My kids are well trained. Not to pick their up clothes off the floor or wash their dirty dishes, mind you, but after 13 years of taking iDigHardware readers along on vacation, they are very responsive when I ask them to help me find a door to share here.
Remember the Good Old Days, when I used to go on road trips (and plane trips) and post photos of the doors I saw along the way? Well, I'm so excited to be able to get back out a bit, and I found this interesting application in Guanajuato, Mexico.
I'll get back to writing about the codes soon, but I think we could all use a virtual road trip to see some beautiful doors. Check out the variety of doors I found at a local bazaar last weekend!
I just saw these doors in a hotel, so it seems like a good time to write about the requirements for doors at an elevator hoistway.
By now you have likely heard about the earthquake that caused property damage, injuries, and deaths in Mexico City and the state of Puebla on Tuesday. This one followed on the heels of another earthquake about a week and a half before, near the border of Mexico and Guatemala. I am fine and we didn't feel a thing, although it shook me up a bit to receive bits and pieces of the news from friends as I was trying to do a code update via webinar.
Continuing with the Guatemalan theme (until tomorrow when I have a fire door question for you), I encountered this in a public restroom...
As I promised yesterday, here are a few doors from my recent trip to Guatemala. We saw so many amazing doors - big ones, small ones, ornate doors and utilitarian doors, lots of wicket doors, cool door knockers and other hardware...
You may or may not have noticed, I have been on vacation with my kids in Guatemala for the last 2 weeks. I wrote all of my blog posts and articles before I left...
It's that time of year again, when lots of people go on vacation - remember the road trips I used to drag all of you on? This summer I'm taking the kids to Guatemala, so I don't know how many interesting doors we'll see...
Some of you may remember the blog post below, which I first published in 2011. Time flies! When I visited Greenwich Lock & Safe and met locksmith and artist Phil Mortillaro, he told me that there was a documentary in progress about him. The documentary is now available on PBS.org!
We visited Santa Clara del Cobre, a town known for it's amazing copper work. I didn't find a lot of copper doors, but the pair below is on the entrance to the Museo del Cobre. The doors are wood, with small copper overlays attached which look like they were done by various artisans...
I recently went on a field trip to an elementary school with Greg Thomson (Allegion specwriter) and a group of our specwriter apprentices, and we saw a couple of interesting applications in the courtyard. The courtyard is fully enclosed so a means of egress is required at each end...
Some of you might be thinking..."Doors can't be disguised like that!" but this mural is on the access or ingress side of the door, not the egress side. The model codes require means of egress doors to be readily distinguishable and easily recognizable as doors, but this requirement is typically applied to the egress side of the door...
I often find that I am more cautious about modifying code requirements than even the AHJ. This opening is serving an Assembly occupancy, where delayed egress is not allowed by the IBC. In addition, the AHJ approved the 30-second delay instead of 15 seconds...
As promised in Monday's post, here are some of the doors we saw during our visit to the Bronx Zoo. Keep your camera ready during your summer vacation and send me some photos of interesting doors that you see (please)!
Here are some photos from last week's trip to CONSTRUCT in Baltimore...I'm headed to Phoenix & Scottsdale soon, so let me know if there are doors there that I should share!
And now...for my last post from Morocco, some Fixed-it Friday photos from Essaouira. If you've never visited, it is a beautiful city with an old fort, a busy port, talented wood carvers, a sandy beach, fresh seafood, and the fattest cats in all of Morocco. Oh - and lots of doors that are fighting corrosion from the salt air. Enjoy!
This was not the first time I've been locked in. My youngest daughter locked us in a hotel room on another summer road trip, and once I got locked in the Trinity Church stairwell. Hopefully being locked in Mazagan makes #3 of 3...
This is not the first time I've shopped for locks in Marrakech (here are some photos from the last time), but today I stumbled upon two craftsmen in the haddadine (metalworkers' souk) that made THE MOST AMAZING LOCKS. I bought one of the padlocks so I was able to take lots of photos of one of the shops. Check them out!
