Architecture Wednesday: minimum/MAXIMUM

minimum/MAXIMUM is a desert contemporary home built into a gem of a site that has some of the most panoramic and unobstructed views of Red Rock Canyon and Sandstone Bluff that one could ever hope for.

It’s called minimum/MAXIMUM  because  the home makes minimum impact to the existing native landscape, while maximizing the stunning site view of Red Rocks. The home is built to last with durable Doug Fir concrete, exposed structural steel, and cor-ten weathering steel that will patina with time. The interiors are a warm compliment to the exterior materials with Vegas Rock stone, white oak flooring, reclaimed wormwood cladding, blackened steel, burnished plaster, and concrete.  The three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath home also uses solar panels, roof gardens, and more green technologies to make it a perfect off-grid retreat.

But what I like are the views, and that long glassed-in hallway beneath the great room that leads to the main bedroom, with its own spectacular views, access to outside, and gorgeous main bathroom. What I also like is the rusted metal siding, which mimics the desert landscape, and the ultra-modern great room with black kitchen and warm wood floors. And then you have that upstairs and downstairs outdoor living space, which is perfect for Carlos and me, because he’d stay up, away from the inevitable snakes, and I could be down at the firepit enjoying the desert.

As always, click to emBIGGERate …

ArchDaily

Ron DeSantis. Carolyn Goodman. Dan Patrick. Stephen Moore. ISBL COVIDIOT[s] of the WEEK DAY

Flori-duh Republican Governor and _____ asskisser, Ron DeSantis, who faced heavy criticism for his COVID-19 non-response, made an appearance on _____-channel, Fox News to gloat about the fact that the impact of the virus in Flori-duh has been less severe than some statistical models once predicted.

And yet, on the same day he bragged, Flori-duh recorded its second-deadliest day of the crisis on Wednesday, and experts are unsure whether the state. And while gloating, he pulled a ____ and outright lied saying only 2,200 people have been hospitalized due to COVID-19 in his state even while the Flori-duh Department of Health says the number is double that … 4455.

Ron DeSantis, the ISBL COVIDIOT of the Day … again.

Las Vegas is the city of odds, and the oddest thing of all is that the people elected a lunatic as mayor.

The city’s leader, Carolyn Goodman, has offered up the citizens of Las Vegas for a COVID-19 version of The Hunger Games, saying her constituents would be the perfect control group to determine if social distancing measures are the right tool to American deaths below catastrophic estimates.

Yes, she wants to reopen the city and see how many people die so they can be a statistic in the pandemic. Describing her desire to reopen, this COVIDIOT said that restaurants and retail stores “better figure it out” and that it’s “their job” to determine how to do that safely.

“That’s not the mayor’s job.”

No, she thinks her job is to sit back while people die.

On Fox News, because, where else, Texas Lt. Governor, and GOP dipshit, Dan Patrick has joined the GOP’s new Pro-death movement to fix the economy if people would just stop fighting the virus and die already:

“What I said when I was with you that night is there are more important things than living. And that’s saving this country for my children and my grandchildren and saving this country for all of us. They told us … to follow the science. Well, what science?”

Hey Dan, you fumbling fuckity fuckwad fucker, why don’t you, since you think this should be the new mantra for the former Pro-Life GOP, be the first to offer yourself up for death so your kids can have a burger and fries.

Fuckmonkey.

Stephen Moore, a member of _____’s economic task force, suggested that all Americans wear “space outfits” so the country can reopen for business despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Moore, who recently compared anti-lockdown Freedumbers to Rosa Parks, has been pushing for the _____ administration and governors to loosen stay-at-home orders:

“We can use really good public safety measures, social distancing the work force, disinfectants everywhere, masks. I was thinking this morning, and this is just kind of a thought experiment because I was thinking about this—why don’t we just put everybody in a space outfit or something like that? No. Seriously, I mean—”

As this point, this COVIDIOT was reminded that the government would have to make space suits for every American at a time when they can’t even make tests for all of us, or even get a vaccine working.

