Knowing that tfdesign was referring to the dust of demolition in the animation, I have to ask - having lived all of my life in the very seismically-callenged California (and having dealt with how to resist seismic forces all of my professional career) - how in the world do you make a lower story with lots of glass and far-spanning columns work (as the final design shows)? After what we've seen in Haiti, is this really how we (as not only architects and engineers, but also building designers) should be presenting things?

Sorry ... after spending 30 years dealing with this (and having experienced the '83 Coalinga, the '89 Loma Prieta, the '94 Northridge quakes, as well as others that aren't as notorious) it's a little personal to me.

Jeff -

Look for an architect who is well versed in residential design - particularly production housing. They understand the economics of stud spacing, reduced material waste, etc. They will also be more attuned to how residential is done (contrary to most structural engineer's beliefs, you don't build a house like a concrete-tilt-up commercial warehouse!).

You'll also want to find an architect who understands that this is YOUR house and not their personal design statement. My philosophy is that I will give the owner my opinion about their desires, but in the end THEY will be living in the house - not me!

Good luck, and be thankful you're not building this in California! Structural engineering is pert-near required for ALL residential projects now. I just completed a 2-phase addition to an existing house that increased the square footage by a whopping 427 sf and had engineering fees (structural calcs ONLY - no drawings) of $2,250. No new walls - just tucking a 2nd floor under an existing 10/12 pitched roof on existing walls and footings. $5.26/sf for the structural engineering - I wish I could get those kind of fees for the architectural!

"Jolicloud" says that it is a "super-optimized Linux".

Sheir -

I really like contrast of the arches in CMU/brick with the cement plaster in the corners against the glass. Very nice articulation - almost like a negative photograph!

My nickname story ...

I'm an architect, I live and do a fair amount of work in the Sierra Nevada mountains (we live about 1-1/2 hours from the Yosemite Valley floor), so ... MtnArch!

http://terrisfp.com/hallo1/ghost1.swf

You could also check out BillQuick (http://www.billquick.com). It's very powerful, but also has a "Lite" version that is free (it's the full demo version that locks out some features after the trial period).

I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask the obvious ...

Why wouldn't it be a "Life Line"?

(back to lurking ...)

I agree ... I like this one alot! You ARE da master!

@aidus said:

No dxf and dwg support on free version. That's BIG dissapointment

Go here: http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=161784 and you can download the DWG/DXF importer.

Hmmm ....

Sounds awful ambitious for only 1 acre of land. With that many things (library, office buildings, conference center, etc.) I would imagine you'd be looking at more likely 10~20 acres.

Any book by Rob Thallon is a treasure trove of very useful information!

Yep ... well, really we live NEAR Coarsegold - but the USPS lumps us all in together. We live in a development of about 2,000 homes with minimum 1 acre lots. Really great people live here in the foothills, we don't have the glare of the city (Fresno), and we're above the nasty valley Tule Fog (ya ain't been in fog till you've been in the Tule Fog!).

The other upside is that we are only an hour and a half from the Yosemite Valley floor and only 45 minutes from Bass Lake (awesome boating lake - it was featured in the John Candy / Dan Aykroyd movie "The Great Outdoors").

Thanks, Tom! This I have to forward on to our pastor! Methinks a future video clip and sermon are on the horizon!

Either I'm a little dense tonight (which is ALWAYS a possibility), or ...

If the tower(s) above the arch are at least the width of the columns, this should work as a conventional header spanning between two posts and the arch is simply added under the horizontal beam. Simple span, simple calc ... what am I missing here? This should be even more true if it's only a trade show booth - basically no loading other than the weight of the materials that it's built from.

Personally I like #2 of each ... I prefer to see a little more definition for a rendering and not as much bleed.

Overall, though, Tom, you are one great renderer whatever you work on!

Tom -

I absolutely REFUSE to download your samples ...

... because I've already ordered the full packages online!

Thanks!

I agree with Miguel and Eric - beautiful job! Please ... share how you did #1!

@dcauldwell said:

Linea
I had a look at sti spirit, and it looks interesting. Can't seem to find out a cost for it though - I suspect it is expensive, as things usually are when they won't tell you how much it costs!

David

Take a look here : http://www.procadsys.co.nz/
The dealer, Matt Cockroft, is very knowledgeable and has created a lot of tutorials on Spirit, and should be able to give you pricing. Last I heard it ain't cheap (compared to SU Pro), but it's also a lot less expensive than - say - ArchiCad.

Alan

As Bill Engvall would say ...

"Here's your sign!"