On Thu, Feb 02, 2006 at 08:43:21PM -0500, David VanHorn wrote:
> > Anyway, sorry for the rant, just pointing out, it's not just stupid laws
> > that make stuff like this happen... And me, well, I quit design and am
> > now in art. At least I *expect* artists to not have a clue! :)
> 
> 
> :)  I just spent a weekend at the local college of architecture and
> planning.
> 
> The mens room doors are "pull" on the way out, and they have "push" type
> plates.

Ha! Exact same problem at my school in a few places too...

> The ceiling treatment is a bunch of 12 x 3 beams on edge in brackets, with a
> nice affordance for grabbing them and swinging on them. Pity the brackets
> are put up with screws that won't hold nearly that much weight.
> The beams are pretty good for messing up your face though.

Nice, totally decorative 'eh? You know, if you're gonna spend all that
much money on beams, at least use some good screws...

So how many have been pulled down?

> It's all sort of unfinished and hard surfaces to make talking to the large
> classrooms of people as difficult as possible.

My school's been pretty good about that, even in the machine shops
they've been installing acoustic paneling.

On the other hand OCAD is famous for their new "tabletop" addition,
http://www.brucebelltours.com/assets/images/Grange2--OCAD.jpg I think
it's a nice building, on the outside, the interior obviously hadn't had
much attention paid to it though. Sure enough not only do they have
massive open spaces as classrooms, leading to total noisy chaos, they
forgot about the acoustics...

Directly below the tabletop is the lobby enterence 9 stories down.
http://www.ssef-ffca.ca/gallery_images/ocad/fall_tour/ocad4017.jpg Late
in the design someone realized that the windows weren't recieving
adequate airflow, and would fog and ice up in the winter. So they
hastelly added in airflow holes to the supporting beams:
http://www.ssef-ffca.ca/gallery_images/ocad/fall_tour/ocad4020.jpg

Again, they totally forgot about the acoustics, and the whole thing
whistles! So my friend Dan, another student at OCAD, built a Basic stamp
controlled sculpture with 60-odd actuators that cover and uncover a
small portion of the holes... Subtly changing the pitch of the whistle
each time...

-- 
pete@petertodd.ca http://www.petertodd.ca
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