Oakland runabout

Silas and I went on a nice hour-long run around Oakland today. We parked by the Cathedral of Learning (on the University of Pittsburgh campus) and ran over to the Allegheny County Soldier's Memorial, also known as the Soldiers and Sailors National Memorial.

There, Silas found the propeller of a WWII torpedo highly fascinating.

Then we ran over the bridge over Panther Hollow and looked at the steam plant and the Carnegie Mellon University building in the background.

From the next bridge, we watched the sun start setting over the city.

We did some loops through Schenley Park and popped back out with a nice evening view of the building at CMU we looked at before, but this time, there is a handsome parking lot in the foreground.

Running behind the Carnegie Museum of Art, we spent a little time in their open-air art courtyard and gawked at the waterfall.


Opposite the waterfall are the stairs from the lobby up to the galleries.


Just after this point, Bethany called and said she was on her way home. We didn't beat her there, nor have dinner ready. That's really my fault for forgetting to buy rice noodles at one of the Asian stores in the Strip District during my lunch break at work. It was a beautiful night for a run and well worth the consequences of eating at Ritter's Diner instead of my home-cooking.

Irma Freeman Center

The building renovation for the new Irma Freeman Center for Imagination is progressing in Garfield/Bloomfield. I don't know much about it beyond the website and admiring the exterior work, but they have an interesting series of classes lined up for the summer. Their goal is to make art and sustainability accessible to the diverse community that lives in Garfield, Bloomfield, Friendship, and greater Pittsburgh.

Downtown

From Green building, bikes, art, and happiness

Random neat shot while riding down an alley downtown.

New construction lighting issues and a blower door

Here are a couple of pictures from two nice houses we consulted on recently. I wanted to show some of the funky lighting that happens when there are a bazillion people working on things and not all of them give a shit.

In the picture above, I'm not sure the architect intended the sconce to be where it is. Even if he did mess up and not realize how spacially challenged that location is, the electrician and site super both should have caught it and had it fixed prior to final fit and finish.

Below, there are several things I can nit pick about the kitchen lighting, most of which aren't visible in this picture. However, I want to point out how important it is to choose light fixtures and/or bulbs that have the same color characteristics, especially in an indirect lighting use. The recessed can and pendant lights are fine for color, but the two undercabinet areas are lit completely differently. The one on the left has a warm light (lower color temperature) and the one on the right is bluer and has a higher color temperature (cool white light). Yes, it's confusing that warm white light has a lower color temperature than the cool white light, which has a higher color temperature. But then again, this is from an industry that calls bulbs lamps and lamps luminaires... In any case, the fixture on the right should be longer to fill more of the space over the switches.


The picture below is of a blower door. It is essentially a nylon sheet to block the door and a calibrated fan. You depressurize (or pressurize) the house to a certain level below (above) the outdoor pressure. From knowing the pressure difference and the flow rate through the fan, you can estimate how airtight or leaky the house is. It's a fun, but sort of painstaking, process. Half the time I've done it, I've finished up and am putting things away when I realize I forgot to close all the windows all the way or block the dryer vent (known hole). Then we have to redo it. I don't usually do this type of testing, so I'm not as good at is as the guys who do it all the time.

We recommend this type of testing on every new house to be able to know the envelope was built tightly. I recommend it also to existing houses because it can help the homeowner make decisions on what projects to tackle first to get the biggest benefits from retrofits.

St. Paul Cathedral

On my stroll through Oakland yesterday, I checked out St. Paul Cathedral at 5th and Craig. It was opened in 1906. It's a beautiful building that creates a very peaceful atmosphere inside, despite the old stodgy man that went out of his way to brow beat me for taking pictures. I gave the other three people inside a wide berth so as not to get in their sight lines and disturb their thoughts or prayers.

