, and space for a chair lift. The house overlooks a lake, and the addition was to take advantage of the view as the couples love of entertaining outside all year round. The addition was also to fit in with the existing house. Clearly we missed the mark with our first effort. Charles Moore where are you?

On the left of the photo below is a two level deck. The upper level is covered. It is connected to the lower level by a curving grand stair case. The breakfast nook is on the right. It is asymmetric in shape with a clerestory above.
Below is a roughed in view from the existing kitchen through the breakfast nook.

A birds eye view of they addition.

Next, my second attempt, and it is light years ahead. The existing roof line had an interesting rhythm that I wanted the new addition to fit into, so I used the same pitch for the addition's roof. In this version the addition is a simple stacked box with storage on the lower level and an area for entertaining on the second floor. The deck is a cantilever construction. This was done to protect the roots of near by trees. It's a huge improvement over the original plan, but it need more refining, and I'd lost much of the connection to the exterior. Also, how about I put chimney on that fire place?
A view from the lake

A view from the front of the house. The impact of the addition from the street would be minimal

the view from the downstairs patio.

View from the neighbor's house. It was important to the client that the addition not be an eye-sore to their neighbors

For the final iteration of the design I replaced the brick walls with operable store fronts to increase the connection to the outside. This necessitated the addition of a sun screen on the south west side of the addition, which can be seen below. The sunscreen had the added benefit of providing some privacy between the client and their neighbor.

Below is a bird's eye view of the final design. I added a clear story to the existing house to make up for the light lost by adding the addition onto the existing kitchen. I also cleaned up the design of the fire places. There are two fireplaces placed back to back, one for use inside, and one for use outside during Georgia's mild winters. A built in bench in the middle of the deck provides some an area to sit during parties. It also divides the Southeast corner from the rest of the deck, which can be used for grilling.

A view from the lower patio showing the open windows and the accordion door open. The entire room can be opened to fresh air and function as a covered patio or be closed against inclement weather.

A view from the lake. I moved the supports for the deck to the edges. This created a cleaner form.

Virginia coach Al Groh on Georgia Tech's offense

“I was trying to think of a good analogy the other day, but space flight has come a long way since the first launchings, but it’s a lot more sophisticated and lot more intricate and we can do things with those rockets and go to the moon now. Heck, all they were trying to do with the first one was do a couple of orbits. Now we’re sending people to the moon, but it’s still rocket flight. You know this is still wishbone-based offense. It’s just a more sophisticated, more souped-up version.”

Al's a heck of a communicator isn't he. Leaving aside the point that we haven't been to the moon sense 1972, the space shuttle is a totally different method of getting people into space than the early rockets. The space shuttle is to the Run and Gun offense, as the triple-option is to the Apollo rocket. Think about it.

On another note, I had no idea it was "souped-up". I would have guest something closer to "suped-up", as in to be more super or supercharged. So where did souped-up come from? I've found a few suggestions. One, "Soup" was slang for a stimulant injected into race horses. A horse that was injected with the stimulant was said to be "souped-up". I've also herd it said that "soup" was criminal slang for nitroglycerin.

Although I've found no support for it, couldn't "souped-up" be related making soup? Soup's origin probably goes back to someone needing to make a meal out of a few scraps of food. To make soup is to expand the capabilities of the original ingredients by boiling it in water and adding herbs and spices. When finished, a few scraps of food that would barely suffice as a meal for one person has been expanded to belly filling bowl after bowl of warm goodness.

The meal has in effect become souper-charged, and when you think about it, isn't that what a good coach does, takes desperate elements and turn it into something great.

Update - housing project

Still playing around with 3-D models and placing them in context. Here's one take that doesn't seem terrible. Hopefully I'll be able to scrape together enough images to make a formal presentation.

Haiku for a friends birthday

Recently a friend asked us to create Haiku for her boy friends birthday. Below is the one we submitted.

There is a river
Mink lined with first class service
Not unlike this one

What I know about Clemson this week

Willy Korn will make his first.  He runs better than Harper, and Clemson's offensive line has struggled this year, so it's not crazy to start an experienced QB against Tech this week, but Willy would have to be the next Vince Young for it to make  huge difference.  

Cullen Harper isn't happy about being benched, and neither are some of his teammates.  CJ Spiller pulled a hamstring last week.  Then again, he was jumping up and down on the side line when Clemson took the lead against Wake.  I'll call CJ questionable, and leave it at that.

Oh yeah, they fired the head coach.

Oh yeah, they also fired the offensive coordinator

Oh yeah, Dabo Swinney has never been a head coach.  He was the wide receiver's coach last week.

Dabo and former tight-end's coach Billy Napier will be making the offensive calls this week.  Neither of them have ever done this.

Dabo promoted to graduate assistants to coach the wide receivers and tight ends.

It took Dabo two days to organize his staff after the Bowden firing.  That's about as quickly as Clemson folk could hope for, but the fact remains, Clemson missed out on two days of practice in which they would have focused on the triple option.   

Two, two-and-a-half, days is not a lot of time, even for an experienced staff, which this is not.

