tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-209595572024-03-07T08:14:48.186-06:00threshold >>emerging architectural ideas, projects and commentary from minnesota and beyondBrandon Stengel, Associate AIA, LEED APhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038906512392752547noreply@blogger.comBlogger171125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-14542150641270575242010-05-03T06:00:00.004-05:002010-05-03T06:00:06.192-05:00Threshold v2.0<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1VEEwa-9ikQq-ztZKBzCPTmtPH8E59KdaIN2-LJ91FTnoOzfABPyiCo4a97gVhE8jileKjRGeodoXbsqu-D3v2ka_6DhBWM3YJEMWK2BsrEy7PcBeZuYeWUnC7Qto_07GyD0E/s1600/100427_Screenshot.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 143px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1VEEwa-9ikQq-ztZKBzCPTmtPH8E59KdaIN2-LJ91FTnoOzfABPyiCo4a97gVhE8jileKjRGeodoXbsqu-D3v2ka_6DhBWM3YJEMWK2BsrEy7PcBeZuYeWUnC7Qto_07GyD0E/s400/100427_Screenshot.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465383157438285970" border="0" /></a><br />From all of us here at Threshold, thank you for reading! We hope you have enjoyed our coverage of regional design issues, and we're excited to announce the beta version of our new site...<a href="http://www.thresholdblog.org/">THRESHOLD: Where Landscape, Architecture, and Interior Design Meet</a>.<br /><br />We are forming partnerships with <a href="http://www.aia-mn.org/">AIA-MN</a>, <a href="http://www.masla.org/">MASLA</a>, and <a href="http://www.asidmn.org/">ASID-MN</a> to include <span style="font-style: italic;">more</span> viewpoints on <span style="font-style: italic;">more</span> issues of the built environment, and we've designed a brand new site to help make that happen.<br /><br />We will continue to showcase (and expand) the contributions from regional design voices, and we hope you will join the conversation at <a href="http://www.thresholdblog.org/">www.thresholdblog.org</a>.<br /><br />The "old" Threshold will gradually be abandoned, so please visit <a href="http://www.thresholdblog.org/">the new Threshold</a> for details on our official "launch" event.<br /><br />Thanks!Brandon Stengel, Associate AIA, LEED APhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038906512392752547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-3830771571642121182010-04-24T17:52:00.004-05:002010-04-24T18:02:10.975-05:00A Virgin Forest Grows In the Bronx<div align="center"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5463841025750806386" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S9N2dtkVL3I/AAAAAAAAAG8/54Hk_ppQ5aY/s400/DSC00573.JPG" /><span style="font-size:78%;">Image courtesy Jennifer Harris</span> </div><br />When I say “Bronx” images of the arson induced urban blight of the ‘60s and ‘70s is probably the first thing that comes to mind and with good reason. The chaos inflicted on the borough during that time left it scarred for almost 30 years. It remains the home of one of the five poorest congressional districts in the country, but generally, the image of the Bronx has transitioned from one of decay to one of rebirth. It is home to one of the best public high schools in the country (Bronx Science), one of the largest zoos in the country (Bronx Zoo), and a preeminent botanical garden (New York Botanical Garden).<br /><br /><br /><br /><p><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5463841276405799250" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S9N2sTVI2VI/AAAAAAAAAHE/CZipYLWH5Uo/s400/DSC00588.JPG" /></p><p align="center"><span style="font-size:78%;">Image courtesy Jennifer Harris</span><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.nybg.org/">The New York Botanical Garden</a> is host to plant research laboratories, living plant collections, plant exhibitions, and covers 250 acres of land along the Bronx River.<br />Atop 50 of these acres lives a collection of Oak, Beech, Cherry, Birch, Tulip, and White Ash trees. These trees are virgin forest, a concept I have yet still to fully grasp. I am not sure if I am surprised that virgin forest still exists in the city or that there is so little of it left. Both ideas seem to induce the same level of incredulity.<br /><br />The part of me that grew up the son of a forester almost literally in the middle of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_J._Dorer_Memorial_Hardwood_State_Forest">Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood Forest</a> is stunned by the fact that so little native flora remains. The part of me that has lived in New York City for the past four years cannot believe someone had enough foresight to save any of it.</p><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 289px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5463841814714131698" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S9N3Lor2JPI/AAAAAAAAAHM/QxfdGiFtcW4/s400/forest_lg_05.jpg" /> <p align="center"><span style="font-size:78%;">Image courtesy </span><a href="http://www.nybg.org/"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.nybg.org</span></a><br /></p><p></p>Gregory Mellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10297270354185077050noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-16601555613138184862010-04-19T21:23:00.003-05:002010-04-21T11:07:48.481-05:00Bearden Place Competition | Jay Isenberg<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfMNIpgOwYv6n1UdZ0VMJbjAPG84acE1-nnhYIdiqI5uBpQ2lq7m8t_RugXeWEF1Xrb2Wfjgk7gVk4Xyk6BQjEMcTTa3vgZ1NGEDUYcMgbeWNWS8S0ejUb5qHDuPGX7O02UDHQ/s1600/Bearden-Place-small.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfMNIpgOwYv6n1UdZ0VMJbjAPG84acE1-nnhYIdiqI5uBpQ2lq7m8t_RugXeWEF1Xrb2Wfjgk7gVk4Xyk6BQjEMcTTa3vgZ1NGEDUYcMgbeWNWS8S0ejUb5qHDuPGX7O02UDHQ/s400/Bearden-Place-small.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5462040813543242002" border="0" /></a><br />As I write this, Twin Cities architects are hurriedly completing their submissions (due Wednesday) for <a href="http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/foreclosure/Foreclosures_Steps_to_Recovery.asp">Bearden Place: A Housing Competition in the Artists' Core</a>. If you're hearing about this for the first time, it's probably too late to enter, but I'd love you to follow our progress as we re-envision vacancy in Minneapolis. In the meantime, I thought a little background might be interesting.<br /><br />The Competition is a natural outgrowth of my interest and recent work in creating situations where architects are challenged to engage creatively, yet differently in the social, political and cultural forces that shape our environment and impact our work.<br /><br />I had been a consultant for the Family Housing Fund and had been spending time with the Willard Homewood neighborhood group guiding them in efforts to visualize the housing situation in their immediate neighborhood using GIS mapping techniques and graphics. The housing crisis was in full throttle, this neighborhood was very committed to rebuilding itself, and there was a dearth of new ideas coming from the usual suspects. I would drive by this vacant site on the corner of Plymouth and Sheridan Avenues North and think what a great opportunity this would be for a project that would demonstrate all the best intentions of the many people and groups I had come across who were working so hard to combat the housing crisis. This group included architects, and it was not a great leap to think what might happen if a design competition was held and dozens of architects had the opportunity to bring their collective skills and creativity to bear upon the site and the conditions that allowed such an important piece of the neighborhood to remain empty. <br /><br />My motivations and intentions with this competition are as numerous as the disparate parties involved, which include the City, the Builders, the neighborhood, and the design community. However, each in their own way shares an overriding desire to support a project that demonstrates the possibility of great, affordable and sustainable housing design that would serve as the benchmark for future inner city development efforts. Finding the magic balance among the design submissions that most likely allows for the construction and successful sale of all units will be the charge and duty of the jury. <br /><br />I'm particularly interested in whether a process defined by partnering, collaboration and identification of shared goals can deliver something superior to the traditional development process, where architects and the community are asked to respond directly and specifically to a single development proposal and it's goals. While we are very good at this, I believe architects are called upon in too limited a manner and circumstance. I want architects at the table where policy making discussions occur and in other public situations that could benefit from design thinking and problem solving.<br /><br />I hadn't heard of Romare Howard Bearden (1911-1988) before this competition, so I was pleased to be introduced to his work and history. We were seeking a name for the competition that wasn't too dry, too literal, or too much like a bad TV sitcom. It had to reflect the passion and hope of the residents who were trying to rebuild their neighborhood, who had branded it the "Artists' Core" and were hoping to attract young, vibrant, arts-oriented people to come purchase and revitalize the solid housing stock that still existed.<br /><br />Romare Bearden was suggested as the appropriate namesake and whose most noted works are his large collages, the most notable being "The Block" which graces the pages of the Competition Program. His legacy is represented by the Bearden Foundation and fortunately they have given us permission to use his name and images for this project and are very interested in the outcomes. You can see his multifaceted work and find out more about this influential African American artist, educator, scholar, and social activist at the <a href="http://www.beardenfoundation.org/">Bearden Foundation website</a>.Adam Regn Arvidson, ASLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03912663069069676672noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-45380143118985416352010-04-08T13:51:00.003-05:002010-04-08T14:09:10.432-05:00Big Shop of Wonders<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu5PuMYGA3zJW0FH2jBkz4FLCgFr4QVZoKZTDaYeKZ09bWIC3mTfOdKpPXy5QAHbCSts1C2zy1A0tYWwWElNjEOKnR0zr7mzOlBXk6tLvdqhrPvTSEH-LaGATyJ-YaKUPDl_Xt/s1600/IMG_1607.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu5PuMYGA3zJW0FH2jBkz4FLCgFr4QVZoKZTDaYeKZ09bWIC3mTfOdKpPXy5QAHbCSts1C2zy1A0tYWwWElNjEOKnR0zr7mzOlBXk6tLvdqhrPvTSEH-LaGATyJ-YaKUPDl_Xt/s400/IMG_1607.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457842998013487634" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_uOLprW8_xuhwdNH-YGXsNkoKAR7Dj0-Y4ZQ-J10E_6g0Br-9efCyPL9vPS6Q7BAvRMu_2hOmplX6GtYPpu06HgOPWUQuvvPIPer4ppCG_nIr2fN0dl7QnDRlOjl23QKbzs5y/s1600/IMG_1607.JPG"><br /></a>Workshops fascinate me. I have always had some sort of workshop access, my grandfather had a hardware store in California, and although he had retired when I knew him, I still have tools and even a large box of screws and bolts from the store. Almost every place I have lived, no matter how small or mobile had some sort of shop or bench or box or packet with tools and materials to make stuff. Now I have a bigger and better and faster workshop, and still, whenever I walk into someone else’s workshop, especially one that has been occupied for some time, I get a grin on my face and start poking around, asking questions about tools, materials, projects, and the inevitable detritus that accumulates.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFtH0VOpn9AmrL_wIOr6llGpf4e46QpGQ514ZndLdT0k0MVCqyoCRy1m5LDV9HJmtBgfDCMyW5-mp2Ryi6SitPdO8TOj5ykhMU-kaawXd4HVRfFC2eLWgpwWd7Fx6teZgPQZ9I/s1600/IMG_1611.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFtH0VOpn9AmrL_wIOr6llGpf4e46QpGQ514ZndLdT0k0MVCqyoCRy1m5LDV9HJmtBgfDCMyW5-mp2Ryi6SitPdO8TOj5ykhMU-kaawXd4HVRfFC2eLWgpwWd7Fx6teZgPQZ9I/s400/IMG_1611.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457843407492560258" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu5PuMYGA3zJW0FH2jBkz4FLCgFr4QVZoKZTDaYeKZ09bWIC3mTfOdKpPXy5QAHbCSts1C2zy1A0tYWwWElNjEOKnR0zr7mzOlBXk6tLvdqhrPvTSEH-LaGATyJ-YaKUPDl_Xt/s1600/IMG_1607.JPG"><br /></a>One of the first really great shops I had the pleasure to work in was at the <a href="http://www.walkerartcenter.org/">Walker Art Center</a>, when I worked on the crew. The crew built out the galleries for new shows, framed the pieces of art, built display furniture, installed shows and built some of the most beautiful crates for shipping and storing artwork I have ever seen. People on the crew were artists and craftsmen, all highly skilled and educated and working there because it gave them a chance to interact closely with the art and artists. We had a pretty nice shop, fairly spacious and with good tools, that enabled us to build most anything we needed for a show. The pay was terrible, they camaraderie great and the work we did was beautiful.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSwlPTR8qwg4iTzRcwMzubGISbhusmQ8aRJQsLxv2LGIs7BT9Emg005igv52QUvNL1-ApEY69ijLwlXi3uzQLTwUNId6WFCMFtGG4hJdbpIPDRKlMtcrI9e3sPAhuIp_riGdlJ/s1600/IMG_1613.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSwlPTR8qwg4iTzRcwMzubGISbhusmQ8aRJQsLxv2LGIs7BT9Emg005igv52QUvNL1-ApEY69ijLwlXi3uzQLTwUNId6WFCMFtGG4hJdbpIPDRKlMtcrI9e3sPAhuIp_riGdlJ/s400/IMG_1613.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457844332871159890" border="0" /></a><br />I stopped by the shop of a friend from those days, Willie Willette, recently and got the same goofy grin. His shop, <a href="http://www.williewilletteworks.com/">Willie Willette Works</a>, is huge, plenty of room for him and his four employees to move around, to store projects and materials. It was the materials that first widened my grin. Arrayed along one wall were slabs of natural edged wood, some of the mating pieces book-matched, waiting for the right client and inspiration. There were also a few scraps of what had been a load of 16 foot pieces of walnut, nearly two inches thick. Most of these had been turned into a huge table, the top of which showed the true nature of these beautiful pieces of wood. It is part of entire office suite, designed in a minimalist style, with a Loosian lack of ornament, which allows the beauty of this material to shine through. In the same room, hanging on pegs, Shaker style, were prototypes and a final version of the Melissa chair, Willettes dining chair. It is always great to see the process of design, and when that process is arrayed before you full scale, the steps taken become even clearer.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUUl_3qILHY4Vl3tm0heRcvK3z6TEHOfANIHRc-tGV8svaZo86QsXPwwzbskNyfdjnW6bplKaPCbbeJxBb6jtkAiryaMQFz3n7K89g8zdgXBF2E99SH_u-L4wC70AK2OirqecE/s1600/IMG_1614.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUUl_3qILHY4Vl3tm0heRcvK3z6TEHOfANIHRc-tGV8svaZo86QsXPwwzbskNyfdjnW6bplKaPCbbeJxBb6jtkAiryaMQFz3n7K89g8zdgXBF2E99SH_u-L4wC70AK2OirqecE/s400/IMG_1614.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457844909755844306" border="0" /></a><br />Willie and crew don’t just build to spec, they are involved in the design process. As I was poking around the shop, people were busy sanding, scribing, sawing and designing. They work collaboratively with architects and designers and seek those kinds of jobs. Everyone here has had some formal education in design, most at <a href="http://www.mcad.edu/">MCAD</a> (one of the workers I had had in an architecture class I taught there). So they are all skilled designers as well as artisans. The work shows it as does the pleasure they obviously get from the design process. Here, like at the Walker, it is not the promise of profit that motivates one, but the inherent satisfaction that comes from working with bright and capable others to produce something functional, beautiful and well crafted.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb5Bupx36a6OQSS-9uf32HNO_ZQg4UtLP6NNkc7LZevR4tKQyoFEZ2OuRIh5Jpu3oDlevQZ0xlgLmT5F4PYJlS0cyOzipEBnCQTtg4z9t5hCsAAdTruDnlFsyjnasMzcMhtc5h/s1600/IMG_1609.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb5Bupx36a6OQSS-9uf32HNO_ZQg4UtLP6NNkc7LZevR4tKQyoFEZ2OuRIh5Jpu3oDlevQZ0xlgLmT5F4PYJlS0cyOzipEBnCQTtg4z9t5hCsAAdTruDnlFsyjnasMzcMhtc5h/s400/IMG_1609.