iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

bits and pieces still around:

Google Street View from Sabin Place on California Street - red brick building on the left, the pagoda building on the right, and the art-deco Russ Building in the background (prominent in the postcard)

James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

maybe the course is just transcribing from the digital - a course producing the course reader. viola! no issues with printing limits!

Full-page miniature of Donatus writing his grammar, from Sedulius Scotus’ Expositio super primam edicionem Donati grammatici, Germany, 2nd half of the 12th century, Arundel MS 43, f. 80v

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

probably because it won't fit?

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

for example: heavy duty arms to move kegs at the Delirium Tremens brewery - a humanoid robot would make no sense:

photo of the interior of a portion of the Delirium Tremens brewery with robots doing heavy lifting work to avoid injury to workers

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

was in Bruges, Antwerp, and Brussels in December... was the coldest I'd ever been. don't recommend, but got a few nice photos

photo along a canal in Bruges on a day trip from Brussels. left my gloves in the hotel and my fingers were numb as I was shooting this. nearby cafe saved the day, wish I could remember where I was.

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

distinctive: The Cooper Union by Morphosis in New York City

black and white photo of The Cooper Union, from north of the building on 3rd street

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

it's dumber than that. it's supposedly a giant MERV 15 filter.

screen capture of a MERV air filter showing the diagonal pattern of the filter frame

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

just for fun: none of the West/Middle/East Point roads existed in the 1938 survey: www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet...

1938 photographic aerial survey by Harrison Ryker of the Hunters Point area from Evans to Innes which shows dirt paths and no roads where West / Middle / East Point roads are a decade later

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

able to confirm @fuzzysay.bsky.social with Rumsey's maps: here's an aerial from 1948 and Google Maps from today:

comparison of maps: Harrison Ryker's aerial survey of San Francisco near Hunter's Point showing Middle Point Road (West Point to the west and East Point to the east) and current area in Google Maps today.

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Bosch, Brueghel, and breweries! Leffe in Dinant to the south, Delerium Tremens in Melle near Ghent... Bruges is nice, Ghent is fantastic, Antwerp is an interesting city (the Zaha Hadid building out at the port makes for some nice photos, though I was there on a cloudy, rainy day)

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

updated restaurant recommendations, then: Bistro des Lettres and La Petite Perigourdine, plus a cheese shop: L'assuette aux Fromages

screen capture of a small section of the Latin Quarter in Paris showing locations of the restaurants and cheese shop

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

fundamentally incompatible worldviews all of those without introspection storming us all "into the future to which our backs are turned, while the pile of debris before us grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress" (apologies to WB)

a bad overlay of Klee's Angelus Novus over the photo of Raghavendran

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

the drawings can be downloaded and there's a really laughable mistake on the title block. the drawings refer to a Catholic church project that they must have used as a base and it says "Released for Construction". Yikes! No structural engineering indicated on soil that was dredged from the river...

$screen shot (partial title block) from a sheet of the drawings that are available from the NPS comment page. It is Sheet A-3.20 titled Rear Elevation. On the right-hand edge it says RELEASED FOR CONSTRUCTION and has a local hard drive address of: V:\Projects\St Therese Catholic Church\266206 A300 - Elevations.dwg$

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

in addition, most of the land on Columbia Island is built up from uncompacted soil dredged from the river (multiple times over the decades). From the following report (available here: npshistory.com/publications...)

from the report: "Columbia Island itself was originally a man-made tidal flat that flooded at high tide. The first deposits placed in this area were from the 1915 dredging of the Virginia Channel. Each time the river was re-dredged, the spoil was deposited behind dikes and levees. By 1925, the island had been built up to a level 7' to 12' above m.1.w. through the placement of this uncompacted material. The new material dredged from 1925 to 1927 was used to build the island up to an elevation of about 20' above m.1.w."

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

would be good to have some structural engineers and construction managers weigh in on this. a proposed 100 feet taller than the Arc de Triomphe, this is going to need a substantial foundation through the old river bottom (see below from an 1862 map of the area: www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet...)

map from 1862 of Washington DC and Virginia in the area of Arlington Cemetery. The river is much wider than current day, and the Memorial Circle (site of the arch) lies on the western shore of an island (today called Little Island south of Theodore Roosevelt Island).

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Chicago code requires minimums, as shown in 570.10 Specific Requirements. Not sure if the landlord is required to meet these unless they've done permitted work recently and required to upgrade the number of outlets (unless I'm reading this wrong) codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/chicag...

