Passive Architect
The shot at the end shows a little break in the desert with the Virgin River as it streams through Zion.
Zion National Park is the closest place to heaven I’ve ever been.
We stayed with the gracious hosts at Under the Eaves in nearby Springdale.
I wonder if Tag Galyean, a self-described master builder, who moved onto the Greenbrier grounds in southern WV over thirty years ago knew where his career was headed. In the two years that followed his move he became integral not only within the design world but also that of the hotel business. Following his time at the Greenbrier, Tag moved to Hawaii to work with what are now the Rock Resorts. Since 1989 he has been the designer of architecture, landscape architecture, art and graphics working on the executive committee as a design professional at the Broadmoor, -the luxury resort in Colorado Springs.
I’m lucky, I’ve only just met the gentlemen and now I am on his team. The day I met him he described his privilege for working for private entities, the really nice families, and by the end of the day I was left with the same sense of what working with him would be like. We met over breakfast to discuss a project we are collaborating on. While in his presence I had the opportunity to observe how he analyses with his questions. His vision for each client encompasses making decisions based on the point of profitability. He described that it was not his intent to leave his signature, but focus on pulling out the strong elements established in each place. In his words he becomes a custodian to each business, understanding how design affects these historic properties.
During a recent meeting I attended with Tag he maintained the conversation by discussing the reach of design. He referenced Dorothy Draper to emphasize a full vision, such as the one Mrs. Draper provided for The Greenbrier designing match book covers, bath mats and the landscape. The importance of one designer lies in the absolute necessity for continuity in a guest experience.
During our conversations about The Broadmoor I was reminded about the details from my visit four years ago. I remember the ceiling of the porte cochere and the stunning mural that smiled down on me. While spending time with Tag I picked up on a few of his quips and wrote them down. For example, when others in our group mentioned the art installations of Bruce Munro’s work Tag said ‘I’ll look into it, it’s nice to know.’ In this way his demeanor continued to be encouraging throughout the whole day of fresh ideas.
Tag was asked by our clients what the impression their place left on him and he replied, ‘There is some magic here. The imagery is strong and appropriate of the area. The Interiors can be more fetching, some place that says not that I am home, but I am somewhere special, somewhere I want to be again.’ Certainly anyone who has ever worked with or around Tag feels the same way about him. He is someone I want to continue to be around too.
These pictures were taken by me in 2011 during an April trip to Colorado Springs.
Every other Monday construction involving floor plank begins at the new Courtyard by Marriott in Morgantown, WV. Waller Corporation, the GC for this Courtyard, organizes the rising of the floors left to right across the building, orchestrating plumbing, electrical, concrete and other sub contractors to work out from beneath the floating floor. The final piece to the puzzle of precast floor plank is fitting in place. Mills Group worked with Mack Industries last fall to initiate the coordination of the hollow core floor.
Our team chose to use MACK Industries because they can provide a 30′ long span by 80″ wide plank. This means we have less seams at the ceiling and floor. Mack worked with Mills and Waller to develop a starting point strategy, locate cuts to allow future shafts, and assure edge conditions would align with the exterior wall assembly.
The design takes a life of it’s own as a view from the job trailer shows below. Tractor trailers loaded with 4-6 planks arrived on site in succession. Each truck took about 45 minutes to an hour to unload. Two workers attached the crane chains from the truck bed into preformed lifting bars in the plank. The plank was lifted, and arrived without incident to the upper floor. From there two tethered men aligned the plank just right before releasing the hooks.
The next day three of us from Mills Group were able to walk up to see the view first-hand. Gashes in the floor show areas where the plank was lifted and how two parallel planks are reinforced together.
The view is spectacular and we enjoyed pointing out construction details in such a beautiful setting.
I wish I’d come up with the name Views and Brews. A northeastern US club, Views and Brews, has the same philosophy as my husband and I do: vacations that are coordinated around where we can hike, and if we’re lucky, where we can enjoy a cold local craft beer to commemorate it.
As someone who enjoys all kinds of brew, I also look forward to breakfast with coffee too! The best combination of place has all three, a good coffee shop, a local brewery and a mountain nearby. I’ve had this app on my list of things to discover for a while – the Best Beer at Untapped.