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457844917845442898" border="0" /></a>Tom Westbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960859397113422090noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-89712177661922758362010-04-06T13:55:00.008-05:002010-04-06T15:47:49.148-05:00A Clinic on Urban Form<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi64vHTJpg4U-SVlvyhsIqKfrwWDqddImwHlAI4-my7L_bM8pHw5AR7K4HHvkRZ5xto7493PiNSoZ82loaxjMAjreex_TpLlfm32yn51p6e1d7CApwMBER_MNb-_Nrj97FXfo3k/s1600/P3310206.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi64vHTJpg4U-SVlvyhsIqKfrwWDqddImwHlAI4-my7L_bM8pHw5AR7K4HHvkRZ5xto7493PiNSoZ82loaxjMAjreex_TpLlfm32yn51p6e1d7CApwMBER_MNb-_Nrj97FXfo3k/s400/P3310206.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457100475291230802" border="0" /></a><br />Rochester, MN, is known for the Mayo Clinic, and rightfully so – though not in my opinion because of the international medical reputation, but because of urban design. The major Mayo buildings sit right downtown, within the city’s rectilinear street grid. They’re a perfectly mismatched blend of styles and histories that together seem more like a city than a campus (in the traditionally uniform sense).<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHpTMc6YaRVoMTXsQS82xhyAFpW_sG4tv9xbZtKO6JjR_7T81gXu5sOrmoCbPYHSUqMkVU_KG_Y7hJ4TrwRVmwouBe2V2N4mF9oSebNiP5__E7lc65wl_H6rt1Ro7SD5255_Vg/s1600/P3310199.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHpTMc6YaRVoMTXsQS82xhyAFpW_sG4tv9xbZtKO6JjR_7T81gXu5sOrmoCbPYHSUqMkVU_KG_Y7hJ4TrwRVmwouBe2V2N4mF9oSebNiP5__E7lc65wl_H6rt1Ro7SD5255_Vg/s400/P3310199.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457100661593517122" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Annenberg Plaza with four medical buildings: Mayo in the left foreground, Gonda in the left background, Plummer in the right foreground, and Siebens adjoining the Plummer.</span><br /><br />Some of the streets have become plazas, but the grid is still there, and almost every building has an unexpected indoor-outdoor relationship. The Siebens Building’s ground floor is below street level, but angled windows allow the Annenberg and Peace Plazas into the atrium.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3aWRj3OR_YrCkgFr7jBlxIel0dJK_jSCFGpYcsYjJ0mzp_tKfpxxd00vyLj2HUw1VP342e_5qGcpH6UI-ubhuZ3xC2PYrkwN7menfrPTx0dFDqm4ZnppdRVlkB-CMySfiQ_CI/s1600/P3310204.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3aWRj3OR_YrCkgFr7jBlxIel0dJK_jSCFGpYcsYjJ0mzp_tKfpxxd00vyLj2HUw1VP342e_5qGcpH6UI-ubhuZ3xC2PYrkwN7menfrPTx0dFDqm4ZnppdRVlkB-CMySfiQ_CI/s400/P3310204.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457100875091070434" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">From the Plummer Building looking out on Annenberg Plaza.</span><br /><br />The Gonda Building’s lofty Nathan Landow Atrium actually carves the land away, creating inside and outside lounge space below the bustle of the street. On the main level, expansive windows show off Rochester’s urban form.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhHKIBycF41ld_6msA16jTR6_fFidfoUWih3SEtAcdm3UtzdoYsCuDrytDIXs-BJK5_3lrbs7n4rv0cTI0NYnHXgR71jc5uyeUjgq6Xa3joVxZDvTAISrD1Sxj0k3FrM_fOEs_/s1600/P3310208.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhHKIBycF41ld_6msA16jTR6_fFidfoUWih3SEtAcdm3UtzdoYsCuDrytDIXs-BJK5_3lrbs7n4rv0cTI0NYnHXgR71jc5uyeUjgq6Xa3joVxZDvTAISrD1Sxj0k3FrM_fOEs_/s400/P3310208.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457100765289174146" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">The Nathan Landow Atrium, from the main (street) level.</span><br /><br />Perhaps most strange is the Mathews Heritage Dome, which sits at the edge of Annenberg Plaza. This glass oculus provides a sky view to a lower level lounge, but also allows pedestrians outside to peek down into the building.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuVY0O37tAf1jz7eOqaN5i7kTNsPghRRrRYwD0Vf3_EICD5d6EuI1U7uJpyuFPhZjOOkCJkV6JISK6ViQW5CXzgC1fXIeYfcoqJG4fuv2bQL8fVJ5TR107uOmVnP8mtOXv22sl/s1600/P3310197.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuVY0O37tAf1jz7eOqaN5i7kTNsPghRRrRYwD0Vf3_EICD5d6EuI1U7uJpyuFPhZjOOkCJkV6JISK6ViQW5CXzgC1fXIeYfcoqJG4fuv2bQL8fVJ5TR107uOmVnP8mtOXv22sl/s400/P3310197.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457100570302233650" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Peeping into the Mathews Heritage Dome, with the reflection of the Gonda Building superimposed on the lounge below.</span><br /><br />The Mayo Clinic’s commitment to Rochester is well known, but I was struck with its commitment to that city’s urbanity. When it expanded over the years, this health institution could have easily decamped to a woodsy, ravine-studded estate in the hills outside of town. Instead it has created, through building placement and design, a venue that is as much about the city as it is about the clinic.Adam Regn Arvidson, ASLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03912663069069676672noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-74945907120800995232010-04-01T08:08:00.000-05:002010-04-01T08:08:57.776-05:00MSCED - Brock Davis at Creative Electric<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipR3SdwpZsfA78c7vBd4Yf2oS4kmeLEGna4YXkq4Rhq7r3xe78T5rBu2jPP6HMhomvIrY41h331EWeGEWYoxNh5QtYm5o9tDEykyFO5DNMrK5Aaz90cck_4ie7sPYHfhgkxY0/s1600/paper+thread.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipR3SdwpZsfA78c7vBd4Yf2oS4kmeLEGna4YXkq4Rhq7r3xe78T5rBu2jPP6HMhomvIrY41h331EWeGEWYoxNh5QtYm5o9tDEykyFO5DNMrK5Aaz90cck_4ie7sPYHfhgkxY0/s400/paper+thread.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454994456527942066" border="0" /></a><br /><br />If an artist has a successful enough career, at some point people start to look through everything they did: Notes, sketches for ideas, unfinished projects, etc. I tend to really appreciate the fragments and pieces found on the side roads of an artist’s life and work even though it’s possible the artist never intended to share them. It feels like I can get closer to a body of work. I’m also a big believer that the failures in life and work generally teach us more than the successes.<br /><br />On January 1st 2009, Minneapolis artist/designer <a href="http://itistheworldthatmadeyousmall.com/">Brock Davis</a> started a project called “<a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=2205+NE+California+Street,+Minneapolis+MN+55418+&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=51.443116,114.169922&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=2205+California+St+NE,+Minneapolis,+Hennepin,+Minnesota+55418&t=h&z=16">Make Something Cool Everyday</a>”, which he did, for the whole year. Starting May 1st, you can see all 365 pieces of art on display at Creative Electric Studios in NE Minneapolis. Some are awesome, some probably not fully developed; some probably wouldn’t have made the cut in a different context. Seeing all the pieces together reminds me of what the work of an artist is really about: to see or imagine the world differently. And that’s a process, not a single act.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9cCxNTY6cyIlrzqDfnI6XYEJg8ejUrzEEF_uCx47LH1Qj4oESc3iuvQ7xpG0i_7O528GO4rnd7Uj22KjT5wMsOmMk0OcTSjuTCSFh2NMXeUUpxxM9ZKkqmETTRSJQws4ulZg/s1600/jan+18+yarn+threaded+through+sprinkler.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9cCxNTY6cyIlrzqDfnI6XYEJg8ejUrzEEF_uCx47LH1Qj4oESc3iuvQ7xpG0i_7O528GO4rnd7Uj22KjT5wMsOmMk0OcTSjuTCSFh2NMXeUUpxxM9ZKkqmETTRSJQws4ulZg/s400/jan+18+yarn+threaded+through+sprinkler.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454994452759283138" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Brock was kind enough to answer a few questions about this project and his work.<br /><br />Matt Olson - Can you talk a little bit about this project/show “Make Something Cool Everyday? “ What went into deciding to approach your work this way?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Brock Davis</span> - I’m excited about the show. It took a couple of months of planning to figure out how best to present the work. I wanted viewers to get a sense of the timeline of the work, so that walking through the exhibit is like going through each day. All 365 pieces are going to be arranged in the geometric shapes of the calendar months of 2009. I then chose some standout pieces from each month and those pieces will be arranged around the 12 calendar cubes throughout the gallery.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">MO</span> - Do you see this year long project as one single work? Or are the individual pieces important to you as single works? Or both?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">BD</span> - I see it as both. There were some pieces that developed through the process that could stand on their own, but those pieces were birthed from the overall project, so I keep them attached. Whenever I would stumble upon something that was extendable, it was a good feeling as it gave me an idea of what the next few days would bring. Then those pieces would run their course and it was time for something new. The toughest part was thinking of a new idea. There were many times where I would look at the clock and I would only have an hour left in the day and I still had no idea what I was going to make. I always try to seek something original, which is almost impossible, but just trying to come up with something original can lead to some interesting ideas.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">MO</span> - How did this or might this project affect your practice in the future?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">BD</span> - A project like this shows all your sides, your consistencies, strengths, weaknesses. It pushed me into media I don’t usually work in, like sculpture and collage. It brought me back to media I haven’t done in a while, like sketching and painting. But I think the most important thing I learned was to pay more attention to my immediate surroundings and realize the creative potential in everyday, ordinary objects and situations. Most of the works in this project are pieces created in my house based on daily observations. Whether I was shaving, staring at a dead fly in a spider’s web or looking at a garden hose in the back yard. This project also taught me to work more efficiently and quickly. I tend to be obsessive-compulsive when it comes to execution, and in the past I would toil for longer periods of time over ideas and executions. This project was kind of like having a job. I would punch in every day and have to have something made (hopefully something interesting) by the end of the day. That pressure and schedule helped me to work more quickly and efficiently.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnkI0GHwcqYJAF5jcXGiLwL9uURjbqXhapS4ocJPZG58zfHqmy7O2jsfaZfA9XAY1F1lh-VWGxcxp0dKgAfqxe-6Mfnbkvpk-GxqBCS-q1XXRKjY4XfQNp6X3yNjEvTflFpk8/s1600/dec+15+crumpled+paper+food.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnkI0GHwcqYJAF5jcXGiLwL9uURjbqXhapS4ocJPZG58zfHqmy7O2jsfaZfA9XAY1F1lh-VWGxcxp0dKgAfqxe-6Mfnbkvpk-GxqBCS-q1XXRKjY4XfQNp6X3yNjEvTflFpk8/s400/dec+15+crumpled+paper+food.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454994449296105506" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">MO </span>- Who are some of your favorite artists? Architects?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">BD</span> - <a href="http://www.thomasheatherwick.com/">Thomas Heatherwick</a> is probably one of my favorite modern day inspirations...I also like <a href="http://rolu.terapad.com/index.cfm?fa=contentNews.newsDetails&newsID=70951&from=archive">Kim Hiorthoy</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC_UILNwWrc">Brian Wilson</a>, <a href="http://www.sagmeister.com/index.html">Stefan Sagmeister</a>, <a href="http://images.google.com/images?q=charley%20harper&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi">Charley Harper</a>, <a href="http://images.google.com/images?q=paul%20rand&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi">Paul Rand</a>...and many more.<br /><br />You can see the all the work created in this year long project <a href="http://www.itistheworldthatmadeyousmall.com/projects/msced/">here</a>, but I recommend seeing the show for real:<br /><br />“Make Something Cool Everyday” by Brock Davis - Presented by <a href="http://www.creativeelectricstudios.com/">Creative Electric Studios</a> at the <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=2205+NE+California+Street,+Minneapolis+MN+55418+&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=51.443116,114.169922&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=2205+California+St+NE,+Minneapolis,+Hennepin,+Minnesota+55418&t=h&z=16">California Buliding Gallery, 2205 NE California Street, Mpls MN</a><br /><br />Saturday May 1st Through May 22nd Saturdays 10am-2pm or by Appointment<br />Opening Reception Saturday May 1st from 6:30 - 11pmMatt Olsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110307559057330261noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-38644232264826103612010-03-30T22:30:00.000-05:002010-03-30T22:30:00.920-05:00In Plain Sight | St. Anthony Park Library<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMkQWhsQx3jNg3GhLW9i21dRM18qbrBid-bLP-Rcqvby38yol9aNrNyd4BCcOIWZ__hVHuyW0kcCtnG4hXEhnd-l2YIS_AHiWyBA_ss03HONdZxz96zP29gkhBf_Z_QAAm3rcv/s1600/100324_StAnthonyLibrary_002.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMkQWhsQx3jNg3GhLW9i21dRM18qbrBid-bLP-Rcqvby38yol9aNrNyd4BCcOIWZ__hVHuyW0kcCtnG4hXEhnd-l2YIS_AHiWyBA_ss03HONdZxz96zP29gkhBf_Z_QAAm3rcv/s400/100324_StAnthonyLibrary_002.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454631414398760210" /></a>Three Carnegie libraries opened in St. Paul in 1917 – Riverview, Arlington Hills, and St. Anthony Park – and all three were designed by the St. Paul City Architect's office. While they're almost identical, it's the <a href="http://www.stpaul.lib.mn.us/locations/stanthony.html">St. Anthony Park</a> branch which gets a clear geographical advantage. Located at the triangular intersection of Como and Carter Avenues, the stately facade is given a proper vantage point and park-like space from which it can be appreciated.<br /><br />Furthermore, the library's proximity to local schools, universities, and housing make it the system's 5th busiest. In 2000, architect <a href="http://www.architron.com/index.html">Phillip Broussard</a> designed the addition of a children's reading room in the shape of a rotunda--perfectly complementing the classic geometry of this neighborhood gem.Brandon Stengel, Associate AIA, LEED APhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038906512392752547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-69081622582620723852010-03-25T23:55:00.013-05:002010-03-26T09:27:47.135-05:00Transplanted: Quarantined<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S6w-vuYMoEI/AAAAAAAAAGk/7vnxa4Fu3KE/s1600/IMG_1395.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S6w-vuYMoEI/AAAAAAAAAGk/7vnxa4Fu3KE/s400/IMG_1395.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452802238463123522" border="0" /></a>The current exhibition at the <a href="http://www.storefrontnews.org/">Storefront for Art and Architecture</a> is entitled “Landscapes of Quarantine.” The pieces exhibited are a product of a design studio organized by Geoff Manaugh, of <a href="http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/">BLDGBLOG</a> fame, and Nicola Twilley from <a href="http://www.ediblegeography.com/">Edible Geography</a> and they range from the humorous, to the informative, to the contemplative. Two of my favorite pieces were by Mimi Lien and Amanda and Jordan Spielman. Mimi Lien’s contribution was a series of four metal boxes each with a singular peep hole through which you could view a scale model of a quarantine environment. The visual distortion and limited views created by the peep hole gave the scale environments a heightened sense of isolation. One couldn’t help but think about how horrible it would be to call one of these places home. Amanda and Jordan Spielman’s NYCQ uses a series of satirical posters and pamphlets to offer helpful tips on how to both avoid quarantine and how to cope with it if you are unlucky enough to be sequestered. The imagery and graphics strike an amusing balance between propaganda and those motivational posters you see in corporate offices.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S6w-28exwsI/AAAAAAAAAGs/-zgBtQ3d6E4/s1600/IMG_1389.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 347px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S6w-28exwsI/AAAAAAAAAGs/-zgBtQ3d6E4/s400/IMG_1389.