Duo Dickinson

New York

Architect, Author, and Blogger at Freelance

I have built over 800 things, written 8 books, write now about architecture, homes, families and the human condition for 5 publications - come visit!

Articles

Building HOME

1 week ago | savedbydesign.wordpress.com | Duo Dickinson

LIVE! NOON! WEDNESDAY APRIL 16: WPKN 89.5fm Streaming wpkn.orgIn a strange housing market, the zeitgeist of the moment is depression. High interest rates, low supply, insane prices make anywhere around a city bizarrely inaccessible. This means building is harder, too. But some persist: Why? Why would you have the courage to risk so much time and money in such a market?
Fact Checking Is Overrated

1 week ago | savedbydesign.wordpress.com | Duo Dickinson

The Blunder is in estimate. Eternity is thereWe say, as of a Station —Meanwhile he is so nearHe joins me in my Ramble —Divides abode with me —No Friend have I that so persistsAs this Eternity. Emily Dickinson 168440 of 40What we believe has become more important than our lying eyes. Because our eyes see through what our culture shows us. We see a plausible baby carriage with Putin and Trump side by side. We are shown static images now moving. We show a 20 year old at 80.
fame

1 week ago | savedbydesign.wordpress.com | Duo Dickinson

Fame is a bee. It has a song—It has a sting—Ah, too, it has a wing. Emily Dickinson 178839 of 40”And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.”Mark 1:28We are transfixed with fame. Something, someone more than us. We are the ones who see the miracle of the unexpected, triumphant, beyond us. For Emily Dickinson, it was the bee.
cold spring

2 weeks ago | savedbydesign.wordpress.com | Duo Dickinson

Absent Place — an April Day —Daffodils a-blowHomesick curiosityTo the Souls that snow —Drift may block within itDeeper than without —Daffodil delight butHim it duplicate —Emily Dickinson 92738 of 40I’m told it will snow tonight, not far away. It has been cold here. And wet. Budding happens everywhere, but the air is not a dance partner. Absent date and buds it is hard to call this spring. But it us. Triggered by, something, shoots pop thru leaves in a cold, often dim spring.
“…the effort”

2 weeks ago | savedbydesign.wordpress.com | Duo Dickinson

Aurora is the effortOf the Celestial FaceUnconsciousness of PerfectnessTo simulate, to Us.Emily Dickinson 100237 of 40Many, seemingly, watch. Some try. The effort beyond living is a mystery. Watching musician hands of untold hours race, push, turn, pull – in finger precision not knowable, time unseen is silently overwhelming in the outcome. A running back spins, flips, leaps and his run ended in screaming adulation.
”My friends are my estate…”

2 weeks ago | savedbydesign.wordpress.com | Duo Dickinson

”Spring’s first conviction is a wealth beyond its whole experience.”Emily Dickinson36 of 40A newly graduated architect was looking for a job. I had none, but led him to a great place, that was a greater launch for him. He now has 2 offices and 34 people, and the work to support it. And the work is exquisite. On any level you can see. He came to me over 30 years ago because I was “successful” – I guess that measure in effort is true but I have the same 7 desks I had when he saw me.
Fame Is a Fickle Food

2 weeks ago | mbird.com | Duo Dickinson

The Tragic Humanity of Palm Sunday Fame is a fickle foodUpon a shifting plateWhose table once aGuest but notThe second time is setWhose crumbs the crows inspectAnd with ironic cawFlap past it to theFarmer’s cornMen eat of it and die-Emily DickinsonPalm Sunday celebrates celebration. And celebration makes celebrity. In the mid-twentieth century, low Episcopalians like me treated Palm Sunday like it was Easter’s warm up act.
Amid Everything

2 weeks ago | savedbydesign.wordpress.com | Duo Dickinson

Like Rain it sounded till it curvedAnd then I new ’twas Wind—It walked as wet as any WaveBut swept as dry as sand—When it had pushed itself awayTo some remotest PlainA coming as of Hosts was heardIt filled the Wells, it pleased the PoolsIt warbled in the Road—It pulled the spigot from the HillsAnd let the Floods abroad—It loosened acres, lifted seasThe sites of Centres stirredThen like Elijah rode awayUpon a Wheel of Cloud.
“He ate and drank the precious Words -“

2 weeks ago | savedbydesign.wordpress.com | Duo Dickinson

He ate and drank the precious Words— His Spirit grew robust—He knew no more that he was poor,Nor that his frame was Dust—He danced along the dingy DaysAnd this Bequest of WingsWas but a Book—What Liberty A loosened spirit brings—Emily Dickinson 158734 of 50The poet Robert Creeley wrote the poem “For Love” in 1960. The poem has a line in it that burned my eyes in 1970, written by a person of words. “Words, words, as if all worlds were there.”I read all the time. But not books.
We Are In Deconstruction

2 weeks ago | savedbydesign.wordpress.com | Duo Dickinson

The way Hope builds his HouseIt is not with a sill—Nor Rafter—has that EdificeBut only Pinnacle—Abode in as supremeThis superficiesAs if it were of Ledges smitOr mortised with the Laws—Emily Dickinson 145132 of 40Paper was precious. It still is, in beauty. But 150 years ago, paper was saved – there were often no separate, throw away, envelopes. When we cannot know, we guess. Maybe with facts in hand, but not the facts we want to know.