Some Family History

I received some great old photos this week from my uncle who researches our family tree. This is the house my paternal grandpa built in Cheektowaga in 1947, doing much of the construction himself with some help from the neighborhood kids. He couldn't get a traditional loan because the bank didn't have any collateral and didn't trust his carpentry skills. So he got a loan from a lawyer friend, given to him in bits as stages of construction were complete. He also built a 3-car cinder block garage that would eventually house his little fishing boat. The house next to them was replaced by the Kensington Expressway around 1967. My grandpa and some buddies eventually popped up the roof to make more space upstairs for 6 kids. My dad said he was asleep as a kid when they popped up the roof and awoke to a strong breeze! The final image is my sketch of the first floor plan from memory. My grandpa died when I was 7 and my grandma died when I was 24 and haven't been in the house in 7 years and has since been sold. I have a lot of house builders in my family and it's a comfort to know it's in my blood.

page 59 Sonny Ruhland, Earl Hahn (maybe) & Jerry Ruhland (garage just beginning to be built).jpg
page 59 earl hahn (maybe) with Jerry Ruhland and Sonny Ruhland with Dad building the garage.jpg
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Black Lives Matter, In Maps

George Floyd’s murder is horrific in and of itself but so many people in America are so outraged because of the visual metaphor of centuries of collective trauma: a white police officer kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed black man. It’s representative of institutional racism and systemic violence toward Black people. Buffalo is no exception. For example, I was reminded every day of India Cummings, whose name is spray painted on a building I would pass on my bike-ride to work. Even if the entire police force and judicial system could be reformed, the city is still deeply segregated, contributing to the problem.

Growing up in the predominately white suburb of Tonawanda, my understanding of the city only began once I was in college at SUNY Buffalo, going to architectural destinations, attending events, and building houses on the East Side with Habitat for Humanity. I learned of the numerous ethnic enclaves that formed early in the city’s history and the policies, urban renewal and lifting of the school desegregation mandate in 1987 that produced today’s stark racial divide down Main St.

This year I started researching my family’s history using Census data with particular interest in the houses in which my relatives lived. I’ve been learning how my family’s history fits in with Buffalo’s history and America’s history. I don’t yet know all the details, but we likely fit neatly into the narrative of European immigrants living in the city who joined in the “white flight” to the suburbs, benefited from the low-interest mortgages of the post WWII GI Bill that excluded black veterans, and benefited from the property-tax funded schools in the neighborhoods where they built or bought houses.

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According to the 2018 PPG report, “as recent as recently as 2014, Evans Bank was charged with redlining.” Redlining refers to banks literally drawing maps with red lines around neighborhoods they will not lend to- often explicitly black neighborhoods. Not being able to get a mortgage prevents a family from building wealth, access to better funded schools, access to produce-stocked grocery stores, and proximity to better paying jobs. I’m in my thirties and a lot of my friends are buying houses. A few have mentioned their parents are helping them out with the down-payment. These families are funneling wealth forward. I have a black friend who just bought a house for his mother, who had always dreamed of home ownership. He is funneling money back a generation while still trying to get ahead himself. It will take generations to ever close this collective wealth gap.

Example of a Redlining map in Buffalo

Example of a Redlining map in Buffalo

Evans Bank.JPG

But our white privilege is not just about wealth, home ownership and inheritance. Even if you grew up in poverty, or experienced other hardship, white people live in a system that protects us in many ways, including in the justice system.

When my husband was robbed at gunpoint while in his car and had his car keys and phone stolen, he was able to knock on a door and borrow someone’s phone to call the police who gave him a ride home to get his spare car key and return to get his car. He did this without worrying the police would make the situation worse - or kill him. That was a traumatic experience, but his skin color did not make it harder or put him in further danger.

I was raised to call the police when you need help and to not fear them. I’ve never feared for my life when getting pulled over by the police. White privilege is being able to go on a solo bike tour across New York state and consider a bunch of “worst case scenarios” in which I might be in danger and none of them be that I experience a hate crime due to the color of my skin. Or knowing that the worst possible consequences for pitching a tent in the wrong location could be the hassle of relocating the tent and maybe a fine. But never violence or death.

A traveled this distance alone in 2015, never concerned I might be a victim of a hate crime.

A traveled this distance alone in 2015, never concerned I might be a victim of a hate crime.

I worry about a lot of things, including being a woman in public but never about being a black woman in public, or fear for my family’s life solely based on the color of their skin. I will never understand a black person’s experience in America, I don’t know what it’s like to have a black spouse or parent a black child. But I will listen, believe them and do the work of educating myself.