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452802362507903682" border="0" /></a><em>Mimi Lien's Hotel III</em><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S6w_IaGg2EI/AAAAAAAAAG0/5Uo_JRwuk2k/s1600/IMG_1393.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S6w_IaGg2EI/AAAAAAAAAG0/5Uo_JRwuk2k/s400/IMG_1393.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452802662516971586" border="0" /></a><em>Selection from Amanda and Jordan Speilman's NYCQ</em><br /><br />In terms of the gallery space, the bold move of painting the entire floor orange was inspired. The light bounces off the floor and causes the interior surfaces to emit an eerie glow. The warm color transcends the diagrammatic. It creates an environment.<br /><br />As you exit, an exhibition brief makes many salient points, and the following resonated with me:<br /><blockquote>"At its most basic, quarantine is a strategy of separation and containment—the creation of a hygienic boundary between two or more things, for the purpose of protecting one from exposure to the other. It is a spatial response to suspicion, threat, and uncertainty.”</blockquote>My mind transitioned from thoughts about the designs generated by quarantine to a quarantine generated by lack of design. The death of the small town in America is well documented. As the population and tax base flow elsewhere an enormous design vacuum is left in the wake. I think about my parents and friends who love living in a small town, but increasingly those small towns are void of any meaningful place. There is less money to build interesting things and more apathy to fight the nonsense that is constructed. This leads to a widening chasm between the “city” and the small town. The “city”, with its eye on urbanity and available funds to create things, tends to develop a superiority complex towards the small town, and this, in turn, creates resentment in the small town about the “city”. Each entity builds a zone of quarantine around it, mentally speaking, to protect it from the other.<br /><br />Maybe this is the only way for each environment to maintain its own homeostasis? The elements that sustain them differ greatly. Perhaps there is a need for a separate branch of design professional? A branch fully devoted to the re-visioning of small towns. One willing to adopt small town ways of commerce (i.e. bartering of labor and goods, operating on limited debt) in lieu of a check that gets direct deposited bi-monthly. Are we willing to do that? Am I?Gregory Mellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10297270354185077050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-84764538116568535032010-03-15T06:36:00.010-05:002010-03-16T09:38:52.629-05:00Heather Beal | Prius Payback: Is it Time to Return A Favor?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_H9MkL-JndapG1TgT_yD9CURhZeLcN6H21-yYqgmHAk2VxWumQTl7inGJxyNDeLAKntd5UXbIQ4eEeAXiUFpDGSnEt0ies9WmYenA3B7nP0KUYD35VaCjCsGKOoyRldw0bxJEw/s1600-h/Global+Green+Orlando+Bloom+%26+Prius.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 336px; height: 252px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_H9MkL-JndapG1TgT_yD9CURhZeLcN6H21-yYqgmHAk2VxWumQTl7inGJxyNDeLAKntd5UXbIQ4eEeAXiUFpDGSnEt0ies9WmYenA3B7nP0KUYD35VaCjCsGKOoyRldw0bxJEw/s400/Global+Green+Orlando+Bloom+%26+Prius.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448823336458755810" border="0" /></a>I may be mildly mad for venturing anywhere near the controversy surrounding the “sudden and unintended acceleration” experienced by drivers of several makes of <a href="http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/customer-faqs-regarding-the-sticking-153495.aspx">Toyota</a> cars. No one really needs such a poignant and painful reminder of how important safety is for all designers. And yet, I can’t shake the feeling that this is an opportune moment for building industry professionals to return a big favor.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2PDxB2PTxZqs-GXm3-9Vnlo-j8JPfYb6Wpy28Quow4QDsHJrD8mjZzb37V4Z1h9GFNNQ4hi0jTRoVNiI_gHRfFdo4DpyGxAnjv8B4-JA-iXp61C5AkQkmPo6PO994L4DF_OvAPA/s1600-h/5ive_house_01.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 265px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2PDxB2PTxZqs-GXm3-9Vnlo-j8JPfYb6Wpy28Quow4QDsHJrD8mjZzb37V4Z1h9GFNNQ4hi0jTRoVNiI_gHRfFdo4DpyGxAnjv8B4-JA-iXp61C5AkQkmPo6PO994L4DF_OvAPA/s400/5ive_house_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448825046727096402" border="0" /></a>I began to realize the extent to which Toyota’s Prius, in particular, had inspired innovation in the building industry during an interview with Jeff and Salena Gallo in early 2009. When I asked what had motivated them to make sustainability a top priority for the home they’d had custom designed and built on the west edge of Minneapolis, they replied: “the Prius.” Buying a car that helped them reduce their use of fossil fuels made them wonder how their new home could accomplish the same goal.<br /><br />Several months later I encountered a second example of how technology popularized by the Prius was spreading by contagion in the building industry. In a presentation for the Commonwealth Club, <a href="http://fora.tv/2007/07/09/Green_Living_Starts_with_the_Home">LivingHomes</a> Founder Steve Glenn discussed how his Prius’s ability to present real-time data via easy-to-understand graphics inspired him to collaborate on development of a web-based, “dashboard” monitoring system for the sustainable, starchitect-designed, modular homes his company produces. Glenn didn’t stop with energy use. The <a href="http://www.buildingdashboard.com/clients/livinghomes">LivingHomes</a> dashboard also monitors water use, enables homeowners to calculate their carbon footprint, and provides payback information for the green technology options. This additional data will be especially valuable now that “<a href="http://projectgroundswell.com/2010/01/27/calgreen-californias-new-green-building-code">CALGREEN</a>,” the first statewide green building code in the nation, has been approved.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDZsdB0KWXgKH8T5Lyetg7uhgACRDJThH2XJcLJg1T4wKnvpH1fsEqcLPyFZPkbQUxhjKHLQg1R_zkuTT8Jqa4tdO17x9mTxOcRKF5rl1MZX9nrI1WYf_UvnsWXid3nNP_p3ox/s1600-h/ex_day_web.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDZsdB0KWXgKH8T5Lyetg7uhgACRDJThH2XJcLJg1T4wKnvpH1fsEqcLPyFZPkbQUxhjKHLQg1R_zkuTT8Jqa4tdO17x9mTxOcRKF5rl1MZX9nrI1WYf_UvnsWXid3nNP_p3ox/s400/ex_day_web.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449240744763268882" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNG5pxIu8y2uji14gdcZU5aiiYogT2tYvl241EOvNGSIYbVOJaD-Vxf2-BURL-otLzjwRjOWIQiMoqI5RRYTySr22aUvyuJP2QaFCiTLRd2Y_A7MScSNrC3VohQNSweMjBCCBQxw/s1600-h/TouchScreenfromCarleton.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNG5pxIu8y2uji14gdcZU5aiiYogT2tYvl241EOvNGSIYbVOJaD-Vxf2-BURL-otLzjwRjOWIQiMoqI5RRYTySr22aUvyuJP2QaFCiTLRd2Y_A7MScSNrC3VohQNSweMjBCCBQxw/s400/TouchScreenfromCarleton.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448823353457806946" border="0" /></a>When I returned from California, a tour of a new dorm on <a href="http://www.carleton.edu/">Carleton College’s</a> campus in Northfield, Minnesota brought Glenn’s words -- “any system with feedback tends improve” -- back to mind. Fred Rogers, treasurer for the College, ended the tour by demonstrating how an interactive digital display screen in the dorm’s main vestibule provided up-to-the-minute information about energy and water use. The <a href="http://residence.carleton.greentouchscreen.com">database and graphic interface</a> had been designed to spur the naturally competitive spirit of college students by enabling them to compare resource use totals by floor and by building.<br /><br />Of course, three examples does not a trend make. I was ready to chalk all this up to coincidence when I noticed a bucket full of buttons at a GreenBuild 2009 that announced: “It’s about the Prius.” I think about that mantra whenever a new story about the Toyota recall airs.<br /><br />Could there be a better time for people with “design minds” in the building industry to pay inspiration forward (or backward)?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtQVf-pI5RliJdCtuIL7L_2zopS1vwIC39PsdXwr24D8ZgeYCbDyB29AITIHVp26MQ3Hajspyy16LbIMKSzamplSCLBZsaxn8YpI4UDTxuEKsoQIkkjwjhjevZcPO9TPgRepRj4A/s1600-h/ny_times_1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 251px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtQVf-pI5RliJdCtuIL7L_2zopS1vwIC39PsdXwr24D8ZgeYCbDyB29AITIHVp26MQ3Hajspyy16LbIMKSzamplSCLBZsaxn8YpI4UDTxuEKsoQIkkjwjhjevZcPO9TPgRepRj4A/s400/ny_times_1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448823342410772674" border="0" /></a>For example, since the Prius falls under the “Floor Mat Pedal Entrapment” defect category I’ve wondered if walk-off mats installed in sustainably designed buildings could be adapted to improve both safety and indoor air quality in automobiles. Couldn’t ridged grilles be set into a recessed collection pan so that mud could be scraped from the bottom of your shoes when you climb into a car? These “mats” wouldn’t get trapped under the accelerator pedals because they’d be screwed into place. Car owners could simply remove the grilles and vacuum the dirt and debris out of the collection pan.<br /><br />So…what helpful, creative ideas do you have? I’d love to hear them – and to learn what inspired your interest in sustainable design.Colin Oglesbay, A-AIAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08966962227161204647noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-4659479778609424222010-03-11T12:30:00.010-06:002010-03-11T13:53:27.674-06:00It’s a Math, Math, Math, Math World“Geometry is the knowledge of the eternally existent”- Plato<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQXkXVdu16vZKttF6FAoONRm4ala7MKlJygCe2QLDxSP7Nei-ZPN6QZ3qmqPj0eLGB3-JeNtUAf8F6DpeqEf-LX_Cyr8nG7d3Y-jvLSDtJKJ7qHyzSWrFxdoWM7KHoO-Y5IWsS/s1600-h/MAth+1+copy.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 332px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQXkXVdu16vZKttF6FAoONRm4ala7MKlJygCe2QLDxSP7Nei-ZPN6QZ3qmqPj0eLGB3-JeNtUAf8F6DpeqEf-LX_Cyr8nG7d3Y-jvLSDtJKJ7qHyzSWrFxdoWM7KHoO-Y5IWsS/s400/MAth+1+copy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447457691261466178" border="0" /></a>For the past few years I have been teaching a math class, Visual Geometry, at the <a href="http://www.cva.edu/">College of Visual Arts</a> in St. Paul, something that would come as a shock to any of my previous math teachers. I agreed to lead the class for a couple of reasons, one that a major part of the class was teaching orthographic drawing, something I had been doing for a number of years (and I was trained as an architect so I believed I could teach anything). The other part of the class--and the most fundamental--was a study of geometry and numbers in what is one way a very simple level, and in another asks the students to consider the concepts that form the very core of all mathematical, physical and cosmological thinking.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzyrLbm3_RT5_p62SWl9tB43rgWKUacGJWIZqlcL5saRchQ24Z7VCMHOv6qZiJEA1PX00t7rUThILGf_McSIXV7WWu9IYQbyMSTyuB-BYia4a5TWDJ-T5KwUroK-ZSGcyYhHNh/s1600-h/Table_of_Geometry,_Cyclopaedia,_Volume_1smaller.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 292px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzyrLbm3_RT5_p62SWl9tB43rgWKUacGJWIZqlcL5saRchQ24Z7VCMHOv6qZiJEA1PX00t7rUThILGf_McSIXV7WWu9IYQbyMSTyuB-BYia4a5TWDJ-T5KwUroK-ZSGcyYhHNh/s320/Table_of_Geometry,_Cyclopaedia,_Volume_1smaller.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447459795432059666" border="0" /></a>When I started teaching, ten years ago, my first class was an introductory architectural drawing class that covered both observational and scaled orthographic drawings. As an introductory class, the students were diverse in the skill and experience they had. Many had had drafting classes, but few were comfortable with observational drawing. Getting them to see and to draw what they see was the main thrust of the class. The Visual Geometry is very different; most of the students are very accomplished in observational drawing, and wary of math.<br />In the College of Visual Arts class, we approach geometry in much the way the ancient Greeks did, developing fairly complex figures constructed with only a pencil, compass and unmarked straight edge. We do proofs, but they are visual proofs. We draw square roots (starting with, of all things, a square). We explore the mathematical nature of the growth of plants, the shape of diatoms, chemistry, physics, art and the universe as a whole. I think this approach to mathematics increases the accessibility for non-scientists to understand the current thinking about roots of math and science.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFh5jrHeltV9DqYskwKys0v2bRb5bjDLnJOEazTGMEe9CjZkrw2sbIw94SsdQayIo035yXQF4CB_h0GrsHiyeU6E1dC7TDTSgvtDjAqQVGwI5XVwoidHIAqTT7CIB5A9ak4cg0/s1600-h/spheres_Euclids5solidsKepler.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFh5jrHeltV9DqYskwKys0v2bRb5bjDLnJOEazTGMEe9CjZkrw2sbIw94SsdQayIo035yXQF4CB_h0GrsHiyeU6E1dC7TDTSgvtDjAqQVGwI5XVwoidHIAqTT7CIB5A9ak4cg0/s320/spheres_Euclids5solidsKepler.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447462505554373170" border="0" /></a>It also hearkens back to the days when a learned person had a wide breadth of knowledge and was able to see the interconnectedness of art, math, music, and the movement of the planets. One of the final assignments for my class is an open ended creative project, where the student is to apply and explore these concepts in an artistic endeavor. I receive a wide variety of projects, from paintings and prints to music and clothing. The quality and depth of course range widely, but I usually see a spark of interest and understanding generated. Even more gratifying is when students bring these ideas into their studio projects, often with great success. I believe designers should be well versed in the fundamentals of how the universe works, and with the easy and accessible variety of writings and websites devoted to the subject, there is no excuse not to imitate the Greeks and put this sort of knowledge at the center of our creative thinking.<br /><br /><br />Below are links to sites and books that are written for the lay person and are a good entry to understanding what are both the early fundamentals of mathematics and the newest thoughts on math and science.<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach"><br />Gödel, Escher, Bach</a>, by Douglas R. Hofstadter, published over thirty years ago, opened the door to the kind of writing that allows those uninitiated into the arcane mysteries of science to develop understanding of the major ideas at work in mathematics, including its role in music and art.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Reality">The Road to Reality</a>, by Roger Penrose, who developed an aperiodic tiling system, delves deeper into mathematics and physics<br /><br /><a href="http://mathforum.org/t2t/faq/brandenburg.new.html">Math Forum</a> has a good list compiled by G. Brandenburg of MIT is available from the website.<br /><br />Also, the popular media has been doing more reporting on the cutting edges of our understanding of the universe especially around such interesting and possibly terrifying subjects such as <a href="http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/lhc/lhc-en.html">CERN’s Large Hadron Collider</a> and Minnesota’s own <a href="http://www.hep.umn.edu/soudan/brochure.html">Soudan Underground Laboratory</a>. These sites do a good job of explaining the science behind what is being looked for in these large experiments designed to study the smallest particles.Tom Westbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960859397113422090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-52815015935648466292010-03-09T15:13:00.010-06:002010-03-11T10:50:16.775-06:00Mod Minn(ies): From Humble Beginnings<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKuI35TasMZ2J5wsz0VRGF9RJfGSwQyOrZYZt38527rhvcYOXsWOBAh8HS2MDFyZ1Y73gAiiNCK6-zY4ArVkBmxXctu6x3ypQ46peiQX_1Lu-C6QRYOKrm2i9JpGOagMolNeGEkA/s1600-h/Night+1.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 338px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKuI35TasMZ2J5wsz0VRGF9RJfGSwQyOrZYZt38527rhvcYOXsWOBAh8HS2MDFyZ1Y73gAiiNCK6-zY4ArVkBmxXctu6x3ypQ46peiQX_1Lu-C6QRYOKrm2i9JpGOagMolNeGEkA/s400/Night+1.