It seems like the Tigers house is a mess, and pulling together enough for a win is a tall order.  Of course, if Tech gives Clemson a reason to believe early, things could get tough.

New Shapes

Professors have said, "if you can't draw a curve, you can't design a curve". With that in mind, I've been working on my 3-D moddeling skills. As a source of insperatin to modivate me to learn, I've been applying these newly learned skills to an old idea. A pre-fabricated, strip housing project. I'm not done with it yet, but as you can see the forms are differnet to say the least. I haven't forgone my desire to make formal inovation a lower priority. Sometimes, formal invention comes out of the process as a result of tackling different issues. If it works, it works. I'll have more to show later

What's Your Nickle Worth

In football, it's easier to determine the value of an offensive player than a defensive player from the box score. Chances are the guys with the most yards and touchdowns are the best players, but its more difficult to determine the value of a defensive player. Who’s more valuable, a defensive end with a few sacks, or a linebacker who makes tons of tackles all over the field? The problem is that the kinds of stats defensive players accumulate are impacted by the position they play. So, I’ve been working on a mathematical formula for calculating a defensive player’s value to a team regardless of position. I figured I could do this by applying a number value to every stat an individual player makes. I’m working from the box scores, so I’m not able to account for when and under what conditions a stat is recorded.

The first thing I wanted to do was select one stat to be the base stat against which all other stats would be measured. The goal of every defense is to get the offense off the field. There is only one play an individual defender can make to get the offense off the field on any down. That play is an interception. So I made an interception worth 10 points. The other statistics get values in relation to how they add to the defenses abilities to get stops. Those Values are as follows, with explanations..

Interception - 10 points

Forced Fumble – 6 points
Recovered Fumble – 4 points
A fumble recovery is worth as much as an interception, but it has to be divided between two players. Recovering a fumble is pure luck (per football prospectus) while forcing a fumble is a skill. So I’ve weighed the value of a fumble recovery to give more points to the player who created the fumble.

Pass Break Up - 3.5 points
The importance of sacks, tackles for loss, and incomplete passes is that they force the offense into situations that have a below average chance of producing a first down, and thus a higher chance of getting the offense of the field. So I calculated by the value of a pass break-up by looking at how an incomplete pass affects an offense’s ability to get a first down. I figures a pass defended is an incompletion forced by one player, and it doesn’t matter if the quarterback threw the ball out of bounds or if a cornerback knocked a pass away. I looked at every time Georgia Tech forced an incomplete pass and the offense failed to get a first down afterwards and divided by the number of times an incomplete pass was forced and the offense did get a first down latter. I then multiplied that number by 10, the points assigned for an interception, to get something relevant.

Quarter Back Hurries – 3.5 points
Same reasoning as above, only this time I’m attributing the incompletion to the quarterback being rushed by a defender.

Sacks – 7.9 points
I used the same process to calculate the value of sacks, as I did for pass break-ups. I divided the number of stops (failures to get a first down) after a sack, by the number of first downs recorded after a sack, and multiplied by 10.

Tackles for Loss – 8.5 points
I used the same process as I did for sacks. I’m not sure why this number is higher than the one for sacks. Maybe it’s because there are more opportunities for TFL’s on second and third down, and the offense has fewer opportunities to recover from a loss on those downs.
Tackles – 1.9

I divided the total number of Tech tackles by the total number of stops Tech made. For stops, I considered anything that wasn’t a touchdown a stop. Even if the offense kicked a field goal, Tech’s defense stopped them from achieving their ultimate goal. Counting field goal attempts as stops also doesn’t penalize the defense for playing well when the offense or special teams put them in bad fireld position.

Two things I’d like to be able to do, but can’t do from the box score are track the impact of a player drawing double-teams, and the impact of a cornerback shutting down his side of the field.

To track the impact of double teams, you would need to note each time a defensive lineman or line backer was blocked by two players, and then note the number of times a teammate recorded a stat other than a simple tackle (as a tackle is the result of almost every play). Then divided the later by the former and multiply by 10 to get a point total.

To track the impact of safeties and corner backs on opposing offenses you’d have to chart the percentage of times a team throws the ball into their area, find the inverse of that percentage and multiply by 3.5. This would increase the value of each pass defended for players offenses avoid and decrease the value of each pass defended for player’s offenses attack.

It’s not perfect, but check out the results and tell me if you think they are valuable. To be eligible a player has to have recorded a stat in at least three games.

The Black Watch
1 Derrick Morgan 152.3
2 Michael Johnson 115.8
3 Morgan Burnett 112.8
4 Vance Walker 103.2
5 Sedric Griffin 91.3
6 Darryl Richard 76.9

Honor Guard
7 Jahai Word-Daniels 76.2

Chosen Men
8 Mario Butler 59.8
9 Tony Clark 57.4

Enlisted Men
10 Kyle Jackson 55.1
11 Jason Peters 48.3
12 Rashaad Reid 47.9
13 Dominique Reese 47.5
14 Cooper Taylor 44.4
15 Travis Chambers 27.0
16 Jake Blackwood 23.4
17 Oshon Tango 19.3

Active Reserves
19 Brad Jefferson 15.2
20 Steve Sylvester 14.3
21 James Liipfert 12.4
22 Albert Rocker 12.3

National Guard
23 Anthony Barnes 9.5
24 Mario Edwards 8.8
25 Michael Peterson 7.6

Home Defense
26 Shane Bowen 6.7
27 Elris Anyaibe 6.7

How does the ACC Stack up

It’s been argued that comparing conferences is a silly exercise, but it provides two valuable sets of data. How would a team’s success in one conference transfer into other conferences, and thus how does that team relates to other teams in the nation. Secondly, it gives one an idea of teams schedule strength. It helps put into perspective a win over the best Sun Belt team and a loss to the worst SEC team.

