I just wrapped up the Design Development phase of the library project I’m currently working on. It was amazing to me what happened when we started value engineering after the schematic design came in quite a bit over budget. As we began to make changes, one decision would effect several other parts of the building [...]

It’s been a while since you guys have heard from me. Things are still super busy here in San Antonio. I could hardly believe it when I got a notice for my annual review which means I’ve been working for three years. At first it just seemed the time had flown by but when I [...]

In this Sunday’s edition of the San Antonio Express News there was a very interesting article that discussed the lost art of hand drafting. There’s no denying that computed aided drafting (CAD) has helped the profession grow in terms of production speed and accuracy. It does however lack in feeding the creative process. In fact, [...]

For some time now, all we’ve been hearing in the news is about the recession. In fact, Architectural Record devoted its entire last issue to surviving the recession. For those of us living and working in San Antonio though, we really haven’t felt the strain too bad yet. This is especially true for the types [...]

I was able to make an interesting observation last week at a meeting with board members for a new library project I’m working on. When asked to describe in words their vision for the library and then to vote on some visual images, there seemed to be a disconnect between their mouths and their eyes. [...]

On Monday November 24, I took what is hopefully my last Architecture Registration Exam (ARE). Most people I talk to don’t understand what it takes to become an architect so I thought I’d shed some insight for those not in the profession. First of all, let me point out that it’s very difficult to go [...]

It’s hard to believe it was a mere two months ago that I was first learning to use BIM (Building Information Modeling) software. Last week I finished my first project using the software and have a complete set of construction documents made using BIM. During the past few months my opinion of the software hasn’t [...]

I may have spoke too soon when I wrote my blog “Would You Like A Sip?” a month ago. I talked about a new wall system that was doing a lot to conserve energy and aid in stopping the energy crisis. At the time it didn’t seem much was happening in the other areas of [...]

It seems to me that San Antonio has been a little behind the times when it comes to LEED projects compared to other large U.S. cities. That is why I was super excited to see a San Antonio project featured in Green Source magazine this month. The project is a new office building for the [...]

New building materials become available daily and I want to talk about one I think we will soon be seeing a lot more of. Structural insulated panels (SIPs) are a high-performance building panel that can be used for floors, walls and roofs. They consist of a rigid foam plastic insulation core (similar to styrofoam) sandwiched [...]