I recently got a question on Bluesky from “Mike – Towards a Metric America!” asking about exit signs in the Crit Room in Milstein Hall at Cornell University, the architecture building designed by OMA.
Now I devoted an entire chapter in my book about OMA’s Milstein Hall to problems with fire safety and egress, but I didn’t say anything about exit signs. So, to answer Mike’s question about whether there was an exit sign for the stair leading up from the Crit Room, I walked over to Milstein Hall this morning to see what I could find, and created this video.
I took on the administrative job as Speaker of the Cornell Faculty Senate in my final year teaching (2021–2022) and agreed to stay on for another four years after I retired. Here is Dean of Faculty Eve De Rosa presenting a resolution (and “happy birthday” song) on my behalf.
I had recently posted my “Philosophy of Composition,” explaining how I came to write a new song called “Hey When I Die.” Well, I have now recorded an official, “studio” version of the song and created an official music video, embedded below.
As I explain in more detail in the prior “Philosophy” video, this is a song concerned with some contradictory feelings engendered by the realization that death is coming, if not immediately, then — at least for those of us over 70 years of age — pretty soon: on the one hand, I sing in the verses about some pragmatic and idiosyncratic wishes, e.g., that survivors might deal with my childhood drawings and my online songs and writings; on the other hand, I sing in the choruses with a more empathetic sensitivity to how others, especially those in my family, might experience such a passing.
I won’t repeat all the lyrics, since they appear on the prior blog post linked above, but I’ll list some technical details below.
The song was recorded at home in Ithaca, NY, in April 2026, using Logic Pro X: I play two real instruments (acoustic guitar, harmonica) and sing all the vocals and background vocals. I also play three “software” instruments (piano, drums, bass) on my MIDI keyboard. I created the video using Final Cut Pro with my photos of the cloudy Ithaca sky, made partially transparent and animated using Final Cut’s motion keyframe feature, in a layer above my green-screened guitar-playing body.
I’m not exactly a Grateful Dead fan, although I came to appreciate much of their music through the interest of my college roommate in the early 1970s. He actually took me to see the Dead at one of their legendary concerts, maybe at Manhattan Center in 1971. I remember only the wall-to-wall people standing in the large venue.
In any case, in my quest to record covers of songs that were influential in my musical development, in more-or-less chronological order, I found myself in need of a song from 1987 from a group or individual that I hadn’t yet recorded (this is one of my somewhat arbitrary rules for this project). However, it turns out that I entered into a kind of musical desert in 1987, having quit my job in New York, gotten married, and driven with my pregnant wife to California — all of which distracted me from my prior listening routines. So when it came time to select a song from 1987, I reviewed the list of top-100 hits from that year and came up with a blank. In fact, I remained pretty much unaware of what was happening in pop music into the 1990s, when my son grew old enough to start bringing his music into the house.
I noticed that The Grateful Dead had a song — in fact, their only top 10 hit on the Billboard top 100 — but I had never heard it. So I gave it a few listens, learned it, and recorded it, albeit with more of a half-time feel. I also played the low melodic guitar hook that shows up in the chorus on the piano. And I based my cover on the official Dead video, which is a shortened version of the original recording (although I sing it in a different key).
Some technical details: I recorded the song at home in April 2026 on Logic Pro X, singing the vocals and backup vocals, playing acoustic and electric guitars, and simulating drums, bass, piano, and organ as “software instruments” played live on my midi keyboard.
I made the video using Final Cut Pro. It consists of lots of iPhone photos taken around my house, on which is superimposed an iPhone green-screened video of me singing the song. I also spent a bit of time creating fake shadows for my superimposed image that are layered into the Final Cut mix. I produced the lyrics in PhotoShop rather than in Final Cut Pro, because I found it easier to distort them into an appropriate perspectival form, consistent with the underlying images.
I made a video based on my 15-minute PowerPoint presentation at the 114th Annual Meeting of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) in Chicago (March 2026).
The full paper, “Revisiting Decorated Sheds and Ducks for Sustainable Building,” is online here.
I suppose I’ve been thinking about dying lately. It’s really hard for me to avoid such thoughts as I get older, and people around me start getting sick, getting old, and dying. So I had an idea for a song called “When I Die” and worked on it during March 2026. I’ve described the lyric-writing process in the embedded video, which ends with a live rendition of the song: just a single mic, me, and my Ibanez guitar.
