Under Construction
I love a good analogy. One that properly evokes sentiment without requiring too much granular explanation. An analogy well executed immediately creates an image in the listeners mind; as one speaks—or writes—the listener is formulating a facsimile in their minds eye, echoing into scene what they absorb.A great analogy is a visceral connection between two unknown entities.
New York City is the OG of skyscrapers and living here gives one a good idea as to how buildings are built. I live on a main drag where many a large component of in-progress cloud-whispers, get shuttled in. I always know what’s taking place by the loud unfamiliar horn of a very large, very wide tractor trailer rolling by, duly accompanied by a procession of police vehicles and big pickup trucks with bright flashing orange lights. Sometimes I make the effort to look out the window to inspect the jumbo size piece of whatever being lugged in. Mostly, now, I take a quick look at the flashing lights, the queue of cars and return to my regularly scheduled program.
The years it takes a building to be built are many, requiring moving parts as large as space needles to pieces as unimportant as pencils to be in constant operation. Just because an architect dreams up a structure, does not mean that that creation will be made. It’s a careful—and luck laden—orchestra to get the parts in motion to simply break ground. Structures that have gone up today, may have been in development mode for twenty years, so it is not just the creative and engineering feat that needs to be marveled, but the unwavering patience and perseverance it takes to build them.
Webster’s defines architecture as‘the art or science of building, specifically the art or practice of designing and building structures and esp. habitable ones.’ What a quaint definition as it takes into consideration the fact that architecture is both an art and a science;two disciplines that if properly balanced create structures that change the world.For years now, I have taken the heady task of being Dr. Frankenstein. One life lesson led to another until I found myself at a remarkable intersection. Did I continue along the road of dissatisfaction or did I risk it all and create something anew.I wish I could look back and tell you the exact moment I decided to take the blue pill, but I can’t. The direction had been paving itself in my unconscious for years, so when the time came for me to choose, unlike Robert Johnson, it was a fairly easy step to take.
The blueprints took years to finalise but was unlike the near decade it took to construct a solid foundation. What’s that old saying about foundation? Don’t build a castle on sand or some-such? Well, I did at first, and let me tell you, it took less than a handful of tides to wash that mess away. The importance of a strong foundation is essential to construction and I urge everyone to take the time it takes to build the most appropriately solid one you can. Because without it you have literally nothing to build on that will last.
2025was the year I could finally start work on the picking and choosing of materials for my building. In this day and age of precarious resources, I had to be conscientious in what I wanted my structure to be made of. The four walls,floors and roof had to be ‘natural,’ unintrusive and capable of handling mother nature’s fury without too much damage. The need for aesthetic pleasure is not as important as the practicality, because a lasting building needs to adjust to evolution. After much deliberating I’ve decided on brick, reclaimed wood, and recycled steel. Materials we’ve been gifted, yet have permission to manipulate.Concrete will fill in what the others cannot.
I was naïve when I started this project. Completely and utterly out of my depth.I had an idea with a clear vision, yet it wasn’t entirely crystal. For ages I blindly drew sketches that at first were juvenile scribblings, then with time and many erasings became solid images. Grown-up renderings that exhibited depth, space and functionality. With the foundation completed, I admit I am totally and completely exhausted. My mind, body and soul scream for a recharge daily, and though I’ve given them mini breaks a long one is due and in the works. In the meantime, I am feverishly excited at the prospect of finally getting to put up my four walls and roof, just the way I’d like it. I’m aware it’s not all going to be perfect, with maybe one less skylight possible than I want, but at least there’ll be some.
We humans were created by a master architect, and though Genesis says it was done in a day, I believe it took centuries. With the recent death of Frank Gehry,the man who arguably brought architecture to the less informed masses, it seems apropos for me to mention him here. To me, his passionate, creative process in many ways replicated the way in which we humans are constructed; spontaneous, obtrusive,controversial and history changing. God, Gehry most certainly was not, a lesser Victor Franksenstein, perhaps.
Image: R.M. Schindler 1936 design draw of the Warshaw Residence in Los Angeles
