Michael Wolfe is a designer in Portland Oregon. Michael Wolfe Design • Graphic Delineation, 5447 NE Mason St., Portland, OR 974218. Telephone: (503) 282-2973. [email protected]
One reason I became an architect was because I enjoy drawing. Along the way I’ve realized that I just like to make things that creatively solve problems — in my head, on paper, on the screen, with my hands, through others — virtually and in the corporeal world. I’ve found that nothing helps creative problem solving like the appropriate quality tool. I started off with a T-square and slide rule in school and have enjoyed migrating through every great improvement that’s come along from the parallel rule and hand held calculator to the computers we use now.
The prime factor in the ease and fun with which I’ve been able to transition from pencils and technical pens to incorporating the computer (and the quantum leap of empowerment it gives me) into my collection of tools is the intuitive and elegant interfaces of both the Mac and PowerCADD/WildTools.
I’ve been using PowerCADD since PowerDraw version 1.0, always in concert with Alfred Scott’s WildTools and its precursors. The first exposure came when I went to work for an office in town that had a Mac network. Every one working there had their own machine to do correspondence, scheduling, design, construction documents, and timekeeping. (This was in the days when only large offices had computers, and they were proprietary machines and software operated by the “cad guys”).
I “got on that train” and never looked back. Now the same combination of hardware and software empowers me to practice out of my home, close to our dog and cats, the refrigerator, and my wife’s carefully nurtured half-acre of a yard, which is full of wonderful trees, shrubs, grasses, and the creatures they attract.
Mike Wolfe