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447398403549014210" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">All Photos By Timothy Hursley</span><br /><br /></div>As a designer at <a href="http://www.shelterarchitecture.com/blog1">Shelter Architecture</a> I have the opportunity to work with some fun modern design ideas. Recently, John Dwyer, founder of Shelter, lent his affordable housing expertise to assisting other architects in Biloxi as we worked with <a href="http://architectureforhumanity.org/">Architecture For Humanity's</a> Biloxi Model Homes program. This project meant that we received numerous plan sets for new single-family home prototypes to be built in East Biloxi, and John made numerous trips South on behalf of AFH to insure each was built properly. These houses are designed to reinvent how homes are built in flood prone areas and to meet FEMA's guidelines for hurricane resistance. The most difficult challenge posed by the project was raising a home off the ground 12 feet, disrupting the vibrant porch culture so important in Gulf Coast communities. One particular home design that tackled this issue and stood out from the other homes in the project was <a href="http://www.marlonblackwell.com/">Marlon Blackwell's</a> Porchdog house.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnFEq44PD13kEV6n669jrvwa-ngqElUZ9bUW_dUQeEP0pum46bFR9pyLDcpzvp24dHXnPgucD3vQ04VU5wrxOA8j8i35J3p5TTnSPn_p2DIqgWOs1zeYlPm3Lz6vNvRoFP7kU13A/s1600-h/Side2.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 310px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnFEq44PD13kEV6n669jrvwa-ngqElUZ9bUW_dUQeEP0pum46bFR9pyLDcpzvp24dHXnPgucD3vQ04VU5wrxOA8j8i35J3p5TTnSPn_p2DIqgWOs1zeYlPm3Lz6vNvRoFP7kU13A/s400/Side2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447398554623785554" border="0" /></a><br />Gulf Coast regions are slowly recovering from Katrina, but perhaps one of the worst remnants will be the transformation of vibrant street culture into something that is more remnant of the underside of a wharf. Regardless of the dazzling work lofted above the street-scape, the reality below is nothing short of foreboding. Porchdog refused to disrupt cultural tradition; instead, they designed a simple metal-clad home that cantilevers from an enclosed stair and storage volume all tied to the ground by a massive concrete stoop. This simple strategy left behind the pilloti-driven paradigm and unified structure and culture in a single but powerful move. The result is a home that is structurally spectacular, but still open and airy below, inviting neighborhood parties and spontaneous gatherings that were so common in pre-Katrina Biloxi. However, it's a reinterpretation of architectural culture which is far away from nostalgic ideas we frequently expect from the more typical '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Urbanism">New Urbanist</a>' interpretations of a cultural landscape.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7nRnHHfovEGgH6iRnhkJTzS7r_J0sUQo2P64uoniyuMnvItZK9ColKrT8aMoF-BRB39lhOU5-ZizVh44FEqG9EIp_rH_a1BWyMbmYOXMqr8znQWXh7OBdjNWbHgTPkFbGvTrSMQ/s1600-h/Context+3.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 315px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7nRnHHfovEGgH6iRnhkJTzS7r_J0sUQo2P64uoniyuMnvItZK9ColKrT8aMoF-BRB39lhOU5-ZizVh44FEqG9EIp_rH_a1BWyMbmYOXMqr8znQWXh7OBdjNWbHgTPkFbGvTrSMQ/s400/Context+3.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447399022966296002" border="0" /></a><br />The story of this 1,500 square-foot home's evolution is not a fairly tale. The humble $115,000 price-tag, made possible by <a href="http://oprahsangelnetwork.org/">Oprah's Angel Network</a>, was certainly limiting, but rocky planning and corrupt contractors made the process even more difficult. Regardless, the design team and the third and final contractor, Herbie Holder, fought for more than two years to insure this home for a single father and teenage son was complete. The interior is a simple open plan opening onto a very large second-story porch connecting this elevated home to the outdoors. The second staircase leads to the third floor with two modest bedrooms both with floor to glass windows. These East and West facing rooms can be made hurricane safe, and private, by operable metal screens which can be retracted at any time.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5as1y24AY1IxUOv9QbOQrSY1Q0xAB_Thx99ke_XCYDrlvgn-_AjTq2SLoudOPS4LF6IYhw-hJGGuuACkc2USH0s0ve3LVBDS7U437BBAkWsfEL_gb6l1telfvqwls8Z_1XqM3eA/s1600-h/Front+Katrina+Cottage+Rear.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 353px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5as1y24AY1IxUOv9QbOQrSY1Q0xAB_Thx99ke_XCYDrlvgn-_AjTq2SLoudOPS4LF6IYhw-hJGGuuACkc2USH0s0ve3LVBDS7U437BBAkWsfEL_gb6l1telfvqwls8Z_1XqM3eA/s400/Front+Katrina+Cottage+Rear.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447399610168095714" border="0" /></a><br />Despite the difficulties of construction, this project was well worth the battles to the proud owners and Blackwell's office. With its clear, potent design, it recently made the short list at the London Design Museum as an architectural finalist for the <a href="http://www.designsoftheyear.com/">Brit Insurance Design Awards</a>. This single-family American home rubbed shoulders with Pritzker-Prize winning architecture such as Zaha Hadid's new MAXXI in Rome and Herzog & de Meuron's TEA cultural complex in Portugal. It is a wonderful example of how truly spectacular modern work can be propagated from the least likely of projects, regardless of scale and budget. In a recent interview with Threshold, Jonathan Boelkins the project manager for Porchdog from Marlon Blackwell Architect summed up the impact that these inventive small humanitarian projects can have, "Every project has potential and dignity-- even something so small can have that much breadth."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi43WARtMGAxk4qkq-RyPSG7aoxp2KDJlrYAIZFnQQiWoxnuGlTXoagUMQqF7-8PrU5xSZMa062-_G5dsAZocLNrZ_89G9_6r32nxIhDplyjd2Q0-8hmaz0FOiqczAEVh3_voiEIA/s1600-h/Stairs.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 311px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi43WARtMGAxk4qkq-RyPSG7aoxp2KDJlrYAIZFnQQiWoxnuGlTXoagUMQqF7-8PrU5xSZMa062-_G5dsAZocLNrZ_89G9_6r32nxIhDplyjd2Q0-8hmaz0FOiqczAEVh3_voiEIA/s400/Stairs.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447399861056529218" border="0" /></a><br />To find out more please visit Architecture For Humanity’s <a href="http://openarchitecturenetwork.org/">Open Source Architectur</a><a href="http://openarchitecturenetwork.org/">e</a> website.Colin Oglesbay, A-AIAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08966962227161204647noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-70984274435016326712010-03-04T09:07:00.016-06:002010-03-04T09:57:26.661-06:00Exploded View: Opposing Thumbs at Art Of This<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOTrcgLIYexWJcLGxu0dMMkez1f9xOE_vajTS6aifKycNMUdyj44i1WMK9issZ451laRH2EnYaslfIX0dbJlzUfbpY2Yg9b7RwjZ02lMSxxqPdC4howv4daffWN1suF6Q7n0U/s1600-h/IMG_2003.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOTrcgLIYexWJcLGxu0dMMkez1f9xOE_vajTS6aifKycNMUdyj44i1WMK9issZ451laRH2EnYaslfIX0dbJlzUfbpY2Yg9b7RwjZ02lMSxxqPdC4howv4daffWN1suF6Q7n0U/s400/IMG_2003.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444807346296361778" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I’m kind of surprised and even a bit baffled that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bohm">David Bohm</a>, the quantum physicist, keeps coming to mind in relation to the current show at the <a href="http://www.artofthis.net/">Art Of This</a> gallery in Minneapolis. Why? Well it’s probably because I don’t really know much about him or quantum physics. I’m not sure but I’m guessing it’s the little bit I know about his beliefs in the interconnectedness of all things, and what that means in terms of relationships and communication between people.<br /><br />The show, Opposing Thumbs, is a mixed media installation that fills the entire gallery. It is the first collaborative work between the gallery’s co-directors, artists <a href="http://www.davidpetersenartworks.com/">David Petersen</a> and <a href="http://www.newsoundsystem.blogspot.com/">John Marks</a>. For four years, the two have worked together to create one of Minneapolis’s best spaces for contemporary work, with a tendency towards <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_practice">social practice</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_art">conceptual art</a>.<br /><br />The show’s press release describes Petersen and Marks journey together with words like “discord” and “economic strife.” It speaks of “disagreements regarding aesthetic, conceptual, political and philosophical concerns”, even calling out each of their “distinctive self-destructive behaviors”. Even though there was a tone of humor to it all, on the drive over I couldn’t help but develop a romanticized vision of their relationship, and from that, develop a sense of what I thought the work I was about to encounter might feel like. I half expected a series of works that were cathartic, complicated and dark. Of course, I could not have been more wrong.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_tpcmHGjZUaXX8GhvfYERzhjcVFY3BMUNORXxkyTPoXCyguB6_QjvOGDTEMYAO9tG_bFeD58vlXWvXDUNVzsYAQ7xpJuULC7Lp19fKnVgqr6wy2rrUUB6F_PTO1WodmSKarA/s1600-h/IMG_2012.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_tpcmHGjZUaXX8GhvfYERzhjcVFY3BMUNORXxkyTPoXCyguB6_QjvOGDTEMYAO9tG_bFeD58vlXWvXDUNVzsYAQ7xpJuULC7Lp19fKnVgqr6wy2rrUUB6F_PTO1WodmSKarA/s400/IMG_2012.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444807208232512274" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Opposing Thumbs was, in part, born of the recent home improvement projects both artists have been struggling with in their own dwellings. Most of the materials are either remnants of, or reflect Home Depot style remodeling projects, that is to say, textiles of the lowest order. Right at eye level, where many galleries might hang framed paintings, two foot strips of differently patterned wallpaper connect to form a continuous band around the gallery, no doubt a commentary on painting itself. While there is a certain momentum to the patterns as they make their way around the room, where they connect, they almost feel randomly chosen. Two jagged sculptures in the middle of the room, the same color as the floor, lean towards what the eye can’t help but gravitate to, a large colorful and busy, but still gentle video projection. The reflection it makes in the window seems to take the space of the gallery almost to the street. Two opposing ramps covered in carpet are centered by gilt framed video pieces. The room feels light, but dense. There is a narrative present, but it might be different to anyone who experiences it. I was absolutely struck by the smart, playful and esoteric tone of the room. I loved being in the space and can’t recommend it enough.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO9Oast0jNQEWYbCyDn2ooZvY1XeuXz_1SGvyyt2s_uJZB1bOw2ZGviOJFf_KNPPGPzTld2tOABZ2SiiuBZFkYQMO8Dm5XzwNQR3WeAOXyusMGKjXJaPIsbVtxKk1wFJG9x14/s1600-h/IMG_2021.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO9Oast0jNQEWYbCyDn2ooZvY1XeuXz_1SGvyyt2s_uJZB1bOw2ZGviOJFf_KNPPGPzTld2tOABZ2SiiuBZFkYQMO8Dm5XzwNQR3WeAOXyusMGKjXJaPIsbVtxKk1wFJG9x14/s400/IMG_2021.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444806990343057506" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Upon reflection though, it might be the sound piece and Petersen’s admission that he didn’t really like it, fearing that it was “maybe too reverent”, that is most interesting to me. They came to a perfect compromise with it. The four minute audio of what sounds like a vague, ethereal, distorted choir is followed by four minutes of silence. It becomes the perfect anchor to my memories of a room filled with geometry that seemed to answer and mirror itself in abstract ways all over the place, as with the fake painted lattice adjoined to real lattice… a strange balance exists.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguPCD4fJAkb7HRkLoNicycEJeRtBjpkPnxbuPYetZ0VaO7ddSIpZGlKF5BuTNsYczywZ2XGcfscmZ2MJ-fqTLBYxcqJpXowFkvwj08tmYDFaoy6Ve-qTgDalGO04gI8_5_2q8/s1600-h/IMG_2025.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguPCD4fJAkb7HRkLoNicycEJeRtBjpkPnxbuPYetZ0VaO7ddSIpZGlKF5BuTNsYczywZ2XGcfscmZ2MJ-fqTLBYxcqJpXowFkvwj08tmYDFaoy6Ve-qTgDalGO04gI8_5_2q8/s400/IMG_2025.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444806796319014434" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Maybe that’s where David Bohm comes in. The writer Jim Belderis said of Bohm “His realizations give intimations of an infinite hierarchy of ever deeper implicate and superimplicate orders, each one enfolded in the level that underlies it. And these flow endlessly into the unknowable ground of being.” It makes me think of the didactic for Opposing Thumbs, which concludes with the sentence “Because if there is a goal, it would be not to conclude and resolve, but rather to continue with the challenge that is continuing. “ And thus by continuing, each “answer” that Petersen and Marks arrive at only creates more questions. Which is just like great art.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Opposing Thumbs</span> closing reception happens Saturday March 6th 7-11pm.<br /><a href="http://www.artofthis.net/">Art Of This</a> gallery is located at 3506 Nicollet Ave, S. Minneapolis MNMatt Olsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110307559057330261noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-89314328075127792702010-03-02T14:27:00.007-06:002010-03-02T14:36:56.261-06:00Gopher Prairie<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaC0Mx3Nzl4Rp9BrKr4OKm2kkhZvEYOzPxBaqmkI9LX64uD7mlGQ6Mf55Usby_8OmDOAecc9mujzEjqHj2lcjrXR6kcn_WpXuTjCE9tOt_JIialfxBVOwlJBWExtTeSpt2Z4ut/s1600-h/mainstreet1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaC0Mx3Nzl4Rp9BrKr4OKm2kkhZvEYOzPxBaqmkI9LX64uD7mlGQ6Mf55Usby_8OmDOAecc9mujzEjqHj2lcjrXR6kcn_WpXuTjCE9tOt_JIialfxBVOwlJBWExtTeSpt2Z4ut/s400/mainstreet1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444137187659734898" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">Native Minnesotan Sinclair Lewis wrote the following in 1920. City-girl Carol Kennicott was playing urban designer to one of many unwilling townsfolk. </span></span> </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br />She had sought to be definite in analyzing the surface ugliness of the Gopher Prairies. She asserted that it is a matter of universal similarity; of flimsiness of construction, so that the towns resemble frontier camps; of neglect of natural advantages, so that the hills are covered with brush, the lakes shut off by railroads, and the creeks lined with dumping-grounds; of depressing sobriety of color; rectangularity of buildings; and excessive breadth and straightness of the gashed streets, so that there is no escape from gales and from sight of the grim sweep of land, nor any windings to coax the loiterer along, while the breadth which would be majestic in an avenue of palaces makes the low shabby shops creeping down the typical Main Street the more mean by comparison.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKvJvM1-TBtFkmXqDPnvVYc8P21sgIqH4KKiMa4OEBYhMZnuez10c7aw26Ei0doLgVnrdZxQe9rA79FGOnmaIrnTcOAOmvXjorvvDzqlJ7c0PQpoZfnNA2_zOHhoKCe-2eclNb/s1600-h/mainstreet5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKvJvM1-TBtFkmXqDPnvVYc8P21sgIqH4KKiMa4OEBYhMZnuez10c7aw26Ei0doLgVnrdZxQe9rA79FGOnmaIrnTcOAOmvXjorvvDzqlJ7c0PQpoZfnNA2_zOHhoKCe-2eclNb/s400/mainstreet5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444137301928581170" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Lewis’ “Main Street” is often lauded for being way ahead of its time in exposing the societal, economic, and political ills of the nation’s small towns. When I plunged in a few weeks ago, I never expected to find such a treatise on town planning, architecture, and natural resources. Today, of course, these small town Main Streets that Carol dislikes so vehemently are being re-created amidst the suburban sameness that is perhaps Lewis’ true prophesy.