Jeepers, Creepers

Where’d you get those PEEPS?

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It’s that time of year again.  The Washington Post Peeps Diorama Contest is upon us- or the winners were announced in last weekend’s edition of the WP Magazine, just in time for Easter this weekend.  Has April whizzed by everyone else, or is it just me?  It’s finally warm here, and that’s a good thing since it’s almost MAY.  We’re not here to discuss the weather though.  We’re here to discuss matters of high design.  Ahem, PEEPS.

Who doesn’t love that marshmallowy goodness?  Especially when disguised as a Chilean Miner rescue mission, as portrayed by the winning diorama.  That one was pretty good, I’ll admit, but there were some other really impressive ones this year.

For example:

 

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This one depicts the Metro escalator malfunctioning at the Foggy Bottom Station, oh and a fire on the tracks.  If you live around here, you know just exactly what that is all about.

Another travel-related entry:

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Yes, those are Peeps getting full-body scans and pat-downs at the airport.  Even marshmallow bunnies can’t escape the TSA.

Another one of my favorites involves Tiger Blood:

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Yes, that would be Charlie Sheen receiving a transfusion of Tiger Blood.  How on earth did they make those Peeps into little tigers I will never know.

See the rest of the 35 finalists (from over 900 entries) in a slideshow on the Post’s website.

Until next year!

It’s all a front

Mark and I had an errand to run last Friday so we left my comfort zone of Old Town and headed into the zoo that is Arlington.  Okay, actually it wasn’t that bad.  We returned unscathed and even managed to spot this oddity:

A construction zone… but look a little closer around the back:

What happened to the rest of the church?

Luckily the construction workers didn’t mind me snapping some photos with my phone.  I’m not sure why this intrigued me so much, but I’m curious as to what they’ll be building as an appendage to this church front.  I couldn’t really get close enough to read the sign as to what the project might be and the architects/engineers/construction companies working on it (I had Mark in his carrier on my front, so I couldn’t exactly sneak past the bulldozers for a closer look).  I guess I’ll have to brave Arlington again in a few months to check on the progress!

File this under “That SUCKS”

Evidently if you live in D.C. and installed solar panels last year in hopes of getting a rebate from the city, you are sorely mistaken.  The D.C. Department of Energy has recently announced that it will not reimburse homeowners for their investment in solar because the allocated funds have been re-allocated to close a gap in the city’s budget.  This means 51 residents are out about $700,000 in total, or, let’s do some quick math here… over $13,000 on average.

Yikes.

I think I’d be a little ticked.  Or, maybe I’d realize that it’s not a good idea to rely on city government for reasons to invest in environmental responsibility.  At this point (okay, especially at this point, with the economy and real estate as shaky as it is) taking on such a long-term investment is only smart if you can already afford it or you can afford to wait until those solar panels create enough energy to negate your power bills for the next, oh, 20 years and beyond?

No pretty pictures for this post.  Hopefully I’ll be back with something inspiring soon.

Until then, keep the faith.

the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time

Sometimes I marvel at how completely behind I am on what’s going on in D.C.  Here’s the latest (to me) on the architecture scene:

 

the Bubble addition to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, who also have the coolest website I have seen in a long time.  It’s seriously B.A.)

Here’s how the bubble works.

Got that?

Basically, the inflatable membrane will be erected for one month each spring and fall (beginning possibly in October 2012) filling the void of the museum’s courtyard and acting as an auditorium, cafe and meeting place.  Read more about it here, which is where I read about it.  In the magazine I’ll probably stop receiving soon since I am letting my AIA membership lapse. 

Is anyone else worried about this bubble and the high-strength winds we tend to get around these parts?  Surely they must have considered this possibility.  Looks like they are employing both Wind Engineering consultants and Climatic Analysis consultants.