Eds Note: Having a hard time joining this conversation?? AIA’s Facebook page for this event can no longer be found by just  searching for it. See updated instructions below to join in.

Next week, from April 13 to 19, AIA will be holding its annual National Architecture Week conversation– but this year it will be on Facebook.

The Virtual National Architecture Week group Facebook page will be used to release information and resources throughout the week.  AIA wants local chapters and individuals to use the social networking site to post information about firms, awards, videos, or local advocacy and public outreach initiatives.

Facebook members: Log in to FB and search for “The American Institute of Architects” in the search bar on the right. Click on the AIA’s group and then look under “Events” on the AIA Group page. The Virtual National Architecture Week should be the first one listed. Click on it.  (If you’re not a member, go make friends with your firm’s intern architect and they’ll tell you what to do, but they might Twitter or even Flutter about how out of it you are). You can view the resources, add resources and comment.

AIA has this schedule for each day’s specific focus: April 13 - Community Revitalization, April 14 - School Construction,  April 15- Affordable Housing,  April 16 - Sustainability, April 17 - Inclusiveness, April 18 - Historic Preservation and April 19 - The Future of the Profession.

If you’re taking a stroll up lively Pike Street sometime, take a right at Seventh Avenue and proceed along that block’s western side.  If you haven’t been there already in the past year and a half, you’re in for a shock.

The Sheraton hotel’s two-tower complex uses Seventh Avenue as its alley, with a block-long blank facade, punctuated only by a metal man-door where you’re likely to find hotel catering staff hanging out on their smoke breaks.  The only good thing about walking on this side of Seventh Avenue between Pike and Union Streets is that you get a great view of the landmark former Eagles Temple.

An April 1983 Time magazine article mentioned the then-new first Sheraton hotel tower as an example of nation’s “worst offenders” among modern buildings that present blank facades to the streetscape and deaden city center street life.  Any of us urbanistas who care about Downtown’s streetscape waited 25 years for something to improve that situation: a remodel, an addition, an improvement scheme - anything.  Well, “anything” came in 2007 when the second Sheraton tower opened, but the the 25-year wait was in vain because things just got worse, as you’ll see on your stroll along Seventh Avenue.

The real question we’re left with is: how was this possible?  Don’t we have regulations against such things?  Isn’t there a Design Review process? Shouldn’t have 25 years of lessons-learned informed the decision-makers this time around? A longer editorial on what went wrong ran in today’s DJC (no subscription needed to check it out).

By SUSAN JONES, atelierjones

Eds. Note: Jones, the founding principal of atelierjones, lives with her husband and two children in a condo near Pike Place Market. She works a few blocks away.

More cool Seattle shots by Michael Nalley at DDB

Seattle’s livability is about the vibrancy of its people: Walk any ten blocks three times over in Seattle’s downtown – stop to say hello to an old friend, walk over to check on your construction site at 1st and Union, stop by a press conference heralding the opening of Seattle’s new Green Lab, run into a client there and set up a meeting for their renovation of their condominium further south on 1st Avenue later in the day, stop at the Creamery at the Pike Place Market to buy fresh milk for breakfast, drop it off at home, then up to the WAC for a swim, walk back to the office for a quick meeting about a new downtown green roof project, then off to meet your client at their home to go over the design of their carbon fiber dining table, stop back home to pick up your daughter for her piano lesson - and you’ve walked 2 miles, half of them straight up hills, swam a  half mile, supported your local market, developed three design projects, seen four friends, and helped this city grow more and more livable with every footstep.

More Seattleites muse about livability here.

Just when I thought the MODA building (on Third near Bell Street) couldn’t possibly get worse, it did.

More pics at Apartments.com

This former “hot” condo of miniscule units now turned rental opened recently without being finished. The windows along the sidewalk have no trim or sills, leaving unpainted concrete visible by passersby.

And are these actual storefronts? Nope. They are chopped into small rectangles by multiple criss-crossing mullions that no real shop would ever want to have.

Why is it so hard for some designers to understand simple storefront design? Big panes of glass. Well-detailed kickplates. Store doors. Instead we get something that resembles a bedroom window.  And the concrete forming this “street wall” is only little more refined than the exposed wall of a basement.

But far worse are the 4″ x 4″ wood posts that have been added to support the metal balconies. Did someone look back at tenements built in Chicago in the 1800’s and try to replicate that look?

This is hip, urban housing? Hardly.

The Crocodile filed an application with SDOT to create a side walk cafe outside the club at Second and Blanchard.

Seattle simplified its sidewalk cafe permitting last summer, reducing the costs and turnaround time for applications and housing the process within just one agency– SDOT. The city is accepting comments on Application # 89041 until April 8.

The Crocodile, the center of the music universe during the 1990s (see Singles soundtrack, Kurt Cobain, etc.) just reopened this month after a sudden closure last December.

The Architecture Billings Index was up two points in February after a slight dip in January. But billings were down slightly in the West, still the country’s strongest region.

Break out the graphite?

The index is compiled by the American Institute of Architects, based on a monthly survey of firms across the country. A score above 50 means billings were up over the previous month; below 50 means they were down.

The American Institute of Architects February index was 35.3, up from the 33.3 mark in January. Reported billings were again worst in the Northeast, with 32.3, and best in the West, with 36.4. But those western billings were down from the 38.3 reported last month. The new projects inquiry score was 49.5.

AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker said in a statement that there will likely be light demand for construction projects through much of 2009. He said the small uptick provides hope that some stalled projects will move forward in the near future.

I thought I might fill you in on a few projects and tidbits I’ve heard about recently . . .

