Complete Streets Typology Public Meeting - 2013.04.10

Complete Streets Typology Public Meeting
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Cleveland City Hall Rotunda
601 Lakeside Avenue East
Cleveland,OH 44114
USA

Following up on the Jan. 24th Cleveland Complete and Green Streets Task Force workshop a public meeting is being held, hopefully to share findings and to update the public on advances the local initiative has made.

Via: BikeCleveland

The City of Cleveland Complete and Green Streets Task Force is working to change the way we think about, design, and construct Cleveland’s streets. Through stakeholder engagement we have classified streets into 10 different types. Each street type has its own priorities for pedestrians, vehicles, transit, cyclists and green infrastructure. Now it is time for community input on the classifications. This will be your opportunity to look at the proposed classifications and priorities and to give your feedback and perspective.

If you want more facilities that make your biking experience fun and safe you need to be at this meeting..

EarthFest 2013 - 2013.04.21

EarthFest 2013

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds

10am-5pm

Join Earth Day Coalition for EarthFest 2013 at this year’s new location, the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds, on Sunday, April 21 from 10am-5pm. In partnership with the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 initiative, we will be celebrating Advanced and Renewable Energy. Presented and organized by Earth Day Coalition since 1990 and now in its 24 year, EarthFest is Ohio’s largest environmental education event and the longest running Earth Day celebration in the nation.

NEW this year:

• Advanced and Renewable Energy exhibit area next to the Fairgrounds’ dramatic 500kW wind turbine and Energy Education Center. Attendees will learn first hand about exciting initiatives in our region as well as home products and conservation methods that utilize advanced energy sources, minimize emissions and maximize efficiency. Additional exhibit areas will include 175+ exhibitors in Clean Transportation (with Ride-and-Drive), Local and Sustainable Food, Green Home Improvement, NEW Lawn & Garden, Health and Fitness, Community Works and Family Fun. Also, visit the NASA Glenn Research Center Village at EarthFest.

• Families will have a fun-filled day with amusement rides, inflatable obstacle courses, petting zoo, urban farm animals, a beekeeper exhibit and more!

• Guests will enjoy microbrews, all-day chef demos and a huge selection of healthy and delicious local food from your favorite food trucks, such as Izzy Schrachner’s StrEat Mobile Bistro. (Look for a list of trucks and menus in our upcoming eblasts and on our website).

• Listen to all-day music and the best of Northeast Ohio singer-songwriters, musicians and bands on multiple “Party with the Planet” entertainment stages organized by students enrolled in Cuyahoga Community College’s entertainment booking class.

• Ride your bike to EarthFest, park at the Ohio City Bicycle Co-op valet station at the Bagley Road Fairgrounds entrance and get FREE admission to EarthFest.

• Take walking tours of Baldwin Wallace University’s solar, wind, composting and green building installations led by students from the university.

• Visit the regularly scheduled flea market repurposing event which will take place on the Fairgrounds during EarthFest and receive a dollar off admission to EarthFest.

Admission:

$3 ages 2-11; $5 ages 12+; FREE under age 2, for anyone who rides and parks their bike at the Fairgrounds entrance, and to guests who ride RTA’s Redline (regular fare) from any station to Brookpark Rapid Station and take the free EarthFest shuttle to the Fairgrounds.

We are accepting entries for the Hope and Stanley Adelstein Awards for Excellence annual K-12 Earth Day Art, Poetry and Essay contest. Cash prizes will be awarded at 11am Welcoming Ceremonies. Brochures are available on our website.

Exhibitor and sponsorship opportunities are available. Call (216) 281-6468 or visit www.earthdaycoalition.org for more information.

Help spread the word about EarthFest! Download an EarthFest flyer here to print, forward to friends and share through social media!

Cleveland Public Theatre RFP for Interactive Art Installation - deadline 2013.04.15

Cleveland Public Theatre Requesting Proposals for an Interactive Art Installation

Deadline for submissions is Monday, April 15, 2013

Cleveland Public Theatre is seeking proposals for an interactive art installation to be presented as part of pARTy in the Square.

On Saturday, June 8th, the Gordon Square Arts District & CPT will welcome thousands of guests to discover this revitalized neighborhood and introduce them to the vibrant artistic scene. This family-friendly event will feature music, theatre and visual art throughout the neighborhood at multiple venues.