As much as I love the beautiful doors of Chefchaouen, I think I love the well-loved old doors with their patches and repairs even more. Here are some of my favorites for today's Fixed-it Friday post...
I have to get on the road early today, so I only have time to post a teeny preview...I will post more tonight!
We spent a few hours in the Fez medina today. There are beautiful doors EVERYWHERE! Here are a few...
It's that time of the year again, when I take a little time off and share some of the amazing doors I see in my summer travels. This is a little personal, but THIS is my bedroom door for tonight. Amazing right?
Last month I spent a long weekend in Burlington, Vermont, and of course I came home with some door photos to share...
If you're here in Dallas for DHI's CoNEXTions 2014 and you see any beautiful or interesting doors, send me a clear photo and I'll add it to this post! OH - and come to my class tomorrow (Friday) so I'm not all alone - CE1401 Codes and Standards Update at 1:30 in Senators Hall. Here are some that I've seen so far...
I spent last weekend in New York City, and saw these beautiful leather entrance doors on the Trump SoHo. I'm not sure how practical they will be long-term, but they're gorgeous now!...
I'm in Las Vegas at ISC-West (come visit me in Allegion booth #20031 if you're here!), so I won't have time to write a post for today, but in case you missed my previous photos of the doors of Las Vegas...
A few years ago I took my family to a resort on Cape Cod for winter break, and I spent this past weekend at the same resort. On our first visit, I found a lot to write about...the hinges on all of the cross-corridor doors had been modified (sometimes very badly) and were no longer code-compliant for fire doors, the fire doors connecting the 8 buildings were propped open with wedges and the latches had been removed, the swimming pool egress doors were questionable, and there were a few other issues.
Before anyone says, "Why didn't you stop and see me??", we were only in Savannah for a quick lunch break. :)
Happy New Year!!!
A few years ago I posted some reader photos and information about the replica of the Parthenon, in Nashville. Since I'm here this week for CONSTRUCT, I went over early this morning to see it for myself. I have one more day at CONSTRUCT, starting with the Bloggers' Panel in room 205C of the Music City Center. Come on over if you have any questions for the panel of bloggers - Dave Stutzman (SpecWords), Elizabeth O'Sullivan (Comments from a Specwriter), Charles Hendricks (Design Matters), Eric Lussier (Eric D. Lussier), and me!
I'm in Nashville this week for the CONSTRUCT show, and I've been scoping out some of the beautiful doors in town. My 1 vs. 100 Fire/Life-Safety class went well today...nobody fell asleep or faked an injury so they could leave early. Tomorrow I have 1 vs. 100 Electrified Hardware at 2:45, so if you're here at CONSTRUCT, head over to the Learning Pavilion. I decided today that the only thing worse than speaking to a large crowd is speaking to nobody, but luckily I had a pretty full class. Tomorrow will be the same "game show" format but with a different topic, so come back if you attended today! On Friday morning at 9:30 (room 205C), I'm participating in the CONSTRUCT Bloggers Panel, so if you've ever thought about starting a blog, have any questions about blogging, or just want to meet some bloggers, come on down!
Twelve years ago I was new to the town where I currently live, and I knew almost nobody. It was hard to meet people back then - I had no kids and my husband and I both worked in other towns. My family and a bunch of my friends were still back in Vermont, where I started my career with a door and hardware distributor. My coworkers at Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies (yes, I have worked at IR for almost 19 years!!) were wonderful, but they were busy with their families (I used to babysit their kids and take care of their pets). I remember signing up for classes just to try to find some friends - cooking, roller blading, line dancing...you name it. Are you getting the picture? I was desperate to connect with someone I had something in common with.
For some of you, this story will confirm my nerdiness. I'm ok with that. My trip to San Miguel de Allende is almost over - we're flying home on Saturday. I have hundreds of door photos to sort through, and I will post some in the coming weeks. But there was one pair of doors that I had not been able to photograph properly - the doors of La Parroquia, the beautiful church on the south side of el Jardin, which is the garden at the heart of San Miguel. I have visited the church MANY times during my stay, at all times of the day and night, hoping to find the doors closed. I've asked several people what time the doors open in the morning, but so far, no luck. I couldn't go home without photographing the doors of the unofficial symbol of SMA, right?
