Installation is complete on the Market Kiosks at Greater East End Navigation Blvd Esplanade.  Great work by Armando Arteaga (Metalab designer and PM), Merge Studios and Campo Sheet Metal.

Scott Marble writes on TEX-FAB's niche in the architecture, engineering and construction world and its role in bringing people and technologies together to advance digital fabrication. 

A sneak preview of the eclectic mix of artistic and functional elements soon to be unveiled at the Greater East End's Esplanade on Navigation. Metalab's Ringo solar lighting system and Mercado Picado shade structures adorn the landscape.  

It was a working dog and pony show yesterday on the Navigation Esplanade in the Greater East End of Houston.  Installation was going on while the cameras were rolling from ABC13, The Chronicle, Swamplot and Culture Map.  Work by artists Gary Sweeney (Faux Bois anchor and benches) and Anthony Schumate (letter-form benches, bike racks and bus stops) was placed along with Mercado Picado Kiosks, Ringo LED lights and solar generators.  Thank you to the Greater East End, our enlightened clients, and The Art Guys (Lead Artist).  To be completed in October.

Tumbling House, the Art Guys' zany take on the playground that now sprawls behind a Houston residence, was featured on Swamplot. 

We recently made the trip to Littlestown, PA (near Gettysburg) to the Philips Hadco manufacturing plant check in on the production of the Ringo light fixtures.  The housings units are being sand cast out of aluminum and assembled in the facilty with LED electrical equipment integrated before being boxed up for shipment.  The Greater East End will be receiving the exclusive feature of the overhead "string lights" suspended from two pipe outriggers above the disc housing the main luminaire (lights shown are placeholders).  These units will be fitted with 16 node LED boards based on photometric data generated for the site making them extra efficienct for the solar powered system to sustain with 3-5 days of battery backup.  The lights can be fitted with up to 80 node LED boards for more lumens in future orders.  

Four panel solar generators are going into the Navigation Blvd. esplanade for the Greater East End in Houston.  Solar panels will be installed next along with the Ringo fixtures in August, approximately 10 lights per generator.  The bolt covers on the generators match the color of the string of fixtures that they will power.

Memory Cloud was published in the July/August 2013 issue of Texas Architect.  The issue focuses on light and features work by James Turrell and Morphosis. Texas Architect reserves its "Backpage" for new and notable projects happening in Texas, which is where contributing editor Jack Murphey elaborates on Memory Cloud. Link to online issue.

Four first-stage finalists named in TEX-FAB's SKIN Competition, an international competition which invited participants to engage innovative facade design with parametric design and digital fabrication. FabriKator is a weekly newsletter written by Architect's Newspaper product editor Emily Hooper.

We are working with RE:site again on another elaborate hanging piece for the El Paso Airport Conrac facility.  The work uses the iconography from the mix of cultures in El Paso and translates them into a 3-dimensional Mandala made of colored and dichroic CNC cut acrylic to evoke the vibrancy of the sunset.  We'll draw upon our experience in working with ball-chain to hang the components from a steel canopy similar to what we designed and fabricated for Memory Cloud.  DWA, Inc., Building Architect.