Day 130: Up The Arch

originally published May 9, 2012 In the little corner of oil-rich, prairie-heavy Canada that I begrudgingly call home, it takes a while for things to get done. We recently finished construction on a 28-storey office tower that took three years to complete. One of our busy bridges was fattened by two lanes, which also took […]

Day 126: Print This Article And Stick It On Your Fridge

originally published May 5, 2012 There comes a point in sifting through a potential subject when I reach a three-tined fork in my research road. The path easiest taken is always another click of the Random button, a hyperdrive to some other remote corner of the Wikiverse. Or, if there’s enough material, I strap in […]

Day 92: Some Light Reading At The Beinecke

originally published April 1, 2012 I don’t often write about architecture, mainly because I’m unfamiliar with a lot of the terminology, and writing that some aspect of a building is “cool”, while another feature is “bitchin’” will not provide much in the way of satisfaction with my work. When Ms. Wiki’s random skeeball landed in […]

Day 87: Guidance Counselor Diaries: Traffic Psychology

originally published March 27, 2012 Hello there. And you are…? Ah yes, Oswaldo Bodfish. Thank you for coming to see me today. I know, I know, a trip to your high school guidance counselor isn’t exactly as much fun as “playing the pinballs” or “rockin’ out to Queensryche”, like I know you kids love to […]

Day 50: The Deutscher Werkbund – Making Germany Prettier For 105 Years

originally published February 19, 2012 You know, if it wasn’t for those pesky uptight goose-steppers showing up in the mid 1930s, the Germans might have experienced a peerless renaissance of inventive art. As it stands, the influence of pre-Nazi German art and architecture is still impressive. Aesthetically, some of it is nothing short of incredible. […]

Day 22: Penmanship: Are My Serifs Showing?

originally published January 22, 2012 If, like me, you’re looking to spend an unreasonable time on Wikipedia in your lifetime, eventually you’ll probably stumble across a topic so chock-full (or, to use a foreshadowing pun, chalk-full – you’ll thank me for that laugh later) of information you never thought you’d want to read. More often […]

Day 18: The Man. The Myth. The Polypropylene Stacking Chair.

originally published January 18, 2012 This week, Americans took a day to commemorate one of the 20th century’s greatest humans. A man with a Dream. This is the story of another man, one who had a very different but arguably equally influential dream. The dream of a chair. Robin Day grew up in Buckinghamshire, England, […]