Veritas et Venustas

USA Make A Difference Day

In late September 2005, Andres Duany sent out an e-mail to the team getting ready for the Mississippi charrette. It included marching orders for the architects who would be working on permanent and temporary housing during the charrette. Most of what Duany talked about was quickly accomplished, and then some, like $400 million in funding for emergency Katrina Cottages. (None of it was done by me, so that's not bragging.)

1. Mobile homes will be permanent, regardless of what you hear. They should be beautifully designed to fit in as well and as gracefully as the shotguns, double shotguns and camelbacks of the Gulf Coast. This will only be effectively done if you visit your local mobile home factories to ascertain the potential and the limits of their technique. There are many aspects that could be immediately improved at only slightly higher cost--however, there are others that cannot be crossed lest their intrinsic economy be lost. It is misunderstood technical boundaries that have ALWAYS made attempts at improving mobile homes as expensive--or more expensive--than the site-built ones. This has been the story from Paul Rudolph to last year's Xxxx fiasco. Steven Mouzon has already researched the fundamental technical parameters and he will be posting them shortly. However, these are not enough. I repeat: organize a trip to a factory or you will be wasting your time.
2. Find out what the rumored FEMA permanent housing prototype is and redesign it many ways. There must be not only variety but excellence. I have not seem them but assume that they will require your attention or they they will become instant blight. As will the Habitat houses below.
3. Find out about the available models and protocols of Habitat and engage them. Don't redesign the plans necessarily--as they have those figured out. However, they need to be better detailed and fitted to the climate, traditions and cultures of the Gulf Coast. There is an enormous amount of know-how available from from UDA's and Placemaker's pattern books. Call for them and use them.
4. Go to the great prefab and panelization factories--Yyyy for example. As you know, their products are not usually cheaper than site-built houses; however, under the circumstances of a permanent regional labor shortages, they will not only be relatively less expensive--they will be the only available option. Yyyy houses range in look from out-of date to dopey. There is nothing about their construction technique that necessarily makes them so. . . it is their designers that fail. Also; look into the log-built industry. They are finer and in quality and with a better design potential than you would think.

Less than six months later, the first Katrina Cottage was on display at the annual Builder show hosted by the National Association of Homebuilders. A few months after that, Lowe's announced they would be sell Katrina Cottages, and Marianne Cusato's Katrina Cottage won the People's Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, while Congress authorized funding for Katrina Cottages.

Expect more news in the next few months. Another Katrina Cottage is going up in Silver Springs, Maryland (Washington Post story here and here), sponsored by USA Today. This one easily expands, and is designed as permanent affordable housing. I've been to more than one meeting where Modernist architects get absolutely apoplectic about these traditional designs, but what's their alternative? One of the great disappointments of the avant garde establishment that runs the style war against New Urbanism and traditional architecture is that they offer so little. Avant garde architects design mainly for the super-rich and luxury developers.

In New Orleans, local architects and planners saw the success of the New Urban charrette 60 miles away on the Mississippi Gulf and fought to keep the New Urbanists out of New Orleans, even when they were ready to work for free. But as I wrote here (in a Me and Bobby McGee parody) about Tulane Architecture School Dean Reed Kroloff, "Kroloff thumbed his nose at us, and gave us our big break, That drove us all the way to New Orleans."

Duany and DPZ are in New Orleans for the next 2 1/2 weeks, holding charrettes for the French Quarter, the Central Business District and Gentilly, at least partly because Kroloff publicly made such a fool of himself that his self-proclaimed enemies, the New Urbanists, got another look and became more attractive.

UPDATE: There's a new website for the Katrina Cottages.

www.katrinacottages.com

New Door to Affordable Housing Opens
By Katherine Shaver
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 29, 2006; C05

When Phyllis Johnson and her daughter, Zabrina, got a look inside their free new home yesterday, they delighted in the large windows that will let the sunlight pour in. Unlike their current home in Silver Spring, the ceilings weren't crumbling, the floors didn't sag and the eaves weren't rotting.

