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

Six Ideas for Getting More Eyeballs on Your Blog

Image There are millions of blogs out there – more than 120 million on just Wordpress and Tumblr platforms – with this much content circulating cyberspace, getting your’s discovered is not a simple feat. A solid content-promotion strategy is just as important as the quality of the blog content itself. Luckily, there are a lot of ways to promote your blog and build your audience. Here are six ideas from me. Leave us a comment with the tips that work for you.

1. Make it easy for readers to come back. This may seem obvious, but if you want people to come back and read your next post, include an easy way for them to be notified when you publish. In blog platforms like Blogger, Wordpress and Tumblr you can easily add widgets for Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds or “subscribe to this blog” options. Also, readers who enjoy your content are likely to be connected to others who may like your content, so include social sharing options so that readers can tweet, like, + or even pin your post without having to leave the page.

2. Use keywords in your posts so that people searching for the topic you write about are more likely to find you through search engines. Search engines love blogs for their fresh content and drive the majority of traffic to blogs. In fact, many companies start their blog strictly for the purpose of search engine optimization and traffic that this can drive to the site. Don’t go crazy with keywords though. If it reads like you are writing for a search engine, your reader will probably lose patience and leave.

3. Call attention to like minded bloggers to expand your readership. This can be as simple as creating a blog roll on your site that lists links to similar blogs and influencers in your field. In the AEC world this could be blogs that inspire and inform you as well as those of your clients, your subconsultants, industry allies or even other blogs that support the same causes as you do. If you can help drive traffic to these blogs, they are more likely to promote yours. If these blogs influence you in some way, give them credit by writing about them. A feature story or even a guest post from someone you’ve done business with is likely something that they will want to promote through their own social media channels. This opens your blog up to their network of readers. Don’t know any AEC blogs? Here’s a list of influential blogs from this week’s AEC Social Media Twitter chat (#AECSM Tuesday 1pm PST).

4. Participate in other forums with a similar audience. Look for other blogs, publications, LinkedIn and Facebook groups that target the same demographic as you do. Spend some time reading these and when you have something to add or a question for the author, leave a thoughtful comment. You can also include a link to one of your blog posts when it is relevant to the topic, but be careful not to be overly self-promotional. No one likes to be spammed. Participating in other forums and contributing useful information and knowledge helps to build your reputation around the subject at hand and provides visibility for your firm and brand. If you leave a compelling, interesting comment in one of these forums, other visitors may be curious about you. Remember that the social web is a very connected space, so make sure your profile on each of these networks is up to date and includes a link back to your blog.

5. Approach the blogger, editor or community leader about writing a post for their publication or ask if they would reblog a post you’ve already written. All bloggers are hungry for good content, so if you have an essay or a point of view that is in line with their blog’s purpose they may just take you up on the offer. Not only are these opportunities good content for your social media channels, they help you gain exposure within the industry and a credible introduction to a new community.  Don’t forget to include a link to your blog in your byline.

6. Tap into a blogging community. Many companies develop their own proprietary blog. The “pros” of a customized blog is consistent branding and style with the firm’s website. The “cons” of having a customized blog is that you don’t have access to the sophisticated platform that these companies have created and are continually updating. I’ve watched clients with beautiful custom blogs get frustrated when each little tweak requires a whole new change order and days or even weeks of programmers’ time just to add a simple function. The Wordpresses and Tumblers of the social web give this to you for free. Your proprietary blog won’t be a part of a community of bloggers and you won’t have the advantages that these networks provide. On Wordpress, each time I post I’m informed of a handful of similar new posts that I may be interested in – and I often am interested in these. The community of bloggers can help you activate your blog with dialog. After all, only a very small percentage of internet users are actually content producers and content producers are the ones who are more likely to leave comments or ask questions. These blog networks are serving you up a community of very active and very vocal contributors. Seek out blogs of interest within your platform, follow them and follow back the blogger that follow you. Reciprocity goes a long way.

What do you think? Are there other tactics that work for you?