And so, Moore played it off like a joke, only then he doubled down on the idea:

“I know we don’t have space outfits [laughter]— I mean, just thinking out loud, and maybe this is a crazy idea, but instead of just locking down the economy, putting everybody in a kind of—you’re right,” Moore said. “You have to make 200 million of these, but it wouldn’t have cost $3 trillion to do that. And you can have for months people just walking around in these kind of—I mean, I was looking online, and there are all these kinds of suits that they’re building now that you’re not exposed and you’re breath—kind of ventilator.”

Seriously. This is what passes for a member of the presidential administration.

Tuesday Thought #3

My Two Cents: Terrorism Is Terrorism, Regardless Of Color .......... written before the Texas shooting

It’s been just over a month since a white man opened fire on a crowd of people at a concert in Las Vegas, killing 58 and wounding over 500 others. And it’s been just a few days since a brown man drove a rental truck into a crowd of people in New York City, killing 8 and injuring eleven others.

Is one worse than the other? Well, in terms of numbers, clearly, but as John Donne said, "Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind.” So, the attacks are equally bad. And yet if you were to listen solely to _____ speak, the attack in New York is far worse, far more deadly, far more heinous, far more terroristic.

Simply, I’m guessing, because that man is brown.

Again, it’s been a month since the Las Vegas shooting and not one thing has been done. There was talk, in those first days after the shooting, of banning the bump stock which enabled the white terrorist to turn his semi-automatic weapons into automatic weapons, allowing him to kill more people even faster!

And yet, today, it’s still legal in the United States of Guns to buy a bump stock because there has been no effort by the _____ Administration, or GOP—brought to you by the NRA—Congress to do anything about gun violence in this country and I don’t give a rat’s behind how you feel about guns.

We need sensible gun control in this country. But enough on that because I could, and have, go on and on about it.

Right after, right after, the terror attack on the streets of New York last week, both _____ and the Republicans politicized the tragedy—after demanding that the shooting in Vegas not be politicized—simply because, and please, if you have one, show me any other reason, the terrorist was brown-skinned and Muslim.

Can you see it? It’s clear ... when a white man totes forty weapons into a hotel, all adapted to kill as many people as possible, the GOP and their president do nothing. There’s no talk of terrorism, no discussion of his religion, or his immigration status. They say, and do nothing, except offer meaningless thoughts and prayers and then head to the banks to deposit their NRA checks.

But, if the terrorist is a person of color, especially a Muslim immigrant, commits an act of violence _____ takes to Twitter demanding the death penalty; the GOP again talks of walls and bans.

I mean, again, think about the driver of that rental truck last week; think what might have been said if he was white. He was a lone wolf, a deeply disturbed man. He would not be called a terrorist. That label is for the brown-skinned folks among us and that has to stop.

We have a race problem in this country and it starts at the top.

You aren’t a terrorist just because you’re brown-skinned; you’re a terrorist when you commit an act of terror, either shooting 600 people in Vegas, or nine people in a church, or several in a movie theaters, or a few at Planned Parenthood, or if you drive a truck into a crowd of people.

To suggest terrorists are only brown-skinned people is racist and wrong and not at all American. But it’s the way of the GOP and _____ to spread fear around this country, to keep you off-guard, while they take away your healthcare and your coal jobs and raise your taxes, remove equal rights protections, vilify the LGBT community, and rape the plane.

Just A Thought ....

Architecture Wednesday: Tresarca

Tresarca by assemblageSTUDIO:

“Nevada is a state of two worlds, one of glitz and glamour on the Las Vegas Strip which seeks to transplant imagery from around the globe to mesmerize the minds of 40 million tourists. While the latter develops its architecture from local materials, whose vernacular represents function over form.

At Tresarca, the materials develop a layering of mass as you move from the basement to the private realm. Each layer is representational of the stratification of the nearby Red Rock Mountains. Change of materials provides the variety of textures associated with the rock formations. Crevices between the masses form an oasis where landscape and water cool the space. The mesh screen provides both a protection from the harsh sun on the interior spaces and a play of shadows among the forms.

Blurring of the line between inside and out has been established throughout this home. Space is not determined by the enclosure but through the idea of space extending past perceived barriers into an expanded form of living indoors and out. Even in this harsh environment, one is able to enjoy this concept through the development of exterior courts which are designed to shade and protect.

Reminiscent of the crevices found in our rock formations where one often finds an oasis of life in this environment.”

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