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirM-K9WNZ4RlKC9jk53Cl9DFOBN_KnBop099FP29Drh4T8wUh4-L2g9PomRdG25W42YmA3v8xrAADiYhqy9VFOU-HDPP2szSbvekWcxFVNVm0R8qexgow41Iw3Nc_MfKQqi_tc/s1600-h/mainstreet4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirM-K9WNZ4RlKC9jk53Cl9DFOBN_KnBop099FP29Drh4T8wUh4-L2g9PomRdG25W42YmA3v8xrAADiYhqy9VFOU-HDPP2szSbvekWcxFVNVm0R8qexgow41Iw3Nc_MfKQqi_tc/s400/mainstreet4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444137460895987730" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >Nine-tenths of the American towns are so alike that it is the completest boredom to wander from one to another. Always … there is the same lumber yard, the same railroad station, the same Ford garage, the same creamery, the same box-like houses and two-story shops. The new, more conscious houses are alike in their very attempts at diversity: the same bungalows, the same square houses of stucco or tapestry brick.<br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9fwelkHqrLEkSqAaNVn8ngB8domWlnJ4gfSlCgTb_06jUJpoDgEi-vYwTdI2TMHPVtMNjc0S6ofbwiEy0S9BD92b-5ScPzkF364b7lZUYDU7ZZVkcRryQMCERvvXd4kPHCezi/s1600-h/mainstreet6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9fwelkHqrLEkSqAaNVn8ngB8domWlnJ4gfSlCgTb_06jUJpoDgEi-vYwTdI2TMHPVtMNjc0S6ofbwiEy0S9BD92b-5ScPzkF364b7lZUYDU7ZZVkcRryQMCERvvXd4kPHCezi/s400/mainstreet6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444137377835249602" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="font-family:arial;">At the moment of this rant (half-way through the book), Carol has repeatedly tried to stir the town to action. She has dreamed of a new city hall, an excellent Georgian layout of the town, and even housing programs for poor immigrants. She has been rebuffed at every turn. She is an outsider who, the townsfolk say, should rather focus on making her husband happy. She is by now exasperated</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />The remedy? Is there any? … The trouble is spiritual, and no League or Party can enact a preference for gardens rather than dumping-grounds.</span></span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Carol continues at length about the frightening power of these small towns, but I won’t bore you here (it’s in chapter 22 section 7 and definitely worth a read). But Carol’s confidant, Vida Sherwin, shows her up, and along the way offers a process for change.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" ><br /><br />We’re going to have a new school building in this town…. We didn’t call on you because you would never stand the pound-pound-pounding year after year without one bit of encouragement. </span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Urban design—that is, the correlation of building and landscape – takes time: time banging one’s head against the wall, time cultivating relationships with the right people, time spent in town learning, listening, and then envisioning. How many of you have labored over a master plan only to see the “townsfolk” put it lovingly on a shelf. In “Main Street,” Carol saw the problem, but didn’t know the process (or, at least, underestimated the necessary fortitude). Have you had a similar experience?</span> </span>Adam Regn Arvidson, ASLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03912663069069676672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-34192237787879707162010-02-23T22:23:00.015-06:002010-02-26T09:05:31.368-06:00mawr-fuh-sis<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S4c88P2GlRI/AAAAAAAAAFs/oQgV_BfbPsc/s1600-h/IMG_1342.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S4c88P2GlRI/AAAAAAAAAFs/oQgV_BfbPsc/s400/IMG_1342.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442385680443806994" border="0" /></a>As often as possible I try to take advantage of my general proximity to the many great design schools in New York. The lecture schedules of Columbia, Cooper Union, Pratt, and Parsons each semester offer myriad opportunities to view influential designers speak about what they do, how they do it, and why they do it. All of the designers are proficient at expressing their ideas and narrating their work, but Thom Mayne from Morphosis Architects lays raconteurial waste to all of them. He is simply brilliant (Disclaimer: I have a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominique_Francon#Dominique_Francon">Dominique Francon</a>-like attachment to Mayne if that’s not obvious by now).<br /><br />The first time I heard him speak was a few years ago at Cooper Union where he was presenting the design for the “New Academic Building” which had just broken ground and was to be the new home for the schools of Engineering and Art at Cooper Union. The presentation was loaded with complex architectural theories and even more complex architectural <a href="http://morphopedia.com/view/41-cooper-square-rotated-atrium-diagra">diagrams</a> both of which left me with a great feeling of anticipation for the finished product. This anticipation was only bolstered by my visit to the Morphosis designed Caltrans District 7 Headquarters building in Los Angeles this past fall.<br /><br />So after visiting the new building at Cooper Union I can’t decide if I am a victim of self inflicted hype or if the building is a little underwhelming. I am sure, however, that my lower than expected level of awe is at least partially due to the fact that the building is not open to the public, denying me the opportunity to view the building as a whole. From the lecture it was obvious that the atrium and grand stair that traverse the full height of the building were crucial generative components in the conception of the project. The inability to experience this shall be my scapegoat for not being entranced by this building after my visit.<br /><br />Like all Morphosis buildings the Cooper Union project is an interesting exercise in how to clothe architecture. A metal screen outer layer is draped over a straight-forward glass wall. Scattered patches of the screen wall are treated with a reflective coating. These areas create an added layer of contrast that, although it is only a coating on the screen, almost read as a separate surface. This added layer of contrast helps your eye read the undulating movement of the facade while the perforation in the screen gives the facade depth.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S4c9ZF0gjBI/AAAAAAAAAF0/BIKuBo1FHUo/s1600-h/IMG_1327-SM.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S4c9ZF0gjBI/AAAAAAAAAF0/BIKuBo1FHUo/s400/IMG_1327-SM.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442386175968971794" border="0" /></a>While the facade is well-executed and articulated, the manner in which the building meets and interacts with the sidewalk below is possibly the most successful piece of the project. In a city where the sidewalks are so highly used, enough cannot be said to the importance of the first ten to fifteen feet of a building. In the Cooper Union building the skin is folded slightly upward at its bottom edge creating a sheltered area for the sidewalk below.<span style=""> </span>The building offers haven to pedestrians from wind, rain, sun, or snow. Out of this upturned edge the signage for the building emerges in a move directly adapted from the Caltrans building signage.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S4c9yAxfdVI/AAAAAAAAAF8/dOUjTT3ZuZA/s1600-h/IMG_1318-SM.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S4c9yAxfdVI/AAAAAAAAAF8/dOUjTT3ZuZA/s400/IMG_1318-SM.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442386604110869842" border="0" /></a>Critiquing a Morphosis project solely based on its façade is appropriate to an extent. A significant portion of their design energy is focused on the exterior of their projects. Nevertheless I feel obligated to experience the building as a whole if for no other reason than to decide if I need to start tempering my love for all things Morphosis. I see myself befriending a security guard in the near future.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S4c-NfnajaI/AAAAAAAAAGE/0rd0rIF9Ftk/s1600-h/IMG_1334-SM.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S4c-NfnajaI/AAAAAAAAAGE/0rd0rIF9Ftk/s400/IMG_1334-SM.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442387076246572450" border="0" /></a>Gregory Mellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10297270354185077050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-33297064278666447122010-02-22T09:30:00.000-06:002010-02-22T09:30:01.070-06:00In Plain Sight | Airport Art<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdgRXnpQ4w9uHy-00ZcpbrJ8famaL6EFMpjJdfuk-J5aHduU49TV0v3-o1sY13A5cimiIV_EVCcI113jtUxJgTlpZTvHJ_TXMODLDNjcznXYUdXgvzQr6EDrJlCc962EGYuov/s1600-h/100222_DEN_01.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdgRXnpQ4w9uHy-00ZcpbrJ8famaL6EFMpjJdfuk-J5aHduU49TV0v3-o1sY13A5cimiIV_EVCcI113jtUxJgTlpZTvHJ_TXMODLDNjcznXYUdXgvzQr6EDrJlCc962EGYuov/s400/100222_DEN_01.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441088063524036482" /></a>The airport isn't exactly known as a location for provoking deep thoughts, and if you've ever picked up an in-flight magazine, you've tasted bland, anonymous, and disposable all in one bite. Airports can be our introduction to an entirely new place, but beyond the security checkpoint, most are entirely placeless blurs of Eames tandem sling seating, coffee franchises, and USA Today.<br /><br />However, given their enormous, partially taxpayer-funded budgets, airports are often required to allocate 1% of their funds to public artwork, and these works can help give each hub some semblance of a unique personality. So, in an industry where constant motion is to be expected, what do you hang on the walls to get noticed?<br /><br />At one end of the spectrum are <a href="www.leotanguma.com">Leo Tanguma's</a> controversial murals at Denver International (pictured above). The bold symbolism makes these pieces hard to miss, even on a hurried dash to the baggage claim. Despite names like “In Peace and Harmony with Nature,” and “The Children of the World Dream of Peace,” the vivid, vaguely socialist imagery has <a href="http://www.westword.com/2007-08-30/news/dia-conspiracies-take-off&page=1">spawned a thousand conspiracy theories</a> about nefarious government activity taking place deep underground, below the adjacent Starbucks. Not quite the reaction Tanguma was hoping for, but attention from attention-deficient travelers nonetheless.<br /><br />At the other end of the spectrum is the installation at MSP's light rail terminal (pictured below). The stunning collection of Minnesotan scenes by St. Paul photographer, <a href="www.chrisfaustphoto.com">Chris Faust</a>, is definitely a more recognizable (though perhaps less symbolic) way of introducing visitors to the Land of 10,000 lakes. His beautiful panoramic prints help romanticize our state's people, its industry, and even its climate. But do they say enough to leave an impression? Who really doesn't like seeing a small-town homecoming parade? Who really does?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlkftZNZOQG6tNJz_FCv5ZpcWSHjIaTG_xJsfT-nscSFQOpJ6MCumL_rdpct-h4RwYvvtGxr0AMaivA362nEjQyA0tOe-aOfohtZXdBRGXL3fb6I_GoTI2jWH1jkF3xil2Wl9T/s1600-h/100222_MSP_01.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlkftZNZOQG6tNJz_FCv5ZpcWSHjIaTG_xJsfT-nscSFQOpJ6MCumL_rdpct-h4RwYvvtGxr0AMaivA362nEjQyA0tOe-aOfohtZXdBRGXL3fb6I_GoTI2jWH1jkF3xil2Wl9T/s400/100222_MSP_01.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441088075185959410" /></a>I'm no frequent flier. Have you seen great (or not-so-great) examples of local artistry in international airports?Brandon Stengel, Associate AIA, LEED APhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038906512392752547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-66495499008119090782010-02-18T08:08:00.002-06:002010-02-18T08:13:37.076-06:00Suburban Archaeology #9: Ole Bessie and the Plowman<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My winter experiences have become a comic farce of navigating around typical suburban life that others seem to perform as rote routine while I, being born, raised and living my entire adult life in the nearly sub-tropical region of Gulf Coastal Mississippi, have pretty much become a Don Knotts movie character. I crashed on this planet Hoth six years ago and I am (believe it or not) still acclimating to this icy tundra during the Antarctic months. The laws of science, at least as I thought I knew them, seem not to apply here in winter. Things that I never could have envisioned freezing do freeze, and everywhere around me becomes a gigantic ice-skating rink.</span></div></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXYs5L17mKOqXjy10_fHjavDi2JuD6iDYOQuwBfL9v4KSp_eaXHhNGjgxvjDfXe1hnaaDZtcZEF4WeWB9NnJ6_8MVnsdje3o2wms5bsGtlVseLk4ECQho-ODUVTLR1bRs79j3V/s1600-h/Me-and-Yeti.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXYs5L17mKOqXjy10_fHjavDi2JuD6iDYOQuwBfL9v4KSp_eaXHhNGjgxvjDfXe1hnaaDZtcZEF4WeWB9NnJ6_8MVnsdje3o2wms5bsGtlVseLk4ECQho-ODUVTLR1bRs79j3V/s400/Me-and-Yeti.gif" width="400" /></span></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: auto;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Along with my unending quest for warmth, my equilibrium and common sense just go totally out the window during this time. Something as simple as jogging with the dog quickly becomes Sesame Street on Ice, as he drags me skating for dear life down slippery sidewalks. Typically, resulting in the predictable whack and thud of my landing square on my bottom. I find the hurt to my pride stings far greater than the cold wind full of needles stabbing at my cheeks, or even the blue mark that I'm sure is now gracing my frozen Southern keester. The skating around on snow boots is one thing, and certainly comical, but being an Olympic gold medalist at Jeep-sliding toward oncoming traffic can be a terrifying experience; leaving me questioning, “what the hell am I doing here?!?” In an era of heated seats and goose down comforters, the season is tolerable however and I do find enjoyment in several of its activities.</span></div><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMLbr1XgapwQ6cF60PMuxZe50AuGBrXHnFxu2JY86vv1XX3KEVvrKnX4Mf3WhDIn1rOfZJZpuc2jLrW60RHqBl9Y_x6cAx_1indrgKkc7eigTrpjr28U7fNQd-XbciNYABU-7l/s1600-h/Me-and-Dog.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMLbr1XgapwQ6cF60PMuxZe50AuGBrXHnFxu2JY86vv1XX3KEVvrKnX4Mf3WhDIn1rOfZJZpuc2jLrW60RHqBl9Y_x6cAx_1indrgKkc7eigTrpjr28U7fNQd-XbciNYABU-7l/s400/Me-and-Dog.gif" width="400" /></span></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My least favorite has to be taking care of winter maintenance issues in </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Iceburbia</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Our first year in Minnesota was spent living in a quasi-urban apartment and I must say that the biggest (and admittedly only) thing I miss from that year is having myself a daddy (The apartment maintenance guy). Furnace is busted? We'll send someone over. (Because I'll admit that being from Mississippi, I didn't even know what a furnace was.) With heated underground parking garages and no concern for shoveling anything but dinner into my mouth, those were kinda the salad days, winter-wise. Enter the suburban picture. Now, “Old Bessie” is my new daddy. A mammoth, twelve-year-old snow blower I inherited in a friend's divorce, this baby should have flames painted on her sides. I set my iPod to the Beach Boys' “409”, throw on my sunglasses and crank up what sounds like a drag racer in early burnout. The thrill of throwing snow in blasting fifteen foot columns makes me feel just like a kid again and I don't mind the fact that I can't feel my toes so much. That Tim Taylor-esque grunting you hear...that's me.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZCyVGWilQ7sfp1AvpCGHEo8AQ4xipBci3OJZUiFXrUXGPS-i74xfo2qaCoY5U9PvZC5a9z7WmEYywH_VZG5Q0EFXxN5xLZQYl_VHfwra-W6eq3GfxXb_gZcyqnvrEBVANindi/s1600-h/Me-and-Bessie.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZCyVGWilQ7sfp1AvpCGHEo8AQ4xipBci3OJZUiFXrUXGPS-i74xfo2qaCoY5U9PvZC5a9z7WmEYywH_VZG5Q0EFXxN5xLZQYl_VHfwra-W6eq3GfxXb_gZcyqnvrEBVANindi/s400/Me-and-Bessie.gif" width="400" /></span></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While I'm having the time of my life with the blower, the delicate interplay between me, my mailman and the city plow guy is something straight out of a John Hughes movie. The script would read a little something like this: Snow falls. David shovels driveway in early morning hours. Plowman shoves snow from street into David's driveway and in front of David's mailbox after David has already left for morning meetings. Mailman won't deliver David's mail because he can't reach mailbox and leaves David a note stating that David should consider shoveling his snow. David gets note and shovels out mailbox. Because it's been snowing all day, Plowman returns to shove more snow in front of David's mailbox just as David gets ready to shovel driveway again before dinner. It snows all night while David is sleeping...rinse, repeat. Rinse, repeat.