 

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

What design blogs do you follow? Leave a comment with links to your favorite design blogs and you could win a free copy of Social Media in Action: Comprehensive Guide for Architecture, Engineering, Planning and Environmental Consulting Firms.

Could Sweden’s Twitter Strategy Work for Your Firm?

Are you like 88% of the A/E professionals we polled who are using social media to position their firms' experts? Perhaps you should consider Sweden’s approach.

In December Sweden democratized their Twitter account by giving control of @Sweden to a new Swede each week. (You may have seen the headlines about the when Sonja Abrahamsson stirred controversy with her less-than-politically-correct tweets). This approach is now being adopted by other countries with the Netherlands as the latest to try it out.

Granted, Sweden's objective, to entice tourists to visit, doesn’t directly relate to the field of landscape, architecture and engineering professional services. But the concept of associating a personality and their particular point of view with a brand, could be a great way to showcase the many facets of expertise within your organization.

If you have willing and qualified participants (and please be honest with yourself, not everyone is capable of being a thought leader – it takes knowledge, drive and communications skills), ask yourself if you trust your subject-matter experts to operate the account in a responsible way – professional but personal and gaffe free.

In addition to building your firm’s reputation for each of its areas of specialization, this approach could be a fun way to get more employees and leaders involved in your firm’s social media program. Offer your operators solid guidelines and tips so they are communicating effectively. Help them out by scheduling the first few tweets with them, so they can get a chance to learn from you and overcome any fear of tweeting. For those who are already using social media personally, encourage them to amplify what they are doing for the firm’s account by talking about it and retweeting through their personal accounts -- maybe the firm will pick up some new followers as well.

Clearly, this idea is not for every firm, but for the right organization it could be fun. What do you think?

If you decide to try this out, please let us know so we can stay tuned!

Weekly Design Blog Favorites: July 9, 2012

Adventure playgrounds. Brendan Crain blogs how the playgrounds have changed and the how the “play structure” has become something that doesn’t use the child’s imagination and play.

“Over the past few years, we have siloed different types of play within playgrounds, just as we have siloed different types of uses in cities. Pieces of play equipment that might be transformed into fantastical alternate worlds when jumbled together are isolated (a slide here, a tire swing there), underlining that each piece is meant to be used in one specific way. But research and support have been mounting for years to back up what many of us feel on a gut level: these sanitized playscapes are junk.”

Via Project for Public Spaces blog Related: The Strange Case of a Suburban Park

Architecture and a more connected future. What role does architecture play in this technology-driven age? More company leaders are looking to the future when it comes to workplace design.

“The conventional architect is becoming extinct. I believe that the world will cease to be built out of concrete, steel and glass. New buildings must mirror our current reality, which consists of bytes of information, shared technology and interconnectedness. Construction will evolve into something which is beyond architecture. A building should empower people through the materials it use.”-- James Law, CEO and founder of Hong Kong-based firm Cybertecture, believes that great design can inspire creativity and increase productivity.

Via Mashable Related: Cybertecture

Vision for Houston’s bayous. Kevin Shanley blogs that in the last 40 years, more grassroots organizations and programs seek to protect and enhance Houston bayous and reduce flooding in environmentally sustainable ways, supporting the vision of landscape architect Arthur Comey.

While Comey’s vision has demonstrated how parks and greenspaces can improve the economy, environment and health of the city, there is more work to do. Now is the perfect opportunity to purchase distressed properties along the city's bayous in the hopes of further revitalizing and expanding Houston's parks and greenspaces before those properties are sold for development or redevelopment.

Via APA's Sustaining Spaces Blog First published on SWA Bayou By Us blog

Urban biking a global trend. In cities across the United States, bicycles are becoming an increasingly popular form of urban transportation. A survey of 55 major metropolitan areas in the U.S. found that bicycle commuting rates increased, on average, 70 percent between 2000 and 2009.