In the list that follows I’ve combined the ACC with the other Bowl Championship Series conferences to get an idea of how ACC teams have performed this year. I ranked the teams by there USA today’s Sagarin rankings. These rankings don’t tell us where teams will end up, merely how they have performed so far this season. The ACC teams are shown in blue. Bold text indicates teams whose Sagarin ratings are exceptionally good, Italic text indicates teams whose scores are exceptionally bad.

A note about the rankings before we get going. I think Georgia Tech and UNC are ranked higher than Virginia Tech because they’ve each destroyed two BCS conference teams. UNC destroyed Rutgers and UConn, and Tech beat up Mississippi St. and Duke. VaTech has some good wins, at UNC and at Nebraska, but they weren’t as dominating.

ACC / Big 12 Conference
The ACC / Big 12 demonstrates a pattern you’ll see a lot as we go through the different comparisons. The ACC currently doesn’t have a team that can challenge the best of the best conferences, but it has a solid core of strong teams that can compete in any conference.

1 Oklahoma 92.87
2 Texas 90.63
3 Missouri 85.29
4 Texas Tech 85.29
5 Georgia Tech 85.11
6 Oklahoma St. 82.10
7 UNC 82.08
8 Wake Forest 81.94
9 Florida State 79.20
10 Boston College 78.97
11 Nebraska 77.04
12 Duke 76.68
13 Kansas 76.57
14 Colorado 74.04
16 Miami (FL) 73.04
17 Clemson 73.03
18 Maryland 72.05
19 Virginia 70.76
20 Kansas State 70.20
21 Baylor 69.44
22 Iowa State 66.31
23 NC State 64.18
24 Texas A&M 64.01

ACC/Big East

No one in the Big East even cracks the top half of the ACC. Take time to notice where Duke falls in these examples. They seem to be floating between “tough out” and “legitimate football team”. It’s a credit to the schedule they’ve played this season that their shut-out loss to Tech didn’t drop them further.

I think Pittsburgh and West Virginia have temporarily popped their head up for a breath before descending back down in the rankings.

1 Georgia Tech 85.11
2 UNC 82.80
3 Virginia Tech 81.94
4 Wake Forest 81.52
5 Florida State 79.20
6 Boston College 78.97
7 Cincinnati 77.76
8 UConn 77.44
9 South Florida 76.99
10 Duke 76.68
11 Pittsburgh 74.86
12 West Virginia 73.95
13 Miami 73.04
14 Clemson 73.03
15 Maryland 72.05
16 Virginia 70.76
17 Louisville 69.14
18 NC State 64.18
19 Rutgers 63.43
20 Syracuse 59.99

ACC/Big 10

The ACC and Big 10 are really even. Penn State is a notch better than everyone else, But a cluster of ACC teams follow closely on State’s heels, followed by a group of Big 10 teams. The bottom half of the conferences space out equally.

NC State keeps showing up at the bottom of these rankings because they got stomped by and average South Carolina team and a terrible UVA team.

1 Penn State 91.14
2 Georgia Tech 85.11
3 Ohio State 84.97
4 UNC 82.08
5 Virginia Tech 81.94
6 Wake Forest 81.52
7 Michigan State 81.47
8 Northwestern 80.84
9 Wisconsin 19.28
9 Illinois 19.28
11 Florida State 79.20
12 Boston College 78.97
13 Minnesota 78.00
14 Duke 76.68
15 Iowa 74.73
16 Miami 73.04
17 Clemson 73.03
18 Maryland 72.05
19 Michigan 71.40
20 Virginia 70.76
21 Purdue 70.17
22 Indiana 66.36
23 NC State 64.18

ACC/Conference USA

Outside of Tulsa, Conference USA can’t hold a chandelle to the ACC, but they aren’t really that far behind the Big East.

1 Georgia Tech 85.11
2 UNC 82.08
3 Virginia Tech 81.94
4 Wake Forest 81.52
5 Florida State 79.20
6 Boston College 78.97
7 Tulsa 78.29
8 Duke 76.68
9 Miami 73.04
10 Clemson 73.03
11 East Carolina 72.97
12 Maryland 72.05
13 Houston 71.43
14 Virginia 70.76
15 Rice 68.66
16 Southern Miss. 65.64
17 Marshall 65.03
18 UTEP 64.63
19 NC State 64.18
20 Memphis 64.63
21 UCF 61.33
22 Tulane 58.17
23 UAB 54.04
24 SMU 52.03

ACC/Independents

Notre Dame is average and needs to join a conference, but on the good side Navy is also average.

