The Year of the Boat - [Excerpt]
Beauty, Imperfection, and the Art of Doing It Yourself
Sasquatch Books 2008

It began as a project to build a wooden sailboat in a suburban garage within a self-imposed deadline of one year. But difficulties—both technical and emotional—made a shambles of the deadline, and Lawrence Cheek’s project to build a boat became an inquiry into the nature of beauty, a struggle with obsession and perfectionism, and finally a question of character. The Year of the Boat is the story of how one man built a boat in spite of himself.

New Indianapolis terminal is easy to use, but lacks a sense of place
Published in the Indianapolis Star Nov. 23, 2008

Airline travel is basically torment. Always has been; the causes and proportions of its miseries merely shift over time. Today, credit the background tension of the terrorist threat, the passed-along stresses of beleaguered airlines, and the crowding, commotion and relentless hectoring trying to keep too many people under too-tight control.

Architecture didn’t cause these problems, so it’s especially intriguing to watch architects working creatively to fix them. If you didn’t actually have to fly, visiting new airport terminals around the world could be a tempting adventure. [More]