When faced with crisis, my personal instinct is to both gather information to understand the problem and to throw money at the problem. After reading about the murder of George Floyd by a police officer and 3 participating officer bystanders, I’ve been consuming articles and making reading lists, buying books, and donating to funds and causes. This is the easy part. The hard part is the ongoing conversations with white friends, family and colleagues, and calling out racism when I hear it in a way that does not alienate, and navigating my role as a white architect and white educator in Buffalo to support black students, black colleagues, black clients and black communities. Let’s also, as architects who must legally protect the health, safety and welfare of the general public, talk about how the adverse effects of climate change will disproportionately affect socially and economically disadvantaged communities including black communities in Buffalo and what we, as designers of the built environment, can do to make our city equitable.

It is also worth stating that property damage can be repaired. Yes, you can be angry about protestors damaging property, but only after you are outraged at the irreplaceable loss of life. And for my friends and family still saying “All Lives Matter,” I know you may have good intentions and that trying to say the right thing is better than saying nothing for fear of saying the wrong thing, but “All Lives Matter” it is not appropriate.

Black Lives Matter.

Maps Sources & Link to further reading on the History of Segregation in Buffalo by the Partnership for the Public Good & Open Buffalo:

A City Divided: A Brief History of Segregation in Buffalo

Tiny House Friends

Over the weekend, Corey and I met up with a local guy building his tiny house!  We oddly enough met through some comments on Instagram, when my friend Rob Garlow of Shedsistance mentioned to him that I was also planning to build in Buffalo.  Alex enthusiastically agreed to meet us and gave us a tour of his in-progress build.  He's planning to take this thing on the road in search of adventure and some fresh pow in Colorado...or possibly Montana...he's got options!  We hung out on his awesome roof deck, recently grace-and-water-shielded, and we showed him our design for our future tiny house.

Here's Alex's build:

Our design is ready enough, and we (finally) have enough money to get started.  We just have to decide to pull the trigger.  All of the anxieties about where to park this once its built are setting in....

Tiny House Summit 2017

If you need me, I'll be inside all day watching the Saturday replay of the Tiny House Summit 2017!

http://www.tinyhousesummit.com/replaysaturday.html

Tiny House, Revit

Here's an update on a version of the tiny house I've been working on converting to Revit. This one is built with SIP panel construction which involves redefining an existing, generic wall Revit component and building my own according to a SIP assembly.

This version explores new possibilities of relationships to fit in a generous work surface in the loft, situated above the clothes closet (circled in a dashed line in section), perfect for a home-office situation or a creative person who loves to spread out their projects and not have to put them away just to eat dinner on the table.

This design keeps the bed on the first floor level for those of us who prefer to flop into bed and not stumble down stairs or a ladder half awake.  There is still an ample loft for a guest bed, perhaps a child's room, or a comfy lounge area for leaning back among a pile of pillows to watch some Netflix or read a good book.  The configuration of the  Bed-bath-closet-laundry area is a condensed version of the Master Suites I currently design for clients who are prefer thousands of square feet instead of a couple hundred. 

SIP Roof!

Well back in March I mentioned my next big goals of getting licensed, eliminating my student debt and building our house!  The update on that is that I sat for my 1st Architect Registration Exam (ARE) which was Construction Documents & Services on September 2nd (!), I've contributed about 9k towards student loans and the credit card that allowed me to move out to Denver before I got a job.  Corey and I have been Mr Money Mustache-ing ( my favorite financial blog: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/), budgeting with Every Dollar, (https://www.everydollar.com/) and refining our cooking-on-a-budget skills with Budget Bytes.( http://www.budgetbytes.com/)  While still allowing for a little fun- a flight to NYS for a cross-state bike trip and an impromptu flight to LA to hang out with a good friend for the weekend. 

On the topic of tiny houses, I helped put up a SIP (Structurally Insulated Panel) Roof of a tiny house this Saturday!  The biggest takeaway I had is that SIPs are HEAVY! I am acutely aware of all of the muscles in my arms and back today from lifting those suckers.  For this project, the SIP manufacturer delivered these panels to the build site in 4'x12'x8" chunks, each one unique and all of them fitting together in only 1 way.  As we were getting started, we ran into some complications realizing the SIPs had been assembled wrong, but after talking on the phone with the manufacturer, they advised us that we could still assemble the roof, and that they could fix the issue- the bevel angle of the sides- when the roof was up. 

As the manufacturer had little instruction on how we were supposed to get these panels up on the roof, we had to creatively come up with a system ourselves.  This involved pushing the panels up the short side of the house (it would have a shed roof), sliding up a pair of 2x10s, while also pulling the panels from the other side by a rope attached to them. By the last panel, we were pretty good at this system. 

We also temporarily installed a series of 2x4 "ribs" that the SIPs rested on as they slid into place, and a 2x4 "stopper" at the end of the SIP to keep it from sliding off the roof before we screwed it into place.   After each SIP was up on the roof, we  had to spray a foam sealant in the joint and lock it to the panel before it with a hook and latch system that was part of the fabricated panel.  Then they were each screwed into the walls with 8" long screws.  It was a challenging and exhausting process, but by the  end of a 9 hour work day, there was fully insulated roof on that house!