1 Georgia Tech 85.11
2 UNC 82.08
3 Virginia Tech 81.94
4 Wake Forest 82.52
5 Florida State 79.20
6 Boston College 78.97
7 Notre Dame 77.47
8 Duke 76.68
9 Navy 75.13
10 Miami 73.04
11 Clemson 73.03
12 Maryland 72.05
13 Virginia 70.76
14 NC State 64.18
15 W. Kentucky 61.14
16 Army 53.32

ACC/MAC

Man, Ball State has run up a good resume in the early goings. They beat Navy by 12 and Indiana by 22. I think they’re strength of schedule will drop when they play the rest of their conference.

1 Georgia Tech 85.11
2 Ball State 82.68
3 UNC 82.08
4 Virginia Tech 81.94
5 Wake Forest 81.52
6 Florida State 79.20
7 Boston College 78.97
8 Duke 78.97
9 Miami 73.04
10 Clemson 73.03
11 Maryland 72.05
12 Virginia 70.87
13 W Michigan 69.85
14 Akron 68.55
15 Bowling Green 68.17
16 NIU 68.06
17 Buffalo 67.37
18 C Michigan 67.21
19 NC State 64.18
20 Temple 64.35
21 Toledo 59.29
22 Ohio 56.73
23 E Michigan 55.73
24 Kent State 55.23
25 Miami (OH) 54.65

ACC/Mountain West

The Mountain West has three strong teams at the top that have performed as well as anyone this year, and then a huge drop off. Air Force is the only other team worth noting.

If Virginia Tech keeps winning, I think they’ll start climbing the ratings as the East Carolina loss means less and less.


1 Georgia Tech 85.11
2 Utah 84.35
3 TCU 84.09
4 BYU 83.47
5 UNC 82.08
6 Virginia Tech 81.94
7 Wake Forest 81.52
8 Florida State 79.20
9 Boston College 76.68
10 Duke 76.68
11 Air Force 73.73
12 Miami 73.04
13 Clemson 73.03
14 Maryland 72.05
15 Virginia 70.76
16 New Mexico 68.04
17 UNLV 66.90
18 Colorado State 65.79
19 NC State 64.18
20 San Diego State 57.96
21 Wyoming 55.37

ACC/PAC 10

The ACC stacks up pretty evenly with the PAC 10. Sure no one can touch USC, but overall the ACC is a little better overall up top, and the two Washington teams are terrible. Really bad.

1 USC 94.11
2 Georgia Tech 85.11
3 Cal 83.36
4 UNC 82.08
5 Virginia Tech 81.94
6 Wake Forest 81.52
7 Oregon State 81.21
7 Oregon 81.21
9 Florida State 79.20
10 Arizona 79.04
11 Boston College 78.97
12 Duke 76.68
13 Stanford 74.14
14 Miami 73.04
15 Clemson 73.03
16 Maryland 72.05
17 Arizona State 71.75
18 Virginia 70.76
19 UCLA 68.29
20 NC State 64.18
21 Washington 62.97
22 Washington State 55.93

ACC/SEC

The SEC is better than the ACC, but they aren’t as deep as everyone keeps saying. Arkansas, Mississippi St, and Tennessee have played terrible, and Auburn and South Carolina would be middle of the road teams in any conference. On top of That LSU, hasn’t been challenged at all, and Kentucky has played one of the easiest schedules in the country, and that includes a game against a very good Alabama.

On the other hand, Georgia, Alabama and Vandy have played some good teams and they’ve performed well. It’s hard to say where they will end up, but they are fore real

1 Alabama 92.25
2 Florida 86.76
3 Georgia 86.10
4 Georgia Tech 85.11
5 LSU 84.84
6 Vanderbilt 83.30
7 Kentucky 82.61
8 UNC 82.08
9 Virginia Tech 81.94
10 Wake Forest 81.52
11 Florida State 79.20
12 Auburn 79.08
13 Boston College 78.97
14 South Carolina 77.21
15 Duke 76.68
16 Ole Miss 74.42
17 Miami 73.04
18 Clemson 73.03
19 Tennessee 72.19
20 Maryland 72.05
21 Virginia 70.76
22 Arkansas 65.11
23 Mississippi St. 64.23
24 NC State 64.18

ACC/Sun Belt

If The Troy/LSU game hadn’t been rained out, Troy would be the toughest team LSU has played to date. The Sun Belt should be kicked out of the Bowl Championship Subdivision.

1 Georgia Tech 85.11
2 UNC 82.08
3 Virginia Tech 81.94
4 Wake Forest 81.52
5 Florida State 79.20
6 Boston College 78.97
7 Duke 76.68
8 Troy 73.54
9 Miami 73.04
10 Clemson 73.03
11 Maryland 72.05
12 Virginia 70.76
13 Middle Tenn. St. 65.30
14 Arkansas St. 64.49
15 NC State 64.18
16 FIU 63.57
17 Louisiana-La 63.57
18 Florida Atlantic 60.87
19 Louisiana-Mo 52.11
20 North Texas 47.19

ACC/WAC

Ladies and Gentlemen, your BCS buster, Boise St!

