welcome to the DC summer!

I like how many different graphics NOAA has for possible thunderstorms. Some of them look almost Biblical in a Charlton Heston 10 Commandments kind of way.

checking in with Virgil Goode

it's the summer months and that typically means a slow political season. With some extra time on our politicians' hands I figured it would be good to check in with my local US Representative Virgil Goode. Hey, Virgil, how do you feel about the new immigration bill? Or how about immigration and the towns of your district?

Goode: "They've got a Mexican flag in these restaurants . . . They've got one on Main Street in Rocky Mount! They've got one on Tanyard Road in Rocky Mount! ... That riles me."

The Charlottesville Daily Progress has the story.

I have to agree with Virgil. You know what riles me? I was in Baltimore the other day, in a place called Little Italy. I mean, come on. And they were flying the Italian flag everywhere, especially on restaurants! Terrible. I wish that Italian Columbus had never sailed westward from Europe and had left us Americans alone. The worst, however, is St. Patrick's Day and all of those Irish flags everywhere. Kiss me I'm Irish? No, kiss me I'm American. I typically have to lock myself in my apartment because I am so outraged.

google street view

thanks AJD for the tip on this new feature in google maps. this is wild!

the 2007 (carolina) hurricanes

NOAA is predicting that there is a 75% chance of above normal hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean in 2007. They predict 13 to 17 named storms, with 3 to 5 storms being "major" hurricanes measuring a Category 3 or higher. In contrast, in a 'normal' hurricane season there are 2 major storms. yikes


In (much lighter and less forboding) hockey news, the 2007 Carolina Hurricanes didn't do nearly as well as the 2006 edition, who won the Stanley Cup!

graduation speech

The School of Architecture here at the University of Virginia very kindly allowed me to speak at graduation this year. I thought I would share the text of my speech here:


One afternoon about a year ago I was sitting in the computer lab exasperated after spending hours and hours trying to complete some basic task on the computer. I threw my hands in the air and turned to my fellow students sitting in the room with me and exclaimed in abject frustration: “What can I do in my entire life that Google cannot accomplish in two seconds.”

As a group we laughed, and a few smiled knowingly – having come face to face with their own technological deficiencies at some point in the past. In that moment of frustration, a glimmer of hope crept in, and I had an answer to my previous question.

Indeed, if it were all about shear computational prowess there would be little left to do in this world. But in those few seconds, where I had a connection with my fellow students, where I could feel the shaking in my stomach from laughing at my own insufficiencies – those moments of understanding are so magnificent and so powerful that they constitute the very foundation of life itself.

Most of us are here at the School of Architecture because we love places, we love buildings, we love the land around us. We talk fondly of our trips to Barcelona, to Yellowstone National Park, and to Savannah, Georgia. We participated just moments ago in a graduation ceremony on the beloved Lawn. We care deeply about the surrounding world.

I am here this afternoon, not to talk about places, but instead the people that live in these places and buildings. Here at the University of Virginia we talk about the “architecture of urgent matters” and an “architecture of urgent matters” must place people at the center of this effort. Buildings and places are of course important, but what would they be without individuals occupying the spaces, or without a history of the individuals that were part of their creation.

I think Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz had it right in a lot of ways. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. Home is a very interesting concept as it conjures up not only a residential location, a residential dwelling unit if you will, but it combines in this concept a series of relationships, personal histories, dreams, fears, moments of unbearable sadness, as well as times of unimaginable triumph.

My home for the past two years has been the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. Now, Campbell Hall is a decent building, but the reason why I have such powerful connections and feelings for this place is the group of individuals gathered here today. Each one of us is an essential component to the foundation of the School of Architecture community.

It is my view that as students of architecture we have a responsibility to life, a responsibility that includes people who live in our neighborhood and people who live halfway around the globe. I believe we have a responsibility to the lives of the plants and animals that we share this magnificent world with, as well as responsibility to care for the planet itself.

