Sacked by the "downturn", an unemployed architect touring the country in a bus...




I used to live in New York City. I designed homes for the tycoons of Wall Street; Park Avenue, Scarsdale, Greenwich. It was great fun. And, after years of saving up for a down payment, I was just about to buy my own little place in Fleetwood, half an hour north of the city, when the economy fell apart. Architects are like canaries in a coal mine when the economy slows, and true to form, there were massive layoffs in firms all over the country. Devastation of the profession. So, I decided to try to find something else to do for a while. I bought a 23' school bus and I'm on the road to see if I can figure out what that might be.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Sonoma

Going to meet with a high end residential architect in Santa Rosa tomorrow afternoon.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Balls in the air...

I've registered for three one-night classes Feb 2, 7, and 11, about CNC router fabrication.

After a performance of Avant-guard  music by the head of the music department at University of California at Berkeley, I introduced myself and showed him a picture of my keyboard.  He said it was interesting and I should try to reach him this week.

I was given the names of a few architectural firms in Sonoma, that do "traditional" work, to whom my portfolio from the east coast might be relevant.

Friday, January 21, 2011

3rd Chair Flyer

Click the pic for a larger view, and then click what comes up for a much larger view.

Tall Chair trial footrest

I'm trying to rework the footrest on the tall chair.  The original broad sweeping arc cantilevers out a good ways and the slightest touch of the foot when getting off the chair, levers the whole thing forward and would inevitably lead to it's flipping forward and crashing to the floor (agghh!)

The modified footrest in this photo substantially alleviates the problem, but a) I'm not as happy with it visually, compared to the semicircular original, and 2) it's still a little tippy.  I still have other ideas...

(Click the pic for a larger view, and then click what comes up for a much larger view.)

Thursday, January 20, 2011

The 3rd Chair


The mahogany of the frame finished very nicely.  I used a blend of two Minwax stains, then 2 coats of gloss polyurethane, each sanded to 400 grit, a final satin coat sanded to 1200 grit, and a top coat of paste wax rubbed in with 0000 steel wool and buffed.

I've given notice at the shop, the month of January will be my last.  I'm trying to find a way to stay down in Menlo Park, where I can get access to a CNC router table and wood shop, where I can experiment with modern fabrication.




Sunday, January 9, 2011

The Tall Chair

(Click the pic for a larger view.  Click what comes up for an even larger view.)