Green Corps salsa, another season of yummy

Green Corps, Green Salsa now on sale!

Students at the Cleveland Botanical Garden have developed a new 'Ripe From Downtown Salsa' creation which can be purchase from a number of local grocery stores including all Heinen's.

The students take part in a three year certificate program that combines horticulture with business techniques. As part of the program students grow and cultivate their own ingrediants to blend into a locally produced wonderful salsa.

Greening the modern preservation movement - Bauhaus at the brink

Bauhaus at the Brink

To what aspiration would a creative movement desire to achieve a level of connectedness that could possibly transcend multiple disciplines, whether from graphics to painting to manufacturing to architecture?

Recent arguments have been made for and against a rather rash violation of Cleveland's urban fabric with the suggested destruction and replacement of Marcel Breuer's Ameritrust Tower. Even now, with an uncertain future, work gangs are delving into the structure's bones to remediate the site for either sale or demolition. Questions have been poised voicing exploration into the fiduciary, environmental and programmatic rationale for these decisions and have led to little more then frustration.

Admittedly this has been all very dramatic. From a environmental, preservationist and design perspective the whole process has seemed extremely ham-handed but has solidified an interesting ground swell of reaction. From these inquisitions have surfaced a dialogue unlike anything I have experienced in this city, a barrage of discourse centered upon the legitimacy of the County Administration relocation plan, collecting a multitude of interesting parties of all age groups, social strata and occupation. Everyone has an opinion and while not all may agree, the dialogue is itself a vindication of sorts of the passion that this city brings out in it's citizens.

Currently another layer is to be weaved into the discussion, the validity of the Ameritrust Tower as an example not only of Breuer's work but also of the Bauhaus school (not the band).

For those of you unfamiliar with the Bauhaus, do not fret, there will soon be a small series of forums, films and exhibits based not only on the Ameritrust Tower but also the Bauhaus connection.

Saturday, November 10th, 2007
4pm - 6pm
Primer on Breuer and the Bauhaus
A slide show by Tony Hiti, Chair of the Historic Resources Committee of the AIA, Cleveland Chapter on the history of Marcel Breuer and the Cleveland Trust Building. At the Sculpture Center (free parking available)

Saturday, November 17th, 2007
4pm
The history of why the Bauhaus came to America
Bauhaus in America: a film by Judith Pearlman followed by a panel discussion with Cleveland architect, Peter Van Dijk and Associate Professor of Art History at Kent State University, Carol Salus, moderated by Christopher Diehl, Director, Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative
At the Cleveland Cinematheque general admission $8/members, CIA students, staff $6

Also showcased will be the entries from the Ingenuity 2007 What would you do with the Breuer? exhibit.

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
6pm
Green building and modernism; are they antithetical?
Guest lecturer, Carl Stein, FAIA, Principal of elemental architecture, llc, of New York City and his late father, Richard Stein, FAIA, have completed numerous historic rehabilitation projects based on their innovative and pioneering research in the analysis of energy use and conservation in buildings and design. He served his architectural internship with Marcel Breuer from 1968-1971.
At Judson at University Circle (free parking available)

Tremont Art Walk

Tremont Art Walk
Friday, November 9th
6pm - whenever

One of these days I may actually write something interesting about my findings during one of these Tremont Art Walks, but since each time I go is so different I find it difficult to attempt to create a 'standard' of happenings.

I thrive on adventure.

Site-Specific Cleveland Lecture

Site-Specific Cleveland
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
7.pm - 8ish.pm
free to the public

Special guests Don Harvey and Carl Pope

Whether addressing social, political, cultural, racial, environmental, or ecological issues, art about Cleveland is significant to our region. But, how do projects about Northeast Ohio vary between artists who live here and artists who are just visiting? In this dialogue, distinguished Cleveland-based artist, Don Harvey and artist-in-residence, Carl Pope will discuss their work, comparing and contrasting what their respective “Cleveland projects,” have revealed about our people and places.

Pope is a joint fellow of Case Western Reserve University’s Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities and The Cleveland Institute of Art for the fall of 2007; during this time he is creating a public art project to open in conjunction with the conference “Cityscapes” (March 27-30, 2008), jointly organized by CWRU’s Baker-Nord Center and the Liberal Arts Environment of the CIA. For this project, Pope is creating The Mind of Cleveland, a text-based poster and billboard work designed to externalize the collective dreams, visions, and desires of the Cleveland community. To learn more, visit Pope’s project website at www.themindofcleveland.com.

