Brother Michael

Over the past month, my brother Michael and I went on a journey with my Father Toddy. Dad passed away around 3am on May 16th, the last day of his 89th year. His birthday is May 17th. Dad was not one for wasting time or starting something he couldn’t finish. It was really nice to spend Dad’s last week with him and great to be with my brother Michael and sister-in-law Randee. We talked a great deal but often too just hung out quietly.

A time of transition and change…

Mike’s working on a new website that captures the essence of his practice as an architect. I’ve seen a few screenshots. Some nice statements there. The site feels like an extended artist’s statement. We’re used to reading those at galleries. Artists work hard to summarize their work into a sort of elevator pitch complete with hooks. Often the effort to summarize misses the beauty of extended contemplation over time. We feel these days as if people have so little time and we wish not to waste it for them. But some things are time well spent. In the case of my brother, I’m not objective but rather shamelessly subjective. I love him and I enjoy his work immensely.

But in the spirit of clarity and summarization, of conclusions wrought over time as the result of craft and practice, I offer the above preview that makes one consider the notions of knowing and thinking and how we sometimes overdo…

Overthinking can be bad

Overknowing can be worse

Other distilled statements from Mike include…Open up…and Let Go…

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About Michael Ryan Architects: Michael Ryan established his architectural practice in 1989, in Loveladies, New Jersey. Taking the position that architecture is an art, the firm offers a comprehensive approach to design, viewing architecture and interior design as interdependent disciplines. The firm’s reputation has broadened its geographical base beyond the Loveladies office location, to include work in Philadelphia, Maryland, Delaware and New York City. In 2004, the firm moved its main office to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to continue expanding its efforts. Transcending the temporal qualities of style and taste, Michael Ryan Architects focus on imparting a timeless quality consistent with the permanent nature of architecture. Blending architecture, interior design, and custom furniture design to create complete, thoughtful, unique spaces rooted in a modernist aesthetic, the firm seeks to combine order and accommodation, front and back, and interior and exterior to create simplicity derived from understanding the subjective use and desire of the space.