And the dream home photos continue. 

New York Times article on the trend in office spaces.... I would not mind working in the new Gates Foundation building.  Not one bit.

...The building was designed by NBBJ, a 700-employee architecture firm whose largest operation is in Seattle. The structure is a culmination of ideas about the 21st-century workplace that NBBJ has been exploring in corporate office designs worldwide, including its own offices here.

These are the main concepts: Buzz — conversational noise and commotion — is good. Private offices and expressions of hierarchy are of debatable value. Less space per worker may be inevitable for cost-effectiveness, but it can enhance the working environment, not degrade it. Daylight, lots of it, is indispensable. Chance encounters yield creative energy. And mobility is essential.

This isn’t a suddenly exploding trend. NBBJ’s research has found that two-thirds of American office space is now configured in some sort of open arrangement. But even as these designs save employers space and money, they can make office workers feel like so many cattle. So how to humanize the setting?

SEATTLE serves as a test tube because of several converging factors: There’s a lot of money here to experiment with projects. The work force is relatively young and open to innovation. And the local culture places a high value on informality, autonomy and egalitarianism. People will put in long hours under high pressure if they feel respected, but they won’t tolerate being treated like Dilberts...

[ Go read the whole article and look at the amazing photos here. Seriously]

"knows" and "don't knows" 
and "Who'd have known?" 

Today, I listened to a 30 minute presentation on Sound Transmission Loss.  All the systems and ratings used for measuring how to block sound in architectural design.  Which products, which designs, which materials and varied thicknesses.  It was wild.  And while I caught about 1/2 of it, I loved every moment of it.  I was praying, Lord help me to learn all I can.  Because I want to know.  I so enjoy this all.  I worked at a technology company for four years, and while I loved the people there and learned a lot of great things, I wasn't passionate about middleware technology and platforms.  I wasn't trying with all my might to gain knowledge - I was trying with all my might to understand since I knew I was responsible for communicating it in print to potential clients.  And I knew it was important information and exciting.  But here, I just feel blessed to be around something I find beautiful and innovative.  I've been asked by a number of people, "Dream come true, ay?" And honestly - it's not.  I'd never really even thought to combine writing and marketing with architecture.  I'd thought of writing for an architectural magazine briefly, but assumed I'd need to be an architect first.  And I knew that I could enjoy marketing if I could attach it to something I believed in, but I wasn't sure what it would be.  And I knew I loved architecture, but I also knew I wasn't called to become an architect.  This isn't my dream, but had I thought of it, it might have been.  :)  I don't know exactly where this new experience and the skills I'm learning will lead me, but I know it is exactly where I am supposed to be today.  And I know it is leading me somewhere.

I don't even love work yet.  I kind of dread it (a lot).  But I think that's because I'm training and meeting new people.  It's never wonderful to sit amongst a group of strangers and be the only one who doesn't know what you're doing - and have them all know it - no matter how nice they are.  I've done it.  Plenty.  I've joined new companies - and before that, I joined new teams.  I'm used to this feeling.  I'm well practiced in finding I know no one around me and making new friends.  I just don't like the feeling.

I know it's a necessary part of life, at least for the lucky because it forces us to grow.  It cements pieces of who we are, and causes us to re-evaluate what we've become.  It takes away boxes and paddings and ceilings and floors.  It gives opportunity for confidence.

As well as other opportunities to learn about new things, like STL and Excel formulas and QuickBooks (dear Lord, help me).  I love that my first thought tonight upon seeing this photo was in regards to how well that glass would block sound from that office.  That is an entirely new thought.  How often do we truly begin to see things in new ways?

FAVORITE!!

Truly, I'd live here ever so happily!

Granted, I'd grow some grass and plant a few flowers. ;)