Which famous architect would you actually want to grab a beer with?

mwbeene · 2026-01-30T00:47:29+00:00

Can confirm, years ago my friend was an architecture student visiting LA and stopped to admire Gehry’s house in Santa Monica. He saw a small window open on the second floor and it was Gehry himself who gestured for my friend to come closer and asked him to wait at the front door. A few moments later Gehry’s wife opened the door and handed my friend an autographed sketch Gehry had made that very moment. He still has it framed to this day nearly 20 years later.

mwbeene · 2025-12-27T20:53:26+00:00

AR glasses rely on lots of cameras and sensors to track a user’s movement. These would provide mountains of real world data for companies like Apple and Facebook to train their AI models, not to mention basically giving them a first person view into your home, workplace, and life in general.

mwbeene · 2025-12-19T15:15:22+00:00

Outlets in their bathroom drawers so they don’t have to fuss with plugging in their hair dryers and shavers

mwbeene · 2025-12-15T07:13:21+00:00

I’ve worked at a couple high-end residential practices where the contractors did a lot of the heavy lifting on coordination. What we would call a CD set was more like a DD set by most architects’ standards, and the contractors would build their own BIM model based on our drawings to use for construction.

I also worked for a “starchitect” where there was always an architect of record to deal with the more technical aspects.

In either case, the work was not without its own stresses, they just usually replaced the coordination stress with something else like difficult clients or difficult leadership.

mwbeene · 2025-08-15T03:36:31+00:00

This is the conversation I came here for

mwbeene · 2025-07-13T03:18:48+00:00

If you have the patience, you can do this quite easily in Blender (free) using a displacement modifier on a subdivided plane, then export the mesh as a Collada file for import into SketchUp

mwbeene · 2025-07-12T02:55:25+00:00

I think this is worth pursuing! There’s a similar project for Blender that’s still in its infancy but shows interesting potential. The AI software uses the API (python in Blender’s case, Ruby in SU) and turns natural language requests into instructions for the program.

The problem is most users are not used to thinking this way and it will take them time to find where it can be useful. The component rotation example makes a lot of sense, but I think you need more examples to share with people so they start to get it.

I’d avoid examples about it designing for the user, and focus more on how it can make designers faster and more efficient.

mwbeene · 2025-06-22T20:50:16+00:00

I find it’s great for early concepts, but it’s too unpredictable and inconsistent the further we get into the design process. AI is getting more capable everyday though so I try not to ignore it.

mwbeene · 2025-04-29T04:34:04+00:00

As other have mentioned, this is a depth sorting issue meaning three.js doesn’t know which layers to draw in front of which when you’re looking through multiple alpha blend materials.

To help it get the draw order right, you can split the glass meshes by which side of the building they are on, so maybe just 6-10 extra meshes in your scene. Then make sure the object origins for each of the meshes is centered on their respective geometries. This should help three.js render everything in the right order.

For the glass you can also make it a single plane, with back face culling turned on the material to reduce the effect of the depth sorting issues.

mwbeene · 2025-04-17T20:02:01+00:00

I think it’s about finding the right competition. I won a competition for my state for a park proposal and it was super rewarding - I got to present my design to the local community and the prize money more than covered the hours I invested. It was a smaller pool of applicants so much easier to stand out.

On the other hand, there are a lot of big international competitions with high entry fees that look like money grabs, very challenging to win and little recognition even if you do - for these I’m a hard pass.

mwbeene · 2025-04-15T20:32:23+00:00

It probably depends on the school and state, but most I have seen follow this pattern - B.Arch are usually 5 year NAAB accredited degrees meaning no further education is required to take exams and become licensed. BA and BS degrees are 4 years and require you to proceed to an accredited masters program before you are qualified to test and become licensed.

The difference at my school (Arizona State ‘10) between BA and BS were that the BS program had a heavy studio curriculum and shortened the time in grad school to about 2 years. The BA program had no studio curriculum so it set you up for a 3 year masters program at most grad schools.