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a final note, I offer the illustrations as a gift from me to you. One Minnesotan (ahem) to another, just trying to get through the last throes of winter's icy grip together. I create my illustrations mostly by hand using primarily “architectural” means: utilizing technical pens and Sharpie markers on tracing and sketchpad paper, then by doing final renderings of color and some digital bits in Adobe Illustrator. Both the colors and geometries I employ when drawing people come out of a desire to render the human in an abstracted form, making for more whimsy and modernism, as well as to create a sense of communal sameness among all races and ethnicities. A little art always makes the cold days easier.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-58670946498519400232010-02-15T12:20:00.010-06:002010-02-16T12:55:34.193-06:00Mod Minn(ies): Modern Industry<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3mIwZipnyrBQ_Cl8FFnBcbwH8P8U5ERLGBHcGR0QWzAybFWePQeiws6rnc6vggtsmqtqkDLe-XUg6rtH494y-Qs2sKY6BIBhDlhhMLekTgPZGnYqMvitiAC6qf9E3lrBFo_jIMA/s1600-h/Historical.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 189px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3mIwZipnyrBQ_Cl8FFnBcbwH8P8U5ERLGBHcGR0QWzAybFWePQeiws6rnc6vggtsmqtqkDLe-XUg6rtH494y-Qs2sKY6BIBhDlhhMLekTgPZGnYqMvitiAC6qf9E3lrBFo_jIMA/s400/Historical.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438537887549312418" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Left: Peter Behren's AEG Turbine Factory | Right: Herzog & de Meuron's Ricola Storage Warehouse (Photo: Margherita Spiluttini)</span><br /><br />Many architects aspire to design modernist mansions and ground-breaking museums, forgetting that incredible work can be accomplished with less seductive structures. We must remember that simple industrial structures propelled the Modernist movement forward in the first place. If it weren't for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Behrens">Peter Barren's AEG Turbinenfabrik</a> (Turbine Factory), designed at the turn of the last century, Modernism may have never begun. More recently it was <a href="http://www.mimoa.eu/projects/Switzerland/Laufen/Ricola%20Storage%20Building">Herzog & de Meuron's</a> simple storage warehouse for Ricola in Basel, Switzerland, that refocused architecture away from literal ornamentation and exaggerated pediments towards explorations of modern materiality. In this same spirit of doing the most with what you are given, <a href="http://www.hga.com/">HGA's</a> Steven Dwyer recently received an AIA Minnesota Honor Award for a wonderful and precise design for the Biomass Facility at the University of Minnesota–Morris.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZIeLfMG1JiNc8tnFaVQvZODFVWfRx6EkSMdan28B_aF4gkprvLxMh7aWbFpld6qZyBC68QoXMbCabwrgnWz7-8vFfChyphenhyphen0YDMyd3nuMMcVfs07uUeir0EIuBsXU3pgwKePSFmkDQ/s1600-h/UMMoBi12.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 174px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZIeLfMG1JiNc8tnFaVQvZODFVWfRx6EkSMdan28B_aF4gkprvLxMh7aWbFpld6qZyBC68QoXMbCabwrgnWz7-8vFfChyphenhyphen0YDMyd3nuMMcVfs07uUeir0EIuBsXU3pgwKePSFmkDQ/s400/UMMoBi12.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438538635049122722" border="0" /></a><br />The building is a simple yet elegant addition to the university's original power plant by the celebrated firm <a href="http://special.lib.umn.edu/findaid/xml/naa029.xml">Cerny & Associates</a>. HGA was initially selected for the firm's engineering expertise, to be led by principal Doug Moss, PE, seven years ago when the bio-mass facility project began. The building is not meant for human habitation. It houses a corn stove, used to grind and efficiently burn agricultural waste to capture heating energy for the campus. This requires a complex mechanical choreography of processing and gasification. Despite the ground-breaking technology housed inside, the building's design was intended to be a basic brick box to match the campus's design guidelines. When the project landed on Steven Dwyer's desk, at that time a junior designer, he knew it had more potential.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoOENXQG9ae3qMgkXRDV56WHrnTKx_vPfjnsuYvpCPzloNqKlwIMDIkk9KghHOnMyZy7gCtMZGQGSkUEyrBtrwqPf4JkyhQqnPr4bLYuC7O35Ewrqn7X66hd-fEmLQM8YzuFNgDQ/s1600-h/UMMoB220.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoOENXQG9ae3qMgkXRDV56WHrnTKx_vPfjnsuYvpCPzloNqKlwIMDIkk9KghHOnMyZy7gCtMZGQGSkUEyrBtrwqPf4JkyhQqnPr4bLYuC7O35Ewrqn7X66hd-fEmLQM8YzuFNgDQ/s400/UMMoB220.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438538906591055682" border="0" /></a><br />Inspired by the building's industrial purpose and the rural setting immediately beyond the facility, Dwyer advocated making the biomass facility a modern wood box. He felt strongly that the texture of that material would create the contrast necessary to play against the existing power plant's brick and make it possible to acknowledge the agrarian material fueling the campus's energy needs within. Because the building had strict sustainable design goals and a very limited budget, wood was also an affordable alternative to the original brick selections. The taught horizontal wood skin of the building changes texture at times to become vertical grill framed in galvanized steel, featuring the important crop material within. Other parts of the building need to be exposed the outside for safety and ventilation purposes; and here Dwyer used a finely-woven galvanized chain-link (see detail below) stretched in a matching steel frame that exposes the steel structure and complex mechanics within. The overall play of opaque to open makes this simple wood and steel box eye-catching. The playfulness of simple architectural composition becomes even more noticeable with a galvanized steel box window which penetrates from the western side of the building, a trick not typically possible in conventional buildings in Minnesota because of thermal issues.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBRXjTyE5ZFz_T7HNNxPGtYFexzZHbDbTLPjdqTezuRl_UtN439yP1MmS4JxCJ0LvjPbNDPV6BmcwZYbojCEbbQdRSkWOyxYzNQdiKA50e25HzhQNpM29KDYmGe0qOzPoaq1IVOA/s1600-h/UMMoBi58.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 398px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBRXjTyE5ZFz_T7HNNxPGtYFexzZHbDbTLPjdqTezuRl_UtN439yP1MmS4JxCJ0LvjPbNDPV6BmcwZYbojCEbbQdRSkWOyxYzNQdiKA50e25HzhQNpM29KDYmGe0qOzPoaq1IVOA/s400/UMMoBi58.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438539128259340082" border="0" /></a><br />HGA has realized a tailored work of architecture shaped from a decidedly industrial project. The lesson from it is that rich symbols of architectural culture can be fostered from the simple everyday elements of the industrial landscape. As architects we need to remind ourselves of those brief moments in our professional history when great works were invented from the most minimal building projects. We as designers need to try to help our clients see the potential in their everyday structures. Only with our diligence can these simple industrial boxes become experimental elements of culture.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT0jQIUFRGW8OIFv_y31PCLKlhJotaTrWeq3dMbOiqKsANdCb3PngQdDMnFynHp3ALbcq4so6MUfSj-BqFSamxsn-G23ZDE1nUWBamAY3-yGYcfjJe-xV0RiIjIzsTHB8S1mhEiQ/s1600-h/UMMoB215.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT0jQIUFRGW8OIFv_y31PCLKlhJotaTrWeq3dMbOiqKsANdCb3PngQdDMnFynHp3ALbcq4so6MUfSj-BqFSamxsn-G23ZDE1nUWBamAY3-yGYcfjJe-xV0RiIjIzsTHB8S1mhEiQ/s400/UMMoB215.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438539349261589218" border="0" /></a><br />If you're interested in learning more about the project, please check out Philip Koski's article in this months <a href="http://www.aia-mn.org/ext_architecture-mn/current.cfm">Architecture Minnesota Magazine</a>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_OdhXRYfDmr8pFthaL1HmKQSRN7pujRdjLg-iqoEtXkzFoYsir9-7W0mrZq1oU75rFtvgGUcZcaaHTUSZNkvF5-vdKtVJP1yhKCWnjO2CcVOEtjQK8W0uDKoCt8IAvxLti61LCA/s1600-h/Details.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 309px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_OdhXRYfDmr8pFthaL1HmKQSRN7pujRdjLg-iqoEtXkzFoYsir9-7W0mrZq1oU75rFtvgGUcZcaaHTUSZNkvF5-vdKtVJP1yhKCWnjO2CcVOEtjQK8W0uDKoCt8IAvxLti61LCA/s400/Details.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438916639479792370" border="0" /></a>Colin Oglesbay, A-AIAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08966962227161204647noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-87362194176082488832010-02-11T13:05:00.015-06:002010-02-11T21:41:41.142-06:00My Ruskinian Epiphany<a href="http://thinkexist.com/quotation/the_highest_reward_for_a_man-s_toil_is_not_what/13884.html">“The highest reward for man's toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it.” </a><br />- John Ruskin<br /><br />I have always been a sort of tool fetishist. As someone who has been making things all my life, I have routinely used all the power saws, drills, and gadgets common to standard construction.<br /><br /><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px; display: block; height: 300px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437071584716096418" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht7IOr7t2l7RBZz1RKJazMhi5WQfl5KRpO5MjAx3Mtx-q7tsTpZf3h8g0Yv0xG6TqdB7hUeaw2GXpg033JeLiH07kwO36t64ykyenT9on5WbeZm7h-Tlsh1kx1jNIFiK4LsIAp/s400/assembled+frame+detail.jpg" border="0" />The summer I spent carving a timber frame cabin changed all that. I was introduced to new tools, new for me at least. Some changes were simply a matter of scale—a 17” circular saw, for example, makes one look like a five year old with Daddy's Skilsaw. Other changes, however, drove a deeper and more fundamental change in my relationship with tools.<br /><br /><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px; display: block; height: 300px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437067733292587874" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC6NHgIJBwc5t-a_1f7GbhlmE2uKSQkRVCunx1x6zh4o06LNfkUNR-AUXLgeK1Gm4UNDH0CRB6jZ6ikqotoYfUc2SbtOkEKZXDgwgGhs9iIFHo9ZSdcK3G6P4AqsjGzfAhha-v/s400/using+saw.jpg" border="0" /><br />While the power tools we used were huge, fast and accurate, in many cases the joints needed to be finished with hand tools. The finish saw of choice was a Japanese pull saw which had a simple, long wooden handle, bound with rattan, and a very thin blade, often with crosscut teeth on one side and rip set teeth on the other. These saws required a completely different engagement with my body than a western saw. I would often finish my cut, sitting cross-legged on the workshop floor, gently pulling the saw through the fresh pine at a surprising pace. The change in motion, the less aggressive grip, the more passive motion of a pull rather than a push, being able to comfortably move all around the cut made me more aware of the movement of the blade through the wood. The focus was at once on the movement of your body in space, and the feel of the wood as the extremely sharp teeth cut through. There was a connection with the cut, the tool, the wood, and my body.<br /><br /><p></p><p><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px; display: block; height: 300px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437067749559322866" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPiqjb8CGCpX-m84lAeklJo1fRx3PXgYCDnPB7WXJXjzgwiXqJH4rAnsbkXiUmc2Tpn3KGcdCe21rtlrdpC3swi5pYEpcqAD7LjoLAP1r7AxKDekyRahwgXE8h9ZFvEMbuDwoB/s400/end+rafter+joint.jpg" border="0" /> The structural system also called for a level of precision that could only be achieved with a simpler, sharper, and more primitive tool: the chisel. The timbers were laid out to the 32nd of an inch, pencil marks were too rough and were marked more precisely with a knife. The chisels were beautiful things. Some, <a href="http://www.barrtools.com/">Barr timber framing chisels</a>, were nearly 18” long and 2” wide, while slicks were even wider and nearly three FEET in length. Kept scary sharp, it was rarely necessary to pound with a mallet, most often the chisel was carefully pushed through the wood, paring down to the knife mark. Again the focus was on the motion of my body, the feel of the chisel as it cut through the fibers of the wood, trying to keep the chisel flat, parallel, perpendicular or at the proper angle.</p><p><br /><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px; display: block; height: 300px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437071574642452258" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKS2F2kY8Hknet9oyyNMN4fAxY9_QrGyp2ZUGYAbnvI8Ox7vLte5Chx-R-_SljApADzZ16qWD_CDYEXykiBuObTEG57LRNWUwfh5dvLkBoB6ykMpkd4VUHnWozf_mobIsjDAci/s400/finished+timber.jpg" border="0" /><br />I think my tool epiphany came when I spent most of a day sharpening chisels. After grinding out the few dings and chips, I began flattening the backs, ten square inches of very hard steel, using Japanese water stones. The tools were large enough to preclude the use of guides; I had to use my whole body to try to get the very flat polishing motion, moving in a perfect plane. These motions follow through a series of finer and finer stones, ending in a 12,000 grit water stone that, if properly done, leaves a mirror finish on the blade. In polishing, one is entirely focused on the feel of the grit, however fine, pulling grains of steel from the blade; trying to keep exactly the same movement again and again. It becomes meditative, full of only movement and feeling, a process you can loose yourself in. Indeed, the nearly six hours I spent tuning our chisels seemed to pass unnoticed.<br /><br /><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px; display: block; height: 300px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437067751854859986" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3_EnNwBjRzuNZfwbj9yptl9AneZ2h2k5wEvpDBoBJK4W5wFz7h9jvgW7d8vo1LcXciCmYLKyAwAJDl5p-VESuw30s1wIbMiEliwfzp-zT7kYhN47LFMdPsZlrjYl2JUK6tm99/s400/using+stone.jpg" border="0" /><br />Since then, I am tending to go to the hand tools first, to work in a gentler, quieter, more precise way. Hand tools, because of the level of precision they can achieve, require a more intimate level of care, protecting edges, keeping them sharp and clean. I think at last my toil with tools has changed me, giving me Ruskin’s “highest reward”.<br /><br /><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px; display: block; height: 300px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437067755172886898" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW0MkquKJOJGQtuQCbOzrvwKO_kNAYxsUNTS9tCvu5VCOcwDx4f8DLh34bI2H0nS0JiH3gZmrXXm0P5BluPIBjwy8VAK-OrnDe3WAq1ENxjsgdNKF7mn_4xRm2VNwVRtE-4m_A/s400/chisel+shine.jpg" border="0" /></p>Tom Westbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960859397113422090noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-55984959118114726002010-02-08T19:43:00.005-06:002010-02-08T22:57:18.112-06:00Can Smart Neighborhood Design Reduce Foreclosures? | Heather Beal<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiYK2k5SRd95fEto2Bh0qdzJxXwVxAlJzO7R1F47fSPnuhaJ9QgGnEx9DmCrWuV_s6-iB8EcgXophsEYBowatnECR2Ldh96sIHiE43qm-iNDu4QKGbmblVxEBn9WTUG_2tpbknEg/s1600-h/Gathering+Photo.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiYK2k5SRd95fEto2Bh0qdzJxXwVxAlJzO7R1F47fSPnuhaJ9QgGnEx9DmCrWuV_s6-iB8EcgXophsEYBowatnECR2Ldh96sIHiE43qm-iNDu4QKGbmblVxEBn9WTUG_2tpbknEg/s400/Gathering+Photo.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436055131509518482" border="0" /></a><br />In 1987, I bought a house before a car.<br /><br />That was nearly a decade before the phrase “<a href="http://smartgrowthny.org/history.shtml">smart growth</a>” was invented and no one knew what a carbon footprint was. I understood simple economics, though. Lending policies were strict and my budget constraints clear. My husband was in graduate school and my income was so low I calculated our loan limits in my head. Since we couldn’t qualify for both a home and an auto loan we found a house on a major bus route within walking distance of food and general merchandise stores, restaurants, and medical and dental offices. I used mass transit or joined a carpool to commute each day.<br /><br />Fast-forward to the 21st century.