What the Johnsons didn't see: They had become the face of what some architects, developers and urban planners hope is the future of affordable housing born out of Hurricane Katrina's devastation.

The Johnsons received a "Katrina Cottage," a house designed to be built quickly and relatively inexpensively for New Orleans and Gulf Coast residents displaced by the 2005 storm. Designers said the same houses, made to be more attractive and of higher quality than most subsidized housing, also can be used nationwide for lower-income residents. The Johnsons' new two-bedroom, two-bath home is the first of its kind outside the hurricane zone.

After her dilapidated home on Michigan Avenue is torn down, the new house will be moved to the same tree-lined lot.

"I just really loved the windows . . . " Johnson, 59, said after seeing the inside of her new home for the first time yesterday. "When it snows, you could open the curtains, and in the summer, when the sun rises, it will fill with sunlight."

That was exactly what Steve Mouzon hoped to hear. Mouzon, who designed the Johnsons' home, said Katrina Cottage houses are designed to be a "FEMA trailer with dignity" for storm survivors who might end up in temporary housing for years. He said some Florida residents who lost homes during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 just moved out of their government trailers last fall.

He said he and other Katrina Cottage advocates also are working to combat the stigmas attached to both manufactured and affordable housing by making them more attractive. To make the Johnsons' new home appear larger than its 1,300 square feet, Mouzon included high ceilings and the big windows. He designed the front columns and porch railing to resemble those he saw on beautiful, old homes in Old Town Alexandria.

"I did a tour of the area for the things that people seemed to value most and love the longest," he said.

The Johnsons' home cost about $300,000, largely because it is a prototype. When manufactured on a large scale, it probably will cost about $150,000, organizers said. Ben Brown, a spokesman for the project, said organizers hope to have the Johnsons' home fully furnished by the time they move in, with donations from Home Depot, Restoration Hardware, Sears and other companies.

The house was built outside New Orleans and arrived in the Lyttonsville neighborhood off East West Highway and Grubb Road on Wednesday. Since then, a dozen workers from Louisiana and California worked through the night, and often in the rain, to get it ready. In place now is a 523-square-foot kitchen, family room and bathroom. After two more pieces are added, it will be 1,300 square feet, with an additional two bedrooms, a living room and a small courtyard.

The house made its debut yesterday during "Make a Difference Day," during which an estimated 3 million people do volunteer work across the country. The house was donated by Housing International Inc., a manufactured-housing company in California, and given to Johnson through a program of the Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

Volunteers from USA Weekend magazine, which co-sponsored the national day of service, helped Johnson move out of her home and into a nearby apartment, where she will live until her new house is finished.

The Johnsons came to the attention of Montgomery's housing department last year, when Zabrina Johnson, 40, called for help fixing their home.

Zabrina Johnson said she was laid off from her job a year ago and has recently been doing temporary secretarial work. She said her mother is disabled because of heart problems, diabetes and complications of two minor strokes.

Phyllis Johnson said she will miss the good times she had in her old home but not its headaches. "The time comes to move on and put that behind us and start fresh," she said.

The house will be open to the public weekends in November at the Gwendolyn E. Coffield Community Center, 2450 Lyttonsville Rd.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

The Charleston Charter for Architecture

Written by the Charleston Council in Randolph Hall at the College of Charleston in March 2005.

In the 21st century, we need cities, towns, neighborhoods and buildings that are sustainable and affordable. Beset by social and economic problems so powerful that the way we live threatens to destroy the globe, we need to reclaim the art of making lasting places that attract us with their beauty and their hope.

If we do not change the way we build, we may perish. Our towns and cities must become walkable and green. Our buildings must be more about the needs of society and community and less about the designer’s ego. We need places that combine the memory of the past with hope for the future, in a just and equitable present.

Therefore we, a diverse group of architects, designers and builders, have come together in Charleston, South Carolina to declare the following.

Basis for Agreement

Architecture and urban design should grow from and speak to the common roots and universal principles of nature and human nature in all cultures. We need to restore reverence for the grace and beauty of nature and the works of civilizations.

