Useful Stuff

Over-Design Meaninglessness

Miami Beach has just installed new pedestrian crossing signals with beepers to assist blind people crossing the street. But the problem is, just as soon as it gets done beeping for people crossing one way (when the light changes,) it instantly begins beeping for people crossing the other way. So if you're anywhere near an intersection (I'm having lunch at Playwright at the corner of 13th and Washington) you hear a completely endless beeping, one per second, that tells you nothing at all. How is this supposed to communicate if it just beeps endlessly?

Thanks!

Steve

NU Web 2.0 Done Right: Klinkenberg & Hendrickson

If anybody hasn't seen Kevin Klinkenberg & Brian Hendrickson's New Urbanism Blog, you really ought to go there now: http://bit.ly/5ICHmY They have done numerous things in an excellent fashion; their site should be considered a model for any New Urbanist architect or planner looking to go Web 2.0. Here are some of the obvious things:

A. The entire site is NOT about selling their services. Rather, it's about laying out great ideas for anyone to use. By NOT selling, they establish authority... which eventually leads to more sales than they ever would have made otherwise. The only way you can even find out about their business is with some innocuous links on the left side.

B. It's got great content. Nothing works without useful ideas.

C. They have a good Twitter stream, which is linked in two ways: they have a Twitter chiclet in the upper left corner, and they also have the latest feed from their timeline in the right column.

D. They've started a YouTube channel, which is also linked in two ways: a YouTube chiclet beside the Twitter one, and also the latest video on the right side, where you can watch it right in the main window.

E. They have a "Shoutbox" where people can leave general comments on the site.

F. They're apparently doing a really good job tagging the posts, because they have a good tag cloud on the right. I'm not clear if that drives the Categories listing on the left, or if those two are separate.

G. The feed subscription chiclet is beside the others, and takes you to their Feedburner feed. Using Feedburner is smart for several reasons, which Google will be happy to tell you about here: http://bit.ly/77YY09

H. The layout is wide enough for three useful columns. Today, people have far bigger monitors than they once did.

I. They have a "Path to Prosperity - Walkable Neighborhoods Now" button on the right. Right now, that just takes you to their blog posts for that category, but it's clear that this would make a great Facebook cause, and also a broader cause as well. I'm assuming they're laying the groundwork for this sort of thing with these posts.

J. Another great idea... the Speaking Engagement Request... with Kevin's smiling face.

K. Just below that, they solicit story ideas for the blog... an excellent way of getting more interaction with readers.

L. They've gotten listed in a "Top 100 Blogs" catalog, and have the badge link, further enhancing the idea that it's a seriously good site. They've also gotten listed on Alltop, and have that badge, too.

Excellent work, guys!! Do you have a Web 2.0 virtuoso consultant, or have you figured this all out yourselves? I'm in the process of updating the Original Green site ( http://bit.ly/1z5fb2 ) with some of the things I've learned from the New Urbanism Blog... learning by following a good example. Kevin and/or Brian, please fill us in on your thoughts on why and how you've done what you've done. I'd love some insights beyond the things you can see on the site. 

Thanks!

Steve

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Stephen A. Mouzon, AIA CNU LEED

Mouzon Design

steve@mouzon.com

http://www.mouzon.com

http://www.originalgreen.org

http://www.originalgreen.org/OG/Blog/Blog.html

@stevemouzon on Twitter

http://mouzon.typepad.com

1253 Washington Avenue, Suite 222

Miami Beach, FL 33139

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A Living Tradition [Architecture of the Bahamas] on Amazon

Traditional Construction Patterns on Amazon

All Mouzon Design publications on Amazon

Recollections & Reflections

This is the best time of the year because it's the one moment we're given to recall where we've been and reflect on where we're going. But why is this not a regular occurrence? Think about driving down a highway. If you correct your course once per year, you'll never make it to the next year... you will long since have crashed.

The Scant Difference Between Choking & Thriving

   Someone asked recently about the difference in competence between today's architects and builders and those of the early 20th century that could design and build the Empire State Building in about 18 months. The actual construction took only a year plus 45 days; the remainder was design. Here's what I think:

   On the one side, an unencumbered, highly motivated, highly capable person can get an astounding amount of work done.