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYI46GFDxFLQeipvL6UEA70MRSxVUP8wCUCc6y8dSgcuWV7ZJpZlMfOjYwVETW397OjIBoHCHVgLCd4OUVKvuAHMnIKJFkI-tLuMte0HiYwmH2tDQUbz3OSH48sEJUSzbgXNHeag/s1600-h/PeopleInBCSParkHB.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 244px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYI46GFDxFLQeipvL6UEA70MRSxVUP8wCUCc6y8dSgcuWV7ZJpZlMfOjYwVETW397OjIBoHCHVgLCd4OUVKvuAHMnIKJFkI-tLuMte0HiYwmH2tDQUbz3OSH48sEJUSzbgXNHeag/s400/PeopleInBCSParkHB.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436054085478950338" border="0" /></a><br />The neighborhood characteristics we chose for practical reasons are now in high demand and, according to industry experts, could play an important role in stabilizing the home mortgage market.<br /><br />A report recently released by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) identifies “location efficiency” as a key predictor of mortgage default risk. Researchers analyzed more than 40,000 mortgages from three distinctly different areas across the United States: Chicago, San Francisco, and Jacksonville, Florida.<br /><br />“The sum of the counties we looked at incorporates a variety of neighborhood patterns,” explains Jennifer Henry, with NRDC’s Center for Market Innovation, “from center city and central suburbs to outer suburbs and more rural areas.”<br /><br />The study’s results show the probability of mortgage foreclosure decreased in location-efficient communities. These compact developments offer a range of transportation options, and have businesses that provide essential services and products nearby.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj06LmssP3aElFycFwFUb6X-lYxTNdpVKD2Ad3mLKwoP8fDg6oJd1c1_J76LhCIu1ahxYig2xuyNMoA9WDiOo-PLlvohQK0l0w9mWMPetZITD_we7p9TxnKfmIaYjWPb_p7pC6Epg/s1600-h/BCSwTransitHB.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 329px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj06LmssP3aElFycFwFUb6X-lYxTNdpVKD2Ad3mLKwoP8fDg6oJd1c1_J76LhCIu1ahxYig2xuyNMoA9WDiOo-PLlvohQK0l0w9mWMPetZITD_we7p9TxnKfmIaYjWPb_p7pC6Epg/s400/BCSwTransitHB.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436054296066834386" border="0" /></a><br />Since people who live in location-efficient communities are able to drive less they can spend a smaller portion of their income on purchasing, insuring, operating and maintaining vehicles. The fact that they can use mass transit, or walk, or bike to meet their basic needs also gives them more flexibility for adjusting their transportation costs when gas prices and household incomes fluctuate.<br /><br />“We think this is good news”, Henry concludes, “because it indicates that by [considering] transportation costs and location efficiency we can improve our understanding of mortgage performance, structure better loans, and reduce the nation’s overall rate of foreclosure.”<br /><br />Lending practices currently take into account the average 9% of household income that is spent on auto loans, yet total transportation costs have grown to constitute roughly 17% of the average United States household’s expenditures.<br /><br />In other words, the “drive ‘til you qualify” approach to housing development is a fallacy. It’s time for a new “affordability” index – one that takes into account all household transportation costs.<br /><br />For more information you can view a copy of the report at: <a href="http://www.nrdc.org/">www.nrdc.org</a>.Colin Oglesbay, A-AIAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08966962227161204647noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-29619636325183924642010-02-04T10:33:00.013-06:002010-02-04T16:29:48.139-06:00Exploded View: David Lefkowitz<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja4VT6B2N2m3GDz2w37W2svGhZgdai-qWmCfcjXPhH-11RI9QRmxHPXYDPauwaDc3s5dm0954F5YbLK424wZAxL-F_dlRJ7e-Imk3j_dWpP5TMQh-L43gqWcBUVRcZOzNFc4c/s1600-h/rochester+trip+nikon+096.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja4VT6B2N2m3GDz2w37W2svGhZgdai-qWmCfcjXPhH-11RI9QRmxHPXYDPauwaDc3s5dm0954F5YbLK424wZAxL-F_dlRJ7e-Imk3j_dWpP5TMQh-L43gqWcBUVRcZOzNFc4c/s400/rochester+trip+nikon+096.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434435174274630914" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We all have some guilty pleasures, right? One of mine is the wish that someday I'll be an art tourist: those folks who jet around on a whim to see art wherever it may be. Sadly, the closest I'll probably get to that lifestyle is my recent drive to the Rochester Art Center to see the fantastic <a href="http://www.people.carleton.edu/%7Edlefkowi/index.html">David Lefkowitz</a> exhibit <a href="http://www.rochesterartcenter.org/exhibitions/2OG/2009/lefkowitz.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Other Positioning Systems</span></a>. Lefkowitz's work investigates the relationship between our direct experience of the world and the systems and structures we've constructed and use to make sense of it.<br /><br />I first encountered the work of David Lefkowitz in the "Recent Acquisitions" show at the Walker Art Center a couple years ago, <a href="http://rolu.terapad.com/resources/648/assets/images/walker/david%20&%20jim%20091.jpg">six small architectural drawings on cardboard</a> from a series called "Improvised Structures." I was struck by their ambiguous relationship to space and scale, and their juxtaposition of material and theme.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.rochesterartcenter.org/exhibitions/2OG/2009/lefkowitz.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Other Positioning Systems</span></a> (now closed) was a retrospective and included works that played with security cameras, exposed what occurs behind the walls of a gallery, and displayed paintings of scenes from Lefkowitz's auto commute seen from the perspective of <a href="http://www.dot.state.mn.us/tmc/trafficinfo/cameras_map.html">MNDOT camera</a> views. There was a room full of "actual sized" paintings of very small things... and finally, the show culminated in a large gallery, where, in a series of works, the materials themselves become the most expressive part; a painting on wallboard in sheetrock compound, a large mural line drawing on wall where the lines were all made from sticks and branch twigs, a Styrofoam city.<br /><br />Lefkowitz was kind enough to answer a few general questions about his work. <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> Since I’m a novice at conducting interviews, I read a few conducted with artists I like. I was particularly taken by an interview with John Baldessari, whose work I feel has a conceptual link to Lefkowitz’s. [Read that interview <a href="http://www.artnet.com/magazine/FEATURES/davis/davis12-7-04.asp">here</a>].<br /><br />Because Lefkowitz explores perception, and asks us to question whether we're really seeing what we're seeing (or hearing), I asked him if I could copy some of the same questions from the Baldessari interview as an amusing conceptual frame. He was intrigued. Here's how it went.<br /><br />Matt Olson - What led you to become an artist?<br /><br />David Lefkowitz - Two things: 1. A Romantic ideal of the Artist as autonomous creative tinkerer- as someone who gets to spend a lot of time playing with ideas and experimenting with ways to give those thoughts concrete form. The reality isn’t quite so idyllic, but remarkably, it is part of the equation 2. A giddy skepticism about the truth/validity/authenticity of any representational image.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuH7LoOzXbHoSKoScewE6SQyb2wQG-ozXAHSxVHjf_UXecOjii0eXYwJHdH4oepH1efxBVtyAdZZEjK-LYO_L2nVrSWhxTEoubsZwaal_sXTR8FaIoe3o29J_vKpSsl-2hTOY/s1600-h/rochester+trip+nikon+073.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuH7LoOzXbHoSKoScewE6SQyb2wQG-ozXAHSxVHjf_UXecOjii0eXYwJHdH4oepH1efxBVtyAdZZEjK-LYO_L2nVrSWhxTEoubsZwaal_sXTR8FaIoe3o29J_vKpSsl-2hTOY/s400/rochester+trip+nikon+073.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434435167401350546" border="0" /></a><br /><br />MO - I'm sorry, I hate to interject, but how tall are you?<br /><br />DL - Not as tall as John Baldessari.<br /><br />MO - You're so tall! It's amazing!<br /><br />DL - As I said before, pictures can be deceiving.<br /><br />MO - Who would you consider to be some breakthrough artists within the last decade?<br /><br />DL - Was this a question to Baldessari too?<br /><br />“Breakthrough” is a curious term to use here. It implies there was a barrier to certain artists/types of artwork that has recently been challenged, broken, circumvented. Now we’re in a really weird place/time-In a culture obsessed with novelty and spectacle, its hard to tell the difference between trendy and innovative. When ‘blurring boundaries’ is the normative strategy for artists, stubbornly conservative approaches can seem radical (though I am not convinced they really are). Given that caveat, If I extend the time constraint back to a couple decades, two relatively recent projects stand out for me as mind –expanding ventures.<br /><br />First is Komar and Melamid’s efforts to determine the most and least wanted paintings in different countries. They hired a market research firm to conduct a survey about people’s aesthetic tastes, then made hilarious paintings based on the results. The project was simultaneously a critique of a corporate marketing approach to culture, and a paradoxically revealing picture of national character. You can read all about it <a href="http://awp.diaart.org/km/index.html">here</a>.<br /><br />I also continue to marvel at the work of J.S.G. Boggs, who, beginning in the mid-‘80’s, would make meticulous drawings of U.S. and other currencies, and then proceed to try to ‘spend’ his drawings, always making clear that these were not actual bills, but drawings that he assigned the face value of the depicted money. The convoluted transactions themselves were the artwork, and they sharply revealed the way our whole economy is based on a consensus of faith in the value of scraps of paper (and now on digitized bits of financial information- which reminds me, I need to log on to Wells Fargo to ‘move money’ from savings to checking- see what I mean?). The creative non-fiction master Lawrence Weschler wrote a fantastic book about his exploits. It’s definitely worth checking out.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5tUy3tl6hqQxOwJsIP-BRErY6Z3K3J03V9SoLl1_aKwlagRnw4w78_x2nmobQJUPN9HR5vZE_NprUE3rKwT_WOyySWgWvw36gdJQb4P_prc0Eh14w16F0fHzm0fEEMq7fuFw/s1600-h/rochester+trip+nikon+041.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5tUy3tl6hqQxOwJsIP-BRErY6Z3K3J03V9SoLl1_aKwlagRnw4w78_x2nmobQJUPN9HR5vZE_NprUE3rKwT_WOyySWgWvw36gdJQb4P_prc0Eh14w16F0fHzm0fEEMq7fuFw/s400/rochester+trip+nikon+041.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434435162515228626" border="0" /></a><br /><br />MO - Could you talk a bit about the "Improvised Structure" series of drawings the Walker Art Center acquired?<br /><br />DL - Sure, they are watercolor drawings of structures made of cardboard boxes depicted on scrap cardboard. The images refer to utopian architecture- they exist only as plans, but they lack a connection to a grand plan, an overarching ideology. (Can one develop a planned unplanned-ness, an anti-Haussmann utopia?) The central organizing principle is formal and mundane- I depict a single structure, or small group of structures in linear perspective, usually seen at street level. Because they lack any surrounding context, they read as specimens- isolated examples of a form. Thus, attention is focused on their singularity.<br /><br />They are “improvised” in that I draw them pretty much from scratch. I draw a lot of quick studies that function as general sources, but I am making them up as I go along. I like that something that seems as definitive as an architectural rendering can really be a quick notation of an idea. It contradicts standard assumptions about what improvisation means. I like using watercolor ’cause it’s fugitive, hard-to-control nature adds an element of happenstance to an otherwise rigid structure. I like that they embody two poles of the spirit of resourcefulness-using what’s available, plentiful, right in front of you. They suggest both an architecture of possibility: children’s forts- cardboard box as basic unit for play, invention, and an architecture of necessity: cardboard box as rudimentary shelter for the homeless.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsqn3Eyhgk6EAQne8mn9vUzsKInLsPC8LAvxRAMYOH1WnvKCq_PSSt6OqZpIlt_cJxeF0xSdEvRAkTgmlCfXTdwzze2zDDTjSULuBDyi-Vsuy6xoSqbWlf9RRAoUtWklFROXM/s1600-h/Improvised+Structure+%2388+detail+2004.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsqn3Eyhgk6EAQne8mn9vUzsKInLsPC8LAvxRAMYOH1WnvKCq_PSSt6OqZpIlt_cJxeF0xSdEvRAkTgmlCfXTdwzze2zDDTjSULuBDyi-Vsuy6xoSqbWlf9RRAoUtWklFROXM/s400/Improvised+Structure+%2388+detail+2004.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434518914497082226" border="0" /></a><br /><br />MO - What architects or areas of architecture are you interested in and how do they relate to your work?<br /><br />DL - Like lots of folks I know, I have an ambivalent reaction to the legacy of Modernism- I love the spirit of experimentation and the attention to the properties of specific materials you find in Mies’ structures (steel, glass) or Eero Saarinen buildings (poured concrete), but I’m not so fond of arrogant social engineering like Corbu’s Plan Voisin, and the zillions of cheap, alienating structures partially justified by their superficial resemblance to ideal Modernist forms. I ‘d make a case that that ambivalence is actually the subject of a number of things I’ve done, from the Improvised Structures I mentioned above, to Plan, the Styrofoam city model in Other Positioning Systems. I also really respond to architects who use unconventional, often throwaway materials, like Shigeru Ban, who has used sonotubes (not the concrete they’re usually filled with) as structural elements, and landscape architects who transform abandoned industrial sites like Peter Latz, who designed an amazing park in Germany that incorporates derelict blast furnaces. Locally, I love the way MS&R used the ruins of the Washburn A Mill to create the Mill City Museum. It’s not hard to see how these examples of repurposing materials and spaces most people would consider garbage relate to my work.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh80hMoxVz3biavVw50Ff6C8PKQtaNet2chg2cy4MU6mnnLbvGE9ZeMHgS1SWk_oDSFnRwJ46hBKJnaziwkzcH52UqaxvwUhVfWrBK6rT9DHnCN0VOfAlJCKqGhAGrSmoMjfwA/s1600-h/rochester+trip+nikon+005.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh80hMoxVz3biavVw50Ff6C8PKQtaNet2chg2cy4MU6mnnLbvGE9ZeMHgS1SWk_oDSFnRwJ46hBKJnaziwkzcH52UqaxvwUhVfWrBK6rT9DHnCN0VOfAlJCKqGhAGrSmoMjfwA/s400/rochester+trip+nikon+005.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434435150771870818" border="0" /></a><br /><br /> The Rochester Art Center show has closed, but Lefkowitz will have another solo show in May at <a href="http://www.thomasbarry.com/index.html">Thomas Berry Fine Arts</a> in Minneapolis, and will participate in group shows this spring and summer at the <a href="http://www.thephipps.org/galleries.htm">Phipps Center for the Arts</a> In Hudson, the <a href="http://www.bloomingtonartcenter.com/Pages/Exhibitions.htm">Bloomington Art Center</a>, and the <a href="http://weisman.umn.edu/">Weisman Art Museum</a>.Matt Olsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110307559057330261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-46799346547045543012010-02-02T09:28:00.006-06:002010-02-02T09:52:31.508-06:00Elsewhere in the BlogscapeIt's hard to write about the intersection of land and building in winter. That intersection tends to become a slippery, icy, stomp-your-boots, pile-your-coats-and-hats-and-mittens kind of space. So today I'll take a moment to highlight a couple of other landscape related blogs worth checking out. These are a few of my favorites. Are there any I missed?<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Landscape Urbanism</span></span><br /><a href="http://landscapeandurbanism.blogspot.com/">landscapeandurbanism.blogspot.com/</a><br />From North Dakota State landscape architecture grad and current Portland, OR, resident Jason King comes this eclectic compendium of urban issues. Posts range from the quite long to the short and sweet. It’s all Jason, but his style is simple and readable. He’s also got a spin-off site called veg.i.tecture, which deals exclusively with (predictably) vegetated architecture (green roofs, living walls, etc.).