Blog Favorites for Week of Aug. 20

Is working from home effective? | Architecture is woven, not built | London Olympics landscape | Spreading Cokes – and Happiness – Via Mobile.

Is working from home effective? HOK’s Leigh Stringer blogs about the benefits and drawbacks of working from home.

With more and more people working outside the office, large portions of office buildings can sit empty for long periods and there can be less of a reason to be there. Stringer talks to two HOK workplace experts who work at home full-time and two employees who work in the office.

Via Life at HOK Blog

Architecture is woven, not built. Robert Goodwin of Perkins + Will blogs on how his first-year architecture professor presented him with a powerful sense of what architecture was all about.

“He had what many architects lack today: heart.  While he fully understood the intellectual premises behind the great movements we students revered, he had a way of also making us understand the human impact of architecture: how people use space; how they would feel in it; how the light might come in to a place where children could play.” –Robert Goodwin

Via Perkins + Will Blog

London Olympics landscape. While the architecture of the London Olympic games won the U.K. a lot of press, the coverage on the Games’ highly successful landscape architecture was also in the spotlight as nearly 250 acres were turned into a spectacular setting.

According to John King, architecture critic for The San Francisco Chronicle, that success was due to a team of landscape architecture firms , including U.K.-based LDA Design and U.S.-based landscape architecture firm, Hargreaves Associates, who came in at the proverbial last minute to update the master plan in key spots.

Via The Dirt

Innovative Social Media Campaign [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8PEZz-IOtI?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

Spreading Cokes – and Happiness – Via Mobile. Coca-Cola and Google joined forces in Coca-Cola’s mobile ad campaign that used a digital interpretation of the classic 1971 “Hilltop” ad with today’s technology. The ad says consumers will be able to buy the world a Coke, and using the mobile app, a consumer in New York could buy a Coke for a stranger in Buenos Aires. That consumer could watch a video using Google Maps and Street View to see the Coke can traveling across the globe. After the recipient gets the Coke from one of the custom vending machines, the sender can watch a video of the person’s surprised reaction and perhaps get a thank-you note, if the recipient chooses to do so. Later, the sender can pass on the video to friends on Facebook, Twitter or Google+. The goal: Prompt real-life moments that underpin Coke’s current “Open Happiness” positioning.

Via Mashable

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?

What Will Pop-up Tomorrow?

The pop-up urbanism trend that started with parklets in San Francisco is spreading across the country. These temporary parks in place of parking spots have shown up in Oakland, Portland, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, and even smaller cities like Asheville, NC. The concept has spread beyond temporary park space and is now testing retail concepts in gentrifying areas.

The idea for parklets emerged in 2005 from PARK(ing) Day in San Francisco, an annual event that will happen on Sept. 21 this year, when residents reclaimed a parking space for the day by setting up chairs, tables and plants to create a temporary park. Last year, PARK (ing) Day occurred in 162 cities and 35 countries. The true “parklet” movement was kicked off in March 2010 when San Francisco approved the building of a parklet in front of Café Mojo on Divisadero Street. Another parklet milestone is the Powell Street Promenade, the largest parklet in San Francisco that was installed in 2011. This area provides a space to eat, talk and relax, providing people a reprieve from the bustle of the corridor, which is one of the busiest in the nation and frequented by more than 100,000 people on an average weekend.

Earlier this month, I dropped by one of San Francisco’s latest urban intervention “SqFt”. Spanning several blocks between 5th and 7th on Market Street, the organizers programmed activities throughout the day that gave retail renters in the area a chance to try something new and it gave virtual companies the opportunity to interact with customers in person. The day began with coffee for bike commuters, a yummy tamale vendor provide fuel for drumming lessons, etsy artist sales and yoga lessons.

With a surge of interest in urbanism across the country, communities are rethinking public space. The advantage of pop-ups is that they offer fast and inexpensive tools for making a big impact. Designers and planners are heavily involved in the big and long term moves of a city and each project becomes the latest calling card for the firms involved. These mini moves are also opportunities to distinguish a firm’s design, creativity and philosophies. The phenomenon of pop-up urbanism, also known as tactical urbanism, has not only gained popularity, but has created a way to test new concepts before embarking on substantial political and financial commitments with the intention of improving the quality of human life in sustainable way.

What started as parklets has evolved to temporary storefronts like [storefront] Olson Kundig’s experimental work place for the firm's community collaborations in Seattle and David Baker’s San Francisco StoreFrontLab, a year-long exploration of storefronts as places of community, creativity and local industry. [storefront] has performed as a record store, a mushroom farm, Hardware [store] and is currently an exhibition focused on the individuals working in the Puget Sound region to eradicate poverty and homelessness, Skid Road.

Olson Kundig Architects in Seattle uses the [storefront] below their studio for community collaborative exhibitions

The upcoming pop-up at StoreFrontLab is the Post-Car Travel Agency, which opens on Aug. 17 for a week of talks, one-on-one travel services and discussions on living car-free. Before that, it was a craft shop selling artisan goods such as skateboards, clothing and sandcastle molds.

Tactical urbanism seems to be the current motif in the architecture world. The theme of this year’s U.S. Pavilion at the 13th International Venice Architecture Biennale is Spontaneous Interventions: design actions for the common good. The biennale will focus on compelling and actionable strategies, ranging from urban farms to guerilla bike lanes, temporary architecture to poster campaigns, urban navigation apps to crowdsourced city planning.

Conger Moss Guillard’s (CMG) Parkmobiles, which are robust, movable containers with lush gardens that fit in a street parking space, was accepted into this year’s prestigious Venice Biennale. While everyone is embracing the gush of interest in pop-up urbanism, there are some concerns. How can tactical urbanism work in architecture and the formal planning process? Mike Lydon, principal at Brooklyn’s Street Plans Collaborative and author of Tactical Urbanism, Volume 2, is among the tactical urbanists contributing to the Venice Biennale. He says that the planning process won’t be replaced by pop-up-urbanism.

“Following up on comprehensive planning efforts, the neighborhood-wide or city-wide planning process can use tactical urbanism to take some of the most popular ideas and really do things quickly rather than have them wait on the shelf for the million-dollar funding stream. Tactical urbanism is a tool for the more formal planning process,” Lydon said in an interview with the Architect’s Newspaper.

What do you think is next in the pop-up evolution?

Check out our Tactical Urbanism Board on Pinterest!

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