What color are my white walls? It depends on the time of day. With white, the early morning light glows orange, cool evening light is a quiet blue, only grey winter skies suffuse the room with pure white. A warm color lit by cool northern light would look muddy and insubstantial; the same with a cool color in early morning or late afternoon sunlight. The advantage of white is its versatility — use it to appreciate the sunlight’s transforming potential or the change of season.
For a basic understanding of building science, here’s a powerpoint presentation from EnergyStar. Click on “Crash Course in Building Science” to download it.
Nothing quite drives the last nail into the coffin of an architectural movement like a tombstone-sized retrospective. Did Corbu even design a coffee table capable of supporting this 21-pound volume?
Perched on Dolores at Cesar Chavez is a house with the kind of cardboard cornice you see everywhere. But the fun thing about this one is the shamelessness of its pretense. On the south end, an ornamental bracket props up the unapologetically decorative end of the sham.
The longer you look at this façade, though, the more ironies appear. There’s a wonderful play between the asymmetrical mass of the house and the symmetrifying feel of the Italianate cornice. It was built up board by board, but it has the appearance of a box that has eroded. But most perfectly balanced is how the whole composition can feel alternately deadpan or whimsical. That’s a subtlety in execution rare in any style.
The watering system on the Dolores Street median looks grossly inefficient, but is actually par for the course. The EPA cites studies that show up to 50% of the 7-billion gallons of water a day used for residential landscape irrigation is wasted — due to overwatering, evaporation, or system over-design.
Well, at least they put in compact fluorescents. Now their bill for this pair of lights is a quarter of what it was. Obviously a photosensor would cut that down to an eighth or so. Say the original pair of 75w incandescents cost 150w x 24 hours x 365 days = 1314 kwh, x .15 $/kwh = $197 per year to run (based on PG&E’s Tier 2 pricing). Now they pay about $50 for the compact fluorescents, though it would be only $25 if they were on photosensors.
Isn’t this a no-brainer? Well, consider it would cost $260 for a pair of inexpensive replacement fixtures with built-in photosensors. That means the cost of the fixtures would take $260 / $25 = 10.4 years for the new fixtures to pay for themselves, and that’s not even including the electrician’s labor. Ten years is not a payback rate the average absentee landlord would consider. Or maybe he’s negligent, apathetic, or has got higher priorities elsewhere on the property.
We cannot realistically expect a nation-wide drop in energy consumption if even going after low-hanging fruit like having the lights shut off during daytime doesn’t make economic sense. Change will only come from higher energy bills, cheaper equipment costs, new legislation, or incentives like PACE bonds.
Boulee’s monument to Newton, seems also to have been influenced by ancient mausolea, as I surmised while exploring the roots of Mario Botta’s SFMoMA. This time a spherical top over a windowless cylindrical base, and again, rings of Cypress trees. There’s something in these arrangements that draws together the earth and the heavens, the worldly and the eternal.
These apartments were only half-painted because:
A. The co-owners didn’t agree on whether it was time to paint.
B. The scaffolding company went into foreclosure after a month.
C. A wealthy neighbor across Guerrero St paid only for the side that faced him.
D. The owners chose the painter who’s estimate was only half the others.
Geof was one of three architects to present at Design Within Reach in San Francisco, July 21, 2011. The theme was “Modernizing Your Space”. Geof talked about modernism, history, and nature in his work.
Thanks to the local AIA for establishing low-budget, pro-bono, and detail award categories — I picked up a citation award for my reflector/shade device at the Bogan residence.