   On the other side, with enough interruptions, you get nothing done because the time you spend fielding the interruptions (calls, visits, conversations, etc.) eats up your entire day, and you're actually going backwards... having more to do at the end of the day because you not only got nothing done during the day, but the interruptions brought new tasks.

   Often, the difference between these two extremes isn't so great. In my Town Architect consultancy, it came down to two simple policies: "You'll have my full attention when I'm there one day a month, but don't expect to hear from me between visits." And: "Always bring back your redlined drawings from the last review."

   When I instituted these policies in early 2004, if I recall correctly, I was on the brink of giving up the Town Architect part of my business entirely because it was so all-consuming. Afterward, it was a dream. And the projects didn't suffer in any substantive way, IMO. Rather, it created a discipline with their architects and builders of having to get the drawings done on a particular day... so they arguably got some stuff done more quickly. And the "always bring back your redlines" part actually relieved some of the developments of a tremendous amount of paperwork, because the development's paperwork went almost to zero as a result. Two little one-line policies made the difference between choking and thriving.

   Bottom line, I don't think the early 20th century architects/planners/designers were so much smarter or more competent. Rather, our professions are choking now. What one-line policy changes like the ones above might help this situation?

Apple's Magic Mouse

  I bought a Magic Mouse right after they came out a few weeks ago, but Mac OS 10.6.1 didn't support it. 10.6.2, which does, was released a few days ago, so I'm getting to use the full functionality for the first time, and it's incredibly cool! The ability to scroll, zoom, etc., just by strokes on the back of the mouse (sounds like petting a puppy or something) is something that mice haven't allowed until now. And the scroll is far better than scrolling with a wheel. Rather, this is like scrolling on an iPhone, where if you give it a nudge, it keeps flowing until it slows down and stops... "scrolling with momentum." Check it out... I'm gonna buy one for everyone in my office. If anyone from my office is reading this, save yourself the time... go down to the Apple Store and pick them up so you can start enjoying them before I get back!

RAW Workflow 2

  OK, I know a little bit more about the workflow now... this is a continuation of the post on my new RAW workflow.

   A. Because DNG files carry keywords with them when saved as JPG, the next step should be to assign your keywords before creating the JPG files, otherwise you'll double your work. I'm using Photo Mechanic, which is favored by the news industry. I'm now in the process of building what they call Structured Keywords, which is a hierarchically-arranged list of keywords. This means that you can have thousands of available keywords, but only have to look at a handful at any given moment. This is an extremely cool feature, far more powerful than anything I've seen in Adobe's Lightroom. Lightroom has a much prettier interface, but it's amazingly slow compared to Photo Mechanic, and requires you to add all your images into its database, a process that could take hours, while PM just loads individual folders as needed.

   I should note that I've been contemplating building an image database for years, but it's always been such a daunting task that I've put it off for another day. But Structured Keywords eliminates the need for an outside database (with all its potential linking problems, size, etc.) and allows me to put keywords and other IPTC metadata directly into the image itself, so that the images themselves become the records in the database. And because this is an industry standard, lots of entities use the same metadata. I use Zenfolio to host my photos online, for example. Once I get keywords on my images and get them uploaded, anyone on Zenfolio can find my images if they search for a keyword I've used. I'm not sure if this also works when searching outside of Zenfolio (like with Google) or not, but suspect that it might.

   B. After keywords and other metadata are added, I will create JPG files from all of the images I want to upload or otherwise distribute. The reason for waiting until afterwards is because PhotoShop (the software I use to create the JPG file) saves the metadata to the JPG, too... so it makes for half the work.

   I'll post more info on this workflow as I develop it further.

Image Keywords

  I've finally got my keyword system running... I first blogged about it in Image Management Breakthrough a few months ago. Later, I blogged about my image taxonomy, but that was before I bought a taxonomy from Controlled Vocabulary. What's an image taxonomy? It's a system of classifying and arranging things. As you might guess, I've spent a lot of time since then weaving the Controlled Vocabulary taxonomy into my own. It takes a bit of time to but the entire world into order. My top-level categories, FWIW, are:

Architecture

Art

Building

Creature

Environment

Event

Issue

Location

Object

Plant

Scene

Texture

Thoroughfare

Transportation

   Obviously, this taxonomy is built around architecture and urbanism, as some of the categories would never be top-level in a comprehensive system. But that's the important thing... having a taxonomy that works for you. Because the point is to be able to put the proper keywords in place as quickly as possible. Here's how my system works at this moment:

   I do all my keywording in Photo Mechanic, which I'm growing to love more all the time. It's similar to Lightroom, but while I'm normally a big Adobe fan, this is one instance where a competing product is clearly better, faster, and more nimble.

