Blog Post Favorites for the Week of Aug. 13

Building inspiring cultural centers. Olson Kundig tackles homelessness. Tribute to Elizabeth Scheu Close. Lego's clever social media campaign.  

Building inspiring cultural centers.  While we prize creativity in cities today, the cultural centers that we’ve built to celebrate it rarely hit the mark. Many of our cultural enters turn inward, away from the street and onto an internal space that is only nominally for gathering and mainly used for passing through.

The good news is that shifting attitudes are chipping away at the austere walls of yesterday’s “culture ghettos,” with people demanding more inspiring, interactive gathering places. Creativity is becoming one of the most coveted social assets for post-industrial cities with increasingly knowledge-based economies.

Via Project for Public Spaces Placemaking Blog

Olson Kundig tackles homelessness. The firm has leased former retail space that it calls [storefront] to many cultural statements, but its most recent iteration explores the issue of homelessness.  A+A interviews Alan Maskin, partner in the firm, and associate Marlene Chen about SKID ROAD.

“With the challenge of homelessness, we think there is an inclination for most people to look away. SKID ROAD—like several of the other [storefront] installations we’ve done over the year—asks the public to look closer.” – Alan Maskin

Via Architects and Artisans

Tribute to Elizabeth Scheu Close.  Writer Mason Riddle remembers the first woman architect in Minnesota dedicated to a modernist aesthetic and his first encounter with the 85-year-old in 1997.

Dedicated to a no-frills modernism, Close and her design practice that she shared with her husband included homes, public and private housing projects, medical facilities, and the Gray Freshwater Biological Institute on Lake Minnetonka, in Navarre Minnesota. Their structures are characterized by flat or gently sloping roofs, generous amounts of wood countered by brick or cinder block, an abundance of glazing, open floor plans and an obvious functionality.

Via Metropolis Magazine POV Blog

Innovative Social Media Campaigns

LEGO, the Danish toymaker, is celebrating its 80 years of toy creation with an animated video that traces the company's history. The 17-minute short film, which can be found on LEGO’s newly launched YouTube channel or Facebook page, describes LEGO through the eyes of its founders, who make up three generations Christiansens. The video has received more than 4,000 likes, nearly 350 comments and 2,700 shares on Facebook and 1.4 millions views on YouTube since Aug. 10.

http://www.youtube.com/user/LEGO

http://www.facebook.com/LEGOGROUP

What do you think of this campaign?

Blog Post Favorites for the Week of August 6

Ocean polluted with coffee? Scientists have found elevated concentrations of caffeine in the Pacific Ocean in areas off the coast of Oregon, according to a new study published by Marine Pollution Bulletin.

The study suggests that the contaminants were predominantly coming from small-scale waste treatment systems such as household septic tanks. Other research indicates that evidence of caffeine contamination serves as a good indicator of other potentially harmful pollutants that have found their way into waterways, such as prescription medication and hormones.

Via Inhabitat

Asthma and the built environment. Eleven Americans die from asthma every day and many indoor substances are linked to specifically to asthma.

Because Americans spend 90% of their time indoors, Perkins+Will developed a report, on behalf of the National Institutes of Health, that includes a list of substances linked to asthma to “improve awareness of the causes of the disease and inform the decision-making in the design and construction of buildings and the specification of building products.

Via Lake | Flato Architects’ The Dogrun

New public space in Philadelphia. The Porch at 30th Street Station, which opened last fall, is a very promising plaza just outside Philadelphia’s iconic train station.

The new 50-foot-wide, block-long plaza replaces an unnecessary outer parking lane and barren sidewalk on one side of the station with seating, tables, shade, plantings and, depending on the week or day, there is music, a farmers’ market, a beer garden and miniature golf. University City District, who created the plaza, sees this new space as “Philadelphia’s front porch, a welcoming entryway to the city, as well as a place to linger and socialize, and to entertain and be entertained. The Porch serves to balance the indoor grandeur of 30th Street Station with the wonder and expanse of Philadelphia."

