I was actually born in California and we moved to Texas when I was 8 years old—to the Dallas-Forth Worth area. But I didn’t really move to Dallas, proper, until 2012, after college and grad school, and right before I got married. We’ve been here ever since then.
Well, it’s kind of the cliché: when I was kid, I really liked to draw. In my senior year of high school, I took a class that was supposed to be a blow-off class on interior design. We had to draw plans and whatnot and, ironically enough, I ended up excelling in the class. My teacher recommended architecture school, and I ended up going to Texas Tech, where she went, and where they have a really good architecture program. That’s pretty much the way I ended up where I am.
Yeah, absolutely. Architecture, as a whole, covers both sides of the brain. There are a lot of technical aspects to it. We work with engineers but we have to problem solve ourselves. And then, on the right side of the brain, we deal with the creative, artistic aspects of buildings and projects, too.
As funny as it sounds, I think architecture school actually prepared me for balancing different components and interests in life. I knew that making it through architecture school, and the hours that takes, was always going to be tough. And, honestly, even working an architectural job, from a time perspective, kind of pales in comparison to architecture school. So, I’ve been conditioned to act on my interests and make the time to pursue them, even if it means I’m sleeping less, thanks to the rigors of school. When I’ve got an interest, the passion is enough to push me to pursue it. It’s the same thing with the blog that my wife and I run. Those are the things that we’re passionate about and we end up making time for them one way or another.
Gosh. [Laughs.] There are a lot of things that can make a building great, but I’ll answer in a very personal way. My favorite buildings tend to be buildings that were preexisting, which have had new life breathed into them—where you see traces of the past, but also footprints of the present and maybe even the future. I work a lot with preservation buildings and renovations—ground up as well, but I’m really drawn to buildings with a past. Buildings with a soul, as corny as that sounds, where you can feel that a story is being told through the building.
Yeah, I think so—even with my own personal style, with any given outfit that I wear, you can see traces of what I was interested in as a child, as a high schooler and as an adult. I think that having that thread from the past to the present is really important. It makes it a lot more personal and successful in my opinion.
For as long as I can remember being alive, to be honest with you. You know, I have memories of trying to mimic Michael Jackson as a kid, wearing loafers with white socks. Even when I played sports as a child and a high schooler, I was always drawn to some of the more stylish athletes, like Ken Griffey Jr. or Allen Iverson or Deion Sanders. There was a flair to their style, as they performed these very athletic occupations, if you will. I don’t remember there being a certain age or moment where it clicked… it’s just always been that way, really.
It’s funny, because, even as things are drastically different, they’re still similar. We’re very lucky to be really close with my brother and sister-in-law, so we spend a lot of time with them, eating together at home instead of in a restaurant, though. We still love going out for a walk on the weekends and grabbing a coffee. But we have been tackling more projects at home. That was a big component of us wanting to own a home—to be able to make it our own. And, as luck would have it, we’ve had nothing but time to do that, lately. I’m a homebody at heart, so being forced to slow down a bit and spend time at home hasn’t been as hard on me as it has been for others.
Photographing the urban environment. The pictures that I take for our blog and Instagram account are very different from what I take for my own enjoyment, personally. I feel very at peace walking around with my camera in hand. Whether I catch anything or not that’s noteworthy, just being out in the city, capturing what I want from what I see—that’s what I love.
]]>As the COVID-19 pandemic emerged keeping us all in our homes and no longer able to go out and enjoy DJ sets live and in the flesh, we decided it was high-time we reach out to some of our friends who mix records to enlist them to help us spread some good vibes and good tunes at a time when we could all use some positivity.
The second DJ we hit up was COSMO BAKER out of Philadelphia, PA - who went live for us on May 2, 2020 marking the second episode of our QUARANTUNES series of live streaming events.
There are very few DJs who truly embody the very essence of what DJing is all about, and Cosmo Baker is one of them. Cosmo is known globally as one of the top tier DJs on the planet, having toured the planet dozens of times and played many times on 5 different continents, in almost 50 different countries, in front of tens of thousands of people at once for over 2 decades. He’s widely regarded as an integral figure of the already rich Philadelphia DJ legacy alongside contemporaries such as DJ Jazzy Jeff, Questlove and Diplo. A master of "open format", Cosmo's known worldwide for his genre-spanning selection, technical prowess, and explosive stage presence and energy that he brings to his live performances.
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