rbruce's picture

Valentine Texas

Happy Valentine's Day! Head out to West Texas to send your valentines from Valentine TX... There was a recent Express News article about the town of Valentine's post office that might close someday soon because of cuts throughout the postal system. Until then, it's a great place to send your valentines from. "The attraction is the unique Valentine postmark, with a new stamp designed each year by a local student. The postmarks are sought by collectors and sweethearts alike, if for different reasons." Read the full article and see photos of Valentine's Post Office here .
rhoang's picture

The Advantages of Riding Your Bike

“For every kilometre that a person rides on a bicycle, there is a net profit to society of 23 cents,”. “For every kilometre that a person rides in a car, there is a net loss to society of 16 cents.” I saw the bike culture in action when I was in Copenhagen/Amsterdam/Malmo last year. It is very impressive how an industrialized societies have such strong bike cultures Colville-Andersen's 4 step to promote urban cycling seems quite attainable and worth promoting in US cities. By Ryan Van Horne In Copenhagen, 37 per cent of citizens bike to work, and the reason so many of them do it may surprise...
cknop's picture

Better Know an LF Project: Lake Tahoe Residence

The Project: Lake Tahoe Residence Location : Glenbrook, Nevada Project Team: David Lake , Karla Greer , Billy Johnson, Tenna Florian, Heather DeGrella ANSWERS BY KARLA GREER Job Origin: David Lake met the owners through a mutual friend from San Francisco. Completion Date: 2003 Program: This is a summer and winter vacation “play” house for a very active San Francisco family. The house was designed as a flexible “camp” that could accommodate up to 24 overnight guests in ship-like guest rooms, built-in bunk beds/trundle beds, and open floor space for sleeping bags. The house is designed for...
brandirickels's picture

Show-CASE-ing LF Independent Schools

Today and tomorrow, Greg and Robert H. are in San Francisco attending the CASE-NAIS conference for independent schools. The conference is geared toward the development directors of schools. Not only are they promoting the inspirational design of our various school projects, like Cranbrook Kingswood, Sunshine Cottage and Francis Parker , but they are also highlighting the front-end services that we provide to our clients: programming, masterplanning, fundraising packages/graphics, and community outreach . (And how are they doing this, you might ask? With one model, two Iphones, two Ipads, one...
vyuan's picture

Better Know an LFer: Trey Rabke

When he's not battling plumbing and squirrels, Trey is drawing like an angel in our office. Get to know him with the same questions we always ask. Hometown: San Antonio Years at LF: Going on 10 Achilles Heel: Beer Happiest Place: Summer, northwest US, fishing a stream, drinking a beer Memorable Book: Survival of the Bark Canoe by John McPhee Prized Possession: My two beautiful kids...I at least own them until they are 18 Current Obsession: Squirrel control Last Accomplishment: Snaking a toilet at our house- truly an accomplishment. Little kids are hell on plumbing Favorite Thing about San...
davidcordelllake's picture

Beyond LEED Symposium - Opening Remarks by David Lake

BEYOND LEED REGENERATIVE DESIGN: A SYMPOSIUM JANUARY 27 + 28, 2012 Friday, January 27, 2012 Beyond LEED Session Beyond LEED. EVOLVED. Following previous discussions with Bob Harris (Lake|Flato) and Bob Berkebile (BNIM), a few questions kept coming to mind: Why aren’t there more living buildings? Why are they NOT being pursued, built and dreamt about? USGBC and LEED have been a transformative force for the good. In one decade, we have witnessed unparalleled changes in the building industry with 200,000 LEED accredited professionals and 28,000 certified LEED buildings. However, is this good...
Heather Gayle Holdridge's picture

Effective Apertures, WWRs, and VLTs, Oh My!

We performed some energy modeling studies a few years ago to determine what the ideal effective aperture is for each climate we work in. We were surprised to find that because energy codes and window manufacturers are tightening up on glazing solar heat gain performance, code-minimum windows do not allow for passive solar heating benefits. This means that even in northern climates where buildings could benefit from southern heat gain, the window code will not allow the solar heat gain coefficient to be high enough to perform this way. You can read more about the study and our findings in this...
rhoang's picture

Better Block

This is a great movement and organization. The recent meeting in San Antonio drew quite a few people. It would be amazing to green the space around our office. Better Block The video below talks about creating a living plaza in Dallas. http://vimeo.com/24599512 Living Plaza - Dallas, TX from Aaron Garcia on Vimeo .
Heather Gayle Holdridge's picture

Miller Porch House is LEED Silver

The first LEED project of 2012 has arrived! We just received the official word from USGBC that Miller Porch House earned LEED Silver. This is our 12th LEED project to date. Congratulations to the project team, and special thanks to Tenna who did the heavy lifting on the LEED documentation.
randpinson's picture

Austin Central Library

Above: View Along Cesar Chavez Looking East The New Central Library will give Austin residents an iconic landmark and a flexible facility that reflects the city's rich cultural and social fabric. The new 190,000 square foot library will be located along the banks of Shoal Creek and overlooking Lady Bird Lake. The library will help define the western portal to downtown and provide a welcoming community gathering place. Seating and reading spaces wrap the sunlit Atrium, spilling onto screened Outdoor Reading Porches that overlook Lady Bird Lake. In addition to a reading room and dedicated areas...

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