CRAN Symposium 2018 part 1 "Interview with Robert Swinburne of Bluetime Collaborative

Got here and got my badge!!!

Ok, I have a confession to make, I became the Chair of the AIA San Diego Chapter of CRAN on a whim and nobody else had applied for the volunteer position but I had also heard great things about the Symposium from several archifriends. So when the Executive Director, Bastiaan Bouma was telling me that I would get to attend the next one,

I said, "Great!"
and then he told me where it was,
He said, "And it's in Cincinnati!"
And I said, "well, I grew up in Pittsburgh and I never went there, but there's a first for everything!"

Basically, I admit it, I will go wherever people will send me especially if they are paying for it.

I like to travel.

So, I made my reservations and I landed at the airport at about midnight EST.   Because I, like most architects can stay up late, it's the waking up early that gets me and we west coasters seem to have a limited amount of flights going from west to east.  It basically takes us a full day (daylight hours) to get to the east or it takes a full night (getting in at midnight through 5am, with minimum direct flights

(like one).

totem pole to greet me at midnight

So anyways....

I got my Lyft from the airport, I am not sure why the hotel didn't have a shuttle, and I was picked up by NIck who was a pretty funny character.  He asked where I was coming in from and I said, San Diego which leads to
"All questions about California"
I am familiar with these because I grew up in Pittsburgh, like I said before, and I get them every time I talk to someone from "Home".

So Nick said, "Wow..."

And I said,

"what I  typically say to make conversation and try to bond with people who think
1) I am one of those crazy Californian
and/or
2) Might think that I have some of the greatest weather in the world and therefore have never experienced some of the worst weather in the world.

So I said to Nick, "well, i grew up in Pittsburgh..."

And Nick said, "really? when did you move to California?"

I said, "1982"

And he said, "1982!  I was born in 1982!!!"

And I laughed and said, "I'm going to put that in my blog"

And he said, "great!"

Good Morning Cincinnati!!!

But I do have a second cousin who lives in Troy, OH so I got to meet with her for lunch after I was able to sleep in and we talked about Nurture vs. Nature, our relatives who were these great strong, creative women, our education, careers and motherhood, being married and our children. Two of her three daughters went to architecture school, in spite of me warning them :)

So, I went to the cocktail hour and then we walked down to the river following the Pella guys who were the hosts for the Boat Cruise and Dinner which was very nice.  My thanks to George and his associates for being great hosts and kicking off the Symposium and please check out Pella's Windows and the amazing in-window screen, the Rolscreen and I am sincerely looking at them for my own house.

Pella Website

Pella 

Rolscreen


The hotel was the Hilton Netherlands and an absolute beautiful example of Art Deco. It was very nice to hang out at the Symposium hotel and be entertained architecturally as well.

The CRAN House Tour is one of the best elements of the Symposium I will talk about the rest with part 2 next week) and I almost missed this opportunity because of a late registration, so my advice to everyone is register early and make sure you can get on the tour because though it is included in the registration, it does fill up. Here is a sampling of photos from the seven houses on the tour, see the CRAN website for additional info on the houses.

Yes, this is a quilt!!!

House One: Juran House
Carlton Edwards Architecture Interiors Design-Build
http://carlton-edwards.com/
I really liked the scale of this house and for a "empty nest" house it was of a pretty good size which speaks to the empty nest in Ohio VS. California.  Either way, there was a project room for both of them and the wife is a landscape architect and makes these incredible quilts!!!

Look!!! A model!!!!

House Two: Titanium House 2005
John Senhauser, FAIA
Cincinnati, Ohio
http://senhauserarchitects.com/
This house was big and all the bells and whistles so if you want to see more, look at my instagram or go online to their website.

House Three: Hawkins House 1996
David Niland, Architect (1930-2010)
https://magazine.uc.edu/editors_picks/recent_features/niland.html
Orig. construction date: 1982-1984
Steven J. Bostwick, Architect, Bostwick Forensic Architecture
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bostwick-Forensic-Architectural/159477437408251
The client and I talked about how his house was very accessible without compromising the design and that the rounded corners keep him from having to do two point turns in his wheelchair which I hadn't considered before.