The growing popularity of urban cycling has led to a proliferation of bicycle infrastructure in many cities. Over the past decade, Washington D.C. has laid down over 50 miles of bicycle lanes, New York is preparing to launch bike sharing programs and Los Angeles has temporarily prohibited cars from driving on designated streets for certain Sunday afternoons,

Via The Dirt

Weekly Roundup for the Week of July 2

Transformation of vacant Wal-Mart. Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle converted an abandoned Wal-Mart in McAllen, Texas, into a functional and contemporary library. The firm, which was recently named winner of the International Interior Design Association’s 2012 Library Interior Design Competition, installed a strip of laser-cut wood into the ceiling plane to visually divide the library, placing the computer lab on the left and meeting rooms on the right. The designers also used several hanging graphic elements to help break up the space visually.

Via Inhabitat

Architecture and Affordable Care Act. HOK healthcare experts share their thoughts on how the Supreme Court’s ruling on ACA will affect healthcare architecture and opportunities to bring value to clients.

“When we think of health care architecture, we are looking at a tool in the larger social context of healthcare delivery. When delivery of care is inefficient and expensive, with insufficiently good outcomes, or doesn’t cover all citizens, we are looking at problems that we as architects can help solve.” -- Chuck Siconolfi, a senior principal and director of healthcare innovations, planning and design at HOK

Via HOK Life

Race to be green. Mayor Vincent Grey of Washingon, D.C., has initiated an ambitious new plancalled SustainableDC, that seeks to make the nation’s capital No.1 in sustainability in a generation.

Seven bills are being considered by the City Council, which include boosting energy efficiency, spurring renewable energy production, promoting electrical vehicles, protecting rivers, promoting urban agriculture and reducing toxic exposure among children.

Via The Dirt

Permanent play street in Queens. Jackson Heights residents and City Council Member Daniel Dromm won a hard-fought battle to close 78th Street to traffic for two summer months. Now, 78th Street is being turned over to the community and is on track to receive a bottom-up redesign that will make the new space more than just asphalt.

The Department of Transportation has two designs underway. One is to enable the street closure to function year-round while letting parents at the adjacent Garden School drive and drop off their children on 78th. The second is a longer-term vision of how the street can be remade as a space that works for people, integrated with Travers Park on one side and the Garden School park on the other.

Via Streets Blog

Weekly Roundup for Week of June 25

ImageTop earning architecture firms. Architectural Record has released its 2012 “Top 250 Architecture Firms” list, which ranks U.S. companies based on architectural review from the previous year.

Gensler  – a global architecture company working on more than 3,000 projects every year – ranked No. 1, reaching $764 million in revenue. Gensler replaces AECOM, who had a record at $445 million last year. Gensler’s impressive 632-meter Shanghai tower is one of the projects that proves the firm is capable of an extensive creative and architectural outlook.

List of top 10 architecture firms

1. Gensler  

2. AECOM Technology Corp.

3. Perkins+Will 

4. CH2M HILL

5. HDR Architecture Inc.

6. Jacobs

7. HOK 

8. URS Corp.

9. HKS Inc.

10. Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP

Via Freshome

Botanical Capital of the World. Grant Associates and Wilkinson Eyre are modeling their $545 million, 54-hectare Gardens by the Bay project after Singapore’s national flower the orchid.

With this massive project, which was built on reclaimed, restored land, Singapore aims to become the “botanical capital of the world.” Many elements, including 225,000 plants and new themed gardens that "showcase the best of tropical horticulture and garden artistry" are part of the project.

Via The Dirt

London’s Cable Car Opens. An air tram cable car system that opened this week in London provides commuters and visitors a new mode of travel across the Thames.

Sponsored by Emirates Airlines, the UK's first urban cable car system has the capacity to transport 2,500 passengers per hour in each direction, which is equivalent to 50 buses in the same time frame. The Emirates Air Line project was designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects and provides spectacular views of the London skyline at 90 meters in the air as it efficiently connects visitors traveling from the city's Olympic venues to existing public transit lines.

Via Inhabitat

Golden Lion Winner. Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira has been awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale.

