omygod, omygod… we did it! We signed a big fat lease for the coolest space in Austin!!!!!It’s raw, it needs everything, it’s perfect, it’s within walking distance from the shcool, it has tons of hip traffic, we are going to have a tv on 24/7. we’re surrounded by GOOOD restaurants. There’s a pool to go cool off a couple blocks away. Did I say it’s just beautiful?? Well… it actually looks like hell right now, but oh th epotential….wait until we are done with it… MJ is drawing it as we speak, John is gonna help us with the finish out… We’ll keep you posted!!!! VV
Author: mjneal
A Fantastic Initiative
Here’s an amazing company I’d like to work with at some point. I wonder if we could devise a program that links youth initiatives and institutions (the City of Austin, for example) with art and architecture, in public areas or parks… Very exciting projects. I specially liked the art and recycling awareness project, were they painted the containers… It makes me envision a city where all the ugly stuff is made beautiful by the way of art. And if it involves youth participation, then… what are we waiting for?
VV
A few Good…win Pics
… of the house that mj went to present yesterday in Dallas. The clients loved it. So do we!!! Personally, I WANT IT!!! My friends want it, you want it! But only our fab clients get it 🙂 Designed for their site and for their needs, as all of our work is, this one has been a long time on the boards and we are getting closer and closer to breaking ground… Check the sloping roof element, it’s all solar panels! But my favorite part has got to be the pool… I’ll get more renderings soon and I’ll post with MJ’s comments. VV
I posted this on the Barcelona Films Blog
… blog but since it has to do with buildings (somewhat) I decided to post some of it here as well. Go to my blog if you want to read the part about the tunnels for the nuns during the war at my old school, but here’s the last part of the post:
“I dream about other buildings too, like this house that appeared to be my 1800’s apartment in Barcelona but kept showing me this hidden rooms out of an abandoned palace that I never had known where there… I used to dream about those hidden rooms a lot…
The house dreams were very intriguing to me and I read somewhere that the house represents your subconscious. The different rooms the different parts of it. For example, the attic would represent the mind (I wonder what it means that “my” attic had huge holes in the ceiling and you could see the blue sky, the sun, and the clouds, from it. It was also unkept… ) the basement (or the bedroom) your sexuality, and so on…
There’s a Chico Boarque song that I had never understood until I read that. It talks about going into the abandoned house and killing all the members ot the family, one by one, in each room … and aftter that, opening all the windows and letting all the insects in….” VV
So Much to Tell
so little time! We’re back from a memorable trip to Mexico. MJ and I love Mexico DF and its people. We were treated by Guillermo Plazola and co. with such warmth and gallantry that we didn’t want to come back. The lecture went very well, and after it, MJ and I felt like rock stars, being asked to pose for pictures, give interviews, invites for dinner, huy!!!!
We figured that architecture presentations are so boring and dry as a norm that we would spice it up a bit and I created two little movies, one for each project, that were very well received. It also helped that I spoke Spanish and made them laugh. M.J. had a simultaneous translator that must’ve been good, because no one seemed too bored and we had more questions than anyone at the end of our lecture…
Another highlight of the trip was meeting Neil Denari, yes THE very one and only. The guy’s work is out of this world! It’s great to see that he’s finally getting to build his amazing stuff. VV
Steel is up!!!
If you have been reading about the craziness at the job in Cleabourne, you’ll be happy to hear that the construction is actually progressing nicely and that the steel is up! Our happy friend/client is sending us many pictures (mostly taken with his phone, I think…) MJ will have you want to notice the indentation in the foundation specially designed to collect the sand that this fine artist throws at his paintings when he works… there’s also another cut in the foundation that is to be a fire pit… but MJ will post about that, I’m sure. For now I’m just going to paste these here and I will let MJ comment on the job.
I don’t know when that will be because he’s taking off for Dallas in the AM, to visit this site, present another project (I will post renderings of the presentation soon) and to have drinks with another potential commercial client, the lucky dog… VV
The happy architect in front of our office, soon to be former office… (More on that soon. I think we found the perfect space!!!) Although, I’ll be very sad to see this building go, it’s a 50’s gem. and it’s a crime to touch it… unless they do something brilliant with it (let’s hope.)
From Clebourne to Austin to San Anton to Clebourne (the back way)
Maybe I should title this blog “the Daily Debacle”. Actually I dedicate everyday to the making of beautiful things. Maybe I should say the making of beautiful, appropriate things.
I receive one of those phone calls I’ve been talking about.
To back up for a minute and fill you in: in the last episode we found out that the original contractor was leaving the industry and delivering horses. Did I mention this guy was a bull rider. A true cowboy with a grip of steel. He will crush your puny hand.