1 Boise State 85.30
2 Georgia Tech 85.11
3 UNC 82.08
4 Virginia Tech 81.94
5 Wake Forest 81.52
6 Florida State 79.20
7 Boston College 78.97
8 Duke 76.68
9 Clemson 73.03
9 Fresno St. 73.03
11 Maryland 72.05
12 Virginia 70.76
13 San Jose St. 67.84
14 Hawaii 67.74
15 NC State 64.18
16 Louisiana Tech 61.84
17 New Mexico St. 61.11
18 Utah State 59.09
19 Idaho 46.32

Plan (result of vision conference

Below is the plan we generated from the vision conference. I originally just wanted to provide the owner with the booklet. The reason for this is that I believe owner's hire us to provide a service, and the best way to provide good service is to work closely with the owner and treat them as an equal partner in the process, to combine their knowledge of their wants and needs with our knowledge of how to fit that into a building. The drawings which we provide the client with at the end of the project are merely the record of the partnership. How can we design something for an owner without their input? But I finally came to the conclusion that owners want to see a plan, no matter how little we know about their needs, or how much it will change before the design is completed. It gives them something to be excited about.

This project is a renovation of a bungalow. The unchanged parts of the house are shown in grey. The front door is at the top of the page. The additions are shown in red and rendered in material. We removed two walls from the middle of the house to create a great room We then opened up the stairs and added some book shelves and storage. Our final step was to add a kitchen addition and screen porch to the rear of the house, and design a garden for vegitables.

Below is a rendering of what the renovation and addition may look like from the front of the house. Bookshelves and the open stairs are on the right. An existing fire place is on the left. The two sets of wood beams and columns indicate where we removed existing walls. We also added a new window to the left. Just outside the window is a planter for aromatic plants. The owner's told us in the vision session that they love to garden, love fresh, green smells and love opening the house to fresh air. The bar in back separates the new kitchen from the house. The bar lies on the point where the back of the house used to be.

In retrospect the rendering was a mistake. It fixes an image to firmly in the owners mind. This early in the process we only have ideas, not finished forms. Opening the stairs is an idea. Removing some walls and replacing them with a new structure is just an idea. The forms these ideas end up taken could be very different from what is shown in this rendering.

Vision Conference Book

Below are the pages from the booklet we generated for the client. It's the end product of vision conference. It serves two purposes. It highlights the key points that were identified in vision conference, and its the first attempt to put into visual form those points. The booklet has a simple layout. A central square on the page slowly evolves from a solid object on a white background into a void in the middle of a solid field. The final page is a conceptual diagram of the home renovation. The interior of the box pushes out into its surroundings blurring the distinction between object and field. In the same way, the house design would open up into the yard and blur the difference between inside and outside. During the conference the client noted that they liked the colors in one of the pictures we had mounted under the heading "Textures". That picture is used on the cover, the boxes on the following pages are filled with color taken from that image.

Vision Conference

Here are some pictures of the first vision session we've ever attempted. We started with some boards which ask the owner about their home and what they do at home, then moved on to some boards going over their aesthetic likes and dislikes, and ended with boards that tried to synthesis that information with information we got from the client before hand to create a prioritised program and a summary.

Lazarus?

Clemson’s been a huge disappointment this year, and I have the feeling they are teetering on the edge of collapse. One or two more bumps and they may quite on the season. It happened last year to Tech late in the season.

I tuned into the Wake Forest / Clemson game last night with that in mind. An emotionally crushing defeat at the hands of Wake Forest could carry over to Clemson’s game against Tech.

That alone was enough to get me, a die hard Tech fan interested, but the match-up promised an interesting game. Wake is everything Clemson is not. Their well coached, fundamentally sound, mentally tough, and slow and not athletic. Clemson is still a very talented team with playmakers all over the field. They can break a big play at any moment.

The difference between the two teams was clear. Wake was methodical and efficient, reaching in their bag of trick plays at just the right moment to go deep. They missed on those trick plays, but the opportunity was there. On the other hand, Clemson’s offense had no rhythm. If the front line held up and gave Harper time, he could hit someone for a 15 to 20 yard completion, but it was all or nothing. They managed to only run for 21 yards.

The end score was much closer than it should have been. Wake moved up and down the field all night, only to bog down in the red zone. To complicate matters, Wake’s starting kicker was injured. Wake missed two field goals on the night, and while one of the misses was due to a bad hold, the other missed by a wide margin. Had the starting kicker been in the game, wake would have gone into have time with a 6 or 9 point lead.

Clemson didn’t look well coached. On third down and in the red zone, their team speed allowed them to close the angles and stop Wake, but given room to operate, Wake’s play calling and execution gashed Clemson for 5 to 8 yard gains all night. Wake was able to run straight up the middle against Clemson, which bodes well for Tech. They didn’t do it with tricks or misdirection; they just shoved Clemson out of the way. Clemson was effective when the blitzed and rushed Skinner’s passes, but Skinner is surprisingly athletic and was able to scramble for positive yards several times.