   I begin by selecting all images in a folder, which in my system, means that they all were shot in the same location. I click Command-I, which brings up the IPTC Stationery Pad. It already contains my name, copyright, and contact info... all I need to do is to select the location under Keywords. My taxonomy includes Continent, Nation, State or Province, County or Region, City, and where applicable, Neighborhood (or other notable feature.) This is the first pass.

   Next, I go through the images of buildings, selecting all buildings of the same type, and assigning the appropriate keywords, where the top levels of my taxonomy are:

Building

    Massing (subcategories not shown)

    Part (subcategories not shown)

    Type

Agriculture (subcategories not shown)

Attachment (subcategories not shown)

Business (subcategories not shown)

Civic (subcategories not shown)

Curious

Education (subcategories not shown)

Industry (subcategories not shown)

Infrastructure (subcategories not shown)

Live/Work (subcategories not shown)

Medical (subcategories not shown)

Mixed Use (subcategories not shown)

Recreation (subcategories not shown)

Religious (subcategories not shown)

Residential (subcategories not shown)

   This is where Photo Mechanic really shines. If you do all further keywording after setting the location using the Image:Structured Keywords panel (Command-Option_K) then the program very intelligently lays the new keywords over the existing so long as you do this: First, click Clear to clear out the current keyword collection which will still be there from the last ones you did. Then drill down to the bottom level keyword you're looking for... maybe it's Building, Type, Business, Retail, [Product], Food, Grocery. Click Add Path. This adds the entire path above except [Product] because square brackets around a word mean that it's just a category, and categories don't get added into the path. So clicking Add Path will add Building, Type, Business, Retail, Food, Grocery to the keyword collection. Then click Apply Path to Selected. This is very important... if you do this, it will add these keywords to your existing keywords for each selected image, rather than replacing them. This allows you to select every image in a folder with a certain characteristic and layer that on. Also, if there's both a grocery store in the picture and also a coffee shop, when you come back and drill down to Building, Type, Business, Food Service, Cafe and do what's described above, it will just add Food Service, Cafe to the end of the existing keywords, rather than adding the entire chain and therefore having duplicates. Very smart, Photo Mechanic! Thanks!

Chart Drawing System

I'm doing this post primarily so I can remember this information, but just in case anyone else finds this useful, please use it. I've developed a fairly decent method of drawing graphs, and want to be consistent. Here's a link to one such chart. Here's the method:

   I use Numbers to create the chart, but that's almost inconsequential since I change a number of the characteristics. From numbers, I print to a pdf file, then open the file in Illustrator. I create four layers: Background, Shadows, Value Steps, and Data Series from bottom to top. They're fairly self-explanatory, but here's what they contain in detail:

   Background contains a single rectangle that's 8" wide and 4.5" tall (16:9, which is cinema proportion) because this is also the size I use for the default image window on the Original Green blog. The rectangle is 18% grey.

   Shadows contains the shadows of each of the data series lines, and also the key lines, if there is a key. Shadows are 36% grey. Shadow lines are copied from the Data Series lines and then moved 1/32" (0.03125") from the data series lines at an angle of 225° (down and to the left.) This will almost always cause some of the shadows to fall off the chart, so you'll have to copy the background rectangle to the Shadows layer, remove the fill and make it a Clipping Mask on the shadow lines to clip off the parts of the lines that fall outside the chart. Otherwise, it looks weird to have a shadow on an empty place.

   Value Steps are horizontal lines indicating major value steps. Usually, I divide the chart into 4 to 7 value steps. These lines are black, and 0.5 point stroke. All text also occurs on this layer. Text is Bembo Std Regular, 18 point, set to Small Caps because the digits are so beautiful this way (and also easier to read than normal digits because of the ascenders and descenders.) Letters are all typed in lowercase, so because it's set to Small Caps, they're all caps.