Verse 1. Hey when I die find those pictures I made as a kid In a box that I put in the attic I digitized most of them over the years But I can’t seem to bury the past
You and your brother well you might want to keep one or two I don’t know if it’s something you’re eager To do and it certainly won’t bring me to tears If they end up recycled or trashed
Chorus 1: Hey when I die I know you can handle the pain And if you try you’ll find a path through the stress and strain (over and over again)
Verse 2. Hey when I die won’t you manage my YouTube account Yes I know that my songs won’t attract The amount of attention of a viral sensation But I still want to keep them afloat
And while you’re at it you’ll find that my websites contain All my books and my papers I hope Will remain open-access so a new generation Can discover the stuff that I wrote
Chorus 2a: Hey when I die you can say I’ll be setting you free No need to cry this is the way it was meant to be (all throughout history)
Instrumental verse
Chorus 2b: Hey when I die you won’t need me to explain But I’ll still testify that the sun will come out after every rain (you can watch it shine again)
Verse 3. Hey when I die there’s a few things I’d never allow Number one don’t embalm me like Lenin Or Mao number two no mahogany coffin And number three no big monument stone
Cause there’s way better options that are cheaper and also are green Like that natural burial place that I’ve seen out in Newfield you could visit me often And watch how the meadows have grown
Chorus 3: Hey when I die and the vessel you’re sailing’s unmoored That tear in your eye it’s gonna end up on a minor chord (so throw it overboard)
Verse 4. And when you gather the friends that we’ve known for so long In some place where they’re serving good food with Good song well I already miss you so much Just thinking bout how we’ll be so out of touch
Not to use my own dying as some sort of crutch When its true irrevocable meaning as such Makes it hard to imagine any plausible dogma To clutch… Hey when I die
It’s hard enough convincing people that the form of rule associated with competing democratic states is central to the capitalist project; that calls for freedom and democracy are hardly an antidote to the insanity of the so-called market economy. Given the difficulties of explaining the relationship of democratic states to the capitalist economy, it might seem futile to write a song about it, but I’ve given it a try. Some metaphorical constructs are inevitable — after all, it’s still a song — but the rest is pretty explicit.
1. Mervat struggles to find shelter She’s weak with hunger and disease In the summer she will swelter In the winter she will freeze
2. Ahmad toils in jobs that bore him He feels completely worn out and estranged He knows this world has nothing for him But he prays for something to be changed
CHORUS: But he can’t fix what isn’t broken When it’s a feature of the system not a flaw He needs to speak the word that’s never spoken Blow down this house of straw
3. Bombed out neighborhoods spark a profusion Of viral memes on the internet While talking heads reach the conclusion That the victims really are the threat
CHORUS: But you can’t fix what isn’t broken When it’s a feature of the system not a flaw You need to speak the word that’s never spoken Blow down this house of straw
Instrumental break
CHORUS: You can’t fix what isn’t broken When it’s a feature of the system not a flaw You need to speak the word that’s never spoken Blow down this house of straw
4. Don’t put your faith in politicians Who promise you a better life While they legislate the very conditions That generate this constant strife
CHORUS: Cause they can’t fix what isn’t broken You see it’s the system they’ve created under law So you need to speak the word that’s never spoken Blow down this house of straw Blow down this house of straw Blow down this house of straw
Production notes: Music arranged and produced by Jonathan Ochshorn Recorded with Logic Pro X software Vocals: Jonathan Ochshorn Background vocals: Jonathan Ochshorn Software instruments played live on midi keyboard: Jonathan Ochshorn (piano, drums, bass, trumpets) Recorded at home in Ithaca, NY, February 2026.
Even twenty years ago, conventional wisdom, reinforced by building codes, held that a vapor barrier should be placed on the warm (in winter) side of exterior walls in places like New York that have cold winters. Well, it turns out that this conventional wisdom was wrong — by 2010, Joseph Lstiburek was writing in his essay on The Perfect Wall that in virtually all climate zones, “we would split the thermal resistance of the insulation on the exterior of the structural frame with this insulation within the structural frame at least 50:50. So in an R-20 wall—at least R-10 or more on the outside of the non-conductive structural frame. And no vapor barrier on the inside of the assembly. Repeat after me, no vapor barrier on the inside of the assembly. We want the assembly to dry inwards from the control layers—and to dry outwards from the control layers. Always. Everywhere.” (emphasis added)
In other words, even if a simple psychrometric analysis showed condensation within the wall — in places where the calculated interstitial temperature dropped below the dew point temperature — the in-wall water could dry out, either to the inside or the outside. The bottom line is that such simple analyses are most often superficial, as they don’t take into account the variable permeability of certain construction materials, or the risk of trapping moisture and causing mold and rot in hot humid seasons, especially when the interior spaces are air conditioned.
So, with the preceding paragraphs as a disclaimer, I think it is still useful — certainly as a teaching tool if not as a practical guide to construction — to understand how the R-value (resistance to conduction of heat) and inverse perm rating (resistance to the passage of water vapor) create gradients of temperature and dew point temperature within an exterior wall. If these gradients are plotted over a wall section, one can see where, and if, the temperature drops below the dew point temperature — a sign that condensation is likely. With this in mind, I have created an exterior wall psychrometric analysis calculator that finds values for temperature and dew point temperature within a user-defined exterior wall, given user-specified values for temperature and relative humidity at the exterior and interior.
Schematic wall section (left) showing interstitial temperature and dew point temperature gradients. Condensation occurs where the temperature falls below the dew point temperature. In this example, taken from the default values in the calculator, the dew point temperature — shown as a red line — crosses over the temperature between the batt insulation and the plywood sheathing, indicating the potential for condensation at this location. When a vapor retarder is added between the gypsum board and batt insulation, the dew point temperature — shown as a green line — is always below the temperature, so condensation does not occur. The psychrometric chart (right) plots the combination of temperature and humidity ratio and shows where the relative humidity rises above 100% (i.e., where condensation occurs — at point “C” in both diagrams). Images by Jonathan Ochshorn.
I’ve been reading an anthology on architectural theory and came across an essay by the architect Robert Morris writing about “harmony” in 1739. Now I’m not sure if the American architect Louis Sullivan read Morris, but the similarity of their style of argumentation is striking: it consists of stringing together a list of nouns, each modified by an appropriate adjective. So, we get Sullivan’s famous “open apple blossom,” “toiling work-horse,” and “blithe swan” to support his claim about form and function; while Morris gives us “murmuring Rivulets, “silent Grove,” and “verdant Meads” to defend his views about harmony. Here are excerpts from Morris and Sullivan:
Robert Morris, “An Essay upon Harmony,” 1739, in Harry Francis Mallgrave, ed., Architectural Theory, Volume I: An Anthology from Vitruvius to 1870, Malden, MA (Blackwell Publishing: 2006), p.116: “The Soul by Sympathy to Scenes of perfect Beauty, of Proportion and Elegance, is insensibly drawn and attracted; the murmuring Rivulets, the silent Grove, the verdant Meads, the particolour’d Gaieties of Nature, have their charms which Harmoniously please.”
Louis Sullivan, “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered,” Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, March 1896, p.408.: “Whether it be the sweeping eagle in his flight, or the open apple blossom, the, toiling work-horse, the blithe swan, the branching oak, the winding stream at its base, the drifting clouds, over all the coursing sun, form ever follows function, and this is the law.” From Louis Sullivan, “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered,” Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, March 1896, p.408.
Decorated sheds, along with ducks, were first theorized by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour in their 1972 book, Learning from Las Vegas. While their argument focused on semiotics and signs, designing buildings as decorated sheds can also be understood as an important strategy for achieving sustainable design goals. For that reason, it is useful to revisit and reformulate the authors’ original critique, in order to provide a more nuanced discussion of decoration and distortion. This paper’s central claims are advanced in three steps. First, I argue that sustainable buildings increasingly take the form of decorated sheds: energy efficiency and enclosure durability benefit from compact building form; a compact building — one without gratuitous distortion of the enclosure surfaces — is, ipso facto, a shed; such sheds must have continuous control layers, e.g., air barriers and thermal insulation, which create a discontinuity between exterior cladding and building interiors; and cladding, visible to the outside world and disengaged from the building’s underlying structure and interior, can easily be configured as a carrier of decoration. These tendencies are increasingly encouraged in contemporary code mandates and can be seen in programs developed by organizations including Net-Zero Energy Homes, Living Buildings, and the Passive House Institute. Second, while ideas about decorated sheds and ducks theorized in Learning from Las Vegas offer important insights into the design and critique of buildings, I argue that a close reading reveals several logical errors and inconsistencies. Third, I develop a more nuanced argument, one that considers the distinction between decorated sheds and ducks in terms of a fluid matrix organized along the axes of decoration and distortion. Reframing the concepts developed by Venturi, Scott Brown, and Izenour allows these concepts to be better applied to the contemporary use of decorated sheds for sustainable, energy-efficient building.
My paper, entitled “Revisiting Decorated Sheds and Ducks for Sustainable Building,” will be presented at the 114th Annual Meeting of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture in March 2026. You can read the complete web version right now!