Morgantown has recently added to the list of breweries to try in the state of West Virginia with the opening of Chestnut Brew Works. What’s the thing I heard most while enjoying the flight at the bar? I’ll have a Halleck, I’ll have a Halleck, I’ll have a Halleck… it may be the beer of choice for the whole city.
Places we’ve tried:
Lost River Brewing Company in Wardensville, WV
Marietta Brewing Company in Marietta, Oh
Morgantown Brewing Company in Morgantown, WV
Mountain State Brewing Co. in Morgantown, WV in Deep Creek Md, and in Thomas, WV
Blackwater Brewing Company in Davis, WV
Rivertown Brewing in Pittsburgh, PA
Portsmith Brewery in Portsmith, NH
The Vermont Pub and Brewery in Burlington, VT
Woodstock Inn and Brewery in North Woodstock, NH
Lexington Avenue Brewery in Asheville, NC
Wedge Brewing Company in Asheville NC
Deschutes Brewery in Portland, OR
Weasel Boy Brewing Company in Zanesville, OH
Church Brew Works in Pittsburgh, PA
Fat Head’s Brewery in Pittsburgh PA
Crean’s Brewing in Ireland
Flagstaff Brewing in Flagstaff, AZ
Lumberyard Brewing Company in Flagstaff, AZ
Bridge Brew Works in Fayetteville, WV (via Pies n’ Pints)
Wheeling Brewing Company in Wheeling, WV
Chestnut Brew Works in Morgantown, WV
The Natural Bridge in Slade, Kentucky
It’s summer, which to me means late evenings spent outside. My husband and I drove to Kentucky in the fall to visit the Red River Gorge area. What we found in the forest was unexpected -many natural stone arches. They cut across the sky, and were conversely, hidden in brush. What we uncovered in that trip continues to feed our enthusiasm to travel into nature’s forests.
The Red River Gorge in the Daniel Boone National Forest
We stayed in a remote cabin that could only be accessed by foot.
We found this area to be the favorite of many rock climbers. Miguels, below, was a hot-spot for many. The decor surrounding the bus-seat booths were lengths and lengths of rock-climbing rope.
Sky Bridge Station
Photo by Krag Ky
The Red River Rock House Restaurant
Photo from Sustainable Ky
Welcome to summer and the adventures waiting!
It’s summer, which means everyone is getting married and having showers. A few years ago I attended a shower at the Narcisi Winery in Gibsonia, Pa. It is a lovely winery set in the flat lands of a wide hollow. The building seemed to come from the ground, intertwined in the landscape with the grape vineyard. It is a large venue that hosts a restaurant and many meeting rooms under one roof. They host events throughout the summer on the lawn which I look forward to attending some day. The shower is not the only reason I want to bring up this winery and restaurant. It turns out that the proprietors are Giulianova natives!
What I noticed lately is that shower attire has really become much more elegant. After attending two in the past few months, one wedding and one baby, I thought I’d share my thoughts about what women wear. One piece dresses, black tights, and high high heels are now the standard.
Inspiration comes from dresses as this grey number below. Shift dresses found on Amazon, or bold block prints are also popular. With a bold glass of wine in one hand, we congratulated the bride-to-be and enjoyed an afternoon among her friends and family.
A baby shower I attended recently in Pittsburgh, Pa was hosted by the lovely family of the mother-to-be at Andora Restaurant. Welcome to Andora.
The renovated home comfortably sat the family and friends of my beautifully pregnant friend. Center-pieces for the day were frilly girls dresses. I enjoyed the company, the atmosphere and again, the attire. Pearls, thick gold bangles, silk skirts, and little girls in poofy dresses.
In September I will attend a colorful-tie event at Oglebay celebrating a close friend’s wedding. What’s a colorful tie? Well, I’m not sure -we’re still trying to figure out the language. What do you call a formal event, where you want girls to wear long dresses, but the men aren’t required to wear black tuxes? Developing what to wear should be fun!
