Author: drdrr

This week we are approaching the next level of record heat in Phoenix. The area breaks another record for heat every year. I have lived in Phoenix for ten summers, that is the hard and sure measure of time here, the summer. What averages a three month season seems more like six months here. In fact, in my home city of Seattle, maybe two or three weeks of its hottest summer weather is comparable to months of clear skies in Phoenix’s winter. I have said to myself I will leave Phoenix for the whole summer every year and yet have never made it happen. 

I have found that I need a temperature reset once or twice every Phoenix summer. The quickest trip is north to Flagstaff, a three hour drive and almost five thousand  feet elevation gain, that is thirty degrees cooler on any given day. The town also benefits from is mountain breezes and shade from an extensive pine tree population. 

Another little longer drive for respite from the severity of the summer is west to the Pacific. I have spent a year or so in Los Angeles two decades ago and nearly attended USC to finish architecture school. I had never travelled to San Diego until two years ago but have visited three times now in those last two years, as the climate is as pleasant as possible. 

This summer for my temperature vacation I decided to travel to San Diego and Los Angeles areas. I asked around and found some event suggestions. One concert and one drawing workshop. I planned my trip around these. I ended up missing both but they helped structure my trip. The workshop especially would have been good, it was a plein air drawing session, so I decided to practice at least every day.    I packed colored pencils, sketchbooks and watercolor tins. I was not looking forward to drawing clear skies with pencil so I brought watercolors and brushes. Even though I ended up happy with the colored pencils. 

I booked my first night just outside of San Diego in La Jolla. As I read it was 70F while Phoenix was 110F. I checked the other areas of interest, Pasadena was in the middle or high 80s, which makes sense because it does not as directly benefit from the ocean’s thermal mass and breezes thirty miles inland. I planned one night in Pasadena to see the Huntington Library and its garden grounds. 

In La Jolla I asked my host about nearby scenic ocean hikes, she suggested Torrey Pines State Park. I had heard the name Torrey Pines from golfers, that they have a major golf tournament, and I said “isn’t that a golf course?” She told me that there were miles and miles of trails at the State Park. I visited it and was completely impressed by the ecosystem and presence of nature. I went to the top of one of the bluffs and found a ranger station adobe lodge that the docent told me was originally a restaurant. Taxidermic specimens of the local fauna lined the walls of the gift shop. I asked the docent for a reasonable hike recommendation, and he sent me on my way. I found a bench and drew a ravine between two bluffs. Not my best work but my first plein air drawing in a while.

In the morning I went to the Pacific at La Jolla  to watch the sun rise. The sun rises opposite the ocean and i listened to the din of seagulls and sealions. I took it all in. Sketched the sea and felt better about the second drawing.

After visiting San Diego I drove north and had a lot of time before my check in time in Pasadena. I ended up driving to the Getty Villa in Malibu. Traces of recent wildfires were disheartening. The Villa was nice. I took an art and architecture tour, but missed the museum collections due to whimsical planning and timing. I was more inspired by the newer facilities from the 2000s much more than the 1970s classical remake. The gardens were nicest and our guide related the flora selections to antiquity’s myths and poetics, but I appreciated secondarily  the concrete textures of the 2000s facility and its raw quarry inspired designs. The finesse of the accessible routes and circulation that the architects planned were another high point. I heard the architects wanted to monumentalize these ramps and paths that are usually temporary or afterthoughts to meet codes. Unfortunately I did not sketch anything at Getty Villas.

Took me an hour and a half along the interstate 10 to get from Malibu to Pasadena. It is only 18 miles! That might be why they call it the 10, because the speed in that stretch is around 10 miles an hour. Due to the delay I stayed around my lodgings and skipped the concert since I did not want to be trapped in traffic again. Near where I stayed in Pasadena I visited the original Trader Joe’s and the house where Einstein lived while at Caltech. 

I did not visit the Huntington library the next day, as I planned, but instead I headed over to Santa Monica early to walk along the beach. I also went out on the pier for another sketch looking back to the shore.