Architecture arises from the experience of life in the community. It creates a setting for community life in buildings, neighborhoods and landscapes.

Urbanism and community are built over time. Architects must respect the accomplishments of the past and learn from what has worked in the creation of place.

The city and the common good are more important than the individual building. The public realm is the physical manifestation of the common good, and the making of a beautiful, equitable and sustainable public realm is the first role of the building.

Buildings must be durable, economical and environmentally efficient. Durable means not only that they are built from long lasting and renewable materials, but that they are places we love, worthy of our attention and care over time. Beauty is essential to that goal.

Good building can not by itself solve social and economic problems, but neither can economic vitality, social well being, and environmental health be sustained without a coherent and supportive physical framework.

For fifty years, we have emphasized the “architecture of our time.” The result has been destructive to our cities, towns and neighborhoods. The failed architecture of our time must be replaced by an architecture of place.

Collaboration

It is essential for our communities that architecture is practiced as a collective endeavor rather than for the glorification of designers’ individual visions. The best urbanism is the result of many designers working in sequence.

It is essential that we work with the construction industries to improve their products and the cost of building. For decades, the builders of module housing and mobile homes, the makers of building materials, and the development companies that build the majority of places where we live and work have operated without the services of the best designers.

It is essential that we work with the civil engineers, traffic engineers and landscape designers who have been responsible for the shaping of so much of the built environment.

Education

Design schools have a responsibility to teach a body of knowledge that can produce the communities and buildings we require. In place of an architecture of experimentation, we need an architecture of success. Instead of a system of fashion and Starchitecture, we need a system that produces community and place.

Architecture schools need to be liberated from the thrall of sociologists, linguists and theorists whose work is not based in practice. Those who are primarily dedicated to other disciplines should depart to their own departments from which they can continue to educate architects in proper measure. The nihilism and relativism taught in many of these fields have undermined architecture’s potential as a social and environmental instrument for the good and thereby damaged society.

Architectural history should include not only the form givers, but also the masters of  urbanism and urban policy, so that talented students may be exposed to models other than the heroic genius. Municipal planning, policy and administration is sorely in need of good architects.

The wall between architectural history and the design studio must be eliminated. The creation of good places is always part of a living continuum. The great achievements of our predecessors are the surest basis for progress in the present and success in the future.

Students must participate in an apprenticeship system as part of their learning.

Schools need to teach the art of building through exposure to craft.

Craft

Much of the craft of building has been lost. It is therefore necessary that the best architects devote a portion of their time to its research and recovery, and to the sharing of the fruits of this endeavor by teaching and writing.

Buildings must incorporate authentic progress in material and production methods, but not for the sake of innovation alone. Too many failures of the architecture of the second half of the twentieth century have been the result of needless experimentation.

Graphic technique should not determine the design of buildings. Computer-aided design must remain an instrument for the liberation of labor and not become a determinant of form. The fact that a shape can be drawn does not mean it should be built.

Architects must harness the systems of production that make the best design available to the greatest number. Artifacts that can be reproduced in quantity are required for our present needs: in the present time we have the challenge of great numbers.

The techniques of mass production are required for the process of building, but it is not necessary that they determine the form of the building, or the city.

Context

When the surrounding context is worthy, architects should respond to that context. If the context is unworthy, the proper response is to create a good one. Not until this is common will the proliferation of architectural review committees and historic preservation regulations cease to bedevil both good and bad designers.

Architectural character and expression must include the cultural and climatic context no less than the will to form of the architect. It is also necessary to acknowledge the opposite: architectural influence of universal elements can travel along cultural and climatic belts to positive effect.

Buildings must incorporate passive environmentalism in siting, materials and the performance of their mechanical elements.

Traditional and contemporary architectural styles must have equal standing, as they represent parallel realities. They may be used badly or well, but their evaluation should be on the basis of their quality and their appropriateness to context, rather than to fashion.

New construction in historic settings, including alterations and additions to existing buildings, should not arbitrarily impose contrasting materials, scales, or design vocabularies, but clarify and extend the character of the place, seeking always continuity and wholeness in the built environment.

