The Dogrun
a place to share ideas
Located on a 40-acre river-bottom site, the house reuses the steel frame, stair rails and ventilators of a decommissioned cement plant bought for $20,000. Lake|Flato re-erected the 40’ x 80’ steel-framed building into a “Z” shape around existing oak trees. The Story: The Alamo Cement Company was chartered in 1880 and provided cement for decades of construction projects, including the Texas State Capitol. Development of the site in the late 1980’s into the Quarry Marketplace required the dismantling of most of the existing structures. Our clients purchased the smallest of the steel buildings (...
"Jamie’s spirit animal is the Rabbit: she is good-natured, alert, and spontaneous. While landing a magnificent triple Salchow as a girl, Jamie made the brash decision that an easy road to celebrity via sequins and eyeshadow was not for her. The daughter of a culinary guru , Jamie learned to trust her taste and intuition, elevating the lowliest hoagie to haute cuisine by layering kettle chips between the cheese and tomato. She discovered that you can bypass vocational school, pursue an architecture degree over half a decade, and STILL emerge a master welder . Jamie’s journey away from the call...
Last month Cameron and I traveled to Louisville Kentucky to attend the Cyclocross World Championships, which were taking place for the first time ever outside of Europe. It was an amazing and very cold time standing course-side in our muddy rubber boots watching the junior's, women's, and men's races. The experience was great to be so close to the athletes; so close in fact that Sven Nys, the newly crowned men's world champion, splashed mud on Cameron's jacket. She will never wash it.
In the past year since the first Dogrun Digital Pin-Up of Rocking X Ranch, construction has come to a close and the original design concepts of the project are beginning to be realized. Located in North Texas, the private ranch is composed of a series of independent structures assembled among a grove of live oaks and organized around a central living space. This dispersal of program allows the complex to be occupied comfortably by both large groups and intimate family gatherings. The formal ques for the project originate in the Texas vernacular; farming structures, sheds and simple ranching...
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines transparent as having the property of transmitting light...so that bodies lying beyond are seen clearly. These days, transparency is getting a lot of attention in the built environment, specifically in relation to materials. The International Living Future Institute has raised the bar and our awareness with its Living Building Challenge , a certification program that uses petals of a flower to designate its categories. Its Material Petal focuses on a list of chemicals that are forbidden from being present in any product or material. What exactly makes up...
A few of us LF’ers recently had the opportunity to listen to journalist and author, Richard Louv speak at a luncheon for the San Antonio Children’s Museum project, which Lake|Flato is extremely proud to be designing. To foster natural play, the Museum will encourage outdoor learning through the use of streams, bioswales, and sand exhibits. I have admired Louv’s book “Last Child in the Woods” and research concerning human’s inherent connection to nature and children’s lack of outdoor experiences. Louv’s hypothesis claims that children are spending less time outdoors resulting in a large range...
The Cutting House is a residence for a return client who wanted to make use of an existing ranch house. The concept is to salvage the existing house and surround it with new structures that will address the programmatic needs of the owners. The new structures will provide space for a home office, utility room, gallery space, screened porches and a pool shade structure. The existing house will be clad in stone with the new structures expressed in a contrasting lighter material that is not yet determined. The dialogue between the existing and new structures will also include landscape spaces...
Rudy . . . the great Rhoudini, Rudolfo Teodoro Lago, Amigo, Ruuchi, Ruperto, was put down 2-20-13 at 5:14 pm. He was a fine animal; Annie would say he was the more mature sibling . . . intuitive, all knowing. Rudy had certain habits, early on it was just getting OUT . . . breaking out, either by climbing the fence, which grew from 42” to 6’ to 7’... then an invisible shocking fence which only meant he backed further away and took a running leap at the fence, climbing to the top and springing over – yelping once as the shock got him. "No dog has escaped the invisible fence, Mr. Lake, with the...
Our minds are pre-programmed to read and respond to certain patterns and elements found within the natural world. However, in contemporary society we more and more often find ourselves living in nature deprived conditions, in places divorced from the nature context we subconsciously desire. Perhaps designers of the built environment can learn to reconnect people to the patterns of nature triggering aesthetic responses that speak to our inner spirit and our innate sense of beauty. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84ExfVIZHMI&feature=youtu.be While we are relative novices in creating...
" Patrick joined Lake Flato destined to be “The” Georgia Tech intern, and the 220,000 sq. ft. lab building has kept him busy. His influence on the building is immediately visible; Patrick is responsible for the three story frit pattern on the building's north façade. What has everyone else been missing while the Georgia Tech team kept Patrick to themselves? First, he has awesome hair. I don't think he tries to have awesome hair, it just grows that way. What else? Most days Patrick’s socks don't match and he does this on purpose. Patrick has a profound love of food. He gets excited just...
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