I stayed in Santa Monica on the third night after watching the sunset. The room was oddly warm and humid and I woke up extremely early. Checked my car on the way out and saw a coyote wandering the streets at 4am. Nature is present! 

The workshop was in a few hours but I decided to see another town I had never before and drove up the PCH to Ventura. I made it to the beach at dawn and walked up the wharf and enjoyed watching surfers and waves. At a reasonable waking hour I wrote a friend from Ventura. He replied, “why there, why not Santa Barbara?”   So I visited SB too but planned to stay in Ventura. I ended up resigning to skip the workshop, feeling accomplished e ouch after daily sketches, Both Ventura and Santa Barbara were foggy, charming towns and a little chilly. They both had street fairs starting at 10am. Annual Fiesta. Ate a freshly caught snapper on the pier in Santa Barbara, among the best  meals I can remember. Santa Barbara displays many signs, with a reminder of their municipal code prohibiting smoking and making a smoke free city. 

Around noon, I returned to Ventura and all the hotels were booked for the weekend. But I wanted to traverse Los Angeles on the way back to Phoenix,  at the earliest possible hour so needed to find a place to stay. Eventually I found one that was overpriced and under maintained.  Went to the beach again, to be sure to draw.

I left early the next morning, feeling my body temperature successfully reset and recharged to face the next Phoenix heat record. 

Here is my essay closing resolution: next trip to Southern California will be by plane and involve no private car, only public transport. I do not want to contribute any further to the congestion and smog of this lovely city and region.

I have taken some care and time to read Latin lately, for the sake of learning. I have focused on classical and renaissance texts about architecture and related fields. It all began with the term “barrel vault” we use to describe a well worn feature of Roman design. I went to look for the term in the original and found some interesting results, will write about that more later in a large work I call “A Natural History of Architecture”. So far in exploring antiquity, I have noticed enough content to supply my curiosity to my heart’s content.

Today what puzzles me most is an oddly anachronic find in Alberti. I went looking for the oldest edition I could find a scan of and it is the 1541 Strasbourg. The area of interest is Book Four, which has a large “universal” or geographic as well as ethnographic scope.

Liber Quartus, cui de universorum opere est titulus

Alberti cites many of his ancient sources, and adds descriptions of Gauls, Britons, Druids. Egyptians, Ethiopians, Arabs, various civilizations. What stuck out, to me, was this:

Apd Americos (inqt Liuius) regio fertilissima est, fed, q plaerumq ubere solet agro euenire, homines alit imbelles.

I encourage the reader to translate, as my Latin is lacking, but my interpretation, even if it is 1500 years off,”(according to Livy), the American region is fertile land and when this is the case it nourishes non-belligerent peoples”.

Livy lived around the turn from BCE to CE. Around year zero. 1500 years into the Common Era, Alberti wrote De Re Aedifacatoria in the 1450s. Alberti died in 1472. Amerigo Vespucci traveled to the Americas decades after that. Christopher Columbus traveled to the Americas decades after Alberti died as well. After Columbus died in 1506, the term Americas was first used to described the lands. When I first noticed this, my mind sped and I tried to reconcile what I was reading. After trying, I rested and looked more the next day. I soon found this in the Paris edition of 1553

Tite Live dict que la region d’Amerique est merueilleusement fertile, mais qu’elle nourit des hommes trop docillez & debiles, ainsi que font communemet tous pays gras abondans en richesses.

I encourage the reader to read and translate, but the meaning is pretty much the same as in the Strasbourg text.

In order to understand, here are some options. There are a few scenarios: I) I am still learning Latin and am oblivious to what is in these texts, II) Alberti, and or even Livy wrote about (Americos) Americas before they are known by Europeans, III) an editor sometime in the 1500s introduced the line about the Americas.

I checked a classical Greek and Latin concordance and did not find any mention of “Americos” therein. Will not go searching for the term in Livy, at present. Going to presume it was a false and fanciful idea of the editor who introduced it. After finding the Paris translation with the America line translated into French, which I am more experienced in, I am confident we can rule out scenario I).

Conclusions: If time is of the essence, then Renaissance anachronisms are more distractions.

