Joel Solkoff’s Column Vol. VI, Number 5 DATELINE Thursday, November 19, 2020. Williamsport Pennsylvania, a town of 28,000 people (a treasure trove of architecture) 178 miles southeast over rotten roads to Philadelphia’s Independence Hall where my fathers (mothers did not apply) ratified the Constitution of the United States.Reality here in the county seat of Lycoming […]
The US Election & Housing for the Vulnerable
Four years before Reagan broke the mold designed by L’Enfant and codified by Jefferson, I walked six blocks from my apartment on East Capitol Street to attend the Inauguration of Jimmy Carter. I walked [I could walk then] past the Library of Congress to my left, past the Supreme Court on my right into glorious […]
We who are about to die…or architecture
Disability bathroom design
Redesign suggestions for the bathroom— Most dangerous room in the house . Overview Cautionary note: The intent of this analysis is to pour cold water on the sense of accomplishment one achieves from renovating a residence to make it wheel chair accessible. A residence in the wrong place is no residence at all. After all, the elderly and […]
Covid 19 has accelerated the need for a new utilitarian architecture: Architecture for the vulnerable ( like me)
Let us start with my editors here at e-architect who for the past ten years have supporting me in my steadily increasing grandiosity: Sunset for the vulnerable and what architects can do about it Dateline: Thursday September 3, 2020. Rural beautiful Lycoming County Pennsylvania, United States. After a lifetime of living somewhere else, this is […]
Covid-19 Architects: “We Who Are About to Die Salute You”
All architects today in the era of a massive pandemic which killed over 1,000 or our residents–are Covid-19 architects. This is a global pandemic that will last for at least five years. If you are an architect and you are not focusing on how to protect your clients from the microscopic danger, you are out of business. Sell used cars instead.
Covid 19 impasse: Why architects need to know how a member of the US Congress must be expelled by the end of the month and how that relates to building emergency housing at a time when its absence is deadly and dangerous
“A nation divided against itself cannot stand,” Abraham Lincoln said in New York City in a speech that many believe resulted in his receiving the hotly contested Republican nomination Whatever do Congress’s rules to your architecture practice? Seek and you shall find. Until then, trust be that this is relevant: “The Constitution empowers both the House and […]
Rain: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
“Boy, I got vision. The rest of the world wears bifocals.” — Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy ( written while I am wearing bifocals.) ”All I know is John Wayne don’t run away.” John Wayne once granted me a telephone interview on his experiences with cancer. For those readers too young to remember [a concept that defies […]