In the fall of 2007, Lamar Outdoor Advertising and Ford|Dickinson began development of a series of new advertising structures that would incorporate new digital display technologies. It was thought that these new designs would increase public acceptance, and therefore expand the market for placement of these outdoor advertising structures. These new designs would improve the aesthetic appearance of outdoor advertising structures, work in concert with existing support systems, and provide an economical ‘kit of parts’ that can be delivered, installed, and maintained easily throughout the United States. The design process led to the development of four general-concept families with multiple variations that would fulfill those concepts. These conceptual designs were thoroughly illustrated at a temporary online hub where RFP recipients and members of the client body could download documentation about the project.

Buildings are usually complex wholes made of disparate things – materials, technologies, concepts, knowledge, etc – brought under the auspiciousness of a singular intent. As a cohesive whole, the architecture does not indicate an aesthetic but rather, a regulating intent. To understand a building as an architecture one must undergo some form of analysis. Between the intention of the author (very difficult to find out and frequently irrelevant to the interpretation of the text) and the intention of the interpreter (who simply beats texts into a shape which serves their purpose), there is a third possibility – the intention of the text. This assignment asked students to analyze a building in its present state and to argue whether or not the building itself is effective in achieving its desired meaning.

The root function of a practicing architect centers on their ability to follow rules, like building codes and client requirements. This first semester project, dubbed the nest, had to hold a half pound object on a 4"x4" platform 48" above the ground a minimum of 4" away from any surface such as a wall, stairwell, tree, etc. The nest could not be permanently affixed to any surface, could only touch the floor at one point but could touch any other amount of surfaces as necessary. Students were asked to take on these rules as a source of inspiration rather than an oppressive constraint in the design of the nest.