Mike Lenhart (bio)

The time of year is at hand when many of us pull out the holiday decorations from storage or the back of our closets. For better or worse, the Season is here. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, or any other holiday, there are ornaments for all of them. I wanted to take a look at some of the Christmas holiday ornaments of old - just for a bit of nostalgia and comment. Of course there'll be some notes on design, as well.

We've all come up against a client or two who hasn't been able, or willing, take make a decision and sign that blasted contract. We've done all our homework and created a brief and contract that covers everything they are needing for the project and we've even included all the concessions they wanted in order to make it "work for them". OK, how do we get them to confirm?

There's been a lot of hype in recent years about all things "green". We're all supposed to recycle, reuse, and compost more than ever. That's good. There's also a push to get our new edifices to comply with newly imposed eco-friendly standards, so we don't hurt the environment so much. That's been occuring a lot. A recent institution has recently reopened as one of, if not the most, environmentally-friendly kids on the block - the California Academy of Sciences.