Pittsburgh AIA design awards

Ok, so there isn't much to say about the awards. It was fun. I flew back from Las Vegas that night, so I missed Tim's band play and most of the event side of things. It appears Becky and crew did a great job of organizing the event. A bunch of friends were still there, and I hear Silas and Bethany were dancing. As Dave mentioned that night, it is nice to see architecture that isn't the stuff we deal with every day. The displays were a much larger array of architecture than our work. We deal 90% with cookie-cutter, production builder stuff, or at least the higher end of it. There are the random custom or semi-custom homes, but they're a smaller and smaller section of our work. The Dept of Energy wants us to work more with the people popping houses out left and right, e.g. communities, and less with the one offs. That strategy might make for a bigger impact, but it downright boring some days...

Anyway, what's more important than blathering on about work are pictures of Matt and Tim with Silas!

$240 million project groundbreaking

Our sister company (EQA Landmark Communities) had their groundbreaking today for a large mixed-use development that will reclaim a brownfield (used to be a chemical plant). They're making a downtown retail area where the plant used to be and a residential development adjacent to it on the hill. It's supposed to be walkable between the retail and residential areas, but we've all seen the lazy Americans drive their car from Target to Old Navy to save about 50 feet of total walking. So, I'm a little skeptical.

Nonetheless, it's a great accomplishment for the EQA team. They are going to do a great job on the town square area and the housing will be first-rate for efficiency in southwestern Pennsylvania. My company (IBACOS) has been consulting on the home guidelines and will be doing quality control work and Building America program consulting along the way.

Here's an article about the project:
http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/nwbry0910.aspx

I missed getting a picture with the actual symbolic playing in the dirt with shovels spraypainted gold. :)

Sunday Ride

It's been challenging to get away for a longer ride these days, understandably. On Sunday morning, Bethany saw me itching to get out and convinced me it was ok to head out for a bit of a ride. I was out about 1 hour 35 minutes and got some sightseeing and 21.8 miles behind me. It wasn't a good time, as I kept stopping to take pictures, but it felt good anyway, as always.

I started out through East Liberty when I got distracted early on (1.5 miles from the house) by the East Liberty Presbyterian Church shown in the next few pictures. It was built in the 1930's. Evidently, I usually scream through there on the bike earlier on Sundays than this week, as the doors were open this time. I couldn't pass up a chance to check it out. It's a beautiful building. The sunlight playing through the stained glass onto the opposite wall was breathtaking. The picture turned out great, but incomparable to standing there.

The sunlight playing through the stained glass onto the opposite wall was breathtaking. The picture turned out great, but incomparable to standing there. I've worked (in a naive and immature fashion) with stained glass before and really appreciate the temporal aspect of its beauty: constantly in flux due to the changing sun or the moving shadows of a breeze-blown tree limb. Sadly, I was tethered to reality by the fact that my bike was propped up against the church outside unlocked.

Nearby are the offices of Navarro Design Associates. I'm fond of their door pull.
After pittering around East Liberty, I dropped down Negley Run Blvd to Washington and rode over to the Washington Boulevard Cycling Track aka Washington Oval. I hadn't ridden on it previously. It's a 1/2 mile banked-turn, cycling track. I took a few quick laps for fun, but wasn't warmed up enough to really ride hard. My 1.5 miles on the track averaged 22 mph with a max speed of something over 27 mpg. Not too exciting. I'll hit it another day when I'm ready and see what I can crank out.

Did I mention how wonderfully beautiful they day was? Man, it was great to be out on the bike.

After pulling out of the loop, I rode upriver alonside the Allegheny, finding some guy's wallet along the way (mailed back to him today). When I reached Verona, I circled back south and west through Penn Hills back toward East Liberty and home (with a slight detour through Shadyside).

Bethany was happy I finally did a ride in less time than I said I would before leaving. Typically, I blast off into adventure mode and turn an hour ride into two and a two hour ride into four... Nonetheless, she was ready for some breakfast. What could I do but comply after such a great ride? I fried up some potatoes, bacon, and eggs for the fam...