<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Interchange</span></span><br /><a href="http://www.planetizen.com/interchange">www.planetizen.com/interchange</a><br />Residing on the well-respected urban planning website Planetizen, Interchange is a group blog that features “leaders in the field” tackling subjects in their bailiwick. There are 60 contributors, which may seem overwhelming, but Interchange manages to strike a good balance between regular content and not hearing from the same person over and over again. These are big names in the field, so worth a regular check-in.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Pruned</span></span><br /><a href="http://pruned.blogspot.com/">pruned.blogspot.com</a><br />This one is really fun to look at, with an always unpredictable mix of stuff. It used to be pretty regular, but posts have tapered off in the past few months. Please come back, Mr. Trevi.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Garden Visit</span></span><br /><a href="http://www.gardenvisit.com/blog/">www.gardenvisit.com/blog/</a><br />The name is a little odd, I know, but this small-group blog is part of a website devoted to letting you know how you can get out and see works of landscape architecture and garden design (dear to my own wanderlust heart). I just discovered this one and haven’t read much, but it looks promising. It spans the globe and often takes a well-founded critical look at urban design issues (like, on January 27, why the cities with the best urban form don’t make the grade in terms of economic productivity – hmmm…).Adam Regn Arvidson, ASLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03912663069069676672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-53367224987792950622010-01-30T12:28:00.005-06:002010-01-31T23:41:55.904-06:00Transplanted | How Well Do We Rebuild?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S2R6ejUKo9I/AAAAAAAAAFk/S3Uq340xIwg/s1600-h/REBUILD-BW.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 202px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_78x5rrwscIY/S2R6ejUKo9I/AAAAAAAAAFk/S3Uq340xIwg/s400/REBUILD-BW.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432601715810149330" border="0" /></a>Why is it that our efficiency to clean up after a disaster is in direct contrast to our efficiency to rebuild after a disaster? We seem to fully understand how to dispatch the cranes and bulldozers and trucks to cleanse the city, yet we struggle to direct them to expeditiously reconstruct the city. We deploy our armed forces to rescue our people yet we struggle to coordinate architects, engineers, and planners to rescue our cities. This is completely incongruous to me. If we as a people have the skill set for removing debris effectively we simply must have the ability to bring new debris back in the form of buildings and infrastructure.<br><br>The only explanation for the hole in New York City at Ground Zero, the dilapidated FEMA trailers still littering New Orleans, and the tent communities sure to remain in Haiti is that everyone agrees that the carnage of the aftermath must be cleared, but we are somehow incapable of agreeing on what should follow. Making the decisions to clean up is politically easy. Making the decisions as to what gets rebuilt, how it gets rebuilt, and who profits from the rebuilding has proven to be too difficult a task for our leaders.<br><br>Science tells us that earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods will be a constant variable in our lives as long as we inhabit this planet. Reality tells us that terrorism is not going away anytime soon either. So, then, we need a better strategy to deal with the destruction left in their wake as our current one is only partially and marginally effective. I, therefore, propose a Design Cabinet. This Cabinet would be independent of the one established in <a href="http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#A2Sec2">Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution</a>, it would be chosen by the President, and would be constructed regionally into Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest and Southeast chapters. Each chapter would be composed of one of each of the following:<br>-architect<br>-cartographer<br>-civil engineer<br>-construction superintendent<br>-landscape architect<br>-urban planner<br><br>Each chapter must not include any of the following:<br>-lawyers<br>-any individual with more than two days of political experience in any capacity<br><br>The Design Cabinet would be charged with approving designs submitted by open competition. Their selections would be final and absolute.<br><br>A perfect system is a fallacy, but the lack of any system is intolerable and inhumane.Gregory Mellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10297270354185077050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-16630634557523787372010-01-22T06:00:00.001-06:002010-01-22T06:00:10.667-06:00In Plain Sight | The Awkward Tower<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg94UlP27NJFZ3kmpRPGNEq_685emUNQDVxaz6BVVDL06LXboB8uPhyla9vPkgDR27Qaco8QIxUy4ggRTIXR8NBEA_d00bq7Ldj9k-qvnZGBHqWyk2DYFdgIQpdiFIqPl7DrPgN/s1600-h/100121_Kenwood_001.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg94UlP27NJFZ3kmpRPGNEq_685emUNQDVxaz6BVVDL06LXboB8uPhyla9vPkgDR27Qaco8QIxUy4ggRTIXR8NBEA_d00bq7Ldj9k-qvnZGBHqWyk2DYFdgIQpdiFIqPl7DrPgN/s400/100121_Kenwood_001.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429444442194253426" border="0" /></a>Not everyone is cool. Of the three unused water towers in Minneapolis—Kenwood, Washburn, and Prospect Park—Kenwood is clearly the nerd.<br /><br />While each of the towers have fascinating stories (maybe for another time), it is only the 1910 Kenwood tower that appears to be set up for ridicule. As a 100-foot tall octagon, it has the burden of being the tallest and oddest structure in one of the city's most particular neighborhoods. Like an awkward medieval giant trying to blend in at the country club, the Kenwood tower is sandwiched between two luxury homes and it has no surrounding park (like the Witches Hat) or cul de sac privacy (like the Washburn Tower) to buffer it from the curious onlookers.<br /><br />The Kenwood water tower isn't friends with any master architect and it doesn't dress in any recognizable style, which made it prime picking for developers trying to take advantage of its lucky location. Incredibly, they attempted to force a condominium makeover in the 1970s—a fight which, fortunately, brought sympathetic preservationists to the tower's defense and eventually achieved <a href="http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/hpc/landmarks/Kenwood_Pkwy_1724_Kenwood_Water_Tower.asp">local historic designation</a> in 1980.<br /><br />Currently home to telecommunications antennae and civil defense equipment, the Kenwood water tower proves that your cool older brother can stop the bullies from picking on you, but you'll still be wearing that pocket protector.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDlSaVPcxt5cdkQ_MM6tB3_VxKcmb8RWwu8aJLdo5pSKqCRRH6mV6q9hHB5o_7VnL7txBbGOiZQ-9MaKAd_2St6RJUNyqjOBW812HfgGheWXkIrxwEjEv_V2WeHuRanlq-nhQ8/s1600-h/100121_Kenwood_002.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDlSaVPcxt5cdkQ_MM6tB3_VxKcmb8RWwu8aJLdo5pSKqCRRH6mV6q9hHB5o_7VnL7txBbGOiZQ-9MaKAd_2St6RJUNyqjOBW812HfgGheWXkIrxwEjEv_V2WeHuRanlq-nhQ8/s400/100121_Kenwood_002.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429444448361548178" border="0" /></a>A historic view from the top. <span style="font-style: italic;">Photo courtesy of <a href="http://www.mnhs.org/index.htm">Minnesota Historical Society</a>.</span>Brandon Stengel, Associate AIA, LEED APhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038906512392752547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-16797922281526649222010-01-18T15:05:00.013-06:002010-01-18T16:01:02.742-06:00Mod Minn(ies): S M L Design by Silvercocoon<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-xemGorh_aPe8xdBTVXT7OfGzKuqyBsDoYH_xqvnPbXbkJJ3BXPPVkCznyakHn3jbu0b78h8ZJzL9UJDupp1MFOZ3EoEeRMbK3E_mxihdpRs5h__qm1vXBvrpv4YOaMsNxf8DpQ/s1600-h/Carriage+House+Front.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-xemGorh_aPe8xdBTVXT7OfGzKuqyBsDoYH_xqvnPbXbkJJ3BXPPVkCznyakHn3jbu0b78h8ZJzL9UJDupp1MFOZ3EoEeRMbK3E_mxihdpRs5h__qm1vXBvrpv4YOaMsNxf8DpQ/s400/Carriage+House+Front.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428192998814597746" border="0" /></a><br />Sometimes the most intriguing work comes from designers tackling issues of varying scale within one office. One great example was America’s modern design studio led by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_and_Ray_Eames">Ray and Charles Eames</a>, which produced some of our most beloved chairs, films, graphic design and architectural masterworks within a thirty year period. Charles Eames felt strongly that all issues of design were equally intriguing and relevant because “eventually everything connects.” In the same vein, husband and wife team Tia Salmela Keobounpheng and Souliyahn Keobounpheng run an eclectic design company together. In the mid-century modern spirit, they operate out of a 50’s rambler (featured in the May/June 2007 issue of Architecture Minnesota), and also work in a vintage 1966 Airstreamer--the Silvercocoon--creating a wide array of art, architecture, jewelry and products.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh71yaPhFpaEd4zRQxm3HD5gwQhaSsTvrqa29KQahAN6RFwIF-t3tdJLWDZ-CoRIISvTKRg8SeeQo99b9QHkp4PaUx3y1oqGOAHrwnUpppGzENyDhzlMbsFsq8WJSL28yhbrfVqTQ/s1600-h/Bunch_Pod.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh71yaPhFpaEd4zRQxm3HD5gwQhaSsTvrqa29KQahAN6RFwIF-t3tdJLWDZ-CoRIISvTKRg8SeeQo99b9QHkp4PaUx3y1oqGOAHrwnUpppGzENyDhzlMbsFsq8WJSL28yhbrfVqTQ/s400/Bunch_Pod.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428193118471642866" border="0" /></a><br />Before founding their own firm in 2001, Souliyahn worked for Ellerbe Beckett and Salmela Architect (David Salmela is Tia’s father), and now leads Silvercocoon’s larger architectural projects. Tia’s resume is more varied; she studied architecture at the UMN, worked as an interior designer for Ikea and Redlurered, and did PR for local design firms. Her experiences in retail lend an understanding of color, material and product design which translates into <a href="http://silvercocoon.com/">Silvercocoon</a> products like the <a href="http://silvercocoon.com/work/products/6ft-tree/">Modern Tannenbaum</a> trees, ornaments and jewelry.<br />In a recent interview with Threshold, Tia explains their practice, saying “[w]e take a lifestyle approach to design” seeking to make the everyday a special occasion through design. Whether they are designing homes or attempting to create the perfect a pair of earrings, Silvercocoon celebrates that their work affects people on a daily basis.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWaj4u6oY8szZSTLFFBgTieQN-8koIh04XYRL6HjFg-1M2GOtrExI7T5hlZGjnTZexhUCP3VHcIhTL4Y4JGP-kW4Rp0WwIvmOHf-56yg7G59Y0Xc1GX-hwlRLKQgODIOVx8WWBIw/s1600-h/Carriage+House+Landscape.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 232px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWaj4u6oY8szZSTLFFBgTieQN-8koIh04XYRL6HjFg-1M2GOtrExI7T5hlZGjnTZexhUCP3VHcIhTL4Y4JGP-kW4Rp0WwIvmOHf-56yg7G59Y0Xc1GX-hwlRLKQgODIOVx8WWBIw/s400/Carriage+House+Landscape.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428193754646246290" border="0" /></a><br />Some of Silvercocoon’s most innovative work results from collaboration with others. Silvercocoon conspired with <a href="http://www.coenpartners.com/">Coen + Partners</a> on this carriage house in Saint Paul (Shown Above). While many of Tia’s ornaments and jewelry creations come from working with <a href="http://www.feyereisenstudios.com/">Feyereisen Studios</a> and their laser cutting facilities. These collaborative endeavors are important to the Silvercocoon’s work because they sometimes reveal better ways of working. Tia explains about the evolution of her jewelry design, “I have discovered that I think best through a computer – I can solve the problems that are floating around in my head fastest this way and in many ways the laser cutting process still keeps my mind engaged and occupied with possibilities for new work.”<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5FPDBIS-6f8qpmtRfho7IawFLcNdgjHUxrOE7sVZ56Esk4dMIy1BvHrYCD41U8tlRGVshTV2LMzLqLJUTVhvmjiioW_8oQlVC-LdCeTXM4K4LJGR-SqSJ5SdJxvAGCevuqJ6zoA/s1600-h/Carriage+House+Approach.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 188px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5FPDBIS-6f8qpmtRfho7IawFLcNdgjHUxrOE7sVZ56Esk4dMIy1BvHrYCD41U8tlRGVshTV2LMzLqLJUTVhvmjiioW_8oQlVC-LdCeTXM4K4LJGR-SqSJ5SdJxvAGCevuqJ6zoA/s400/Carriage+House+Approach.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428195477628268306" border="0" /></a><br />Silvercocoon is a great example of architects applying their design skills to diverse ideas and their approach brings bursts of creativity which have potential to generate the kind of innovation that – like the Eames chair - will be remembered in the design world for generations.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLV3DCPm4yaIO9dzUy5Zb3IN3qtu5Z1KQT-HMCs858fSWdL55UIEsbGCj7yJdWDqeSEU9jZNBuZeZfmfNcpuH9bGW2Jf16jRgYHfpP2kVYIeM1scd7n0g7K0DhyvCENWnZFW3JHQ/s1600-h/Hive+Cuff.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLV3DCPm4yaIO9dzUy5Zb3IN3qtu5Z1KQT-HMCs858fSWdL55UIEsbGCj7yJdWDqeSEU9jZNBuZeZfmfNcpuH9bGW2Jf16jRgYHfpP2kVYIeM1scd7n0g7K0DhyvCENWnZFW3JHQ/s400/Hive+Cuff.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428193970999058354" border="0" /></a><br />Tia's jewelry design will be featured in the <a href="http://www.voltagefashionamplified.com/">VOLTAGE Fashion Show</a> on April 16th at First Avenue, a great show pairing local live music and fashion.Colin Oglesbay, A-AIAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08966962227161204647noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20959557.post-61243630367999995242010-01-14T08:54:00.006-06:002010-01-19T11:05:36.706-06:00Exploded View - Matt Olson "Scattered Light "<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimvs3wK8Hic6WkCyELOxaJVgObIPvZTgerSmyNaAg84WEsfqiSKl0Lc8I0qlQ4y7D0e4tbgoHInbEqgWw6fkuuJtI7-90pQdq-RaWoR2XjZk5ENZsti0sEryIwtnFe220Mmdo/s1600-h/rolu_poster1.png"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 259px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimvs3wK8Hic6WkCyELOxaJVgObIPvZTgerSmyNaAg84WEsfqiSKl0Lc8I0qlQ4y7D0e4tbgoHInbEqgWw6fkuuJtI7-90pQdq-RaWoR2XjZk5ENZsti0sEryIwtnFe220Mmdo/s400/rolu_poster1.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426612210282682194" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br /><br />If you've been following along with my Exploded View posts here, you may have noticed how much I talk about cross disciplinary actions. I think it's so important for designers, architects and other creative professionals to wander into art, music, fashion etc. to broaden and inform their context. I thought I should share an example of what that means to me and how I've built that into my life this winter.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ro-lu.com/">ROLU</a>, the design studio I co-founded six years ago, recently commissioned a work by <a href="http://www.asdfmakes.com/">ASDF</a>, a collaboration between the artists <a href="http://www.mylinhtrieu.com/">Mylinh Trieu Nguyen</a> and <a href="http://www.davidhorvitz.com/">David Horvitz</a>. Having been inspired by my own involvement with their work, the studio asked them to create something with a strong element of participation, involving anyone who was interested. We asked that the work encourage people to think about space and their surroundings in a new, broader way. They came up with <a href="http://www.ro-lu.com/exhibit/index.php?/commissions/scattered-light/">Scattered Light: a participation based poster project and attendant photo exhibition (follow link for full description)</a>. The project culminates next spring with a show at <a href="http://www.artofthis.net/">Art Of This</a> gallery in Minneapolis.<br /><br />So with this post, besides my usual refrain encouraging you to try new things, get involved, see things differently, dod something you might not normally do... I'm giving you an opportunity to do just that, as you are invited and encouraged to participate in Scattered Light.<br /><br />I really hope you do.Matt Olsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13110307559057330261noreply@blogger.com2