Yesterday the US Senate voted to pass an energy bill which will raise CAFE standards for vehicles sold in the United States from 27.5 mpg to 35 mpg for light cars and 22.2 mpg for minivans, SUVS and other light trucks.
The energy bill also plans a massive increase in 'greener fuel sources' such as ethanol (up to 36 billion gallons by 2022).
The passing of the energy bill happened with the caveat that planned taxes against the oil industry to support renewable electricity projects such as solar and wind. Meanwhile the price of oil continues to rise resulting in price increases in all manners of transportation related industry and infrastructure.
I grow curious of what the magic cost would be to break America from our dependence on the automobile. Will $6 a gallon create enough of an incentive for people to move closer where they work? Will a larger and more captive ridership allow GCRTA to grow into a full time and more intuitive service (I love the GCRTA, I just wish I could figure out on the fly how to get places)? Could an easier and quicker public transportation system allow more downtown development and a reduction of parking structure/lots for actual speculative structures?
I hope so.
resources:
BBC
Friday, December 14, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Music Saves/Musica Gift Exchange
Friday, December 14th
Music Saves, Cleveland
Sooper Awesome Gift Xchange
Saturday, December 15th
Musica, Akron
Sooper Awesome Gift Xchange part DO!
What else can I say. If you like music, if you like fun, if you like awesome people like me (and more awesome people like Mel and Kev) then you should probably get your butt up to Music Saves for the Gift Exchange (you can go right after the Tremont Art Walk (Friday) if you are all clever about it).
Music Saves
Musica
Music Saves, Cleveland
Sooper Awesome Gift Xchange
Saturday, December 15th
Musica, Akron
Sooper Awesome Gift Xchange part DO!
What else can I say. If you like music, if you like fun, if you like awesome people like me (and more awesome people like Mel and Kev) then you should probably get your butt up to Music Saves for the Gift Exchange (you can go right after the Tremont Art Walk (Friday) if you are all clever about it).
Music Saves
Musica
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Ohio makes alternative energy headlines
Timken partners with Chinese company to build wind turbine components expected to generate over $100 million in US exports.
EBO of Medina County to reap plug-in hybrid windfall by concentrating on creating viable power pack systems necessary for creating successful vehicles.
Two separate tracks for two (semi)local companies hoping to capitalize on emerging energy based technology markets. One almost hopes that the region finds a way to cultivate a local culture for these types of businesses.
EBO of Medina County to reap plug-in hybrid windfall by concentrating on creating viable power pack systems necessary for creating successful vehicles.
Two separate tracks for two (semi)local companies hoping to capitalize on emerging energy based technology markets. One almost hopes that the region finds a way to cultivate a local culture for these types of businesses.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
December Tremont Art Hop
Tremont Art Walk/Hop
Friday, December 14th, 2007
Tremont Neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio
Just in time for the gift exchange season, the last Tremont Art Walk of 2007 is this weekend. The perfect chance to browse for some local and handmade quality gifts for friends and loved ones. The winter may be a touch chilly but that should just give the perfect excuse for ducking into a local restaurant or pub for a warmer.
I had a card for this Art Walk that I picked up at Lucky's but have misplaced it. It caught my eye because the artwork done for the current hotcard looked like it was done by Derek Hess, so after a quick check on the webbernet, lo and behold, check out what I found on his website:
Friday December 14th - Kelly Randall Gallery, Cleveland
"Every Day's A Holiday - Derek Hess Holiday Show"
*ONE NIGHT ONLY*
Hess prints, posters, calendars, and originals
more info at - 216-771-7724
Marvelous!
Friday, December 14th, 2007
Tremont Neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio
Just in time for the gift exchange season, the last Tremont Art Walk of 2007 is this weekend. The perfect chance to browse for some local and handmade quality gifts for friends and loved ones. The winter may be a touch chilly but that should just give the perfect excuse for ducking into a local restaurant or pub for a warmer.
I had a card for this Art Walk that I picked up at Lucky's but have misplaced it. It caught my eye because the artwork done for the current hotcard looked like it was done by Derek Hess, so after a quick check on the webbernet, lo and behold, check out what I found on his website:
Friday December 14th - Kelly Randall Gallery, Cleveland
"Every Day's A Holiday - Derek Hess Holiday Show"
*ONE NIGHT ONLY*
Hess prints, posters, calendars, and originals
more info at - 216-771-7724
Marvelous!
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Rapid deployment - our search for efficiency may make us lose our focus
For the past half year or so I have been involved with heading the Revit portion of a BIM pilot program. For those of you not quite in with the whole BIM (Building Information Modeling) movement let me create a quick synapses.
BIM software (from the architectural side at least) allows the designer or whomever is piloting the computer to attach parametric values such as identification notes, weights, colors, etc, to building components. What the BIM software excels at is allowing one to track and schedule what components are being used in the project. This also allows one to track construction phases and cost estimates since the building model can be used to create the project with quantifiable amounts of materials.
What BIM software does not do is automatically illustrate how a building actually goes together.
I am not trying to romanticize the era when drawings were done by hand on vellum or mylar. I don't think the ammonia reproducer (or blueprint machine) was a particularly pleasant thing to be around. I do believe that when things were being drawn by hand there was a certain amount of care and attention paid to particular details which resulted in those responsible for details having to learn how a particular portion of the building (see window sill, or door head, etc) should be put together to function properly. There is also the necessity of learning what the components of a building (flashing, moisture barrier, vapor barrier, etc) are there to do, what order they are to be combined to work effectively, what there characteristics are and how, when combined, they are supposed to appear.