Co-founder of Cleveland Public Art and former editor of Dialogue magazine, Harvey has been an active and vital member of the Northeast Ohio art community for 36 years. In addition to his impressive exhibition resume, Harvey has received numerous grants and fellowships along with the Cleveland Arts Prize (1991). In his multi-media work, Harvey addresses the region’s urban environment physically and conceptually by integrating evocative materials like steel grids and toxic fluids with images of the city, its people, and its surrounding ecology.

Someone lend me 35 mill.

I was hoping that I would discover this on Craigslist. However, it is official, the Plain Dealer just announced the sale of the Ameritrust Tower for a mere $35,000,000.

I don't have any comments on this just yet. The idea is that the County will not accept any less then the money that they have invested in the project in the first place so I suppose, in theory, this isn't a loss for the citizens of Cuyahoga. Before we make any rash judgements, lets see where this mess ends up.

Oh, and it was pointed out to me that the $35 million price tag is the same as for the Tri-C Rock Hall archive.

Step it Up Rally 2007

Saturday, November 3rd, 2007
Step it Up 2007
National Day of Climate Action

Nothing like spending a crisp Fall Saturday enjoying, well crisp Fall Saturdays. Find a local movement planning to rally your communities to press their governmental bodies to respond to the Climate Change Crisis. Already 71 Members of Congress and 7 Presidential Candidates will be joining local movements, pledging their support in making America more proactive to the looming environmental emergency and making our politicians aware of plans and priorities to slow global warming.

APTA release Public Transportation Website

APTA (American Public Transportation Association released a new website to disseminate public transit info including some iPod maps (San Francisco BART) and county specific system information hopefully making public transportation easier to understand for those of us who use it but are still confused by routes due to construction or just plain old route changes.

With all the discussion about sprawl and climate change one starts to wonder when or even if there will be enough of a personal stake to utilize and capitalize on public transportation systems or if American society will continue to pull away and concentrate on solitary lifestyles perpetuated by personal vehicle usage.

In other news part of Euclid has the Corridor project 'completed' and will be opened sometime this month to regular traffic. I am curious to see how people react to the new traffic patterns. Heck, I am curious to see how I react to them.

Kauffman Park in danger - signs of greater troubles?

Public Meeting on Kaufman Park
Monday, October 29th, 2007
7.00-8.00 pm
Lakewood Seventh-Day Adventist Church
1382 Arthur Ave. - Fellowship Hall (Basement)

hosted by- Tom Bullock for Lakewood

There is an allure to Lakewood, Ohio that is relatively easy to discern. For an older suburb it still works the way neighborhoods did at the dawn of the century and in the way that new developers like to sell their developments as working. People here walk. There are parks to walk to, stores (specialty and grocery), libraries, movie theaters, all manner of bowling alleys, art galleries, restaurants, churches, bars, etc.

There is also a reason people walk. It is easy. The blocks are small, there are two major commercial strips that run parallel to (and create the spine of) the city, the sidewalks are big without being unreasonable gigantic, the crosswalks are marked and logical and commercial buildings are fronted right up on the street. Amidst a collection of single story to mid-rise the scale and composure of Lakewood 'downtown' has a particular feel; a small town without disjointed connection where one can easily peruse the windows whilst on your way to your destination.

If you are one who feels driving to your destination is quicker have no fear, there is ample side street parking or building specific parking nestled behind the buildings against the street (except for a couple of locations, noticeably Marc's surface lot that is somewhat tucked behind another building and park). These hidden parking lots do a few things that are rather nice to those of us that still enjoy walking the neighborhood. It keeps the front of the stores, and their windows, against the street making it easy to glance in and see if anything catches our eyes, it keeps eyes on the street due to proximity to the stores and it keeps large, barren, and crummy looking parking lots hidden away from the main image of the street.