Communication

In recent times, architecture and urbanism have been harmed by the influence of a handful of critics and publications that value the work of a self-proclaimed avant garde over the creation of beautiful, sustainable places. In the 21st century, architects who value the creation of place must reclaim public attention and support.

Architects must develop an unmediated voice in the press and explain their work themselves, if necessary.

Architects should endeavor to publish their work in the popular press. As professionals, we have the power to eliminate the undue influence of a small number of critics. Such critics are empowered only because they are recognized as such by the architects themselves.

Architectural historians should not be confused with the polemicists for the avant garde.  Historians earn their standing through research and documentation rather than through ideological preferences. They support the knowledge base on which architecture stands and from which it evolves.

Responsibility

Like preservationists, when working in existing towns and cities we should first do no harm. Environmental problems demand that we use and recycle the resources in our cities, towns and buildings. The spread of placeless sprawl is a waste of resources and energy that can no longer be sustained.

For the good of our cities, towns and neighborhoods, architects must retake the responsibility for the creation and preservation of urban form, abandoned to the statistical concerns of zoning, building codes, traffic and engineering.

Architects must participate in politics and policy to affect the built environment at the largest scale. A disaster of the 20th century has been the creation of planning policy without the participation of designers.

Like other professionals, architects must donate pro bono work to those who do not otherwise have access to professional services.

Architecture must produce places where we can afford to live. It must accommodate the imperatives of economics without being consumed by them.  It is a role of architecture to tame commerce and elevate it to art through the creation of place.

We should not impose untested or experimental design on the poor. The likelihood of failure in such cases has proven to be too great, and the poor are powerless to escape its consequences. Experimentation is for architectural patrons, who can afford to do what they want, including fleeing their own failures.

Architects must hone the human scale in their designs, remembering that it is humans whom we serve and whose environment we are creating. Buildings and spaces that alienate or intimidate those who live or work in them, or the pedestrians who pass among them, are inhumane and anti-social.

Addenda

Resolved

The words "shall be differentiated from the old and" should be removed from the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Historic Preservation, as follows:

9. New additions, exterior alterations, or related new construction shall not destroy historic materials that characterize the property. The new work shall be differentiated from the old and shall be compatible with the massing, size, scale, and architectural features to protect the historic integrity of the property and its environment.

Pitchers and Catchers Report in 110 Days

List of Major League Baseball free agents
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PAGE IN PROGRESS

Potential MLB Free Agents 2006 off season: Players

Based only on players currently under a contract through the 2006 season.

• (x) = club option for 2007
• (m) = mutual option for 2007
• (y) = player option for 2007
• Italics = player retired following the 2006 season

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Baltimore Orioles

• Bruce Chen,LHRP -
• Chris Gomez, IF -
• John Halama,LHRP -
• LaTroy Hawkins, RHRP -
• Kevin Millar, IF -
• Fernando Tatis, IF -
• Chris Widger, C -

Boston Red Sox

• Alex Cora, IF -
• (m) Keith Foulke , RHRP -
• Alex Gonzalez, IF -
• Mike Holtz, LHRP -
• Kevin Jarvis, RHRP -
• Gabe Kapler, OF -

• Javy Lopez, C -
• Mark Loretta, IF -
• Doug Mirabelli, C -
• Trot Nixon, OF -
• J.T Snow, IF -
• Mike Timlin, RHRP - re-signed to a $2.8 million, one-year contract
• (x) Tim Wakefield, RHRP

Chicago White Sox

• Sandy Alomar Jr., C -
• (x) Mark Buehrle, LHSP -
• (x) Jermaine Dye, OF -
• (x) Dustin Hermanson, RHRP -
• Jeff Nelson, RHRP -
• Cliff Politte, RHRP -
• David Riske, RHRP -

Cleveland Indians

• Aaron Boone, IF -
• Vic Darensbourg, LHRP -
• Tim Laker, C -
• Lou Merloni, IF -

