The Craftsman Experience

Well, dear reader, my usual posts are kind of long, a little dense, and perhaps, dare I say, boring from time to time.  So, in the interest of both brevity and self-promotion, I am going to break the habit and bring you a short, intense burst of information about immediate news.  

Tomorrow, Friday, November 18th, from 6-9 pm, I will be steadfastly manning a folding table loaded with the fresh road sign bowls at the Instructables Show n' Tell, hosted by the Craftsman Experience Chicago.  At some point, the folks down there will be interviewing me for their web series, which will be streamed live starting at 7 pm, CST.  It's free, live, and gonna be one hell of a good time.  Come on out and join me!

Some other things that have been on my mind this week:

Fascinating perspective on the millenial generation.  

Amanda Buck makes another great graphic for GOOD.  

Sweet blog about social design practice and theory from some friends of mine in Alabama.  

Documentary about eating local from my friend Andy Grace is in the can.  

Another g(ue)orilla stalks the web, tiny-house dweller and renegade urbanist in Germany.

Someone finally calls out Phoenix, an hour south of my former home, as the world's least sustainable city, pointing out how politics, culture, architecture, land use, economics, and design intersect.  Design is a political act.  

My sister hit the streets in NYC to shut down Wall Street today.  She is a brave woman.  Listened to a disturbing podcast today that outlined how inequitable tax policy has deeply damaged America in the last thirty years.  

Design Nomad

A little over six weeks ago, I arrived in Chicago driving the remainder of a '98 Corolla. Hitched, improbably, to the back, was a trailer containing what little my girlfriend and I own.

God bless the 'rolla.

This is my seventh move in five years. I've studied architecture in Virginia; poured concrete in Arizona; built cabinets in Baltimore; studied more architecture in the rural south; and taught youth carpentry in Alabama. Along the way, I've designed and built houses, furniture, and landscapes.


Some of this nomadism has been motivated by my own wanderlust, and some motivated by the vagaries of the Great Recession. The economy has been down since I got out of school, and architecture, tied as it is to credit and real estate, has had a particularly hard time recovering. I've tried to see the economic uncertainty as an opportunity, exploiting the gaps in traditional design practice and going off-the-grid, into the world of guerilla design.


Chicago has been great (a little warm, even after Alabama), and I've met a lot of wonderful folks in a very short time. As I put down some roots and look around for work, I've had a chance to explore a lot of great programs, non-profits, and firms. On the thirtieth, I started volunteering at ReBuilding Exchange, an architectural salvage warehouse, jobs training program, and furniture workshop.

The ReBuilding Exchange.