SOURCES

Oldest Alberti I could find was published after his life, in Strasbourg. 1541. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100237433

Also cited is the Paris edition of 1553. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100578032

Logeion concordance mentioned. https://logeion.uchicago.edu/

Google Translate for a translation reference.

Wikipedia for general dates of events.

Ever since I completed my dissertation and knew managing a book scale document was feasible for me, I like keeping a prospective book topic. For a while I was working on one called Architecture of a New State. About architecture in Arizona around the time (just before and after) it became a US state. I got pretty far along in that one, but put it on hold for several reasons. Now I am working on Architecture of the Sun, and see it might be of much more than local significance, perhaps universal significance. Overwhelming but important. There is some Arizona in there for sure but the for now it is much more encompassing. Here is my outline from June 21, 2025:

Architecture of the Sun Science of the Sun Solar systems Solar time keeping Sunlight and optics Heat and energy: accepting and avoiding rays Landscapes of the Sun Desertification The Sun and water Architectural Derivations from the Sun Radial solar cities Sun temples Housing Sun gods, Sun kings Sun religion, Sun governance Modernity and the Sun Solar equipment: astrolabe, sundial, sextant, armillary sphere. Solar orientation: sun paths and charts Solar materials: sun dried earth, daylight catching, solar energy catching

A few years ago I found a half dozen or more high quality astronomy books at a second hand bookstore in Mesa, Arizona. Felt like an unlikely find, but these were all from top academic publishers, and I read them. They were all published over fifteen years ago and all warned severely about looking at the sun, ESPECIALLY NEVER TO LOOK AT THE SUN THROUGH A TELESCOPE.

Years and filters and scientific advancements later, I did just that. I visited the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff on 7 10 2025 and took several looks through a solar telescope. Apparently advancements have made it possible through specially filtered instruments, and I was eager to see.

The perimeter is the area I found most interesting. There are enormous flares or “prominences” that I tried to capture with my camera applied to the view finder. See below.

As a current resident of the Sonoran Desert, the sun is ever-present and inescapable. If I stay here I need to adapt myself, my lifestyle, my environment. We all do. I would rather not live in an Anthropocene, but more naturally in more of a Heliopocene.

PRINTER REVIEW, (but first some history)

“Standards of Excellence: Members should continually seek to raise the standards of aesthetic excellence, architectural education, research, training, and practice.”

–AIA Code of Ethics, 2022

In the first few statements of the AIA Code of Ethics is the above (Canon I, Ethical Standard 1.2) that mentions furthering research in architectural practice. In addition to Ethical Standard 1.2, the Institute promotes research through chapters of Architectural Graphic Standards and the Handbook for Professional Practice, as well in AIAU continuing education credits. Research may seem to be something we all already do, as it is a standard nearly everyone in practice knows of; and as such we all must work to keep improving on what is set as a standard.

Architecture offices have varying degrees of research included by the AIA requirement that architects have university training. That research is obligatory. Another bridge with academic research is that offices may have university clients, and dedicating researchers or research teams in the office helps build common language with clients working in research. There are also many architects that teach or have positions as research faculty at universities as well. Continuing education, offered at many opportunities, adds to the equation.

Heightening research can give an office several advantages,

Excellence: research can inform best practices and improve performance.
Funding: research grants and awards can expand options for office income.
Credibility: research includes scientific theories and methods that add to project authority.
Common language: Clients working in research or academia can relate and better understand the work.
Applicability: research benefits not only immediate stakeholders, but also can be published and conveyed to the profession, and public.

A framework for research in architectural practice, as modelled on standard dissertation format, is as follows: I) Introduction: after briefing, help define and clarify scope and goals of project. II) Literature: review literature and precedents applicable to project goals. III) Methodology: describe and outline research design and method. IV) Results: after research is conducted, convey results. V) Conclusions: summarize research, discuss implications, and make recommendations.

Architectural research takes many forms, can be performed with many methods, yet its medium is knowledge and information. Dedicating researchers or research teams in offices can help better serve the offices, clients, profession, the environment, and the public.