Via The Atlantic Cities

Basements not free space. There is a misconception with residential basements as this space often doesn’t count as developable area a city’s zoning ordinance. If you are building a new house or doing a significant remodel many people see this as “free” space, but that’s not the case.

Basements can add a lot to a project, including significant cost. This includes keeping basements dry which requires expensive waterproofing and drainage systems, mechanical ventilation to keep air circulating, sewage ejectors and dealing with the complicated drainage in and around a basement.

Via Cody Anderson Wasney Blog

Weekly Blog Favorites for July 30

Disney embraces green. The 4,500-square-foot VISION House seeks to promote green home awareness that will imprint children with green design and products both prosaic and visionary, much as an earlier generation embraced recycling

VISION House’s purpose is to engender sustainable thinking, says Green Builder Media CEO Sara Gutterman. Green Builder Media collaborated with Walt Disney’s Imagineers to “innovent” VISION House, combining the media company’s expertise in green living with Disney’s expertise in entertainment.Disney expects 15 million people will see the home during the next three years.

Via Metropolis Magazine POV Blog

Makeover for Washington DC’s Union Station. Amtrak has revealed an ambitious conceptual master plan that would increase the number of tracks, trains, and travelers that can be handled at what is now the East Coast’s second-busiest station.

The National Trust, as part of the Union Station Preservation Coalition, has helped prepare a report that recommends ways to best preserve Union Station’s historic integrity. The full report can be downloaded at www.PreservationNation.org/UnionStationReport.

Via Preservation Nation Blog

The Future of Olympic Architecture. Hosting the Olympics creates a unique opportunity for a city to show off its character and style. There’s no better way to empower a forward-thinking, progressive population than by constructing bold, progressively designed event spaces and stadiums. But at what cost has constructing these venues become?

London has taken a revolutionary approach to host “the world’s first truly sustainable Olympic and Paralympic Games, leaving a legacy far beyond the departure of the Olympic Flame,” according to London2012.com. The city has purposefully designed some of its buildings to be easily disassembled and recycled once the Games have concluded.

Via Mashable

How Far Has Bike and Pedestrian Advocacy Come? In 1980, the very first Pro Bike conference with 100 people convened in Asheville, North Carolina. Thirty-two years later, the Pro Walk/Pro Bike: Pro Place has expanded to 1,000 advocates, reflecting the dramatic transformation of bicycling advocacy into today’s active transportation movement.

Project for Public Spaces interviews three advocates who have played very active roles in this transformation, looking back over the past three decades and reflecting on lessons learned thus far.

Via Project for Public Spaces Blog

Parks are part of our healthcare system. Green spaces are crucial to solving hypertension, anxiety, depression, diabetes – “the diseases of outdoor living,” Dr. Daphne Miller, a professor of family and community medicine, University of California, San Francisco, told conference attendees at the Greater & Greener: Reimagining Parks for 21st Century Cities in New York City.

The more someone spends outdoors, the less likely they are to suffer from mental or physical disorders. In a separate panel on healthcare and parks, Dr. Deborah Cohen, senior natural scientist at RAND, and Sarah Messiah, a research professor at the University of Miami presented study results that measured “play in communities,” examining activity levels of residents using parks in Los Angeles.

Via The Dirt

Blog Favorites for Week of July 23

London 2012 Olympic Park opens. After six years of planning, preparation and construction, the Opening Ceremony on July 27 will mark the start of the 2012 Summer Olympics.

The $1.1 billion Olympic Park contains several of the 2012 Games' biggest sporting venues, including the Olympic Stadium and the Zaha Hadid-designed Aquatics Centre, as well as the Olympic Village. And towering over the Olympic Park is Anish Kapoor's controversial ArcelorMittal Orbit observation tower, which is made from recycled steel and has received mixed reviews from observers.