Our lives as humans are so profound that even a few seconds of laughing with friends in a computer lab can become moments of lasting significance. Upon reflection it is incredible, this life that I feel between my fingertips, the life that I see in your eyes, the lives of the people here today celebrating this momentous occasion, and the lives of those who are unable to be with us. After graduation as we disperse and take with us our love of places I would encourage us all to take along a love for people as well. A dedication to life is something that each one of us can accomplish and something that will have a profound and lasting effect on the world around us.

the great license plate debate

I am moving to North Carolina this summer. As part of that move, I will be personally entering the great license plate debate that has engulfed this country for many years. Ohio and North Carolina make similar yet differing claims on each of their plates. North Carolina's reads: "First in Flight." While Ohio has "Birthplace of Aviation."


The license plates are referencing the flight by the Wright Brothers in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903. Both states are eager to claim this momentous event in history. While the flight occurred in North Carolina, the Wright Brothers were born in Ohio and developed most of their plans in the Buckeye State.

So which state is right when it comes to the great license plate debate? Perhaps neither. The first self-propelled flight in a heavier-than-air machine could very well have occurred 13 years earlier in France. Clement Ader built the Eole, a bat-winged plane, that apparently flew 160 feet in 1890. The Wright Brothers first flight, in contrast, went 120 feet. The Eole was wrecked after Ader's flight and there remains plenty of controversy surrounding him and whether or not he should be given the "first in flight" credit typically attributed to the Wright Brothers. One of the main reasons why there is so little known about Ader is that he was working for the French military and therefore his forays into flying were not highly publicized. The Wright Brothers' flights were very well documented. Also, the Wright Brothers plane looks a lot more similar to what we think of us as an aeroplane as opposed to the inventions of Ader.

Something that's cool that I ran into during my "research" for this blog is the Discovery Channel has simulations of the first flights of the Wright Brothers. More inexplicably, they also have computer simulations of the first flight in Kitty Hawk next to a line of T-Rex dinosaurs!

So, what I am going to do about the great license plate debate? I was hoping to abstain, and just pick a plate that didn't have the phrase "First in Flight" on it. But North Carolina likes putting that statement on almost all of their license plates. In my opinion, North Carolina doesn't have the speciality license plate selection of Virginia, but after poking around I did run into this classic! Maybe it's an "all's well that ends well" situation after all!

train movies (vol. 1)

a friend of mine suggested that I compile and analyze train movies in a similar manner in which I attempt to analyze train songs. The problem is, for whatever reason, my knowledge of train movies is extremely lacking. I am familiar with 4, count 'em 4, movies in which the Chicago 'L' is featured prominently: While You Were Sleeping, the Fugitive, High Fidelity, and of course the classic On the Line featuring N'Sync's Joey Fattone and Lance Bass.

But my train movie knowledge is lacking. I've seen Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, but remember not liking it too much. The incomparable North by Northwest includes trains but the story really doesn't revolve around them.

My friend recommends Sullivan's Travels (1941) and Closely Watched Trains (1966 from Czechoslovakia). I haven't seen either but I think I know what I'm doing over the next couple of weeks.

There's always Trainspotting (which I also haven't seen) and the classic celebration of multi-modal transportation: Trains, Planes and Automobiles.

Wait, I just thought of a classic train movie - Howlett favorite Dr. Zhivago. What a great movie! It includes everything you would want in a film: unrequited love, trains, Communism, the stunning Julie Christie, Russia, and Obi Wan Kenobi!!

What do you think? Any train movie suggestions?

news rodeo (bonus)

story: In praise of small transportation projects. The Washington Post ran a story the other day reporting that Northern Virginia was going to focus on small fixes that could result in big improvements for the area's drivers.
PHG take: I love it! In fact, at some point I want to do an in depth study on micro transportation planning. My interest in this subject goes back over a decade when some genius (and I'm being serious) added a second left turn lane off of the Interstate 66 exit near my childhood home. This small improvement that cost almost no money improved the transportation network for thousands of people who each day made this journey. I also love mini-planning because it requires planners to be intensely familiar with the areas they are working in and really understand what is going on. This is opposed to plopping down some grandiose plan without much regard to the daily experiences of the people who drive on the roads or utilize the transportation systems.

story: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposes congestion fee.

PHG take: Any billionaire that regularly rides the subway to work is A-ok in my book. In terms of the plan, Bloomberg is suggesting that cars would pay $8 and trucks $21 to enter Manhattan below 86th street during peak hours. Due to finals here at school I haven't been able to follow this story to see what the response has been, but if there is a place for a congestion fee 'starter project' in the United States it certainly is Manhattan.