Clemson’s offense is just too cute; too many moving parts, too many strange quirks. On one play Harper faked a double end around before attempting a pass. It fooled no one because the fakes happened in such quick succession and were so poorly executed. Of course part of the problem was that Harper had to turn his back to the line of scrimmage to make the fakes and then turn back around to make the pass. That takes a long time. It forced him to rush, which through off his mechanics, and made the whole thing pointless.

What does all this mean for Tech?

Clemson’s defense is fast, but they are also weak up the middle, and undisciplined. So Dwyer has a good chance to gash them all day long. Their lack of discipline will probably keep them from really shutting down the option, but their team speed could keep tech from breaking anything really long, and they could capitalize on any loose footballs.

Clemson lost CJ Spiller to a pulled hamstring in the second quarter of the Wake game, and guards, Cory Lambert on the left, and Mason Cloy on the right were knocked out of the game. If those players are still missing when Clemson plays Tech, the Tiger’s offense may struggle. Though fellow running back James Davis and wide receiver Jacoby Ford can bust loose for big plays, clearly Spiller is the biggest threat to do so, and it looks like the Clemson offense is all big play or nothing. Tech’s defensive line has been dominant all year long, and there is no reason to believe they would be anything but against a beaten up Clemson offensive line. Tech should be able to bottle-up the running game and make Clemson one dimensional.

Tech has a chance to jump out to a lead, because I don’t think Clemson is going to be well prepared for this offense, and I think the Tigers might struggle to rally in the second half

Untested assumptions about the SEC

1) The SEC doesn't play anyone out of conference.

2) The SEC doesn't have to play anyone out of conference, because the conference is so tough?

3) SEC teams loose an inordinate number of games to conference teams thus the SEC doesn't have to play a tougher out of conference schedule?

"1" May be true, it may not be true.  this can be tested by comparing the final standing of SEC School's out of conference opponents to other conferences

if true "3" does not prove "2".  SEC teams beating in each other only proves that the quality of the teams in the SEC are similar.  They could be equally bad, good or mediocre.  The only way to verify the SEC's strength is to compare the quality of opponents it plays out of conference to the quality of opponents other conferences play, and their records.

searching for answers, how to vet and communicate with clients

PROBLEMS

1) Most people don’t know what architects do or how they work.
2) It takes a lot of time to understand an owners values and how those values determine their needs.
3) Trust breaks down when architects don’t know their client’s values and clients don’t understand how architects work.

HOW ARCHITECTS WORK

Design is not arbitrary. It’s subjective, and subjects exist within a context. The context is a kind of environment in which the design develops. The architect and the client are the strongest elements in this environment. Therefore the client-architect relationship is the most important factor affecting the success of a design.

Design is not the product of single person’s imagination. A good architect is not Howard Roark, the solitary genius of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, who pursued his own agenda without regard to the wants and needs of others. The example of Roark is a one which creates dystopian disasters. This approach to architecture is responsible for disasters such as the Pruitt-Igo housing complex. Pruitt-Igo is the poster child for architectural ideals executed without an understanding of the full range of issues that surround a building.

CASE STUDY

Pruitt-Igo was an award winning public housing complex erected in St. Louis in 1954. The building quickly became a den of crime, and remained empty for large periods of time. It was demolished in 1972.



Instead of pursuing a megalomaniacal vision, design is a process of discovery from which innovative solutions emerge. When done correctly the process is fun and surprising for both the architect and the client. It begins with the architect developing an understanding of the elements that make up the client’s values and needs, and understanding how different elements relate to each other. Often values and needs seem to contradict each other in unexpected ways. Design is the process of reconciling these contradictions. This process often creates innovative solutions. For example clients will often ask for large open spaces, but confess a preference for traditional design. Traditional designs are based on masonry or stick-frame construction. These two structural systems do not allow for large openings. The desire for open spaces and traditional design are contradictory elements, but they can coexist. The design that reconciles these contradictions may end up incorporating traditional elements, such as wood trim and floors, with other elements, such as a steel structure, that allow for open spaces. The process creates something unique for the client.

GOAL

The goal is two fold. The first goal is to develop an understanding of the client’s values. The second goal is to educate the client about the full range of possibilities architecture affords them.

PROGRESSION

The first step is to discover who the client is and what the client’s values are. The next step is to help the client to think about the abstract characteristics they want in their space and how the characteristics relate to the values discussed earlier in the session. The final step is to develop the projects needs based on the clients values and the characteristics they want.

PRE-MEETING

Each session is custom designed for the client. 8 to 12 blank boards are prepared before hand. The boards can be large scale post it notes. At the top of each board is a title. The titles cover a range of subjects. For discovering the clients values say things like “who are you”, “what do you want to do”, “what’s important to you”, “what are your wishes”, etc. Sheets that focus on characteristics may be titled “tools to create space”, “elements”, “mood”, “texture”, “associations” etc. Sheets that deal with specifics say stuff like “program”, “spaces”, “specials”, “Things we’ve learned”, etc.

These sheets are put on the walls of the conference room along with images, material samples, oddities, and curiosities designed to suggest the range of possibilities. The idea is to spark conversation.

