Marmol Radziner Prefab

The first comprehensive presentation of Kara Walker’s work is coming to the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles this weekend. Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love got great reviews when it was at the Whitney Museum in New York last year. Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center (with it’s beautiful Herzog & de Meuron addition from 2005) organized the show and still has a good website with background on the art and artist. Some of our staff saw the show in New York last year and highly recommend it. The room-sized wall art is both consuming and moving in person. With issues of race and gender front and center in the presidential elections, the show couldn’t have arrived at a better time.

And, Walker’s pieces could win an award for amazing long titles, like: Slavery! Slavery! Presenting a GRAND and LIFELIKE Panoramic Journey into Picturesque Southern Slavery or “Life at ‘Ol’ Virginny’s Hole’ (sketches from Plantation Life)” See the Peculiar Institution as never before! All cut from black paper by the able hand of Kara Elizabeth Walker, an Emancipated Negress and leader in her Cause. Yes, that was one title. 51 words, for those of you counting.

Opens March 2 and runs until June 8.

Next week, the 16 modules for California House 8 will leave our factory and work their way up California to the project site on the central coast.

Sitting on a narrow, steep site, the house has a site-built garage on the bottom level that acts as the foundation for two stories of prefab living spaces. A covered deck module (where the roof acts as another deck) cantilevers out above the garage. Check out the picture below that shows how our structural steel shop created and installed the large steel beams that support the 9-foot cantilever.

Head out to Desert Hot Springs, CA, this weekend for your last chance to see the Desert House, our prefab prototype home. We’re hosting a final public open house this Saturday, March 1, from 1 to 4pm. Click here for a pdf map to the site. The weather should be perfect this weekend. See ya there…

Not all 3-D models require ’50s-era dorky glasses (unlike the amazing new U2 3D movie, which is totally worth the nerd-factor). From the very beginning of every project, we build a computer model of the home in three dimensions. To integrate the entire design and prefabrication process, we use a relatively new technology called Building Information Modeling (BIM). Instead of describing the homes in flat, two-dimensional drawings that have no real relationship to each other, BIM allows us to create a single, three-dimensional model of what the entire building will eventually be.

Our homes are a single building that is broken up into multiple smaller pieces, or modules, so we must make sure that the design, systems, and details work across different modules. For example, one pipe could run across two modules that are fabricated three weeks apart from each other, so it’s critical that each part of the pipe is in the precise location in each module. We’ve recently started using a new component of BIM that allows us to ensure that all of the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) are integrated as well. It’s relatively rare for smaller architecture firms like us to use this MEP component themselves, but this coordination is so critical that we now navigate the twists and turns of pipes, ducts, and other goodies.

TYPOGRAPHY! Sure enough, both we and Obama use the lovely Gotham font in our graphic materials.

Thanks to the design blog UnBeige for directing us to Gary Hustwit’s blog that id-ed the font. For you font fans out there, Hustwit’s post includes a link to a short video interview with the font’s creators, Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones. The interview is an extra interview from from Hustwit’s wonderful documentary, Helvetica, which explores how typography, graphic design and global visual culture affects our lives. Sounds a bit dorky, but it rocks. There aren’t any screenings in the near future, but luckily, Netflix has got it covered!

We recently spotted a new neighbor next to our main man Mr. Clean in the supermarket’s home aisle: Green Works by Clorox. In a strong example of how “green” is entering the mainstream, last month Clorox launched a new line of green cleaners targeting a mass market. This is Clorox’s first new product line in over a decade. The products are already making their way to the shelves of major retailers. Clorox says the new line has 99% natural ingredients that are biodegradable. NPR had a good recent story about the new product line, and TreeHugger explains some the of elements (and debates) behind the product line’s “natural” label.

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Jeans come in all styles - skinny jeans, boot cut jeans, “Mom” jeans, and now, one more cut can join the pantheon: home insulation. That’s right, we now use insulation that comes from none other than the good ol’ blue jean. The insulation is made from 85% post-industrial denim and cotton fibers that are sourced from factories that make jeans. The insulation contains no chemical irritants and requires no warning labels compared to traditional batt insulation. Our factory staff likes working with the cotton fiber because it is not itchy, unlike traditional fiberglass insulation.

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We were excited to read in this Saturday’s Los Angeles Times that two Los Angeles City Council committees voted on Friday to support one of the toughest green building ordinances in the nation. The ordinance would require all private projects over 50,000 square feet or 50 residential units meet basic L.E.E.D. (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification standards. Los Angeles would be the largest city in the nation to pass such an ordinance–not too shabby!

Interestingly, the ordinance includes market incentives to promote greener projects since developers can get expedited permitting if they surpass the minimum standard and achieve a L.E.E.D. Silver rating. While there have been some critiques of how the L.E.E.D. system scores sustainability, there’s no doubt that the U.S. Green Building Council’s L.E.E.D. system is the most established standard in the nation. Our Palms House is currently registered to achieve L.E.E.D. certification, and Marmol Radziner + Associates’ TreePeople Conference Center received a L.E.E.D. Gold rating.

You can read the new ordinance on the Department of City Planning website. Just click on the “Green Building Program” link.

One of our prefab architectural project managers spotted this impossibly cool ’70s dream car: the Citroen SM. It’s an object of both incredible beauty and impeccable performance–a sleek tear drop that can smoothly cruise at 140 mph all day long. The Jalopnik Fantasy Garage blog has a great description of the hydraulic system that was the key to the car. Apparently the hydraulic system allowed the SM to ride on three wheels for relatively long distances. Oh, and the car came with only one option: a line of matching luggage.