“Secured by his isolated location, he exudes worldly wisdom. Experimenting with forms of extreme geometry he manages to produce buildings of great rigor. Developing an architectural language that is uniquely his, he seems to speak to all of us. While his work exudes the security of judgment, it is clearly intensified through cautious reflection. While we are dazzled by the lightness of his buildings, we feel the seriousness of their substance.” -- Biennale Board Director Paolo Baratta and Director David Chipperfield

Via Architects Newspaper Blog

 

 

Celebrating a Retiring Hero (or even just an executive)

Earlier this week, I responded to a new discussion question by Kristin Kautz on the SMPS LinkedIn Group about how to structure a communications campaign around a retiring executive. I offered five tips to Kristen based on the communications campaigns I’ve led for mergers and acquisitions with the final tip being “Keep it positive!” After all, retirement is the rite of passage that we all strive for and it should be a celebration of this person’s accomplishments and contributions to the company and their profession.

A day or so later, Jason Mlicki offered an example of exactly this sort of celebration. As a marketing consultant to environmental services firm Verantis, Mlicki built a microsite to celebrate the career of Woody Wilson West, one of Verantis’ retiring engineers. The Wonderful World of Woody site features a fun and only partially-fictional list of Woody’s super hero-like accomplishments and the ability for anyone to add their memories and congratulations. Perhaps the most effective part of this is that the message focuses on Woody’s specialization – FRP Fans.

Not that I have any idea what an FRP Fan is, but I assume that most of the site’s visitors do and that this topic is something that Verantis proudly pioneers. Mlicki and Verantis show that Woody and his subject-specific expertise has been an asset to the firm AND that he has built the firm’s body of FRP Fan knowledge – a subtle assurance to Verantis clients that Woody’s know-how is ingrained in the firm’s systems and minds of its remaining consultants. Nice work Jason and thank you for sharing the link.

In case you are interested, here are my five tips: 1. Consider your audiences. I'd suggest running through your list of audiences and considering what their concerns would be -- e.g. Clients: Will my project be affected? Do I have someone else at the firm who I trust and want to continue to work with? Will this affect the firm's ability to maintain overall quality or business acumen? Staff: Who will fill the void? What upward mobility opportunities does this create in the firm? ...

2. Consider your messages to each audience. The more concerns a group has, the more personal you'll want the communications to be. - With staff, consider a company- or office-wide meeting to announce it. - With clients, perhaps phone calls by the partner him/herself on the projects they lead directly, otherwise the clients' primary contact at the firm. My hunch is that having a trusted person in place is going to be one of the most important messages to clients, so a series of in-person client meetings with the replacement leader or new contact would be necessary. - With vendors, perhaps a letter is sufficient - With the industry/press/public, press releases are standard, but perhaps they could be accompanied by a video highlighting this person's contributions to clients and the industry. Meet w/ select industry journalists to see if there may interest in a profile story.

3. Consider all your existing communications vehicles and who they reach and include these channels as a part of the announcement -- e.g. newsletter, e-blasts, website, blog, Facebook/LI/Twitter.

4. Consider the sequence and timing of communications: e.g. 1. Tell partners. 2. Tell staff. 3. Tell clients and vendors. 4. Tell the public.

If this is a high profile firm/individual, time your communications closely together so the rumor mill doesn't scoop you.

5. Keep it positive. Make this a celebration of a full career and new opportunities for the next tier of leadership at the firm

Success by Design Shares Compelling Stories of California Architects

Success by Design: Revealing Profiles of California Architects, written and photographed by Jenn Kennedy, provides a detailed overview of the careers of 25 successful architects in California. Kennedy profiles a diverse group of architects from variety of firms based throughout California who have worked on projects ranging from residential, commercial buildings, educational institutions and public arenas. She does a compelling job of telling the stories of architects through interviews, portraits and photographs and includes renderings from each firm, discussing their beginning work until current work.