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Florentine Painting and its Social Background

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

as we are propelled forward into the new year, i am thinking about the future and the present - and 'how it doesn't have to be this way'. happy new year for everyone who celebrates it today. an image from my wall of fragments of thoughts:

various post-it notes on my wall as part of my research. clockwise from top left: 'the state' and 'the individual' (Peter Rees - mortgage vs. rent); (aleatory conjunctures) A&H - a new kind of barbarism; thought turned into commodity; inauthenticity; IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY; alienation (compliance) *way of being (Levitas); redemption, salvation, absolution (charity); Hegel freedom --- Christianity; order -- chaos; how do we experience the world?; the shared experience of a class against capital; cost of living / auto-reduction; @26:47 'An Intro...' Baudrillard: urge to escape from the 'law of value'; the urge to waste energy
[a small portion of a larger collection of fragments of thoughts]

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

I arrived at a university archive (where I was told "we don't have much") and saw a cart full of material that hadn't been touched in decades. Nothing was organized, let alone digitized. It was lovely to pour through the archive, though, and I sorted and grouped what I could (for my return).

photo of a library cart full of "1968 material from various sources" at the University of Florence Architecture Library archives.

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

I learned a few things when I started in architecture: I ran blueprints on an enormous machine (bigger than the one in the image below); I lettered in ink with a Leroy apparatus; I was in charge of the sticky-back library of details...

photo of a commercial blueprint machine - conveyor belts ran at dangerous speeds and ammonia leaks happened more often than Health & Safety should allow

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

I first learned of Frank Gehry in 1991, in my 2nd year design studio at Cal Poly. He has intrigued me over the last 34 years and his buildings more often than not have been a delight to experience. Some views from my camera:

from top left: Gehry's Stata Center at MIT, Millenium Park in Chicago, the Louis Vuitton Fondation in Paris, the Bilbao Guggenheim, the IAC in NYC, the Yale Psychiatric Hospital, another at the entrance to Bilbao, and clay panels on exhibit at the Venice Biennale in 2008

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

but also Intervale and Wilkins intersected (the triangular area below), so there's a lot of reality to the legend:

another clip from a 1935 map of the Bronx showing Intervale and Wilkins' intersection

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Stebbins doesn't show up on the modern map. It looks like it wasn't too far (I think) from the park - here's a clip from a 1911 map titled Business District of New York, Brooklyn and Jersey City here: www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet...

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Wilkins used to be a much longer street - here's a clip from a 1927 map titled Mayor's Committee on City Planning The City of New York: Predominant Residential Age here: www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet...

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

from all the (humorous) articles about Trotsky in the Bronx, I only see the Triangle Dairy Restaurant on Wilkins. From Joshua Rubenstein's book:

Screen cap from a biography on Trotsky: "As part of his daily routine, Trotsky liked to frequent the Triangle Dairy Restaurant on Wilkins Avenue in the East Bronx"

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

graffiti in Venice, Nov. 2nd. "Zona antifa" and International Squatters' symbol spray painted in black paint underneath "DETERRITORIALIZE" in orange paint:

"Zona antifa" and International Squatters' symbol spray painted in black paint underneath "DETERRITORIALIZE" in orange paint

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

last efforts to finish reading & cross-referencing on a Friday night and very surprised to see my name in the postscript of @stevewright1977.bsky.social's Storming Heaven (2nd edition). Thank you -- and critical engagements to follow! [Also, I am very much enjoying The Weight of the Printed Word].

Screenshot which reads: A second overlooked milieu - that of theorists of space, design and capital - has attracted considerable attention in recent years amongst those attentive to the so-called Venice Group and/or the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Florence. Useful accounts of the nuances amongst thinkers as diverse as Massimo Cacciari, Claudio Greppi, Francesco Dal Co and Manfredo Tafuri can now be found in books by Gail Day (2010) and Pier Vittorio Aureli (2008), a thesis by Emre Ozyetis (2013), as well as shorter texts by Amit Wolf (2012), Alexandra Brown (2010) and James Dunbar (2016). With any luck, this research will soon be extended to a critical engagement with the journal Contropiano, with which many of these Italian theorists were also linked.

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

and not a place to be in reverse in the first place

Google Street view of the accident's location (along Old Town street) - the damaged area is adjacent to a driveway and gate, but the wall that the car drove into is behind a relatively wide sidewalk and a few feet of planting - meaning the car drove over a curb, across the sidewalk, and over the planting area before colliding with the building at enough speed to damage the heavy timbers

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

first went to Utrecht in 1994 to see this - and it was closed. returned about 10 years ago on a scheduled visit. an incredible place - the detailing and mechanics of all the moving parts is just lovely. (photo from 1994)

exterior of the Rietveld-Schroder house (1994) [Olympus OM-10 with 50mm f1.8 on very grainy black and white film]

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

The Frogs are organizing at the US Embassy in London:

US Embassy in London - photo of two frogs amidst others dancing

US Embassy in London - photo of tyrannosaurus rex amidst others dancing, one holds a sign that reads "Tyrannosaurus Against Tyranny"

US Embassy in London - photo of a frog holding a sign "The water is hot and the Frogs are organizing"

US Embassy in London - photo of a protester's sign that has an image of Trump and above it "ANTIFA-👑"

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

then they can also afford to fix their windows!

image showing a hammer-shaped car window breaker in action - a 'spider web' of broken glass from a laminated glass windshield. NB: the side windows are tempered and easier to break than laminated glass.

