Category Archives: Architecture

Milstein Hall’s exit signs

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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.

Check out my free open-access book about OMA’s Milstein Hall (and also my book-launch music video)!

Exterior wall psychrometric analysis calculator

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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.

Two images: wall section with temperature and dew point temperature gradients on the left; and psychrometric chart showing critical values on the right.

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.

 

 

How Sullivan and Morris make their arguments

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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.

Revisiting Decorated Sheds and Ducks for Sustainable Building

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Animation gif showing construction of "duck" cladding over normative rectilinear selling space.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!

OMA’s Milstein Hall: skateboards and broken bubbles

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From my book, OMA’s Milstein Hall: “Just as abstract programmatic adjacencies are confused with circulation systems in the design of Milstein Hall, there is also an implicit conflation of a type of performative athletic movement—whether featuring trained dancers, ‘free runners,’ or skateboarders—with the type of movement in and around buildings that constitutes useful circulation.”

You can read my free, open-access versions of OMA’s Milstein Hall and Building Bad on the web, or download free PDFs.

Essay on complexity and contradiction

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I’ve written an essay, just published in the open-access journal, AGATHÓN, that challenges the idea that complex building geometries reflect the complexity of contemporary life; it does so by examining Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, Robert Venturi’s seminal work from 1966, as well as later writings by advocates of a computationally-driven complexity. The essay shows that: a) complexity, rather than being defined absolutely, is relative in everyday speech; b) complexity, as defined in natural systems, cannot be extrapolated to human behavior; c) modern life is becoming simpler, rather than more complex; d) complexity is typically embedded within products and systems and, as such, inaccessible to ordinary consciousness; e) architectural complexity reflects a competitive drive for notoriety associated with avant-garde production, and leads to energy-inefficient buildings with an increased risk of control layer failure.

Jonathan Ochshorn in car with side-view mirror showing the warning: "Objects in Mirror are Closer than They Appear."

What something is and how it appears are perfectly compatible, not in contradiction with each other – being does not negate appearance: ‘Objects in mirror are closer than they appear’ (credit: J. Ochshorn, 2018).

Since the journal is open-access, a pdf of the essay can be downloaded here.

I’m Now a Certified Passive House Consultant

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Having passed my written and design exams, I’m now a Certified Passive House Consultant (CPHC), and can be located on “Find a professional” website. This is a designation awarded by Phius, the Passive House Institute US. Essentially, Phius passive houses are designed and built to be air-tight and super-insulated, so they use very little energy. Heating and cooling is typically accomplished with small heat pumps. Air quality is maintained by using heat- or energy-recovery ventilation systems (HRV or ERV).

Logo for Phius Certified Consultant

I’m not sure at this point what I’ll do with this credential, but the coursework — including both self-paced online content and in-person via Zoom sessions — was extremely valuable: highly recommended! My first project, not necessarily one that will achieve Phius certification, will undoubtedly be my own house, which could use an energy/envelope upgrade.

Can we talk about urinals?

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I criticize the urinals in OMA’s Milstein Hall (at Cornell University) in my book of the same name. The fixtures selected, presumably to match the stainless steel serpentine partitions separating the men’s and women’s rooms, are Willoughby UF-1438 special-order stainless steel single person floor mounted stall urinals, intended mainly “for use in security environments” — i.e., correctional facilities (fig. 1).

Stainless steel urinal in Milstein Hall

Fig. 1. Stainless steel urinal in Milstein Hall

They are embedded in the concrete floor slab which is problematic for at least two reasons: first, because it violates the principle of “shearing layers” whereby things that need to change or be replaced periodically should not be embedded in things (like a structural floor slab) that are intended to last for the life of the building; and second, because the concrete floor is in such bad shape that it violates the New York State Building Code requirement that “floor finish materials shall have a smooth, hard, nonabsorbent surface.” (ICC, “1209.2.1 Floors and Wall Bases,” in the 2020 New York State Building Code.)

These prison-grade urinals are not only dysfunctional in this academic context, but are also incredibly expensive — well over $1,000.00 each. And while it’s hard these days to find a functional urinal as beautiful as the so-called readymade that Duchamp tried to exhibit in 1917 (fig. 2a), except perhaps on eBay (fig. 2b), functional high-efficiency urinals can be found for well under $200 (fig. 2c).

Three images: (a) Duchamp's 'Fountain' (photo by Steiglitz); (b) Kohler urinal from the 1950s; and (c) Contemporary American Standard urinal.

Fig. 2. (a) Duchamp’s 1917 “Fountain” (photo by Stieglitz); (b) Kohler urinal from the 1950s; and (c) Contemporary American Standard urinal.

It is possible, at least for individuals whose gender identity aligns with the use of so-called men’s rooms, to see some beautiful urinals at Cornell. But to do this, you need to go to the basement of Barton Hall, which was built in 1917, about the same time as Duchamp’s readymade. I can’t say for sure if these urinals date from the building’s opening, or from some mid-twentieth-century renovation, but their similarity to Duchamp’s “Mutt” makes a trip to Barton Hall well worth the effort (fig. 3).

Urinals in the basement of Barton Hall, Cornell University

Fig. 3. Urinals in the basement of Barton Hall, Cornell University

Art or accident?

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Last night, I stumbled upon this rectangle of light on the Cornell Arts Quad and wondered if it was an art installation or just the random result of an open window with a projector running in Goldwin Smith Hall.

Update (Nov. 26, 2024): The Cornell Council for the Arts confirmed today that “what you captured was an unplanned, serendipitous art happening as far as CCA is aware. But we think it’s very cool!”