CPT is seeking proposals for a family-friendly, interactive art installation in our century old church building. Guests visiting the installation will have the opportunity to engage in an artistic activity that will in some way add to the overall installation. This activity will be appropriate for all ages. 

Artists interested in submitting a proposal for this unique opportunity should click here to and carefully review the details in the RFP and complete the application.

CPT link

Chris Maurer Lunch Lecture @ CUDC - 2013.04.05

Good buddy, design collaborator and all around nice guy Chris Maurer (not the ska bassist) will be giving a lunchtime lecture about his work abroad (and whatever else percolates through his noggin) this coming Friday. I am trying to sort out how to duck out of work as I type (and for the next couple of days).

Lunchtime Lecture @ the CUDC
Christopher B. Maurer
Friday, April 05, 2013
1309 Euclid Avenue Suite 200
Cleveland, Ohio 44115
12-1pm

CUDC launches COLD competition

CUDC launches new competition
COLD (Center for Outdoor Living Design)
COLDSCAPES: New Visions for Cold Weather Cities

"COLDSCAPES: New Visions for Cold Weather Cities" is a multi-disciplinary design competition intended to reveal the often overlooked potential of cold climate cities. COLDSCAPES invites artists, architects, landscape architects, and urban designers to submit conceptual and built projects, of various scales, which reveal exciting opportunities for revitalizing cold climate urban places. The competition is organized by Kent State University's Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC).

Intended Visions

COLDSCAPES aims to provoke a critical assessment of idealized representations from warmer seasons and challenge designers to engage more creatively with the unique conditions presented by winter. Submissions should explore new visions and emerging possibilities for enhancing livability in cold weather cities. We're interested in encouraging designers to inspire other designers to become cultural change agents, ultimately enabling cities to embrace their winter identities. Projects may fall within the domain of a particular discipline (architecture, public art, landscape architecture, urban design) or may cross over multiple disciplines. Entrants are encouraged to explore responses within a wide range of scales: city-scale urban form, mid-scale public spaces, or smaller street interventions. The competition does not specify a single site for submissions. Entrants may choose their own specific sites from around the world or submit proposed interventions that could be deployed in multiple geographic locations. The submission should provide an effective visual (and potentially aural, if using video) presentation of a built project or conceptual proposal that responds to critical design questions. What novel urban experiences can designers enable for winter city residents? How can the built environment become more responsive to changing outdoor conditions, enabling long-term resiliency? What visualization techniques can be employed to meaningfully communicate the ephemeral atmospheric qualities of winter environments? How can the urban environment respond to the needs of vulnerable populations in cold climates and increase opportunities for social inclusion?

Submission Format

In order to encourage a broad range of communication techniques, submissions may consist of still images or video. Various kinds of visualizations may be used, optimized for on-screen browsing, such as conceptual perspective renderings, explanatory diagrams, or photographs of built projects. A submission may include a maximum of three images or one video that clearly express the project's cold weather design intent. Each image must be in 16:9 aspect ratio (maximum size of 1024 x 768 pixels), in .jpg, .png, or .pdf format, with a maximum file size of 10 MB for each image. Video submissions must have a 16:9 aspect ratio and no more than 3 minutes in length. Videos must be submitted in .mov format and may be no larger than 100 MB. Submissions will be uploaded to the competition website as digital files. Mailed submissions will not be accepted. (A link to the full registration/submission page will be made available in mid-April 2013. See Competition Guidelines section below.) Creators of winning submissions and honorable mentions may be asked to submit higher resolution versions of their projects for inclusion in the online archive, physical exhibition, and print publication. Please do not include the entrant's name anywhere on the submission, since the submissions will be judged anonymously.

Text

In addition to images or video, entrants are required to submit text describing their projects. The text may be a maximum of 200 words and should focus on communicating the cold weather related design intentions of the submission.

Jury & Awards

A jury of artists and designers familiar with cold weather design issues will select three thought-provoking and visually compelling projects, each to receive a $1,000 award. A larger set of submissions will receive honorable mentions and comprise an online archive, providing an evolving, interactive resource for designers, residents, and public officials in winter weather communities. A final list of jurors will be announced before the registration deadline.

Exhibition & Publication

In addition to the online archive, a curated selection of entries will be included in a physical exhibition in Cleveland, Ohio, currently scheduled for November 2013. Winning entries will be published in Volume 6 of the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative’s Urban Infill journal series, focused on advancing the design of urban environments for winter weather.