What are these?  These are booties that we had to wear on the home tour, but there was a shortage on booties and I had worn high black boots, (Ya, I get it, first world women in architecture problems) so why am I bothering to mention this?  Because we all talk about Millenials and how they only think of themselves and (having three living in the house with me, I am not saying that I don't love them or that every day is easy explaining why they should be happy and why they should have to clean the bathroom or do the dishes in the house that they are living rent-free in BUT

the only person to offer up his booties to me after watching me take my boots on and off for three residences was this person, the future of architecture:

Benjie Morillo

Now, I do not know how old Benjie Morillo is, I do know he works for Frederick and Frederick Associates, I do know that this is the future and that people need to get on board with it, they might not look up from their phones, they might have their ear buds in, but they are also more aware of people's rights and feelings than many from my generation and definitely more than the one before me, so thank them. And I asked him if I could take his photo to put in my blog and he said yes!

sometimes it's the little details

House Four: Geier House 1968
Geier Pond, Cincinnati, Ohio
Philip Johnson, Architect (1906-2005)

Philip Johnson book
One of the great things about this house is that the owners live next door and bought it after the fact and have kept it restored and what is interesting is that I just read an article abouthow in this country we have many of these "historic homes" but we rely on people and their personal finances or foundations to keep them up and running, unlike other countries where it is government money that is paying for the expense because of it's interest in arts and culture.
The other thing is the value in meeting people on these tours who can contribute to the conversations about the architecture because they are/will become legends themselves.  There was a person on this tour who actually worked with Philip Johnson putting all of his archives in order so he was able to talk about the house and added his insight which is invaluable.  

House Five: Peterloon Estate 1930

William Adams Delano, Architect (1874-1960)

Delano & Aldrich

AIA Gold Medal, 1953

http://peterloon.org/

So, this house was built in the 1930's but the interiors were packed up an shipped in from a house in Europe so the interiors are much older than the exterior, but I do have a sweet spot for this classic traditional brick Lutyens style stuff, I will admit it.

House Six: Rauh House 1938 & 2012

John Becker, Architect 1902-1974

Albert D Taylor, Landscape Architect 1883-1951

Restoration Architect:

Luminaut (Architects Plus) Cincinnati, Ohio

http://architectsplus.com/

We couldn't take interior photos of this house, (you will never see me letting people take photos or coming into my house for a tour, btw) but it was pretty nice and of a good scale.  People think of this style  like a machine for living but there were modernists of this time period who were very much in touch with human scale and this is like a jewelbox in those intimate qualities.

House Seven: Haight Avenue House

drawing dept, architecture & design

Cincinnati, Ohio

http://www.drawingdept.com/
I think this house speaks to the simplicity and sustainability that a house can have on the east coast/midwest (those are arguments for another time) and are relateable to the west coast also.  We are all living on the same planet, in the same country, all stuck with the environment we make for ourselves.  Another architect that I spoke with recently about the symposium said, "well, the costs are different there and what they can get there is different than what they could get here.  But i think it ss more about the cost of the real estate that puts people in higher cost of living areas, not so much the cost of construction though that is a big factor.  But ;land in Cincinnati is going to be less than land in San Diego, most often, we just have to deal with that.

Right Nick? (the Lyft driver)

Now I hope you were able to go through all of this and have now come to the best part of the blog, the interview :) I met Robert Swinburne initially though the EntreArchitect Facebook page.  Now, if anyone is not familiar with this online social media resource, it is a Facebook page for the EntreArchitect and it is  tremendous resource for live love and sharing from it's creator, architect

Mark LePage, who also has an EntreArchitect podcast and I also have an interview with him, like the one that I will now share with for Mr. Swinburne and his firm, Bluetime Collaborative.

Robert Swinburne of Bluetime Collaborative

Interview with Robert Swinburne, click here

http://www.bluetimecollaborative.com/

video of "build yourself a nap shack (Fern House)"



Steve Herd of Graphisoft Archicad (the lanyard sponsor as well a some other sponsorships) met me briefly, I believe either in the elevator or on my way out trying to catch a Lyft to the airport.  To tell you the truth and as I have said before, a lot of the times these Symposiums are non-stop activity, you are lucky to get any food at the buffets at these things and I am all about eating before drinking, anyways, please check out these videos and websites for his product and for all those product reps who feel like their products go unnoticed, don't, we have you on our radar, especially if you follow up. Sometimes it is not about the product, which we may want to use, if we had a project that we could use it in.  I hand draft which is, I admit, pretty archaic, but it is not like I will never CAD draft, or hire someone who will, or recommend like I am right now, a product.

And we THANK YOU!!!

BY DESIGN Original series

YouTube GRAPHISOFT Archicad Sketch Demonstration Video



Thank you for reading and listening!