Happy Holidays

Thoughts on Integrated Design

In 2006, Bob Berkebile, FAIA, Laura Lesniewski, AIA and myself co-authored a paper on sustainable design + BIM for the 2006 AIA conference on Integrated Practice. We examined "what the authors characterized as the ultimate design challenge, integration between nature and human nature, between the built and natural environments, and also technology."
There were 10 papers that were presented during that conference and now, 3 years later the AIA is touching base with all the authors of the different papers to see if their views had changed. One by one, they are interviewing the authors and presenting their works as podcasts. Other authors include Thom Manye, Robert Smith, Markuu Allison, and Chuck Eastman. It's good stuff.

Find them here.

Ours is released this Friday.

Mastering Revit - Templates

As we begin our journey in re-writing "Mastering Revit Architecture," we would like to gather as much feedback as possible to make the 2011 version the best yet. My first chapter will be covering Revit Templates and I have created a short online survey to gather feedback from our readers. Please feel free to click the link below to participate or leave your comments here on our blog.

Click here to take survey

Video Killed The Radio Star

Screencasts are posting for AU2009. The links on the right side of this page will send you to the sessions presented by yours truly and Eddy Krygiel (registration required). You can watch them online or download for offline viewing (in WMV format). As an added bonus, I've also converted and uploaded the offline files to M4V, which is suitable for playing in iTunes - which you can also sync with your iPod and iPhone.

It's all about the customer.

Anyway, Justine recons I'm using a radio voice...which if you think about it, is a nice way of saying I've got a great face for radio. ;)

A Changing Of The Guard

For those of you who attended AU, you might already know this. But for the rest of you......

I've been writing the Introducing Revit and Mastering Revit books with Greg Demchak and Tatjana Dzambazova for the past three years. Due to circumstances beyond the control of mere mortals, there is a changing of the authoring team in the works. I won't go into the semantics but the authoring team formerly known as Greg, Tanja and Eddy has been disbanded. I wish my old authors luck. They are good people, good friends, and passionate Revit users. The Introducing Revit 2011 series will be carried forward by a new author, yet to be determined.

The Mastering Revit 2011 will have a new look as well. The new team will be the trio of this blog: Phil Read, James Vandezende, and Eddy Krygiel.

When the book was started three years ago, it was primarily structured as an appendage to Introducing as not all of the material could fit into only 400 pages. But in the past 3 years so many people have gained such expert knowledge of Revit, we felt it was time to rework the book from scratch. The new book will be geared towards more advanced content taking the use of Revit to the next level.

As we work diligently to create new and interesting content (and teach Phil to use the Ribbon) we're hoping to post some of the new tome for your feedback and comments. We've even gone as far as discussing sending Beta copies of the book to the Revit development team. Call it Karma if you will.

'Tis the season

Welcome back from AU. Upon my return to KC, the temperature dropped about 40 degrees and after looking at my calendar, I noticed it is apparently December. That means Christmas is just around the corner. Only 20 shopping days remaining! As I try to figure out what to get this season for my 10 and 13 year old girls, I happened upon a website that has nothing to do with BIM, sustainability, my growing hate of the LEED process, or anything involving ribbons. It's all about Christmas. Or, more specifically, what NOT to buy for Christmas for your kids. Seriously. Check it. It's good for a good smile, good to be offended as a parent, and good to know the toy companies are out there with your kid's best interests at heart. Here a teaser:

The fish fillet game.

Seriously, how can you go wrong??? PS. Make sure to click through enough to get to the Elmo doll that makes death threats when you replace it's batteries.

And to the 75-100 of you who joined us at the MiX on the 64th floor of the Mandalay Bay, wearing your T-shirts, a heart-felt THANK YOU. It was a space with a killer view and a rockin' good time. Maybe we can make this an annual event. We'll have to see what happens to the ribbon in 2011. :)

Remember, what happens in Vegas gets posted on YouTube.