Pic by Lara Swimmer

SRG Partnership’s Museum of Flight bridge was featured in this month’s Architectural Record.  The piece, “Not so pedestrian footbridges,” features projects that go beyond their role as connectors and elevate a project. Other featured footbridges are in Zaragoza, Spain and across Ireland’s River Shannon. Read a story I wrote on the SRG Bridge to find out more about the designers inspiration: aircraft contrails.

Rendering by ZGF

Zimmer Gunsul Frasca found out it would be designing the second phase of a massive biorenewables complex in Iowa. The firm already designed Phase I, which is now under construction at the University of Iowa. The $54 million Phase II will complete the four-building complex, aimed at showcasing the state’s commitment to cutting-edge energy research in the heart of farming country.

Rendering by Callison

Callison also got big news recently: It will be master planning the biggest mixed-use project in Jordan’s history. The $10 billion, 60-million-square-foot waterfront project in Aqaba, Jordan includes high-rise residential towers, business and financial districts, retail and entertainment spaces and several hotels and resorts. Look for more on that project in an upcoming DJC.

Meanwhile, an NBBJ-designed hotel has opened in Tajikistan. The Hyatt Regency Dushanbe has 221 rooms, a beauty salon, a juicebar and 14 meeting rooms. It has views of a lake and the presidential palace , and in-room iPod docking stations. The hotel was designed by NBBJ’s Columbus, Ohio office.  Check out the press release.

Christian de Portzamparc's elevated train

A green belt circling the city.

A metro hub beneath the Louvre’s Pyramid.

A new ringed metro line around city outskirts.

These are among the proposals stemming from master planning now underway for the City of Light. The New York Times has the story.

I’ve been meaning to post some various babblings about condo design, marketing, and building operation for a long time, as someone who just went through the buying process and managed to close in October (whew!). What struck me during the process was how off-target many of the products and marketing plans were.

My #1 criteria would apparently surprise many people: not style or amenities, but quiet. That meant a big bedroom so I’d be far from the window and far from any common walls, no locations on noisy streets, no big window walls, and no “dog walks.” I chose a unit on the alley side of an all-residential block…it’s been nirvana.

It’s important that the washer/dryer be at least two doors from the bedroom, because the dryer might be turned on right before bed. Alas, my plan was thwarted because my machine has an incredibly loud and lengthy buzzer. Need to figure out how to disable that.

It’s disconcerting to think one’s conversations might be heard from the hall. You know, when one is planning crimes. So an entryway of some kind is important, vs. a door right off the kitchen.

Kitchen against the wall? Why on earth? You need an “L” or “C” shape so you can be at the cutting board and see guests and/or the football game. And who wants to spend their time looking at the wall?

My building has slow elevator doors and the “close door” buttons don’t work. This is infuriating even in a 25 percent full building. As the building fills up, it’ll result in dramatically longer waits for the elevator to arrive.

As for the 25 percent full thing, score! No condo dues are being charged until we reach a much higher sales figure.

It’s a mystery how a building’s front door that can’t be opened from the inside with gloves or by anyone below a certain size can be considered safe egress, let alone user-friendly. (It’s triggered by a person’s electrical charge.) At least it’s been recalibrated so small people can get out OK.

Carpet in the lobby is nice. Otherwise wet shoes squeak.

Condos that are being marketed often have awful websites. First, they use way too much technology, focusing on animations and unfamiliar functionality, and therefore confusing many people and slowing all. Second, and worse, they attempt to typecast their buyers, and blatantly say so in every ad. All that mattered to me was prices, floorplans, and descriptions. A project whose site didn’t provide all of that, or required my contact information, simply wasn’t on my list.

There are many positives too. We have a nice and helpful staff, who put up with my pointed questions about doors and so on (even middle-class buildings have staff if they’re big enough). My punchlist was zero.

P.S. Since the November blog entries died, and my “glad I bought” entry was lost with them, I’ve been meaning to reprise that. While I paid at the top of the market, I’m still glad as hell I bought. You can try to time the market, but it’s more important to watch long-term fundamentals, and to buy a home you like. Seattle looks overbuilt right now, but some of that is just people staying on the sidelines. They’ll get off the fence sooner or later, and when they do they’ll find that this city has at least a three-year gap in new condo buildings. More on that later. . .

In this month’s Atlantic, Richard Florida talks about the America that will emerge from the rubble of the current recession.

Too bad he hasn’t spent more time in the Rainy City, or we might have gotten our own cover, like they did in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Toronto, proclaiming our coming hegemony. No matter. For the America Florida describes is one where cities like Seattle will get all the candy.

Seattle wins.

No one will escape some serious hurt, Florida says, but some cities will find themselves bouncing back a lot faster.

And some might not bounce back at all. Gone are the days of easy credit fueling growth, Florida says. That will hurt some Sun Belt cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas and the fauxconomies that formed there based largely on speculation and flipping.

Also beaten back (again)  is the long-suffering rust belt and its dated manufacturing and distribution core.  Wisteria Lane-type suburbs will also find a hard time attracting people and growth to their sprawling reaches.

Ironically, Florida argues, cities like New York, the financial centers of the U.S., the ones where much of the damage was done that caused this crash in the first place, will emerge stronger than ever thanks to diverse economies and concentrations of highly educated people.

Florida describes a post-crash America where talent clusters in super-dense mega-regions will rule the day, places with lots of intellectual capitol and the ability to keep attracting those types of people. Places like Cascadia (which he actually mentions by name).

He argues the new administration would be wise to divert resources to those areas to keep people and capitol moving and ready for the economy of the future.