Via Inhabitat

Park in Singapore shows what a river can do. Singapore is heavily dependent on Malaysia for its water supply but is now creating new sustainable parks designed to reduce its reliance.

Atelier Dreiseitl has designed a 62-acre Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park that recreates nature, transforming a 2.7-kilometer concrete-channel lined river into a 3-kilometer natural meandering system. At the same time, the new system slows down and stores some of the rainfall that hits the city-state. The park is a model for how cities can transform outmoded, broken systems into natural systems.

Via The Dirt

We need another kind of place. Tim Pittman blogs about how most of our current workplaces are designed around connection, and how mobile technology has affected our work and home lives.

“That invasion has collateral damage. The victim, as I see it, is the ‘third places’ that make our neighborhoods and cities vibrant, pleasant, and engaging places to live. These places, originally defined by Ray Oldenberg as places that are non-work and non-home, allow us to maintain time and space (both mentally and physically) outside the formal responsibilities of our daily lives. These are the spaces that let our minds wander and push us to develop productive social connections.” – Tim Pittman

Via Gensler on Cities

Transforming NYC’s High Line to public space. Mayor Mike Bloomberg this week announced the City’s acquisition of the High Line at the rail yards from CSX Transportation, Inc., a historic milestone for the High Line.

The elevated railway viaduct, originally built in 1934 to carry freight trains, now marks the latest step in a long history of CSX’s visionary support for the transformation of the High Line into a public park.

Via the High Line blog

Buildings that evolve with the city. Resilient cities need infrastructure that lasts and planning teams that are willing to step up to the plate. Developing cities that thrive through the ebb and flow of time are not simply about creating infrastructure that can persist, but about designing buildings that evolve as cities evolve.

The Tempe Transportation Center in Tempe, Arizona, has been constructed to adapt to the City’s needs for approximately 100 years. The longevity of the structure is depicted in its fundamental design plan as it focuses on combining resilient building materials with the natural benefits of a desert environment to create heat and water systems that are more energy efficient and spaces that provide natural sunlight and shading.

Via Sustainable Cities Collective

Weekly Design Blog Favorites: Week of July 16

Hyperspeed train from LA to SF. Tesla Motor’s CEO Elon Musk recently revealed his plans for a new green vehicle, dubbed the “Hyperloop,” that would transport people from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes flat. Musk says the new transit system would be twice as fast as a plane, three to four times faster than a bullet train, and entirely powered by solar energy.

Via Inhabitat

Urban sprawl affects drought. The U.S. is currently experiencing its worst drought in over half a century, and suburban sprawl is only exacerbating the impact of the drought.

Large residential lots need significantly more water than neighborhoods built to a more walkable scale, contributing to water shortages. In addition, there is more pavement around watersheds that sends billions of gallons of rainwater into streams and rivers as polluted runoff, rather than into soil as groundwater. Sprawl and smart growth both need to be considered in how to move toward a more resilient future.

Via Sustainable Cities Collective

Gold Nugget Awards for Orange County firm. LPA of Irvine, California, won three Gold Nugget Awards – an award that honors creative achievements in architectural design and land use planning for residential, commercial and industrial projects.

The Student Recreation Center at Cal State Northridge received the Grand Award for Greenest Sustainable Commercial Project. The Multidisciplinary Building at Palomar College earned a Grand Award for Best Educational Project. The third Gold Nugget Award was for SoCal Campus for Southland Industries, a successful interior renovation of a 1970s warehouse into a thriving, collaborative office space for the company’s mechanical engineers and detailers.

Via LPA Inc. Blog

Preserving the Manhattan Project. What started as a small research project to develop an atomic weapon in advance of Germany grew to include thousands of scientists working around the clock and in laboratories across the country.

These laboratories retain architectural integrity and are eligible for National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmark designation. The Manhattan Project is part of the National Trust’s portfolio of National Treasures, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation seeks to designate these sites as the Manhattan Project National Historic Park.

Via National Trust for Historic Preservation Blog

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