As I've mentioned in previous posts, SIPs are pretty cool because they eliminate or greatly reduce any thermal bridging in the house, allow for a tightly sealed living space so one can efficiently heat or cool the space. Because they are so air tight they also require venting for proper air circulation that you wouldn't necessarily need in a stick-built house.  

As I consider SIPs for my house, I think its definitely possible to build as long as you have enough bodies to help out.  We needed at least 4 people to get a single panel up. Later in the day we had 6 people to one panel- 4 pushing and 2 pulling on the ropes- which was much more manageable. Other people rent a forklift for this step, which would probably make the process a bit easier for less people, but of course more expensive.

I'm looking forward to seeing the house's progress!

Job Update

2 months later, and the house I'm designing is up for sale. Things are feeling pretty real!

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1226-S-Josephine-St_Denver_CO_80210_M15924-80281

 

STUFF

Well I finally made it to the other side.  Thesis is over, grad school is no longer a bunch of deadlines and classes, but is neatly packaged in a few letters, "M.Arch." I have escaped the toxic life of MIT and I am now happily basking in 8 hours of sleep, home cooked meals, ample doses of Denver sunshine, and a pretty cool job that promises to give me a paycheck at the end of the month.  MIT felt like I was trying to get somewhere by crawling on my stomach. through mud. with those electric shocker things above me.  Post-grad school feels like I am running straight ahead. downhill. In top-of-the line running shoes.

My next big goals to tackle will be getting licensed as an architect (within 3 years), eliminating my six digit student debt (in under 5 years) and  building our tiny house (shooting for 2 years). Hurray!  These all go hand in hand with each other, which I love.  Before I begin documenting these journeys, I'll back up a bit to my first tangible action towards these goals.

So I've been planning to move to Denver after graduation for probably over a year, since my boyfriend, Corey, started talking about moving out here to Denver to join his brother who had recently moved there.   The move to Denver would be many things, including cathartic.  I went through a very intentional purging of all the stuff I had accumulated over the years.  It was actually probably the first time I had done this...ever. All my other moves involved either short distances or free large vehicles to transport everything.  For the move from Boston to Denver, it  was critical that I downsize because I would either be flying there or driving in a very small car.  

I started this process the summer before thesis, and photographed all the Stuff I owned that I might want to get rid of, and then in the last few weeks of the semester when thesis was consuming me, but all the other students done with studio were switching apartments, I emailed out my ad to the department. (list serves are awesome!)  I managed to sell a lot of bulky, heavy items that wouldn't travel efficiently, and ended up donating about half my clothes.  I made a nice chunk of change to help fund my trip.  And with every item I sold or gave away, I felt a lot lighter, and closer to Denver.  There has not been 1 item so far that I've regretted parting with (even thought you all gave me shit for giving away certain architecture books), and it's a way to feel like I'm making progress towards moving into the smaller space of the future tiny house.  Of course Corey has me beat; he has about a third of the clothes and shoes that I have.  

My awesome parents drove my remaining Stuff (and me) from Boston to Buffalo, the day after my thesis defense.  After the holidays, I was on my way West.  The move out to Denver was pretty cool. Corey and I drove together in a rental car from Buffalo to Denver over 2 days, stopping in Madison, WI to visit my sister and brother in law.  It was deeply satisfying to have everything I own packaged neatly in 1 little car.  I went for the cheapest car possible which is a small 4 door car, and decided that anything that could not fit would be left behind or shipped.  Amazingly, we got a free upgrade to the next size up, a small SUV, which fit everything with my bike strapped on the back. 

I have had to buy some furniture for the new place, (Corey and our roommate had been living without any chairs for 6 months, which I couldn't handle) but a lot of it I think will fit nicely into the house we build so it is nice to know I won't have to sell it all in a year again and that it is actually the start of a nice investment. I know someone challenging themselves to reducing their posessions down to only 100 items.  I know I will never get there, or want to get there, but I'm at least being more intentional about what Stuff I allow into my home, while also getting rid of anything that makes me unahppy.  "Stuff" is a love/hate relationship for me.  I definitely love buying new things, and window shopping, and owning things.  Oddly enough I get a similar amount of pleasure when getting rid of a particularily useless or unpleasing possession as I do finally obtaining a much researched, highly anticipated purchase.

Well that is my prelude to my Denver life and I'm looking forward to moving my stuff into the tiny house... one day. 

THESIS DONE!

On Thursday I presented for my final review of M.Arch Thesis at the MIT Media Lab with 18 other students. I am elated!!

MIT has a tradition of the Core and Option students helping the thesis students finishing up.  They finish a few days before us and then keep going-building models, and essentially being our interns for a few days.  In the past, I've helped thesis students every year, but never have I seen the department this completely mobilized  contributing to our projects.  We had incredible support! 

In a non-stop adrenaline session, I presented on Thursday and moved out of my apartment and studio and drove to Buffalo on Friday with my family who came to support me. I have a week in Buffalo and then onto a new life in Denver, CO! Onwards and Upwards. (or westwards?)