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Acknowledgments

There are more people responsible for prodding and honing the thinking that has gone into this study than I can possibly credit by name. It would have to start with the open-minded parents who raised their children to understand that their proper purpose in life was to leave the world a better place than they found it. This work is part of a continuing life-long effort to do just that. Those also sharing responsibility include: with extraordinary kudos to my school teachers who instructed my thinking and expanded my childhood knowledge; with deep respect to the naval officers and comrades who demonstrated self-discipline as a means of effective group action, and taught me that an honest belief in fatalism enabled one to work calmly in and survive the rigors of extreme duress when in harm's way; with life-long wonderful memories and many thanks to the magnificent professors who have mentored, taught, guided and polished my perception of the tools and methods available to me and the responsibilities that accompany the realities of a working product; with respect to the varied employers who tolerated the teaching of means and methods required of employees to return them profits in their many and varied businesses; with great and thankful honor to the many partners and colleagues who have challenged me to produce good and worthwhile solutions to those many exciting and varied problems confronting us; with genuine amazement for the clients, contractors and material men who quite willingly have taken the time and energy to teach me the realities and liabilities of the planning and construction process; and yes, even those bureaucrats and public officials who have taught me patience, sometimes agonizing patience, as a means of countering frustration.

More immediately, enormous thanks are due my wife Sheila, who has endured well over a half century of my iconoclasm and idiosyncrasy, and has provided me the space, time, and freedom to develop my ideas; to our wonderful and endearing offspring, extended family and friends who have, sometimes not-so-patiently, audited my repeated attempts to focus and make verbally intelligible my thinking; to my Florida correspondents Chayo Frank and Todd Rice, who counseled that in this day and age, a website was far and away the best way to communicate an idea to a broad audience; to my very great and good friend Spike Ress, the multi-talented fine artist who has agreed to design this website; and finally to my youngest daughter Megan, who has edited and criticized the work. Her suggestions have given my words whatever coherence they possess, although any errors I enthusiastically claim for myself. Sincere thanks and much love to each and every one.

This work is dedicated to Mendel Glickman, my Engineering Professor, whose pencil I became for both his own projects and for those he undertook as Frank Lloyd Wright's all-purpose Engineering Consultant. Buried at Mr. Wright's right hand in that lovely churchyard in Spring Green, Wisconsin , Mendel remains the father I would have chosen were I not my wonderful and Rabelaisian birth father's only son.

  Author, Roger vanFrank

Mr. vanFrank began this study as a young architect in the early 1950's. Several possible solutions were enthusiastically proposed over the years, but then abandoned due to the awakening understanding that proper solutions had to be developed, not by changing existing norms, but by amplifying these within the constraints of existing legal boundaries and procedures. Any solution must garner substantial profits, preserve existing equities, and be flexible enough to admit site-specific requirements and varied community needs.

Copyright © 2007  

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