   Data series lines are 4 point, butt cap, mitered corners, miter limit of 10. Colors are:

H88 S74 B75

H60 S74 B92

H40 S74 B88

H20 S74 B80

H0 S74 B72

H300 S74 B63

H210 S74 B54

H180 S74 B61

H120 S74 B68

iWeb Disaster Averted

   I thought I had a disaster on my hands this morning, but discovered a workaround. I'm about to go on the road for awhile, and needed to figure out another workaround: how to eliminate the font spacing problems Snow Leopard caused in iWeb, Pages, and Numbers. Some fonts are OK, while others are really screwed up. Hoefler Text, which is the font of all of my new websites (Original Green, New Urban Guild, and Mouzon Design) experiences tons of extra space between lines in Snow Leopard, totally screwing everything up.

   Because I didn't want to mess with the Original Green site, I created a new site with the default Site name (www.originalgreen.org/Site) and fiddled with the spacing until it was right. For the record, 14 point Hoefler Text Regular requires a line spacing of 0.72 in Snow Leopard to look just like itself at a line spacing of 1.2 in Leopard. Mission accomplished. Or so I thought.

   On a whim, I keyed in http://www.originalgreen.org, and to my horror, it went to http://www.originalgreen.org/Site, not http://www.originalgreen.org/OG, which is the real Original Green site. I did some Googling and discovered that I could delete the Site files fairly easily. They were on my iDisk at Web>Sites. When I got there, I found both the OG folder and the Site folder. I deleted the Site folder. Now, when I went to http://www.originalgreen.org, MobileMe gave me an error message. So it was still looking for Site, which was no longer there. I went to the OG site, created a dummy blog post, and posted it, hoping that would reset whatever was pointing to the now nonexistent Site. No luck. 

   After another frantic round of Googling yielded nothing, I noticed that within the iDisk>Web>Sites folder, there are two files I couldn't account for: index.html and Sites.rss. I copied them to my desktop for safekeeping and deleted them off my iDisk. I made a minor change to the dummy blog post on the OG site, published it, and everything's fine!!

Primary vs. Secondary Drawings

This post references primary and secondary drawings. What are they, and what are their differences? A primary drawing is one of the following:

   A. Any site plan drawing showing the entire site, including the site plan, paving plan, grading plan, site utilities plan, etc.

   B. Any plan drawing illustrating the plan view of the entire building, including a floor plan, foundation plan, framing plan, roof plan, electrical plan, etc.

   C. Any elevation drawing showing a full face of the building (as opposed to an elevation detail.)

   D. Any interior elevation showing a full wall (as opposed to an interior elevation detail.)

   E. Building Sections.

   Primary drawings are placed on the sheet without borders, located vertically tight to the bottom guideline on the drawing stationery. The bottom guideline is located to allow for appropriate dimension strings, section cut symbols, door & window symbols, etc. To locate the primary drawing horizontally on the sheet, figure out how many modules you need for the drawing by measuring the drawing itself and then adding space for dimension strings, etc. needed on either side of the drawing. Then round up to the next nearest full module size. Each module is 5"; the space between them is 1/4". So if the total space you need for the drawing plus left and right dimension strings is 49' - 6" at 1/4" scale, then the actual drawing plus dimension will be 12-3/8" wide. So you need three modules of width (5" x 3 plus 1/4" space x 2 = 15-1/2") for the drawing to fit. So center the drawing on the three modules.

   Secondary drawings include the following:

   A. Any detail drawing, whether it be a plan detail, section detail, or elevation detail.

   B. Wall sections.

   C. Component sections, such as dormer sections.

   Secondary drawings are placed after the primary drawings, and fit around them to fill the sheet. As a visual hint, secondary drawings do get a border, which is a .13mm line around however many modules the secondary drawing occupies. So if it's a one-module drawing, then the border will be 5" x 5". If it's three modules high and one module wide, then the border will be 5" x 16-1/2" (3 5" modules plus 2 3/4" spaces between tops and bottoms of modules.) Layout lines exist on all stationery drawings for these modules, so you don't have to do any calculations; rather, you just have to snap to the appropriate points on the Layout Lines layer to draw the border.