THE MEETING

The meeting is part meet-and-greet, and part brain storming session. The tone is relaxed and spontaneous. Everyone is there to learn about each other and to share ideas. People should really revel in the possibilities. The beginning of a project is an exciting time.

It takes at least two people to run the meeting. One person leads the meeting and keeps it on task. That person directs the client’s attention to each panel, prods them for more information, and writes notes on the sheets. The other person takes notes. Many of the key points will be written down on the boards, so it is important for the note taker to listen for subtle gestures and expressions the owner uses. Does the owner repeat certain requests? Does he or her have a special term or joke to describe something? If so, they’ve probably thought a lot about that point. Is anything said with particular emphasis or emotion? If there are multiple clients, note where they agree or disagree. When are they unsure? etc.

It’s very important to listen closely to the client, as clients aren’t always forth coming with information. This happens for many reasons. Sometimes they are embarrassed to talk about something. Sometimes they are intimidated by talking to an expert. Others may not know how to explain what they want. Clients sometimes tell the architect what they think the architect wants to here because they don’t want to look ignorant or naive. In any event the note taker and meeting leader must be sensitive to the client’s more subtle messages.

THE PRODUCT

After the session the architect turns the raw data into a booklet that summarizes the client’s values. The booklet is not just a list of client’s values and needs. The design of the booklet incorporates the client’s values and demonstrates how those values can be expressed in a visual medium. In many ways the booklet is a predecessor to the final design.

WHY THE CLIENT LIKES IT

1) It gives the client a chance to express him or herself to the architect and know that the architect really cares.
2) The client gets to learn about architecture. Understanding allows the client to play a bigger role in the project.
3) The client can use the booklet to explain their ideas to any other people that may be involved in the process. This could include bankers, investors, contractors, potential customers, friends, partners, etc.
4) It jumpstarts the relationship between the client and the architect.

WHY THE ARCHITECT LIKES IT

1) It jumpstarts the relationship between the client and the architect.
2) It allows the architect to earn the clients trust.
3) It gets the owner to take partial ownership of the design.
4) It gives the architect an opportunity to learn why the client wants to build.
5) The architect gets insight into what it will be like to work with the client. Is the client rigid or flexible? Are they assertive or timid?
6) The architect can learn exactly how much service the client wants. Do they just want a permit, or do they really want to develop a special design?
7) It allows the architect to screen potential clients. Is the client serious? Do they have the means to complete the project?
8) The architect can use it as a marketing tool.
9) It shortens the design process by getting a maximum amount of information out on the table early in the design process.

THE BUSINESS MODEL

The architect will charge a fee for this session. The fee serves several purposes
1) The architect is paid for work that he or she wouldn’t be even though it is a key part of the design process.
2) The fee will cause less serious clients to back out before they waste the architect’s time.
3) The fee can be waived as a favor to clients the architect has worked with before or that the architect already knows is a serious client. The cost of this season can then be taken as a loss against the books as it has a value assigned to it (check tax laws).
4) For clients that have already committed to work with the architect, such as when the architect earns a government contract, the Vision Conference can be incorporated into Standard Design services and include the cost in the design fees.

A House For Two

The economy is slow, so I goofed around with a few ideas and put them into one house.

The first thing I wanted to do was free the design from the need to be new or innovative. Modern architecture places great value on creating new forms. The result has been a reactionary practice of one generation defining itself in opposition to the immediately proceeding generation. Formal innovations that are praised upon their grand opening look dated and stylized within a few years, or worse yet are empty gestures and functional nightmares creating unnecessary expense. In the past my design processes ground to a halt over worries that a design wasn't “innovative”. This led to an obsession with innovation that caused function and budget to suffer, and the forms often felt self conscious and supercilious. I didn’t eliminate innovation from the design process; instead I made it a much lower priority. This allowed formal innovation to devolve from deeper inside the design process and have more meaning. The result was a hip roof. It sheds water better than a flat roof, still makes an interesting shape, and who cares if it’s a two hundred years old form.

The next thing I wanted to do was design a glass house, but take the idea one step further. Many famous architects have designed glass houses (Mies van der Rohe, Phillip Johnson, Bernard Tsumi), and the overriding theme of these houses is glass's ability to connect the interior with the exterior. I stole an idea form van der Rohe’s Tugendhat house and Paul Rudolph’s Florida houses. The glass panels on the front and rear of the house open like garage doors to let in fresh air. This makes the interior and exterior a continuos space.

The third thing I was interested in was the idea of designing a prototype. Any prototype has two parts; a part that is fixed and provides function, and a part that can be adjusted to fit into any environment. In this case I set the house on an earthen plinth. The plinth can accomodates the topography and creates a flat area for the house. It also creates an outdoor extension to the house's living space. Also it's a cheeky reference to Le Corbusier’s pilotis. It does the same thing, but it is formally the complete opposite.

The house is a glass box with an irregular wood box inside. The wood box contains the functional elements of the house; two bathrooms, storage space, mechanical space, a fire place, and pocket doors to separate the living spaces. The windows are made of two layers of glass with interior blinds that can be closed for privacy.