Detroit Tigers

• Sean Casey, IF -
• Matt Mantei, RHRP - (expected to retire)
• Troy Percival, RHRP - (expected to retire)
• Matt Stairs, OF -
• Jamie Walker, LHRP
• Dmitri Young, IF -

Kansas City Royals

• Paul Bako, C -
• Doug Mientkiewicz, IF -
• Mark Redman, LHSP -
• Esteban Yan, RHRP -

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

• Tim Salmon, OF - (Retired)
• Darin Erstad, OF -
• Adam Kennedy, IF -
• J.C Romero, LHRP -

Minnesota Twins

• Tony Batista, IF -
• Erubiel Durazo, IF -
• Quinton McCracken, OF -
• Phil Nevin, IF -
• Brad Radke, RHSP - (expected to retire)
• Ruben Sierra, DH -
• Shannon Stewart, OF -
• (x) Rondell White, OF -

New York Yankees

• Nick Green, IF -
• Miguel Cairo, IF -
• Octavio Dotel, RHRP -
• Scott Erickson, RHSP
• Richard Hidalgo, OF -
• Terrence Long, OF -
• (x) Mike Mussina, RHSP -
• Sidney Ponson, RHSP -
• (x) Gary Sheffield, OF -
• Tanyon Sturtze, RHRP -
• Ron Villone, LHRP -
• Bernie Williams, OF -
• Craig Wilson, IF -
• (x) Jaret Wright, RHSP -

Oakland Athletics

• Steve Karsay, RHRP - (Retired)
• Jay Payton, OF -
• Scott Sauerbeck, LHRP -
• Frank Thomas, DH -
• Barry Zito, LHSP -
• D'Angelo Jimenez, IF -

Seattle Mariners

• Carl Everett, DH -
• Matt Lawton, OF -
• Gil Meche, RHSP
• (x) Eduardo Perez, IF -

Tampa Bay Devil Rays

• Travis Lee, IF -
• Brian Meadows, RHRP -
• Tomas Perez, IF -

Texas Rangers

• Antonio Alfonseca , RHRP -
• Rod Barajas, C -
• Mark DeRosa, IF -
• Adam Eaton, RHSP -
• Jerry Hairston Jr., IF -
• Carlos Lee, OF -
• Gary Matthews Jr., OF -
• Vicente Padilla, RHSP -
• John Wasdin, RHSP -
• Kip Wells, RHSP -
• Eric Young, OF -

Toronto Blue Jays

• Frank Catalanotto, OF -
• Ted Lilly, LHSP -
• (m) Bengie Molina, C -
• Justin Speier, RHSP -
• Gregg Zaun, C -

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Arizona Diamondbacks

• Miguel Batista, RHSP -
• Craig Counsell, IF -
• Damion Easley, IF -
• (m) Luis Gonzalez, OF -
• Jason Grimsley, RHRP - Announced he will not return to playing baseball. (retired)

• Terry Mulholland, LHRP -

Atlanta Braves

• Brian Jordan, IF -
• Todd Pratt, C -
• Mike Remlinger, LHRP -
• John Thomson, RHSP -
• Daryle Ward, IF -

Chicago Cubs

• Henry Blanco, C -
• John Mabry, OF -
• Juan Pierre, OF -
• Tony Womack, IF -
• (m) Kerry Wood, RHSP

Cincinnati Reds

• (m) Rich Aurilia, IF -
• Royce Clayton, IF -
• Ryan Franklin, RHRP -
• Eddie Guardado, LHRP -
• Chris Hammond, LHRP -
• Todd Hollandsworth, OF -
• (m) Jason Johnson, RHSP -
• Joe Mays, RHSP -
• Kent Mercker, LHRP -
• Scott Schoeneweis, LHRP -
• David Weathers, RHRP -
• (m) Paul Wilson, RHSP -

Colorado Rockies

• Vinny Castilla, IF -
• (m) Mike DeJean, RHRP -
• (x) Byung-Hyun Kim, RHSP -
• (x) Ray King, LHSP -
• Tom Martin, LHRP -
• (x) Jose Mesa, RHRP -

