INSPIRED BY GAUDI, BUILT BY HAND Sitting in Beth and Will Hathaway's family room in Portland, Oregon, I'm amazed that there's more than a hundred tons of concrete and dirt hanging over my head. The south-facing room, the focal point of the house, is bathed in light. So much daylight filters through four floor-to-curved-ceiling windows and two skylight domes, that I can comfortably pour over a puzzling array of structural contours on a blueprint even though no electric lamps are lit and it's drizzling outside. — Published 2000.0726
	CASHING IN ON ENERGY-SENSITIVE DESIGN Imagine a future in which architects and builders do well by doing good. When they devote time to carefully integrating all the energy-related systems in a building; when the resulting efficiency dramatically decreases our dependence on imported oil; and when the triumphant designers are gratefully rewarded with significantly higher design fees. — Published 2000.0705
	INDUSTRIAL FACILITY TURNS TO THE ARTS An aging bus repair shop may seem an unlikely place for a progressive art school. But when the shop is a classic monument to mid-20th century industrial architecture, and when the school is eager to marry art and pragmatism, the result works beautifully. — Published 2000.0705
	BUILDING FOR "HARMONY WITH NATURE" The Shaklee Corporation, a major manufacturer of natural health products, has built a new corporate headquarters to reflect in architecture the company philosophy of "Products in Harmony with Nature." — Published 2000.0621
	SAITAMA SUPER ARENA: THREE BUILDINGS IN ONE Depending on when you go there, the new sports and cultural facility for the Saitama Prefecture, Japan, is a 30,000-seat soccer stadium, a 20,000-seat basketball arena, or a 5,000-seat concert hall. The technology that makes these transformations possible is a unique system for moving a very large block of 9,200 seats, with related walls, floors, and spectator amenities. The block is 135 feet (41.5 meters) high and weighs 15,000 tons. In only 20 minutes it can move the 230 feet (70 meters) between the arena and stadium configurations. — Published 2000.0621
	MAYBECK RETURNS TO OREGON Did you ever fantasize about doing an apprenticeship under one of the great master architects? Working with direct guidance from Frank Lloyd Wright or H. H. Richardson? Now that fantasy has become more realizable: the revered California architect Bernard Maybeck has recently returned to life and, surprisingly, returned to Oregon. — Published 2000.0628
	DIRT-CHEAP HOUSES FROM ELEMENTAL MATERIALS Every day, a growing number of apprentice home builders travel deep into the California desert for a chance to commune with Nader Khalili, an architect who is single-handedly trying to wean the world off of two-by-fours, steel, and concrete. "We send our children into the world with the notion that a house must have a pitched roof, a square window and a chimney," Khalili says. "How can they ever imagine they can build something beautiful out of dirt?" — Published 2000.0621

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