Since the Notre Dame fire, I’ve had lots of interesting conversations and fielded many pertinent questions. I thought instead of endlessly repeating myself, I should write some of this stuff down. Here goes: What exactly was lost? How do we fix it? The cathedral itself took the brunt of the damage: most of the artwork […]
All posts by @smithpres
Notre Dame
As I write this, Notre Dame is on fire. I’m not going to show photos of the blaze. It feels like looking at a crime, looking at a corpse. I should be grading right now – sorry students – but I can’t focus on anything except this loss. So I’m going to write, because right […]
That %^&#% Window
Friends, family, and heck, random strangers at this point know that our neighbor’s tree fell on our house last March. I’ve blogged a little about it, but I haven’t written up too much yet. This is because (1) I didn’t want to jinx our rebuild as it was happening and (2) it’s still a bit […]
Nerding out on urban design
I’m not exactly a newcomer to the D&D alignment chart. It’s been a major meme forever. Did I let that stop me from creating a chart of my own? Nope. After all, I’m a regular if not very skilled D&D player, and I love urban design. Two great tastes that taste great together! Chart below. […]
Wrong Assumptions
Since I’m an urban planner and a preservationist, people ask me about random urban stuff all the time. Why is this street like that? What does this kind of roof mean? When was this built? This can be a really fun game. But to be good at it, I constantly try to make sure I […]
Home away from home
The tree fell on my house three months ago. Work started a few weeks back. The time in between has been challenging to say the least. I know I said I’d write “lots of posts” about this experience but turns out it’s easier said than done. The process feels like a maelstrom. My emotions, on […]
A tree fell on our house
The title says it all, really: a big honkin’ tree fell on our house. The tree was in our neighbor’s yard: a 60′ tall 3-4′ wide BIG FELLA. It fell across our kitchen and even pierced through our other neighbor’s living room. The important facts: No one was hurt. Thankfully, no one was in the […]
Change is… Good?
A few weeks ago I started updating my site for the new semester: making sure dates were correct, moving a couple things around, etc. When I did that, for a reason I still don’t understand, my site broke. Pages I am absolutely positive existed disappeared. Menu items led nowhere. I swore a blue streak. Once […]
HISP 405: Survey & Preservation Planning
Note: in an effort to decrease paper usage and to make sure information is always up-to-date, this syllabus has been formatted for the web. If you would like a PDF copy formatted for printing, please contact me. Course Outline Historic Preservation 405, Survey and Preservation Planning, is a survey and research-based study of preservation planning, …
Testing by ratatouille
Ben is the food blogger in the family and I don’t want to step on his toes. However, the other day I made ratatouille and I need to talk about it. Not about the ratatouille, really. It was an ok attempt. I had superior ingredients to work with: the vegetables all came from market stalls …