Florida Marlins

• Joe Borowski, RHRP -
• Jim Brower, RHRP -
• Wes Helms, IF -
• Matt Herges, RHRP -
• Brian Moehler, RHSP

Houston Astros

• (x) Jeff Bagwell, IF -
• Craig Biggio, IF -
• Roger Clemens, RHSP -
• Aubrey Huff, IF -
• Joe McEwing, IF -
• Andy Pettitte, LHSP -
• Russ Springer, RHRP -

Los Angeles Dodgers

• Giovanni Carrara, RHRP -
• Jose Cruz, OF -
• Einar Diaz, C -
• Ramon Martinez, IF -
• (x) Eric Gagne, CL -
• Nomar Garciaparra, IF -
• Kenny Lofton, OF -
• Julio Lugo, IF -
• Greg Maddux, RHSP -
• Aaron Sele, RHSP -

Milwaukee Brewers

• David Bell, IF -
• Jeff Cirillo, IF -
• Geremi Gonzalez, RHRP -
• Tony Graffanino, IF -
• Rick Helling, RHSP -
• Dan Kolb, RHRP -
• Tomo Ohka, RHSP -

New York Mets

• Edgardo Alfonzo, IF -
• Chad Bradford, RHRP -
• Jacob Cruz, OF -
• Mike DiFelice, C -
• Cliff Floyd, OF -
• (xy) Tom Glavine, LHSP -
• Orlando Hernandez, RHSP -
• Roberto Hernandez, RHRP -
• Ricky Ledee, OF -
• Jose Lima, RHSP -
• Eli Marrero, OF -
• Guillermo Mota, RHRP -
• Darren Oliver, LHRP -
• Kelly Stinnett, C -
• Steve Trachsel, RHSP -
• Michael Tucker, OF -
• Jose Valentin, OF/IF -
• Chris Woodward, IF -
• Victor Zambrano, SP -

Philadelphia Phillies

• (m) Jeff Conine, IF -
• David Dellucci, OF -
• Aaron Fultz, LHRP -
• Alex Gonzalez, IF -
• Jose Hernandez, IF -
• Mike Lieberthal, C -
• (m) Jamie Moyer, LHSP - re-signed for two-years, $10.5 million
• Arthur Rhodes, LHRP -
• Julio Santana, RHRP -
• Rick White, RHRP -
• Randy Wolf, LHSP

Pittsburgh Pirates

• Victor Santos, p -
• Jeromy Burnitz, OF -
• Joe Randa, IF -

San Diego Padres

• Manny Alexander, IF -
• Mark Bellhorn, IF -
• Geoff Blum, IF -
• (x) Russell Branyan, IF -
• Doug Brocail, RHRP -
• (x) Mike Cameron, OF -
• Alan Embree, LHRP -
• Shawn Estes, LHSP -
• (x) Ryan Klesko, OF -
• Chan Ho Park, RHSP -
• (m) *Mike Piazza, C -
• Dave Roberts, OF -
• (x) Rudy Seanez, RHRP -
• Todd Walker, IF -
• David Wells, LHSP -
• Woody Williams, RHSP
• Scott Williamson, RHRP -
• Scott Strickland, RHRP - Signed to a one-year contract. (from Pirates Minor Leagues)

San Francisco Giants

• Moises Alou, OF -
• Barry Bonds, OF -
• Ray Durham, IF -
• Pedro Feliz, IF -
• (x)Steve Finley, OF -
• Todd Greene, C -
• Shea Hillenbrand, IF -
• Steve Kline, LHRP -
• Jason Schmidt, RHSP -
• Mike Stanton, LHRP
• Jamey Wright, RHSP -

St. Louis Cardinals

• Ronnie Belliard, IF -
• Gary Bennett, C -
• (x) Jim Edmonds, OF -
• Jason Marquis, RHSP -
• Mark Mulder, LHSP -
• Desi Relaford, IF -
• Scott Spiezio, IF -
• Jeff Suppan, RHSP -
• Jose Vizcaino, IF -
• Jeff Weaver, RHSP -
• Preston Wilson, OF -

