The entire architectural community was assembled on the top floor of the new Legg Mason building in trendy Harbor East and waited for the Grand Design award to be announced by the President of the local AIA.
It was Mike Murphy, partner and CEO of Murphy Dittenhafer who was called on the stage once more to receive the grand design award for a whimsy pool house design. Mike, with a full head of gray hair, a wry smile and omnipresent at all events architectural. One that would raise his hand and register disagreement, discontent and at times make blunt statements. One, who wasn't afraid. It was easy to see that his big head was not afraid of a possible wall to run into.
Mike was designer and entrepreneur and he built a lot of stuff. Modern at times, preserving historic structures at others. He fought for the preservation of the Baltimore Masonic Temple when it was slated to give way to a mundane parking garage. He found a way to preserve the Temple AND have the garage.
Tomorrow the architectural community will assemble in the beautifully restored Masonic Temple to celebrate Mike's life and his work as an architect. Mike is dead. Abruptly taken from our midst, way too early and at a time when we need everyone who can dream, everyone who dares and everyone who has the ability and the will to imagine and then realize a better city and a better world. In short men and women like Mike.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Mighty nature or embattled nature?
Nature as entertainment and nature as a source of threat and fear are so close together that it is easily understandable how we humans oscillate between conquest and nurture. More accurately, just began adding nurture of nature to our repertoire.
So the announcement of a snowstorm of historical proportions broadcast to us in the comfort of our warm office evokes nothing but incredulity (oh those weather people are hyping up a storm again) or, at best, curiosity. (Let’s see it, bring it on, it should bring welcome change to the uniformity of our daily life. ). So the wet flakes signaling the beginning of the weather event are just a disappointment. The then sticking snow on the way home after dark are just a minor challenge. Then it gets thicker but we have to go to sleep. I wake up at three at night remembering the forecast of three inches per hour and oversee the rather bright snowy scene outside my window. The yard looks unfamiliar with all the bushes flattened and covered in a vast gooey white soft lined mass of snow. I lay back down, to continue my sleep under warm down feathers, alas, the mind begins to churn.
How about our roof, especially at the heavily leaning chimney/fireplace in the dining area? What if all this extra load overstresses the diminished bearing area of the trusses? Then a new thoughts enters my brain, what about the electric wires, the telephone and cable wires? Aren’t they amidst trees and bushes who seem to be so laden out there? Aren’t they about to snap leaving us without phone and internet and at the mercy of our generator?
Already I am up and putting snowpants and boots over top of my night outfit. Traipse through the dark house. Just when I snap the rear sliding door lock open a blue flash illuminates the snowy landscape outside. Ahh, too late I think for a second associating the flash to a shortened power line before thunder sets in and lets me know that this is a blizzard with thunder and lightning, admittedly adding some spookyness to my nightly undertaking. Out there I see immediately that the trees and branches are indeed groaning under heavy loads. Snow is bearing down at a furious clip, wind howls and yes, I hear also breaking tree limbs, quite loud actually. I wonder if something would fall on me while my feet sink into snow way above my knee. I find the 10’ 2x4 and start knocking the branches above the lines. The snow comes down in big clouds spreading over my hood, face and hands which immediately feel quite cold while clamming down on the 2x4. I should have taken my gloves out, I realize. More cracking comes from the juniper whose main trunk had already broken under snowload in December. I wish it would stop snowing right now, but about 8 additional hours of heavy downpour had been forecast and the weathermen seem to have been dead on this time. Now the snow is not just entertainment anymore, it is a threat to my house, my trees and my inner peace. It has reached proportions that are quite outside my regular experience level. When I go back to bed, I am far from calm until the tiredness of the early hour finally wins over.Seven hours later when the snow stops falling, the sun comes out and the streets have seen heavy equipment the snow armageddon looks already much diminished and the winterlandscape outright scenic. The dangeously leaning 70' pine tree notwithstanding.
So the announcement of a snowstorm of historical proportions broadcast to us in the comfort of our warm office evokes nothing but incredulity (oh those weather people are hyping up a storm again) or, at best, curiosity. (Let’s see it, bring it on, it should bring welcome change to the uniformity of our daily life. ). So the wet flakes signaling the beginning of the weather event are just a disappointment. The then sticking snow on the way home after dark are just a minor challenge. Then it gets thicker but we have to go to sleep. I wake up at three at night remembering the forecast of three inches per hour and oversee the rather bright snowy scene outside my window. The yard looks unfamiliar with all the bushes flattened and covered in a vast gooey white soft lined mass of snow. I lay back down, to continue my sleep under warm down feathers, alas, the mind begins to churn.
How about our roof, especially at the heavily leaning chimney/fireplace in the dining area? What if all this extra load overstresses the diminished bearing area of the trusses? Then a new thoughts enters my brain, what about the electric wires, the telephone and cable wires? Aren’t they amidst trees and bushes who seem to be so laden out there? Aren’t they about to snap leaving us without phone and internet and at the mercy of our generator?
Already I am up and putting snowpants and boots over top of my night outfit. Traipse through the dark house. Just when I snap the rear sliding door lock open a blue flash illuminates the snowy landscape outside. Ahh, too late I think for a second associating the flash to a shortened power line before thunder sets in and lets me know that this is a blizzard with thunder and lightning, admittedly adding some spookyness to my nightly undertaking. Out there I see immediately that the trees and branches are indeed groaning under heavy loads. Snow is bearing down at a furious clip, wind howls and yes, I hear also breaking tree limbs, quite loud actually. I wonder if something would fall on me while my feet sink into snow way above my knee. I find the 10’ 2x4 and start knocking the branches above the lines. The snow comes down in big clouds spreading over my hood, face and hands which immediately feel quite cold while clamming down on the 2x4. I should have taken my gloves out, I realize. More cracking comes from the juniper whose main trunk had already broken under snowload in December. I wish it would stop snowing right now, but about 8 additional hours of heavy downpour had been forecast and the weathermen seem to have been dead on this time. Now the snow is not just entertainment anymore, it is a threat to my house, my trees and my inner peace. It has reached proportions that are quite outside my regular experience level. When I go back to bed, I am far from calm until the tiredness of the early hour finally wins over.
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