I’ve shown the house in a variety of locations to emphasize that it is a prototype that can be built anywhere.

Above: a view of the interior without the roof
Above: a front view of the hose. The panel's on the right left are open

Above: this view shows the kitchen and guest bedroom side of the house

Above: an arial view from the rear showing the house perched on an overlook
Above: from this side you can see the masterbedroom and living room.
Above: interior view from guest bedroom through the study to the master bedroom. Individual rooms can be closed with hidden pocket doors that lock into special jambs built into the exterior wall
Above: view from living room past recessed entry to dinning area in kitchen. The wood paneling on the left is part of cental service block.

Above: view from study
Above: a view along the rear deck

David Cutcliffe "Quotes"

What Duke head coach David Cutcliffe has to say about Georgia Tech

On Facing Georgia Tech

“This is certainly the best team we’ve played far and away. I think they have some great players. They have some all-American type football players… Executing their offesnse well, a big strong great looking offensive line, weapons at receiver, weapons at halfback, they run the wishbone as well as you can possibly image somebody running it. It’ll make you cry. Just the site of Tech running their offense has been known to cure cancer.”

On B-Back Jonathan Dwyer

I mean, is that guy talented? He is a special back, but more so, he’s a special person. He has got it all. He’s got strength, he’s got the ability to move his feet, and he can fly. He lefts himself of the ground by sure will and walks on air. Very difficult to contain a player that can do that.

On QB’s Josh Nesbit and Jaybo Shaw

Nesbit, he went out last game hurt and it is a tribute to Georgia Tech and man kind that they never missed a beat with Shaw in there, a true freshman. He’s delicious.

What we know about the top 25

1. Oklahoma
· Oklahoma has played an average TCU team, but they took care of them easily.
Oklahoma is good, probably top 10 good, but what happens when they really get pushed
2. Alabama
· Dismantled a great UGA team. It’s safe to say Alabama is in it for the long haul.
3. LSU
· LSU has played Appalachian State, North Texas and Mississippi State, and an average to
poor Auburn team. We know next to nothing about this team. With that schedule, there
is no reason they should be ranked in the top five.
4. Missouri
· Illinois is a bad team. Missouri has shown us nothing this year. Are they really as good as
they were last year?
5. Texas
· The best team Texas has beaten is Rice. Seriously?
6. Penn State
· Oregon State and Illinois may be teams from BCS conferences, but both of them are
pretty poor.
7. Texas Tech
· The Red Raiders have played two 1-AA teams and two terrible teams; SMU, and Nevada.
8. BYU
· BYU has beaten two bad Pac 10 teams; Washington, UCLA, but they did it well
9. USC
· Beat an average Ohio State team.
10. South Florida
· Beat an average Kansas and lost to an average Pitt. They are an average team.
11. Georgia
· Beat an average South Carolina team, but was destroyed by Alabama. Georgia is average
to good.
12. Florida
· Lost to a very good Ole Miss at home, but hasn’t looked good out side of beating a terrible
Hawaii team. Florida is average to good.
13. Auburn
· Auburn has only played one team of note, LSU, and we aren’t sure how good LSU is. This
team could be falling. They certainly shouldn’t be in the top 25
14. Ohio State
· Has struggled with poor teams, and got walked in the only game they’ve played against a
good team. Ohio State probably shouldn’t be in the top 25 right now.
15. Utah
· Two good wins over solid Michigan and Air Force teams. Utah has a better resume at this
point than BYU
16. Kansas
· Has played two terrible teams, but also beat an average South Florida team in Tampa.
Their okay
17. Boise State
· Bet an average Oregon team on the road. The Broncos look solid
18. Wisconsin
· Wisconsin went on the road and beat an average Fresno State game, but lost to an
improving Michigan team. They are probably ranked in the right spot.
19. Vanderbilt
· Beat an average South Carolina team and a surprisingly good Ole Miss. 19 feels right
20. Virginia Tech
· Virginia Tech has the stoutest resume in the top 25. They lost to a surprisingly
competent East Carolina team at a neutral site. Then they went and beat very good
teams in Georgia Tech and UNC in back to back weeks. After that, they went to
Nebraska and beat a solid Huskers team.. They should be ranked much higher.
21. Oklahoma State
· The best team the cowboys have played is Houston. Why is this team getting any respect
22. Fresno State
· The Bulldogs beat poor UCLA and Rutgers teams, and lost to a good Wisconsin team, but looked good doing it. 22 seems fair
23. Oregon
· Lost to a Good Purdue team, but hasn’t played anyone else worth a darn.
24. Connecticut
· Beat a bad Louisville team.
25. Wake Forest
· has the second strongest resume in the top 25. They beat Good teams in FSU and Ole
Miss, and lost to a Navy team that hasn’t fallen off sense Paul Johnson left for Georgia
Tech

Teams likely to tumble but stay in the top 25

LSU and Texas Tech

Teams likely to fall out of the top 25

Auburn and Oregon, and Vanderbilt (though they deserve better)

Teams that could crack the top 25

Ole Miss, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Northwestern have all played well against tough early season schedules