Washington Nationals

• Tony Armas, RHSP -
• Pedro Astacio, RHSP -
• Joey Eischen, LHRP -
• Robert Fick, C -
• Jose Guillen, OF -
• Damian Jackson, IF
• Ramon Ortiz, RHSP -
• Felix Rodriguez, RHRP -
• Alfonso Soriano, OF -

USA Weekend Katrina Cottage, Silver Spring, Maryland

This is Katrina Cottage VIII, the second Katrina Cottage on a national rollout. It's built in a factory by Housing International, has a very high LEEDs rating, was designed by Steve Mouzon, and will be unveiled by USA Today next weekend in Silver Spring, Maryland. More info and photos to follow.

1. Katrina Cottage I: Marianne Cusato, designer, built for the NAHB Builders'Show
2. Katrina Cottage II: Steve Oubre, designer (with others), built for Duany Plater-Zyberk's Arabi charrette
3. Katrina Cottage III: Eric Moser, designer, Mennonite modified version built in Pass Christian, Mississippi
4. Katrina Cottage IV: Marianne Cusato, designer, Lowe's design at Bruce Tolar's Cottage Square
5. Katrina Cottage V: Andres Duany, designer, plan by HomeStyles, model in NOLA exhibit
6. Katrina Cottage VI: Andres Duany, designer, Florida Cracker plan from HomeStyles
7. Katrina Cottage VII: Steve Mouzon, designer, built by Housing International
8. Katrina Cottage VIII: Steve Mouzon, designer, for USA Weekend ("KC-DC")

Arts & Letters Daily

For some reason, I haven't been reading this lately. It's an excellent source.

iSong Book

The right speaker detaches, the iPod cradle folds into the case, it sounds pretty good and it's a pleasure to look at (better with the speaker detached). But the reception with the standard antenna is poor in my apartment, and there's no provision for an external antenna. That's surprising, because it comes from a company founded by the late Henry Kloss, the man behind KLH, Acoustic Research and Advent. Over the years I've bought a lot of his products, so the poor radio sound in the clock radio is a real disappointment.

Intel Inside

I BOUGHT a MacBook yesterday. I was going to buy the black one, but the case costs $150 extra, and I've noticed in stores that black MacBooks that have been on display for a while show wear on the trackpads and some of the keys. The Apple Store employee told me that most people who come in wanting to buy a black one leave with white MacBooks, because of the $150 color charge.

I wanted a matte screen (they're better outdoors), but Apple dropped the matte screen on the MacBooks, so you have to buy a MacBook Pro to get one. And MacBook Pros just aren't worth the nearly 100% premium Apple charges for a MacBook pro set up the way you want it. Plus their WiFi reception is significantly hampered by their metal cases, and the two Titaniums I had constantly broke: I had to send my 17" back to Apple for a new processor, a new screen and a new battery. When the case started breaking down, Apple changed the warranty so that it wasn't covered. Right now it has a bad hard drive, and I have to see if using the 17" as a target drive will let me avoid paying $800 to get my data off the old drive before it grinds it into oblivion.

It's been rumored for months that Apple was about to announce new MacBooks with 64 bit processors like all the PC laptops have. But Apple events come and go and Apple never makes the announcement. If they do in the next few weeks, I'll be pissed.

Enough kvetching. It's a very nice little laptop. More "after the jump."

These Intel-powered Macs can run Windows, of course. While running Windows on the laptops, the geeks have discovered that Apple put next-generation WiFi cards in, without saying so. That means we're all set up for faster WiFi.

I've noticed that the WiFi card is much more sensitive than my old iBook, which was much more sensitive than my old PowerBook.In my apartment in Miami, I used to have access to 2 WiFi networks, including my own. Now I see 10, all unlocked (except mine).

I'm still not quite used to the 13" screen. It's good for transport, but I've had 15" and 17" Titaniums and a 14" iBook, and I would have bought a 14" or 15" MacBook if Apple offered that. But I'd rather have a 24" or 30" iMac and MacBook than a single MacBook Pro.