Ownership

By entering the COLDSCAPES competition, entrants grant Kent State University's Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC) ownership of all prize-winning and honorable mention design submissions. Entrants acknowledge that the CUDC may exhibit all entries in an online archive, physical exhibition, and print publication. In entering the design competition, entrants grant the CUDC unrestricted license to exercise the entrants' rights regarding their design submissions, including, but not limited to, reproduction, preparation of derivative works, distribution of copies of the design submission, and the right to authorize such use by others.

COLD Competition timeline:

April 1, 2013 - Competition announced

May 24, 2013 - Registration deadline

July 12, 2013 - (6pm EST) Submission deadline

July 26, 2013 - COLDSCAPES competition winners announced

COLD Competition guidelines:

The entry fee is $20 per registrant. Each registrant may submit up to 3 entries. For team submissions with multiple individuals credited, only one registration fee is required. A link to the full registration page will be provided in mid-April 2013, so please enter your contact information to receive an email notification by clicking the "Enter Now" button below:

Enter Now

Ward 18 Lorain Ave. Streetscape Plan Community Meeting - 2013.04.02

Lorain Streetscape Planning

Our next community meeting (flier) is April 2, 2013 at St. Vincent DePaul.  Come and help us keep the ball rolling on historic Lorain Avenue!

BPDC was happy to receive a Transportation for Livable Communities Initiative (TLCI) grant to study the streetscape of Lorain Avenue with the community and formulate a plan for all of Lorain Avenue’s stakeholders.  The grant was awarded by the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA).  NOACA is the metropolitan planning organization for Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, and Medina Counties.

On August 21, 2012, BPDC convened a public meeting for stakeholders to contribute to the streetscape plan for Lorain Avenue in Ward 18.  The attendance reflected the viability of Lorain Avenue and showed promise for the plan to accommodate a diverse set of interests.  Click here for the meeting notes.  View the slides from the August 21st presentation here.

From the TLCI webpage, here is a summary of the grant’s use in Ward 18:

The Lorain Avenue Pedestrian Friendly Plan will propose streetscape improvements that provide better accessibility for bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit riders. The plan will encompass Lorain Avenue east of the West Park RTA Rapid Station to West 130th Street. The focal intersection will be West 140th Street and Lorain Avenue, near John Marshall High School. The plan will connect to the West Park/Lorain Avenue Transportation and Redevelopment Plan, completed in 2010.

The plan completed in 2010 that is referenced above is the one completed by Kamms Corners Development Corporation for the section of Lorain Avenue West of the West Park RTA Rapid Station and can be viewed here: http://www.noaca.org/WParkLorainTranspRedevPlan.pdf.  (It takes a minute for the page to load.)

KSU CAED picks their winner for the new Arch Building

above image "borrowed" from S. Litt's blog. I think this proposed solution is pretty miserable as seen above.

Congratulations to Weiss/Manfredi and Bowen Architecture for being selected as the design firm for Kent State University's new College of Architecture and Environmental Design $40 million building. The "Design Loft" selection has been chosen as the strongest framework from which to tie downtown Kent to the campus and provide the University some sort of important artifice from which to announce transition to said campus.

While I admit I didn't see the proposal that was presented to school, I can only hope to imagine that it was much more diligent and open about how the building will operate than in the renderings and short talk given to the public. I personally shudder at the thought of having to take another studio cooking in the direct sunlight while battling headaches brought on by the contrast between my computer screens and windows. I also feel slightly hesitant about taking the faux hierarchy that the GSD subjects its students too and mimics it with a West facing series of studio strata (which creates a strange vertical transition if there were ever to be any large programmatic growth).

My only solace is that the usual process with a client, bidding and construction will hopefully adjust the proposal to something more functional and less false (are we still fooled by how people render glass in these crappy photofaux renderings?).

This should be a fun one to watch.

Good luck to the teams, they have a very difficult job ahead of them.

Final Four Announced

Steve Litt broke the story I thought we couldn't talk about yet.

update: Weiss/Manfredi posts their submission images

I want to say that I am impressed with Weiss/Manfredi's work and just find this proposal really undercooked, there is something lacking, perhaps it doesn't have the site sensitivity/heroic forms that I have come to expect (or hope for).