Friend, colleague, and recent graduate from Clemson University's School of Architecture -- Aaron Bowman -- proposes a redesigned student union to help bring the center of social gravity back over to the west side of Clemson's campus:
The existing Union has become functionally obsolete for the university and does not provide the facilities or the amenities necessary to satisfy modern college students. With the demolition of the Johnstone dormitory, a major portion of the West campus housing was lost. The construction of the Hendrix student center on the East side of campus and the relocation of the bookstore also pulled students and others away from the West campus union. This proposal seeks to bring the social heart of campus back to the original west campus location by providing a town square for the university.
Download the full PDF here (1.6mb)
Of note, a movie theater, technology lounge, expanded bowling lanes, and a bar are incorporated into the design. On the south side a double skin system is used for solar control and ventilation. The outer glass layer is fritted with a linear dot pattern that looks modern but also perforates the glare with some beautiful shadows.
Not only is this proposal a first-rate idea, the presentation itself is expertly laid out and beautifully rendered. Keep in mind that the original document is over 25 megabytes and designed to be printed on a plotter and presented as a series of wall-mounted posters.
I was wondering if student generated designs like Aaron's were ever considered for implementation. So I checked with the university's master plan for the campus, and found that the union is fated to be converted into greenspace and maybe a fountain.
Budget aside, I like Aaron's design better.
Update: I inadvertently linked to the wrong PDF file. Here's the correct link to the aforementioned design document
My personal power-animal, the platypus, has finally had its genome sequenced. Of course we know the platypus is a chimeric combination of a unicorn and one of hell's duck-demons, but did you know:
The sex of the platypus is determined by a set of ten chromosomes, an oddity that sets it apart from all other mammals and from birds...“The sex chromosomes are absolutely, completely different from all other mammals. We had not expected that,” says Jennifer Graves of the Australian National University in Canberra, who studies sex differentiation and is an author on the paper. Instead, the platypus Xs better match the avian Z sex chromosome. Another chromosome matches the mouse X, Graves and her colleagues report
I might start calling shennannigans on Darwin for this one.
As I mentioned before, I have a good friend trying to climb the ranks as a competing strong man. Here are some videos of his recent performances in the atlas stones (200 - 315 lb stones), farmers walk (250 lbs per hand), and everyone's favorite the car pull. When I asked him if he learned anything from this, his first competition, he said, "Yeah, a good amount. I need a lot more practice."
Both Michael and I are suffering from seasonal allergies today. Michael just said "I hate plants." Both Bear and I are sweating over some complicated tax forms. Bear just said, "I hate taxes." Is being a penniless bum equivalent to taking an over-the-counter antihistamine for taxes?
I was looking for tee times on the 2008 Masters website and couldn't help but realize how poor the design is this year. Seriously, I don't like to disrespect other people's work, but this one is particularly hard to look at and unusually clunky. What saddens me more than the soreness of my eyes is that the user's experience takes a backseat to the big sponsors at almost every turn.
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Michael Arrington asks if Yahoo is cutting off their nose to spite their face or scorching the earth to sabotage a deal with Microsoft:
But top talent has left anyway, and just about everyone at Yahoo seems to be looking for a job (even execs I’ve spoken with). Meanwhile, the Google deal shows they would rather give up the search marketing game, their biggest asset, than become part of Microsoft.
I can’t decide if nose knifing or scorched earth is the best way of describing what they’re doing, but I have to ask: If Yahoo “wins†this epic battle with Microsoft, will there be anything left at the end to celebrate over?
Either way, the best talent is evaporating and Yahoo is about to be raped, plundered, and eventually homogenized into a soulless corporation. It's like the Norman conquest -- with suits and briefcases. I'd poison the drinking wells and salt the fields too.
Do you wear a wrist watch? Does it have a ton of functions that you never use? How many serious diving enthusiasts are there that need to know what time it is at 250 feet? That's seven questions (including the headline) and a statement (and maybe a new blogging format).
Everyone wish Bear a happy birthday! There's a bonus photo after the jump.
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