The book is accessible and illuminating. Kennedy has a unique approach in telling each innovator’s story in an authentic and sincere manner. Each innovator shares their personal history, how they got started, their challenges, lessons learned and other aspects of their journey that make this book a must-read for anyone who aspires to pursue this profession.

Success by Design is a helpful resource for architects and designers new to the industry or for anyone looking to work for or with these firms, but it would also be useful for architects who are seeking to start their own firm and need perspective on how to build a practice.

Notable architects profiled include Steven Ehrlich, principal and founder of Ehrlich Architecture, Art Gensler, cofounder of Gensler, Ray Kappe, educator and founder of SCI-Arc, Stephen Kanner, modernist and founder of the A+D Museum (Kanner passed away in 2010), and Lauren Rottet, an internationally recognized interior architect.

Architects profiled in the book:

Barry Berkus of Berkus Design Studio Boris Dramov, FAIA, President of ROMA Design Group Steven Ehrlich, FAIA, Design Principal of Ehrlich Architects Richard Emsiek, AIA, President and COO of McLarand Vasquez Emsiek & Partners Elisa Garcia, President of Garcia Architects Art Gensler, FAIA, Chairman of Gensler Craig Hodgetts, FAIA, Creative Director and Hsinming Fung, AIA, Director of Design at Hodgetts and Fung Design and Architecture Michael Johnson, AIA, Design Principal of Carrier Johnson + Culture Stephen Kanner, FAIA, President of Kanner Architects Ray Kappe, FAIA, President of Kappe+Du Architects Hank Koning, FAIA, Founding Principal and Julie Eizenberg, AIA, Founding Principal of Koning Eizenberg Dan Meis, FAIA, Senior Principal of Populous David Mourning, President and CEO of IA Interior Architects

Barton Myers, FAIA, President of Barton Myers Associates Ed Niles, FAIA, President of Edward R. Niles Architect Juan Diego Perez-Vargas, Principal of KMD Architects Simon Perkowitz, AIA, CEO and President and Steve Ruth, AIA, Executive Vice President of Perkowitz+Ruth Architects Randy Peterson, FAIA, President and CEO of HMC Architects Michael Patrick Porter, AIA, President of Michael Patrick Porter Architect Beverly Prior, FAIA, Principal of Beverly Prior Architects (now HMC Architects) Lauren Rottet, FAIA, Founding Principal and Richard Riveire, AIA, Principal of Rottet Studio Don Sandy, FAIA, President of SB Architects Rob Steinberg, FAIA, President of Steinberg Architects Erik Sueberkrop, FAIA, Chairman of STUDIOS Architecture Allison Williams, FAIA, Principal of Perkins + Will

For more information on Kennedy and the book, check out www.architectsuccess.com where Waltercomms blog readers receive a 20% discount by using the code Blog20.

AEC Blog Post Roundup for Week of June 18

Community project. The HMC Designing Futures Foundation board recently approved a grant to fund the restoration of the Micheltorena Steps in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. The steps are a main pathway to Micheltorena School for children in the neighborhood, and are unsafe and in disrepair.

Scott Plante of the LA Studio, who proposed the project, lives near the school, uses the steps and is committed to improving the quality of life in Silver Lake. He went to the Silver Lake Urban Design Committee with a design proposal to provide light steps and underpasses throughout Silver Lake. Recognizing the safety issues with children and the adjacent school, the Micheltorena Steps were selected as a prototype for repairing and relighting similar steps throughout the neighborhood.

 Via HMC Architects Blog

Written by Adrienne Luce, Designing Futures Foundation Executive Director

LEEDing the Way. This week Portland International Jetport became the second commercial terminal in the United States to achieve LEED Gold certification. Gensler on Cities interviewed project manager Jim Stanislaski to find out what’s next in the field of sustainable aviation design.

It’s important to note that while the LEED program has done a great job of transforming the marketplace and generating public awareness for the importance of sustainable design, these certifications are not the finish line. To solve the current energy crisis we need to look beyond LEED. We need to start thinking about how to achieve net zero energy and net-zero water airport terminals. On paper that may seem daunting, but we aren’t that far off from making it a reality. – Jim Stanislaski

 Via Gensler on Cities

Written by Leah Ray

Enabling mobility. Steelcase's Jan Johnson blogs how mobility in the workplace means many things to different people.