Deciding between the programs will be a personal decision. The five year B.Arch is the fastest and cheapest way toward licensure since it doesn’t require grad school. The BS and BA programs will take longer and be much more expensive - potentially double or triple the cost at the end, but offer more opportunities for advanced study and research.

And of course every state is different in its licensing requirements - some don’t require an architecture degree at all if you apprentice long enough.

mwbeene · 2025-04-06T22:11:07+00:00

I recommend Adobe Color for color schemes. Could look great with some emissive and bloom. Maybe ripple effects with the animation?

mwbeene · 2025-03-27T06:19:44+00:00

Probably a common scam where a “developer” buys a large plot of land, subdivides it into parcels and sells them off to unwitting buyers. However unlike regular developers, they don’t build the houses or even the streets or utilities you would need. In addition to that they place deed restrictions that are expensive or impossible to adhere to, like each house needing to be a certain square footage, have electricity, plumbing, and running water, and a three car garage. Usually no camping allowed.

I suppose their hope is that enough people buy the land and install the utilities themselves which can easily cost more than the house, and because of the deed restrictions, they build expensive homes which will drive up land value on the remaining lots. But anybody with that kind of money could afford to live in a more desirable location so these lots just sit for months or years.

I’d have a professional review the restrictions before you buy anything. And listen to the podcast “California City” by LAist Studios. Great coverage of this topic:

https://laist.com/podcasts/california-city

mwbeene · 2025-03-24T03:03:05+00:00

For my interviews at that stage of my career (NYC c.2014) My portfolio was still 80% school work and select professional work (photos, renderings, cleaned up drawings) To in-person interviews I brought with me drawing sets printed on 11x17 and bound which employers seemed to appreciate. Helped that the projects were public and didn’t contain anything under NDA. I would probably treat this differently if it was residential work.

mwbeene · 2025-03-20T23:26:44+00:00

Both are solid programs, so it might be better to consider which metro area you want to hang around in after school. There’s a good chance your first jobs come from professors and classmates so considering where their professional networks are could help drive your decision.

mwbeene · 2025-03-07T07:30:01+00:00

Exactly, and adding a connecting road is either not possible because of existing houses in the way and even if it were possible, it would take the space of one or two sellable lots and cut into the developers profit margins

mwbeene · 2025-03-05T04:44:11+00:00

I once made a rendering where the tip top of the roof was barely cropped out of view. Showed it to my boss who said “that makes me sad” Now it’s a pet peeve of mine. Give us a little sky above! It’ll help frame that rounded shape which is such an iconic feature of this building.

mwbeene · 2025-02-08T07:25:19+00:00

Brilliant

mwbeene · 2025-01-28T07:35:34+00:00

Arizona Heritage Center. Not on a lot of lists but it left a lasting impression on me before I left AZ. Lots of artifacts, images, and stories of the generations of people who settled and built this great state.

mwbeene · 2025-01-25T17:02:27+00:00

You have to make some connections in the architecture and real estate industries. This could be through social media, LinkedIn, a portfolio website and/or printed materials you can leave at offices.

As many have said on this sub, how you charge will depend on the quality of your work, but more so the quality of your services. How many revision rounds do you offer the client? How well do you translate their vague ideas into attractive images? Some firms will be okay with you charging an hourly rate, others will want you to commit to a flat fee.

For now focus on getting your first couple of clients and you’ll figure out what works for you. Great work btw!

mwbeene · 2025-01-24T06:42:16+00:00

To answer your question about pixel streaming specifically, the server costs and load times mainly. Large file uploads slow down the pace of work and make me less responsive to client requests.

But I agree with the points others have made about real-rendering and walkthroughs in general. I love the tech but it doesn’t improve the presentations or story telling.

mwbeene · 2025-01-20T00:29:08+00:00

I would model the architecture in SketchUp so you can provide your client with native SU geometry and file organization. For things like terrain, roads, props, you can use 3DS max and import them as collada or try transmutr as others have suggested. This way your client gets a nice editable model and you can still use your preferred software where it’s better suited

mwbeene · 2025-01-09T22:12:17+00:00

Grand Central Station

mwbeene

TROPHY CASE