When I began planning a trip to San Miguel de Allende, I had no idea that the city was known for its beautiful doors...there's even a book about them! I have a lot more door photos to post (and even an egress problem!), but for now, here's a sneak peek...
Last month I wrote about my experience on the day of this year's Boston Marathon. The slogan "Boston Strong" has emerged since then as the ultimate description of this city, which will not let senseless violence beat us down. This weekend my friend and I took our kids downtown, and our first stop was the makeshift memorial that has sprung up next to Trinity Church and across the street from the Boston Public Library. I was surprised at the very long line of people inching through the display of running shoes, flowers, notes, candles, hats, stuffed animals, and other mementos that have been left at the site, and also the multiple news vehicles parked along the street. I'm still wondering what story they're waiting to capture...survivors visiting the memorial? Famous people? I guess I'll have to watch the news and see.
This morning I went over to the Grand Canal Shoppes before the stores opened, to get photos of the unusual door pulls. I'm pretty sure Security was tracking my every move, but apparently they decided I was harmless.
As always when I travel, I've been on the lookout for interesting doors during my trip to Las Vegas. I saw these last night at dinner. They're beautiful (and huge!) carved wood panels, hung on center pivots which are offset from the edge. When the doors are closed (see below), there is a gap at the hinge edge.
I'm back in the snowy north, hunkered down while the snow piles up. This is my last post from my trip to Tampa. For next week I'm working on another post about glass (yes, there's more!), as well as a post about school security - particularly the "creative" and often non-code-compliant methods I've seen a lot of lately. If you've run into any interesting security modifications for schools, send them along! Have a great weekend all!
The Tampa Bay Hotel (although no longer a hotel) is an amazing building, especially once you hear about its history. If you've got 15 minutes, check out this video:
This is a travel week for me - I'm in Tampa, Florida for the winter meeting of the Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association (BHMA - check out their new website!). I have more posts in the works on school security and wired glass, but while I'm on the road, you know that I like to share the cool doors that I see with all of you. I'll get back to the code-related posts next week.
I just returned from a trip to visit my brother and sister-in-law in Grassy Cove, Tennessee. If you're a long-time reader of IDH, you may remember when I visited them way back in 2009 for the Chip Falcon Road Trip (my brother did the cycle testing).
I'm getting ready to head home from Arc-US in San Diego (which has been a fabulous conference!), and wondering how long it will be before someone tweets a photo of me singing on stage with the Dueling Pianomen. Until then, here's some signage the likes of which I've never seen before. I'm in favor of signage to prevent door abuse. Save the doors!
This post was printed in the November 2012 issue of Doors & Hardware
During a break in today's BHMA meetings I took a drive south to see the Mission San Xavier Del Bac. The mission was founded in 1692, and the current church was built between 1783 and 1797. It is located in the center of a Papagon Indian settlement. The mission has been constantly maintained and periodically restored, so it's in beautiful shape. You can read more about the history of this gorgeous building here.
No, really! They do!
Here are some of the lock shops I visited while shopping for the locks in this post.
I know what you're thinking..."Another day, another kasbah." :-) I sincerely appreciate the chance to enjoy my vacation while still keeping up with my blog, email, etc., so thanks for bearing with me!
I mentioned these gigantic doors in an earlier post, but I went back to see them again since we're in the neighborhood. The mosque wasn't open for tours when we were there (the only way non-Muslims can go into a mosque), but I sent my husband in with a camera and he came back with photos of panic hardware. He's learning! :-)
I hope you're not getting tired of posts about beautiful Moroccan doors because I know I'm not tired of seeing them. There are amazing doors EVERYWHERE in Morocco - adorned bronze, carved wood, hand-painted...absolutely gorgeous. Yesterday I dragged the family to Bahia Palace in the 100-degree heat. They were good sports about it and I think they actually like roaming around old architectural marvels with me. Once we finally find them in the depths of the medina, that is. It's not easy to get around in the old city, or the ville nouvelle for that matter.
