Ecuador Dos

Here's some more photos from my recent class trip to Ecuador. This post focuses on a long bus ride from Quito (pictures here) to the Amazon basin.


Out the window of the bus as we descend from Quito (elevation approx. 2,800m) to the Amazon basin (approx. 500m).


A building nestled into the eastern Andes. Note the power line to the house's right, an indication of the country's eastern colonial expansion in the late 20th century.


Another (less subtle) indication of Ecuador's expansion, linked to the discovery of oil in the Oriente in 1967. This petrol processing station sits within an otherwise untouched section of the eastern Andes.


To get the oil to that plant one needs a pipeline, and here it is, suspended over this small river. Everything needed to make the pipeline happen (the guardrail and suspension structure above, for example) are also made from pipeline.


Getting closer to the rainforest.


Much of the population in the rainforest -- or Oriente region -- is rural. This church is just off the main road that connects some of these small towns.


The sun in Ecuador can be brutal during the day but it also makes for beautiful times around sunset.


The Napo River separates the Sucumbios region (which borders Columbia) from the Napo region, home to the Yusani National Park, one of the most biological diverse areas in the world.

Next time: into the rainforest.

Today's archidose #47

Árbol Climático - Climatic Tree IV by TwOsE
The Eco-boulevard in Vallecas, Madrid, Spain by Ecosistema Urbano.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

Ecuador Uno

Here's some photos from my recent class trip to Ecuador. This post focuses on Quito.


Quito sits in a valley in the Andes Mountains. One of the tourist activities is taking the TeleferiQo cable car up to approximately 4,100m (13,500 ft) above sea level. On this day, views of Quito were not to be had, but it was thrilling regardless.


This clearer view is from El Mosaico Cafe, a Greek-Ecuadorian-American restaurant with great food and stunning views. This collage was taken right before Quito's daily dose of rain. Best viewed mas grande.


Another general view of Quito, this time from the 12th floor of the Hilton...


...the building to the left of the tall concrete building in the foreground.


The Historical, Colonial district of Quito is one of the most beautiful and well-preserved in South America, here in front of Monasterio de San Francisco.


And here next door in the courtyard of the Museo Franciscano.


One of the many lively and beautiful roads in the Colonial district.


Here's another.

Next time: the road trip from Quito into the Amazon basin.

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Musical Studies Centre in Santiago de Compostela, Spain by Ensamble Studio.

The updated book feature is Crude Chronicles: Indigenous Politics, Multinational Oil, and Neoliberalism in Ecuador by Suzana Sawyer.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

empty streets
"Like an architectural photograph without people ... the built world is hallucinatory: empty streets, empty portals."

archistorm
A French architecture magazine I just learned about, though it's already at issue #22.

Leftovers
A Chris Ware comic and various covers for this week's New Yorker.

Today's archidose #46

Spinningfields Development Manchester by fotofacade
The Leftbank residential building at Spinningfields development in Manchester by Aedas (now Davis Brody Bond - Aedas).

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

Heading South

For studio our class is heading to Ecuador, spending a little over a week in Quito, the Oriente and some places in between.


Macas - Militares by RoggenKINO

Posts will resume upon return.

Coroflot Salary Results

Back in September I posted about Coroflot's 2006 Design Salary Survey, a survey that is now complete. Almost 250 respondents fell into the architecture category (not nearly as many as the industrial design field but much more than fashion), an amount that gives a good indication of salary relative to firm type but not enough for decent geographical indicators.


Click for larger view

The graph above compares the salaries in the various fields of the survey in terms of staff level, from entry to director. Architecture is highlighted with the red box; the others are (L-R) graphic design, industrial design, interaction/web design, interior design, and fashion design. Even at the small, illegible size above, a few things are clear.

:: At the entry level, salaries across the fields are pretty much the same, except for graphic design.
:: At the upper level, architects are very low, a little bit higher than the apparetnly poor graphic designers.
:: Salaries for directors (pink bar at top) is not much higher than senior designers (green bar below).

This says to me what architects have known for a long time: architects are underpaid. It also appears to indicate that the monetary reward of being partner in a firm is not commensurate with the responsibility, compared to the other fields. For architects the greatest growth is for senior designers, where three out of five of the other fields have that growth happen at the highest level.

Check Coroflot for more illuminating stats, including Rock-osity.

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Holiday House on the Rigi, Scheidegg, Switzerland by Andreas Fuhrimann Gabrielle Hächler.

The updated book feature is Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space by Jan Gehl.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

MEGAblog
"A blog dedicated to the biggest, the largest, the most expansive, and superlatives as they shape the built environment." (added to sidebar under blogs::landscape+maps; via Pruned)

Sprawl: A Compact History
Reviewed by James Howard Kunstler.

