Random observations

1 10, 2014

Napa: the earthquake aftermath

By Steve McKee|2014-10-01T11:32:57+00:00October 1st, 2014|Random observations, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Napa: the earthquake aftermath

Phil's first act of earthquake recovery - removing a broken chimney from a rental house of his About a week after the Napa earthquake, I started receiving texts from my buddy Phil Joy, the house-lifter, that included photos of damaged houses and buildings. There were images of walls slanting and front porches with their posts all leaning at the same wrong angle. Phil was getting called out by the owners of the worst hit structures and then having to come to terms with the damage in order to plan a fix for it. He was in a [...]

24 04, 2014

Mister Science

By Steve McKee|2019-04-25T17:05:48+00:00April 24th, 2014|Random observations, Thinking like an architect, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Mister Science

A few years ago my uncle called me from Oklahoma to ask if it was a good idea if he set up his bathroom exhaust fan to empty into his attic, instead of running through a duct all the way to the outside like is usually done. He thought maybe the extra warmth added to the attic might benefit his house in winter. Not good, I said. The problem comes when the warm moist air from your bathroom meets the colder air in your attic. It will cool and, since cool air can't hold as much moisture as warm air, [...]

29 10, 2013

My day at the America’s Cup

By Steve McKee|2019-04-25T17:05:48+00:00October 29th, 2013|Random observations, Uncategorized|Comments Off on My day at the America’s Cup

Steve and Wesley headed to the 2013 America's Cup My son Wesley and I decided to go watch one of the America's Cup sailboat races happening in the waters off San Francisco, and do it from our own boat out on the water. Our boat is a Hobie-18 catamaran, one of those zippy little two hulled boats that become very fast when the wind comes up. Spray will fly, one of the hulls will lift out of the water and one of us will hook on and stand outwards from the side of the boat to provide [...]

10 01, 2012

Favorite Architects

By Steve McKee|2019-04-25T17:06:36+00:00January 10th, 2012|Random observations, Thinking like an architect, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Favorite Architects

My friend Meg asked me if I have a favorite architect. It made me realize that I don’t, and that made me happy somehow, like that indicated that I was open-minded and an independent thinker or something like that. But then I remembered that a few years ago I fell hard for the work of Addison Mizner, who was instrumental in developing the ultra-refined Mediterranean Revival style associated with Palm Beach in the 1920’s. So elegant yet adaptable to so many situations! I suppose there was also my first crush, Dutch architect Herman Hertzberger who gave a guest lecture at [...]

22 10, 2011

My two smoke detector stories

By Steve McKee|2019-04-25T17:06:36+00:00October 22nd, 2011|Random observations, Uncategorized|Comments Off on My two smoke detector stories

A couple days ago my son was walking down the hall past my office when a loud beeping began sounding somewhere in our house. He and I have a tendency to fall into goofing off pretty easily, usually instigated by me on days when I’ve been working alone all day. So the sound of another false alarm inspired lame jokes by me about running for our lives and comments like “Oh no! She’s about to blow!” (Sadly, this is what passes for wit during the long afternoon hours at McKee Associates.) We followed the sound down the hall to his [...]

21 07, 2011

Building them like they used to

By Steve McKee|2019-04-25T17:06:36+00:00July 21st, 2011|Random observations, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Building them like they used to

I’m in the midst of my own small kitchen addition. I’m pushing out the side wall of my kitchen twenty inches. Why only twenty inches, you ask? (Everybody else does.) It’s because that’s all we need to cure our ills, and going further would block a view out a family room window. It may be a small addition, but it’ll be a much-needed makeover of the whole kitchen. Builders are available these days for the lowest rates I’ve ever seen. That’s part of the reason I’m doing my project now. I’m doing enough work myself just to make sure I [...]