I’m not talking about fireworks, I’m talking about sculpture in architecture. The Curving Marble Bar at Macy’s Stella 34 Trattoria in NY (Photo and full article at Architectural Record.) I learned about the artist Bruce Monro recently. His lit sculpture makes the forest even more magical by night.
Architectural Record presents ‘Dining by Design’ – The Floor
It is not often that I have the opportunity to draw a brand-new church. As a place of worship the building should be inviting, a beacon of light and hope.
Architects, like everyone else, are inspired by pinterest. Images of what patterns can do with light, and what plaster can mold to affect what is sought for in putting hand to paper. While drawing, I seek how common materials connect and what precision in the construction world can yield. Many photos below were pulled from Pinterest.
The above photo is by Rich McGervy via Flicker. The keyhole view of the WVU Coliseum below is by Waller Corporation on the first floor of Marriott’s hotel under construction. The new Courtyard will have spectacular views of the Monongahela River and the city of Morgantown, WV.
Architecture firms commonly joke that we have a feast or famine type of schedule. When there is work there’s too much of it. But when there’s nothing to do, there’s really nothing. The constant sprint of deadline-driven projects are occasionally broken up by a few weeks of down-time. That’s where I found myself a few weeks ago. While the Marriott project moves into construction administration and the shop drawing review period is slow, I can often do all I need to do for that large project in about 8 hours of time a week. Because I work in a mid-size firm with multiple project managers I can quickly move under their wing before my next project begins.
In the last week I’ve worked on two residential projects, a LEED project in West Virginia, renderings for a new church project and participated in a firm interview as the hospitality skilled architect.
The church I began drawing had burned earlier this year. The parish has a large city block to build upon in the context of an old West Virginia river town. The post fire photos maintained the sacred feel as the roof collapsed on an otherwise pristine sanctuary. With the promise of a new project, and time to draw, I took the opportunity to put my hand to paper.
Photo by CNS through Catholic Herald
It’s fun to talk about how to find what you are good at, and what those talents are, so they can be easily incorporated into every day. The drawing obsession of mine began while traveling as a student of architecture at Virginia Tech. My fall semester of 2002 was spent on a bus with 35 students and a handful of professors.
Cathedral Photo by CED Berkeley
My first job at Kendall/Heaton Associates pushed me to work on construction documents for two years. I was fortunate to work under Rex H. Wooldridge, Steve Bell, and Joon. These men formed the foundation of detailed work and dedication to the profession that I still lean on today. After working in Houston, TX I moved to Ohio to work solely on a house project for my parents. Needing to find an expert in the area, I sought out Victor Greco, a mid-career architect practicing in Wheeling with SMG Architects (now Mills Group.) He invited me into the Wheeling, WV office and I easily found the job that would take me into the next phase of my architecture career. SMG supported me to take the ARE exams, and I became a licensed architect in 2009. In 2013 SMG split and became SM+P Architects in Baltimore while Victor merged with Mills Group. I moved to Morgantown, WV to work for the Mills Group shortly after this change.
In the last year I have drawn three hotels, one small hotel project has been completed while the other is under construction here in Morgantown. The third one desperately wants to rise off of the drawing board. I have worked on two local residential projects that required additions, helped one interior residential project, and have continued to work on one large renovation that is going on 2 1/2 years. In the last few weeks as Marriott has moved fully into construction administration I’ve jumped on a university renovation project about to go out to bid as the final set-of-eyes over the documents, and am working on a small theater renovation in southern WV. I have a wide range of tasks that seems to change every day. I look forward to a mix-use project that is to begin in three weeks. Mills Group has responsibility over the design, and I can enjoy the freedom that comes with decision-making in my work.
All of the above is just my work. There are about 8 total project managers in this firm who draw off of a pool of three to five young designers across the two offices. With more people and more projects it is important for the structure of the firm to have a strong project schedule. Easier said than done when we are in a constant search to answer RFP’s or interview for new work. Projects have different levels of service, and each one continues to move along a different deadline.
One of my most talented colleagues who is currently completing her Master of Architecture at Lawrence Tech while working full-time suggested I read Project Management for Design Professionals. As a few of us continue to develop Gantt charts to schedule people and projects, I begin to understand how important it is for a healthy firm to balance talent, expertise, and time management.
