Liz O'Sullivan Architecture, LLC

03/05/2024

“How Do You Write the Specs?”

I know it’s late… in the project. I know you’re weary… of the hard questions. I know your plans… for this last week before the deadline… don’t include me. “How do you write the specs?” I was asked …

11/08/2023

New blog post: Nice Curbs!

One thing I’ve noticed about upstate New York is that they have some really nice curbs. Stone sidewalk and curb, Lake Placid, New York I first noticed the curbs on a college campus in Geneva, New Y…

10/20/2022

Some of the magic of masonry, exposed. My latest blog post:

When we see parts of buildings coming apart, we get curious, and that can prompt us to learn how things get put together. Sometimes, it’s obvious how building elements began to deteriorate or start…

10/31/2021

Latest blog post:

I recently stayed at a historic hotel a few states away. It’s a very historic hotel – over 130 years old, and a designated historic landmark. The framing of the grand old building is all wood…

05/10/2021

My latest blog post, about the lifespans of structures:

When I was in architecture school, people often talked about “building for 500 years.” The architecture program at my alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, is a classical program, s…

07/13/2020

My latest blog post:

Learning isn’t always comfortable. Some of the lessons we learn most thoroughly come from mistakes we’ve made, or from finding out the consequences of actions we never considered before…

12/05/2017

My latest blog post is a bit about green roofs in general, and a bit about Denver’s new green roof mandate, effective January 1, 2018.

Some of the projects I work on experience many design changes between initial concept and completion of construction. On healthy projects, the most dramatic changes that I see occur after the schem…

07/26/2017

Latest blog post: "Exterior Decorating"

Are you designing for the function and performance of the building, or just doing some exterior decorating? Funny things can happen early in design on a project, when an architect or interior desig…

01/31/2017

Latest blog post: "When Things Fall Apart"
https://lizosullivanaia.com/2017/01/31/when-things-fall-apart/

09/13/2016

New blog post.
Sometimes school supplies can be like construction products.
https://lizosullivanaia.com/2016/09/13/school-supplies/

Gone are the days when my sweet firstborn wanted to buy his school supplies months ahead of the start of school. Shopping seems to have become almost as much of a chore for him as it is for me. Thi…

06/13/2016

Latest blog post: https://lizosullivanaia.com/2016/06/11/what-exactly-are-we-communicating/

What’s a hiker to think? You can see the summit from here, the hiking trail guidebook says the trailhead is up here somewhere, but the street signs don’t match the road names on the map…

01/19/2016

New blog post: "Cramming It All In." http://lizosullivanaia.com/2016/01/18/cramming-it-all-in/

Mid-January is unquestionably wintertime. No matter where we are in the northern hemisphere, the long hours of darkness tell our bodies to slow down and hibernate. The cold weather and the piles of...