“Mobility requires much more than a real estate strategy du jour to save space: It can and should be one of the ways we enable worker choice and control.”

Via Metropolis POV

Interview with BIM expert. Chirag Mistry has been at HOK for eight years and is one of HOK’s leading Building Information Modeling (BIM) experts, focusing primarily on lab and research facility design and development in HOK’s Science + Technology practice.

In this Q&A interview, Mistry talks about the biggest advantage for project teams designing lab and research facilities using BIM, his most favorite and most challenging aspects of being a BIM expert and what the future holds for BIM.

Via HOK Life

Architecture Blog Post Roundup for Week of June 11

Modern masterpieces. Talkitect looks at five of the greatest modern buildings in the world. The following very different architectural masterpieces, all with a unique story, are explored.

- The Eden Project, UK, by Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners - Sydney Opera House, Australia, by Jørn Utzon - Church of Light, Osaka, Japan, by Tadao Ando - Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA, by Frank Lloyd-Wright - Kammermusiksaal, Berlin, Germany, by Hans Scharoun and Edgar Wisniewski

Written by Francesca (who writes for McCormick Architecture)

Reclaiming the streets. At least 2,000 residents of Brussels, Belgium, had a picnic in the streets, taking a unique approaching to rethinking their Streets as Places last weekend.

The picnic, which blocked traffic for several hours, was kick-started by Philippe Van Parijs, a philosophy professor connected to the universities of Louvain-La-Neuve and Oxford. He recently published an opinion piece on the need of more public space for pedestrians and cyclists in several local media outlets.

Via Polis, Written by Laurent Vermeersch

Parks and pavilions. The Dirt blogs about the new issue of Architype Review which focuses on parks, the spaces designed to explored on foot, and pavilions, the spots from which visitors can take a moment to sit and enjoy the landscape.

“Pavilions are an important part of getting people outside. Landscape architects place these shelters to entice people to walk to them, and they are often sited to afford wonderful views to the landscape beyond. Pavilions provide a place to rest along the way, as well as shade to shield us from too much exposure to the sun. They are designed to be accessible, so that all ages and abilities can enjoy a wonderful outdoor setting.” -- Susan Hatchell, ASLA President, FASLA

Interview with Greg Lynn. Lynn, a Studio Professor at UCLA’s School of Architecture and Urban Design and owner of Greg Lynn Form, works among multiple fields and has partnered with companies such as BMW, Boeing, Disney and Imaginary Forces. He recently delivered the 2012 Sally Walsh Lecture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

“I think that most of the built environment is a backdrop to daily life and I am all for that. I want people to feel comfortable and I want them to have an affection for being in, on, or around anything I design. In order to have an affection for something it has to be noticed. I find vernacular design a little creepy and obsequious. I prefer a direct greeting over a stalker.” – Greg Form

Via Offcite, Written by: Scott Cartwright and Jenny Lynn Weitz Amare-Cartwight

Architects and Blogging. A panel at last month’s AIA Convention offered a behind the scenes look at a few architects who blog. Panelist Bob Borson writes the Life of an Architect blog and shared his presentation slides and notes with his readers.

“Have I been successful? Depends on how you define success. If you define it as whether or not people have been coming to my site, I’d have to say the answer is yes … but that’s only if that’s your goal – which it wasn’t for me. I was simply trying to learn something new, and in the process, discovered that there is more than one way to communicate with people.”