Extension Gallery
"An experimental forum for testing new thought and practice in architecture" that just opened on November 10 in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. The current exhibition is by Plasma Studio.

Today's archidose #45

Green vs. Stone by rolando g
"The office wing of the new Quai Branly Museum for the Primitive Arts in Paris, Architect: Jean Nouvel, vertical garden system by Patrick Blanc."

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

Today's archidose #44

Michael Lee-Chin Crystal Facade by richyrich™
Detail of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal addition to the Royal Ontario Museum by Daniel Libeskind.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

Magazine of the Moment

On the shelves of a local bookstore today I caught a glimpse of something new: PIN-UP Magazine for Architectural Entertainment. More of a zine than a full-fledged magazine, the first issue of the biannual publication appears to meld the worlds of architecture with fashion, with tongue firmly in cheek, as this page attests.



Architects are notorious for taking themselves way too seriously, perhaps this is another antidote to that trait. We'll see, though, if enough architects are willing to drop the money that will keep it going.

Weekly Page Down

Apparently, on top of my other problems, my host turned off my site today due to a billing mix-up related to my recent move. They turned it back on after promptly recognizing their error, but it's going to take about 24 hours before it's up and running again. This affects the daily page marginally in that certain images on that host will not show.

Rest assured the weekly page should be up and running shorty, hopefully by the time I awake and check tomorrow morning.

Update 11.07: Talked with customer service this morning and it looks like the site will be running in 24-48 hours. Talk about frustrating.

Update 11.10: It's back! Calling my host again today I learned that the automatic restart that was supposed to happen on Monday did not happen. After a manual restart of my site while I was on the phone with them, my site is up and running again within a half hour. I feel happy and angry almost simultaneously.

Offbeat Boss

Crain's Chicago Business has an article on quirky behavior in the office. And who should be featured but my old boss!


Photo: John R. Boehm

"Scott Sarver, principal at DeStefano & Partners Ltd., has a jar containing a coiled-up snake on his desk. He says it keeps him feeling creative, but it also gives visitors pause: 'Their eyes wander, and they stop talking.'"

Also Matt Snoap, who sat behind me for a while at work, is quoted in the article as saying, "Scott can be an intimidating guy at times...it doesn't ease your tensions."

I must admit that I don't recall being distracted by the cobra, though I don't think Scott typically had the jar as prominently displayed on his desk as in the above photo...though it might just have to stay there after its appearance in Crain's.

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

City Museum Extension in Ljubljana, Slovenia by Ofis Arhitekti.

The updated book feature is The End of Nature by Bill McKibben.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Visions of Manhattan
The New York Times covers the History Channel's City of the Future competition last week at Grand Central Terminal. ARO won, with Rogers Marvel and Terreform winning honorable mentions.

Park Duisburg Nord at Night
A lighting installation at the now famous park I covered way back in 2000. (via Pruned)

Guide to Springfield USA
"A highly detailed map of the Simpsons' hometown." (via Cyburbia)

Subscription Problems

Dear readers,

If you're a subscriber to my weekly page, you've probably noticed the lack of update notices lately. Well, this stems from an apparent lack of compatibility between my web site's host server and the new ISP I switched to on a recent move (which is ironic, as they're both part of one international corporate entity). I apologize about this problem and am trying to fix it as well as looking into other ways of sending out weekly notices that isn't fee based. I hope you'll bear with me as I try to sort out this issue.

If anybody has any advice on mailing lists and the like, I'm open to just about anything that, as I said, doesn't cost money. That probably doesn't give me too many options, though I'm pursuing just about all of them, from enabling an RSS feed to creating a moderated discussion group. As of yet I haven't found the right solution for the weekly subscriptions.

Thanks,
john

The Shape of the New

Walking around Soho yesterday, I took a sidestep over to the Bowery to check on the progress of the new home of the New Museum by SANAA.



Comparing the view above with a rendering, it appears that one more "bento box" needs to be added before the structural frame is complete.



According to the museum, "The New New Museum of Contemporary Art is scheduled to open to the public on the Bowery in late 2007, in conjunction with the institution’s 30th anniversary. In the interim, the Museum occupies a temporary exhibition space at 556 West 22nd Street in Chelsea."

Nice Coincidence

World Architecture News reports that the firm featured in this week's dose, 3XN has won a competition for the Museum of Liverpool.



According to WAN:

The museum will establish a dynamic, open and accessible structure that grows out of its riverside site [and] will be a focal point of 2008 when Liverpool becomes European Capital of Culture.

Today's archidose #43

olympic stadium beijing by spyker13
The Olympic Stadium in Beijing, China now under construction for the 2008 games.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose