Both the ADA and the IBC stipulate that circulation paths must be accessible to people with various disabilities, but illegal protruding objects are still common. In this 90-second video, I look at a few examples in Ithaca, NY, specifically, problems with vertical clearance that often—but not always—result from sloping elements that protrude into the circulation path.
Find links to all the “Adventures” videos here.
I wrote a new song called “Small Wonder” for the Community Arts Challenge, an annual exhibit sponsored by Cortland Arts Connect (formally the Cultural Council of Cortland County) and The Center for the Arts of Homer. This year’s theme was “wonder.”
To find wonder in a world marked by war, poverty, and the existential threat of global warming is, I suppose, possible. But my lyric takes the opposite approach, directly confronting the sense of angst pervading a world wracked by crisis. “Small wonder,” I write, “it’s taking a toll.”
Small Wonder
Words & music © 2026 Jonathan Ochshorn
1. Small wonder that you can see
The state of the world is upsetting
Will we end up regretting
Or merely forgetting the things that might have been done differently
2. Small wonder that you can hear
The sound of people complaining
While so little time is remaining
Yet nothing’s constraining the same things from happening year after year
Chorus:
We’ve all seen this movie before — small wonder it’s frightening
We’ve heard that this storm threatens more than just thunder and lightning
And we think we know what’s waiting in store: but
the window we’re under is tightening and out of control
Small wonder it’s taking a toll
3. Small wonder that you can see
The risks we’re facing are clearer
They seem to be getting much nearer
Maybe they’re already here and we’re closing our eyes to that reality [Chorus]
4. Small wonder that you might think
They’re offering us a rebranding
When these times are demanding
Something radically new as we find ourselves standing right at the brink [Chorus]
I recorded the song using Logic Pro and edited my iPhone video using Final Cut Pro. I played all instruments live using my MIDI keyboard and Logic’s software instruments (piano, trumpet, drums, bass) and sang all vocals and background vocals. No AI was used.
Find more of my music here.
I performed two sets, one on guitar and one on keyboards, at the Coffeehouse Plus in the basement of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Cortland, NY, on August 22, 2026. Here’s an iPhone recording of the first song, “Between the Lines.”
Find the “studio” version of this song, and all my other original music and covers, here!
Find links to all of the 90-second videos in this series.
This latest 90-second video in the “Adventures in Building Bad” series discusses the implications of column misalignment in E. Sibley Hall at Cornell University. After making the video, which is embedded below, I discovered a photo which seems to show that the column misalignment preceded the 2014 renovation of the third floor.
E. Sibley Hall, third floor, Aug. 21. 2013: inward sloping of the columns is visible in this photo.
So the origin of the problem, it seems to me, is probably either the original removal of attic joists to insert a skylight, or the underpinning of E. Sibley Hall around 2010 during the construction of adjacent Milstein Hall.
Find links to all my episodes here.
Episode 4 in my “Adventures in Building Bad” short-form web series has been posted (a new episode drops every Wednesday). This one concerns dangerous and noncompliant stairs in a fairly new residential building on College Avenue in Ithaca, NY.
Find links to all my episodes here.
I’ll be performing two sets (one on guitar; one on keyboards) at the Cortland Coffeehouse Plus in the basement of the historic Unitarian Universalist Church of Cortland on August 22, 2026.
Doors open at 6:30 PM; music starts at 7 PM and ends before 9 PM. Refreshments available!
The venue is at 3 Church Street, Cortland, NY, but enter around the corner on Elm Street.
You can find links to set lists on my performance webpage.
Here, I look at the case of a glass guardrail, designed to span over two very different wall types—a basement wall and a retaining wall. And yes, the retaining wall moved, as a result of soil pressure, and the glass guard shattered. Of equal concern is that the repair doesn’t seem to have properly addresses the problem, so the trim at the top of the guard keeps popping up as the glass pushes against it.
Here are links to all the videos in this series.
My wife picked up a photo of the 1922 Cornell class of mechanical and electrical engineering and it’s been staring at me in the downstairs bathroom, opposite the toilet, for years now. So I decided to make this 90-second video about the photo, which — as it turns out — was taken by Cornell’s extraordinary photographer from the early 20th century, John Patrick Troy.
Every year since I began documenting this Sisyphean cycle of failure and repair in 2009, thin stone pavers in Ho Plaza at Cornell University crack and dislodge, mainly due to vehicular traffic on this supposedly pedestrian street. This is followed by repairs that replicate the original conditions guaranteeing that future damage will occur and that this cycle will keep repeating.
Links to all the episodes can be found here.