October 6, 2011 – 1:52 pm
It seemed like the sociable thing to do, signing up for the Badminton Open at the home office, forming a team with my marketing colleague Chris. Show the departmental flag, what, what! Hail fellows well met on the playing fields of Centerbrook! Pip, pip, cheerio, and all that tommyrot! How hard could it be? It [...]
September 9, 2011 – 10:01 am
As a teacher serving a month-long “externship” at Centerbrook this summer to gain insight into “real world” applications of my curriculum, I was particularly interested in learning how the firm approaches academic design, which represents a substantial portion of its work. I teach pre-engineering courses, including architecture and design, at Old Saybrook High School, and [...]
A violent storm last week blew our wisteria right off its trellis. Once the rain soaked deck dried up, a crew of our strongest and limberest architects hoisted the hardy plant back onto its perch. Being neither strong nor limber, I chose the much lighter video camera… The wisteria, shown below in full bloom, is [...]
As Yogi Berra once famously averred, “You can observe a lot by watching.” The lower office parking lot, below the dam on the Falls River, is a splendid place to observe wildlife, even from your car. The other day, as I pulled in after lunch, I noticed a pair of Canada geese patrolling the far [...]
Peter Nyberg of CT Logs to Lumber, LLC brought his portable sawmill to Centerbrook recently to demonstrate how raw timber – wherever it may lie, bark and all – can be turned into boards and beams for buildings. He set up his mobile mill in 20 minutes, and in less than two hours he reduced [...]
“Stereotypes be damned” seemed to be the message from the lethargic beaver that spent the good part of a recent afternoon lounging about the dam on the Centerbrook campus like a housecat after a three-course meal. The body language was clear: it sidled to a sunny corner of the badminton court – alas, a bit [...]
Spring hereabouts is no respecter of calendars, or human longing, or depleted woodpiles. But one glance across the millpond settles the question. Wading at the edge of the flinty gray water, backlit by moldering brown leaves, is a pure vision of hope. The Great Egret has returned.
March 25, 2011 – 10:42 am
She’s a compact, being 11 feet long by nearly five feet wide, but seats four nicely – namely, Truly Scrumptious and Caractacus Potts, plus a modest entourage. This extremely limited edition gets unbelievable gas mileage, both on the ground and off. Her dashing wood and aluminum exterior, blood-red wheels and brass oval grille recall ever-so-swell [...]
Everyone is dying to know what the big bad winter meant for the annual production of Centerbrook maple syrup down by the Falls River … over to the lower parking lot … across from weeping willows …where the sugar maples grow, side by each. No one has said boo, but they’re just being shy, of [...]
January 19, 2011 – 1:49 pm
I would like to be able to state that I became an architect to save the planet from wasteful, polluting buildings – the built world accounts for some 40 percent of the greenhouse gases we produce – but the truth is my fondest desire was to become a thespian. As the theater is an iffy [...]