Weekly Roundup for Week of June 4

Endangered sites. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has released its 2012 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

NTHP has produced the annual list for 25 years, drawing attention to more than 230 sites—including buildings, landscapes, and entire communities—that risk destruction or significant damage. The 2012 sites are:

- Bridges of Yosemite Valley, California - Ellis Island hospital complex; New York Harbor, New York and New Jersey - Historic U.S. post office buildings - Joe Frazier’s Gym; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Malcolm X — Ella Little-Collins House; Boston, Massachusetts - Princeton Battlefield; Princeton, New Jersey - Sweet Auburn Historic District; Atlanta, Georgia - Terminal Island; Port of Los Angeles, California - Texas courthouses - Elkhorn Ranch; Billings County, North Dakota - Village of Zoar, Ohio

Via Architectural Record

Related: Preservation Nation and The Cultural Landscape Foundation

 

Design venture. A team of 6th grade entrepreneurs / venture capitalists have formed a strategic alliance with Lake | Flato to work on the design of some major new civic architecture that is being called a "game changer" for the AEC industry.

The projects on the drawing boards were conceived and masterminded by the 6th graders with design consulting services performed by Lake | Flato. The projects include a rotating restaurant up in a tree with toboggan slides and ice skating rink, a subterranean river walk with a medieval weapons gallery, a mobile cooking school and cupcake shop made of train cars, and a chocolate mining facility and associated defensive fortifications on Ganymede (7th moon of Jupiter).

Via: The Dogrun

 

Buckminster Fuller Winner. The Buckminster Fuller Institute, which annually awards a $100,000 prize to support the ongoing development and implementation of a strategy that has a significant potential to solve humanity’s most pressing issues, has announced a winner for the 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge.

“The Living Building Challenge” seeks to lead the charge toward a holistic standard that could yield an entirely new level of integration between building systems, transportation, technology, natural resources, and community. If widely adopted, this approach would significantly enhance the level of broad-based social collaboration throughout the design and building process and beyond, dramatically reducing the destructiveness of current construction, boost the livability, health, and resilience of communities.

Via Arch Daily

Related: "Bucky" via TraceSF

 

A Canopy as Social Cathedral. Architecture review on an angular glass canopy designed by Preston Scott Cohen that covers 11,000 square feet of North End Way, a pedestrian alley in Battery Park City.

Part of what makes this a notable public space is the quality of construction: the granite sidewalk, the lighting, the stainless-steel and glass storefronts, the street furniture. Goldman Sachs, whose headquarters at 200 West Street backs onto North End Way, owns and developed the arcade, which is zoned for public use. But it’s the canopy, which Goldman also commissioned, that formally elevates what is really just a gap between two buildings into something almost as inspired as the nave of a great Gothic cathedral. – Michael Kimmelman

Via New York Times

 

Weekly Roundup for Week of May 29

Movie Museum. Renzo Piano and Zoltan Pali have been tapped to design the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures which will be located in the May Company building, part of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. “Renzo’s track record of creating iconic cultural landmarks combined with Zoltan’s success in transforming historically-significant buildings is a perfect marriage for a museum that celebrates the history and the future of the movies," said Dawn Hudson, Academy CEO.

Via Hollywood Reporter

Africa’s Tallest Tower. @126 have released designs for a 110-storey structure in Tshwane, South Africa, which will be the tallest building in Africa.

Scheduled for completion in 2018, the project has been met with mixed reaction from locals. The mixed-use facility is planned to include residential units, office space, retail facilities, and hotel and conference spaces, however its close proximity to existing commercial venues is something of a concern. Businesses around the area are going through an economic slump and will not be able to handle the influx a project of this nature would bring.

Via World Architecture News

Gleaming new train station. The Chicago Transit Authority’s $38-million modern new Morgan "L" station on Chicago's Near West Side opened this week.

The dazzling station, with its spectral stair towers and glass-sheathed transfer bridge, has sparked debate on whether the money spent on the station would have been put to better use fixing the CTA’s creaking rails and slow zones.

Via Chicago Tribune

Pop-up hotels a trend. More and more “pop-up” or temporary hotels are growing as a business trend for hospitality companies.

These temporary hotels allow developers to check out locations, experiment with design ideas and test out the market for guests without a huge financial commitment. Some hospitality companies are even making new business bets on the pop-up approach.

Via SmartPlanet