At some point during the mass transition to CAD (computer aided drafting) I think the intimacy of knowledge garnered from hand drawing started to fall by the wayside. CAD software allowed for the quick repetition of symbols and the shortsighted creation of details as existing simply as a series of connected (sometimes) lines.
Now parametric modeling rears on the horizon as becoming mainstream and again the question of proper building techniques becomes compounded. Without going into the reams of proper architectural BIM usage (I am not by any means an expert) there are certain assumptions that one has to make similar to utilizing CAD software, which is fine. My main concern is how the BIM software is perceived.
Already I have heard rumors of architectural schools training their students at an early time during their undergraduate years in BIM software to be used as a design and presentation platform and honestly this scares me. First because the software is rather advanced for early undergraduate usage by students who are still creating a foundation of presentation design. Secondly, the software itself is rather orthogonal (The most common platform Revit, is extremely orthogonal, almost annoyingly so. It takes a bit of practice to create intentional 3d shapes) so as to lending itself to being used for quick design one would argue that software such as Sketchup or even Rhino (again with a large learning curve) would be more apt. However I would like to argue that more basic design study, through physical modeling and drawing (and eventually photoshop), would be better used at the early years to teach fundamentals.
I suppose that by most regards I could be way off base, seen as a proponent of "the old guard" who still carries at least one sketchbook around at all times and finds the pencil still the most useful tool of my "arsenal". Well, maybe I am. However, I can sketch quickly on the train or bus, at the bar or a restaurant during lunch or even during a conversation with a colleague or client and that makes me the most versatile of all.
Sure CAD is a basic skill, no doubt necessary, that all students should grasp in order to make the pragmatic diagrams asked for during the design reviews, but is parametric modeling something to be instilled during the years of learning intellectual design and rigor or would that be best left for the classes in which construction techniques are taught and moved as far from the design studio as possible, to keep the minds agile, sharp and free?
Are we soon to be at the point where we can view a building and recognize the software platform it was designed in? Is architecture still about design or is it to become a commodity, to be quantified and calculated and added to a parametric spreadsheet?
BIM software (from the architectural side at least) allows the designer or whomever is piloting the computer to attach parametric values such as identification notes, weights, colors, etc, to building components. What the BIM software excels at is allowing one to track and schedule what components are being used in the project. This also allows one to track construction phases and cost estimates since the building model can be used to create the project with quantifiable amounts of materials.
What BIM software does not do is automatically illustrate how a building actually goes together.
I am not trying to romanticize the era when drawings were done by hand on vellum or mylar. I don't think the ammonia reproducer (or blueprint machine) was a particularly pleasant thing to be around. I do believe that when things were being drawn by hand there was a certain amount of care and attention paid to particular details which resulted in those responsible for details having to learn how a particular portion of the building (see window sill, or door head, etc) should be put together to function properly. There is also the necessity of learning what the components of a building (flashing, moisture barrier, vapor barrier, etc) are there to do, what order they are to be combined to work effectively, what there characteristics are and how, when combined, they are supposed to appear.
At some point during the mass transition to CAD (computer aided drafting) I think the intimacy of knowledge garnered from hand drawing started to fall by the wayside. CAD software allowed for the quick repetition of symbols and the shortsighted creation of details as existing simply as a series of connected (sometimes) lines.
Now parametric modeling rears on the horizon as becoming mainstream and again the question of proper building techniques becomes compounded. Without going into the reams of proper architectural BIM usage (I am not by any means an expert) there are certain assumptions that one has to make similar to utilizing CAD software, which is fine. My main concern is how the BIM software is perceived.
Already I have heard rumors of architectural schools training their students at an early time during their undergraduate years in BIM software to be used as a design and presentation platform and honestly this scares me. First because the software is rather advanced for early undergraduate usage by students who are still creating a foundation of presentation design. Secondly, the software itself is rather orthogonal (The most common platform Revit, is extremely orthogonal, almost annoyingly so. It takes a bit of practice to create intentional 3d shapes) so as to lending itself to being used for quick design one would argue that software such as Sketchup or even Rhino (again with a large learning curve) would be more apt. However I would like to argue that more basic design study, through physical modeling and drawing (and eventually photoshop), would be better used at the early years to teach fundamentals.
I suppose that by most regards I could be way off base, seen as a proponent of "the old guard" who still carries at least one sketchbook around at all times and finds the pencil still the most useful tool of my "arsenal". Well, maybe I am. However, I can sketch quickly on the train or bus, at the bar or a restaurant during lunch or even during a conversation with a colleague or client and that makes me the most versatile of all.
Sure CAD is a basic skill, no doubt necessary, that all students should grasp in order to make the pragmatic diagrams asked for during the design reviews, but is parametric modeling something to be instilled during the years of learning intellectual design and rigor or would that be best left for the classes in which construction techniques are taught and moved as far from the design studio as possible, to keep the minds agile, sharp and free?
Are we soon to be at the point where we can view a building and recognize the software platform it was designed in? Is architecture still about design or is it to become a commodity, to be quantified and calculated and added to a parametric spreadsheet?
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