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k bighair from dallas has a DIY shipping container project going on down in kerrville texas and has photo documented it here. she has been posting frequently on the fab-prefab container-bay message board. asking smart questions and offering good answers to other's questions. on this recent thread fellow board participant and admitted architect gregory la vardera chases her off with this hot new new topic :
Why do Containers attract DIY?
Why, like rats to a meat truck, do containers attract DIYs? Really there is nothing different about this than any kind of construction, heavy or light. Yet people seem to have some sort of regard for regular construction which keeps most people away and hiring contractors, some sort of regard that they don't have for working with a container.
Honestly, having looked at them very closely there is nothing different about building a house from a container than there is from steel. Yet I don't see anybody asking "how many bolts do I need on that beam to create a moment connection to that column.." Its like nobody would ever ask that - like its considered the domain of some kind of mystical expert, yet containers are wide open to anybody with a blow torch and some balls. Frankly you are in much deeper sh-t if you think you are going to mess with a container than you are with structural steel. There are lots of resources out there for working with structural steel. Books, industry standards, classes at universities and community colleges. Of course there are no resources on building with containers because its all "brand new". But that does not mean that working with them is any simpler or easier than any other type of construction.
All that means is you have to make it up yourself as you go along, which answers my question I suppose. A DIYer would really love doing that! But at least hire yourself an engineer if you are not sure its going to stand up.
All I can say is go for it, and don't screw up so badly that you make tough for others that may follow being a little bit more methodical and thorough.
this family snap shot scan just in from my brother. we are trailer folks. left to right. uncle al's trailer, aunt juanita, cousin paul, me, cousin steve, uncle al, brother john and i dont know what hes driving. visiting us in dallas '62ish enroute to his management level assignment with the park service at death valley national park in nevada..
revamped wtc memorial design
ck berryman / originator of the teddy bear. this drawing made gift to my grandmother as a child on a visit to her aunt in washington dc in 1912. berryman and the aunt both worked in the us patent office at the time.
glenn gould you tube proformances :
Lois Marshall sings strauss's cancillie w/ glenn gould in accompaniment.
plays aria from the goldberg variations
A short segment from "Glenn Gould's Toronto," a long-unavailable film from the late 1970s produced for the CBC. He talks about the new CN Tower, about how Toro ... (more)
Leonard Rose and Glenn Gould play the 3rd movement (Adagio cantabile — Allegro vivace) of Ludwig van Beethoven's Cello Sonata No 3 in A major, Op. 69.