I had a client meeting yesterday where I met the new contractor for the job. He is an artist. Literally. Someone that speaks the language. ( looking forward to getting to know him better). So my client is down here in Austin yesterday and then travelled to San Antone to hang with his bud, the new contractor. The artist. To have marg’s at what sounded like a great bar, with trains passing and everything …
I had to stay in Austin and try and chase down a missing in action HVAC sub (more on that later) Well, like I said, I get this phone call later in the afternoon from my client. He tells me that he has driven in the back way to see if he can see what the crew is doing from a distance. Wants to get a long view. Nothing. Proceeds to the house. just sits down from his long trip back when the phone rings. His father in law is with the steel crew and the contractor in back.
Client “hello”
Father in Law “When are you going to be back?”
“I’m back”
“Good. These guys have forgotten their plans at the house and can’t put anything up.”
Client “I’ll bring them my set shortly”
So the contractor and the steel erector had forgotten their plans.
The long and the short of it, even later in the afternoon I had a message from the client that the first piece of the steel super structure was up and that “It’s beautiful!” Sweet words to my ears. I hope it wasn’t put up backwards.
But best debacle of the day. The HVAC contractor ,who’s been holding up my restaurant job for two weeks, is missing today. So the job will quickly come to a halt if the required work isn’t done shortly. Dry wallers are ready to walk because they can’t finish, the framer can’t finish . We can’t pull the top out inspection to even cover the ceiling up.
The process of bidding the front handle and push was started yesterday though . It’s stainless steel and an exotic wood that will take on character as the oil in hands rubs of on it. There should be some patina almost immediately. This first and last physical sensation of the resturant should be a warm one.
More Kudos to our Newsletter
by Mr. Taketomo Onda on his art site (scroll down to introductions)
I’m glad the time spent on the newsletters serves to entertain people some:-)
Uno
These writings are exclusively the opinion of MJ Neal and do not necessarily reflect the opinion and philosophy of MJ Neal Architect
“There is work in understanding one another, having patience, arriving at something”
Ettore Sottsass – interview in Domus 887
“We live in a period of speed: in order to manage it we need to work together, looking at technology as a tool not as a goal, keeping the basic values of humanism, avoiding superficiality, solving people’s needs without serving power and materialism”
Ricardo Legorreta – preface to “the Architecture of Ricardo Legorreta”
by John V. Mutlow
So they tell me, We’ve started you a blog. A what? Actually I do know what a blog is. It seems though that I heard somewhere that blog’s were already passe’. That the one’s in the know have already moved on. Is this like the buffalo moving. Perhaps.
And then, you have to be personal. People want intimacy. Well there are magazines and web sites for that. So occasionally, probably most rarely, will I attempt to put something down here. Not that I need something else to take up my time. (I’ve also heard blogging can be addictive) As slow as I type, this is doubtful to happen.
So, one of my clients from out of town calls the other day. He does this, as they all do, from time to time. I never know what to expect (they might have been up all night on a bender snorting coke and drinking whiskey… these conversations can go either way; other times they call to fire you… that’s one of the greatest things and the most dreaded thing, not knowing what to expect.) Well, it turns out, the contractor on the project (they just poured the foundation) has decided to leave the business. He has been offered the “job of a lifetime”. Good for him! But he has agreed to finish the exterior envelope of the building. (Exterior envelope is architect speak for the outside) Although he is not going to be at the job site to oversee what is going on, he has his guys lined up to do it. Sees it in his mind’s eye, has gone through it three times, mind you, and has informed his people how to make it happen. So my client finally gets a hold of him and he’s in the middle of delivering a baby horse. What is someone doing picking up the cell phone in the middle of delivering a baby anything? So to get to the point, this guy, the contractor, has been gone for a while, if you know what I mean.
Last Sunday, I’m set to travel to the job site. Monday, steel to be delivered and erection (of the steel) started. Schedule for the week is all in place. I get one of those phone calls. So, I ask the client, (because the contractor no longer returns my calls, not that he did very often before. This no returning of phone calls is one of my pet peeves and where I am based, Austin, Texas, there is a plethora of this. Almost a way of life. Hell it is a way of life for some. You wonder why anyone carries cell phones. I certainly wonder why I do.)
“So,” I ask my client, “what’s up with the steel?”
“Well, MJ, it would seem that the steel fabricator has to be in court for the sentencing of a family member” (Now this is after waiting on the steel for a week because of weather. )
The story is tragic. You couldn’t make this stuff up. And I’m not going to go into it for respect for the people involved, but it is truly tragic. Monday comes, Monday goes. No steel… So we wait. Waiting. Hurry up and wait the phrase goes. Something heard all to often in the industry.
I’m going to Mexico… Tequila anyone?
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