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

relatedly (from the same source): "... and as standing armies in the time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military shall be kept under strict subordination to, and be governed by the civil powers."

Seventh. That the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and their own State, or the United States, or for the purpose of killing game, and no law shall be passed for disarming the people or any of them, unless for crimes committed, or real danger of public injury from individuals; and as standing armies in the time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military shall be kept under strict subordination to, and be governed by the civil powers.

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

THE core right, going back before the Bill of Rights was adopted; see here a discussion on the constitutional amendments in a New York daily newspaper from December 25, 1787 with specific limits on the government's militia:

Eleventh. That the power of organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia (the manner of disciplining the militia to be prescribed by Congress) remain with the individual States, and that Congress shall not have authority to call or march any of the militia out of their own State, without the consent of such State, and for such length of time only as such State shall agree.
That the sovereignty, freedom and independency of the several States shall be retrained, and every power, jurisdiction and right, which is not by this Constitution expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled.

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

serendipitous that the next page i turn to is this from Agamben's Homo Sacer:

screencap from Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer: § 3 Life That Does Not Deserve to Live

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

I can't find the Medway Oil on any map from that era, but here's North Street in Charlton, right where the Thames Barrier is today:

crop from a 1904 map of Charlton (south side of the Thames)

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

or :The 'Work of Art in the Age of .)1tfechanical ReproductiotL

OCR failure: screenshot showing the title as :The 'Work of Art in the Age of .)1tfechanical ReproductiotL

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

it was open in the evening, not sure when it'll be removed

a group of people taking photos (and someone sketching) at the Royal Courts of Justice where the Banksy is (for now)

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

$25M homes are abundant (wine cellars! saltwater pools!)

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

been reading about it since the early 90s at school:

cover of the book The End of Architecture? Document adn Manifestos, with a Lebbeus Woods drawing as the background and a list of contributors including: Coop Himmelblau, Zaha Hadid, Steven Holl, Thom Mayne, Eric Owen Moss, Carme Pinos, Lebbeus Woods (and Frank Gehry, not noted on the cover)

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

@katewagner.bsky.social would love McCrery's residential portfolio, I think:

A screen capture from McCrery Architects website showing a (very bad, even awful) residential project

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

and larger than 1-1/2 football fields:

from The Measure of Things website: 90,000 square feet is about one-and-three-fifths times as big as a Football field
The size of a Football field is about 57,600 square feet.
(American) (per NFL regulation)
Per NFL rules, a football field should measure 109.728 m (120 yards) long by 48.768 m wide, for a total area of 57,600 square feet.

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

90K sq. ft. is larger than the White House...

from The Measure of Things website: 90,000 square feet is about one-and-three-tenths times as big as The White House

The size of The White House is about 67,000 square feet.
(Washington, DC) (including wings)
Housing the presidency, the White House occupies six stories and a total of 67,000 square feet of floor space. This space includes 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, 28 fireplaces, and 3 elevators, as well as a tennis court, bowling alley, movie theater, jogging track, swimming pool, and putting green.

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

The Zeiss lens used to film Barry Lyndon (from a Kubrick exhibition at the Design Museum in London a few years ago), originally designed for NASA and retrofitted for the film. Magic.

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James Dunbar @jamesad.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

"exceptionally attractive young female spa attendants" per Mark Singer:

page 70 from Mark Singer's Character Studies: "...called the Greenhouse Spa, proven specialists in mud wraps, manual lymphatic drainage, reflexology, shiatsu and Hawaiian hot-rock massage, loofah polishes, sea-salt rubs, aromatherapy, acupuncture, peat baths, and Japanese steeping-tub protocol. Evidently, Trump's philosophy of wellness is rooted in a belief that prolonged exposure to exceptionally attractive young female spa attendants will instill in the male clientele a will to live. Accordingly, he limits his role to a pocket veto of key hiring decisions. While giving me a tour of the main exercise room, where Tony Bennett, who does a couple of gigs at Mar-a-Lago each season and has been designated an "artist-in-residence," was taking a brisk walk on a treadmill, Trump introduced me to "our resident physician, Dr. Ginger Lea Southall" - a recent chiropractic-college graduate. As Dr. Ginger, out of earshot, manipulated the sore back of a grateful member, I asked Trump where she had done her training. "I'm not sure," he said. "Baywatch Medical School? Does that sound right? I'll tell you the truth. Once I saw Dr. Ginger's photograph, I didn't really need to look at her resume or anyone else's. Are you asking, 'Did we hire her because she'd trained at Mount Sinai for fifteen years?' The answer is no. And I'll tell you why: because by the time she's spent fifteen years at Mount Sinai, we don't want to look at her."

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