Category: Boston

Boston, User Experience

Research

Maybe every architect should be required to live with their clients for two weeks. You find out the most interesting things — both about them and about the space.

For one: the loft is much noisier than I could ever have imagined. Theoretically I knew that a cocktail of concrete floors, brick walls, and drywall everywhere else was a recipe for echoes and difficulty hearing, but I was still amazed at how close you have to put the sofa to the TV in order to understand it.

And speaking of noise, the wet walls carrying all the piping from the rest of the building are clearly not well-insulated; every time someone flushes the toilet in a unit above it sounds like a freight train rushing towards you as you’re trying to untie yourself from the tracks… Continue reading “Research”

Boston

It’s Official

Not long ago I posted on my facebook status that I had acquired a lawyer. It’s a telling comment that all the people who responded assumed that there was some sort of problem — that I was getting sued or that I was having to oust my tenant. Some people who know me really well thought I might have needed to post bail. The truth is that the lawyer is a good thing (even if her fees were not so much): since I hired her last week she has set up two companies for me. I am now officially an LLC as an architect and an LLC as a product design firm.

Nothing is all that different. I’m still sitting at home working on three different projects. I’ve worked as a consulting architect for a few years now; my estimate is that I’ll launch my first product in February; and the competition I’m doing makes me feel like I’m back in grad school (check out http://www.shiftboston.org/). And yet.. everything has changed. Continue reading “It’s Official”

Boston

Home for Now

I woke up in my own house yesterday morning and experienced a big d’oh: now I remember why I became an architect. There is actually a point to designing a space that works for you. Living in other people’s houses over the past 18 months has left me feeling a bit out of sorts. Although I appreciate all styles, the one I most like to live in is quiet: spare, well-detailed, and functional.   My apartment  is very small, but its high ceiling and huge window with a view of the Boston skyline gives it a spacious feeling I often don’t get in homes twice its size. The kitchen is designed for cooking; the huge closets whisk away clutter; every light in the joint is on a dimmer; and my books are temptingly lined up waiting for a leisurely rainy Sunday. Continue reading “Home for Now”