June 12, 2022

(to the depths of the phrase “research applicable design criteria”)

AIA B101-2017 is the standard contract between the architect and client (or owner). Before describing the architect’s work in the main phases of design, the first point in the architect’s scope is:

“§ 3.1.1 The Architect shall manage the Architect’s services, research applicable design criteria, attend Project meetings, communicate with members of the Project team, and report progress to the Owner.”

§ 3.1.1 is the introduction of the scope of services leading into the basic services the architect is to perform. Besides the rest– the management, meetings, communications, and reports– most interesting to me is the research. According to this section, research is required of architects in their AIA contracts, early, right away, and then throughout the project. Research begins here, before the first phase and it is not limited to any of the phases. It is principally limited by “applicable criteria”.

While research is mentioned sparingly in the AIA materials (perhaps since it is more in the realm of professors than professionals), I wrote briefly about its inclusion in the Code of Ethics, in “Reasons For Research, Memo 1”. I am comfortable with what research is and what can be, as well as design, I am going to dig into the other terms for the purpose of this post.

We need to find out what is “applicable” or what can be applied to the design.

Oxford English Dictionary, by way of internet search, reveals this:

These meanings of ‘compliant’ and synonyms ‘relevant’ ‘ appropriate’ reign in the design and require it to be guided so that it is [code] compliant, [politically] relevant, and [situationally] appropriate. That is all fine and reasonable, and adequately open ended. Trying to make sense of this. What else could applicable imply in design, perhaps that the architect will research ways for the design to meet the client’s expectations and be economical, structural, and appealing.

To further understand this section of the B101, and what we will need to research, we need to find out what and which “criteria” are involved and able to be applied.

Oxford English Dictionary by way of internet search, reveals this

This is the more foreboding term, seeing that a criterion is essentially a critique or some kind of judgement. Critique or judgement can range from an opinion in passing to an opinion with a lot of traction. There are many obligations at play here, many many criteria. The research delves into applied judgement of critical authority. The obvious place to look, when it comes to judgement is the authorities having jurisdiction over the project. They issue permits according to building codes designed to secure health, safety, and welfare of the public. There are also planning zones and districts with their requirements as well as some contractual criteria such as covenants. The Code of Ethics also has some bearing here, as the architect and the public, client, profession, colleagues, and environment are all in critical positions through obligations with some form of say or what can be considered capacity for judgement. The architect thus maintains a whole host of rapports and beneficial considerations for a harmless critique. So the architect’s research, set in motion and required by § 3.1.1, is to the depths of all of these that apply, and to balance their levels of relevance and garner favorable judgement and critique.

It is likely that I am trying to read this four word phrase a little too closely. The simplest most concise way of reading “research applicable design criteria” and knowing what to do, is to find ways to harmonize design, tuned to as many people and factors involved, as possible.

Lead illustration source: Borgoyne, Alan Hughes; Submarine Navigation Past and Present. London: G. Richards, 1903. Vol. 1, p.107. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001624061

May 28, 2025

A friend of mine, who is also studying for architectural licensure, posited an essay prompt for us, “Why Licensure?” Even though I dread architecture for some reasons and am hesitant to want to ever build anything more than a modest 3D print, my initial thoughts are that I had invested in the process already, hold a respect for the profession, and understand how that credential yields credibility.

The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) has a blog post from a few days ago, about this essay prompt, and they highlighted these three reasons for licensure: obligations to the public, personal credibility, and career opportunities. My personal inclination is basically in alignment with these, and this organization. The more I learn about them the more I appreciate.

I have the education needed for a license, but took more of an architectural history track for my doctorate. However, I am not sure, honestly, if I ever want to build anything. These are the reasons I DO NOT want to be an architect, it is: too expensive, over built already, and it is riddled with risks and perils.

SOURCE CITED

Martinez, Claire Hilton. NCARB, “Why Do Architects Need a License?” 5 21 2025. https://www.ncarb.org/blog/why-do-architects-need-a-license Accessed 5 23 2025.

Experiment in Text to Image AI, from November of 2022

DOMES: 2016-2025