With this in mind I bring up the Public Meeting on Kauffman Park tomorrow. I am not sure if this is an actual public meeting or just a publicity stunt for an elected official. I also am leery as I read the flyer which talks more about increasing safety forces at the park then attempting to create a way for future development (proposed office and retail) to keep the 'main street' feel instead of having a sea of asphalt butt up against Detroit Avenue. Yes, I fear that Detroit Avenue will turn into something akin to Mentor Avenue (Route 20) in Mentor, a strip of small retail stores, buffered from an uncrossable street by even more asphalt, parking entry and egress haphazardly tossed about until the whole street becomes a orgasm of commuter frustration . I feel that with a little bit of creativity and a small attempt at rational thought there would be a way to save most of the park, reorient the retail center and even add the possibility of office or even some residential units (if Lakewood needs more residential units, there are an awful lot of homes for rent/sale and adding to the mess doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense yet).

However that would mean that someone would actually want to spend time trying to design something that not only would sell but also something that would fit the sense and scale of the place and, well, work with the neighborhood and community.

Which probably means the usual suspects aren't up for the task no matter how many lamp-posts with banners declaring the 'Drug Mart Neighborhood Condo District' say they are.

resources
Plain Dealer Article

Tri-C Rauc(ous) Hall Archive- for the love of all things holy...

I admit I had seen what could have been a preliminary image of the Tri-C/Rock Hall archive thing earlier (which I commented upon), one where the stacked glass corner box was a pyramid with a large block balanced on top which was actually quite a bit more offensive then this.

This, this I can almost ignore without getting too angry about. Granted I had to lift the image from the ground breaking video since everyone that was so busy making the announcement somehow didn't get a simple image of what this thing was supposed to look like. This building that somehow they are breaking ground on, that supposedly went through a permit and review process that is supposed to protect the architectural and artistic merit of our city, this building that supposedly the people paying for it had been involved in the design...

Arts buildings should have the intent for delight professed within them.

Like This

ps. watch the video. After the squint/opera lecture/video showing at KSU you almost wonder how good design can easily influence the presentation. Also, they shovel a trough for the ground breaking. Really wacky stuff going on in this town.

Whilst staying on the topic of 'report cards'

To round out my post about the 'Greenest States' and the 'Greenest Cities' I figured I had to pass along the Sustainable Endowments Institute's report rating College's Sustainability

Only Harvard, Dartmouth, University of Washington, Middlebury, Carleton, and University of Vermont performed well enough in all categories to merit the highest overall grade of “A-,” earning them the distinction of College Sustainability Leaders.

The Juilliard School, Howard University, Regent University, and Samford University yielded overall “F” grades, followed by 21 schools carrying a grade of “D-.”

My school, Kent State, must not have gotten invovled at all. That is a shame since it hosts a College of Architecture and Environmental Design.

236 page 3 meg pdf report for some light reading.

39 out of 50 really isn't too great...

Recently Forbes magazine released its rankings of America's Greenest Cities. The usual suspects topped the list; Oregon, Washington, Vermont.

In a ranking which was determined by weighting six categories equally (carbon footprint, air quality, water quality, hazardous waste management, policy initiatives and energy consumption) Ohio came in 39th.

39th out of 50.

Below Texas.

I am aghast. I would really love to see not only the culmulative rankings of what areas we did especially poor in but also what data was collected for this study. Not in an attempt to belabor the rankings either, just to see how the local society percieves itself, foibles and accomplishments.

I just found it interesting.

America's Greenest Cities, don't worry, Cleveland isn't on there at all.

Better yourself, better the world, Free Rice

Free Rice

An online vocabulary game whereas for every word participants get correct an approximate 10 grains of rice are donated to the United Nations World Food Program. The program automatically adjusts for your skill level whilst keeping track of your score through tracking your 'donation'. Advertisers along the bottom of the screen are the ones who are donating in your name. The adverts run in a rather limited capacity and are not overbearing or even noticeable enough to become annoying. Granted the game is multiple choice and limited as you have to pick the best word to define the word given, meaning that some synonyms are a stretch, but utilizing context clues and lucky guessing it shouldn't prove too difficult. Also, if you get one wrong you are shown the correct answer. At least as far as I have been told. I haven't gotten any wrong yet.

I find the most interesting part of this experiment the idea that that it is improving the English vocabulary for everyone, meaning it could prove to be an effective technique to educate people in new languages. I wonder if there will be non-English versions. I daresay, it could make learning fun and actually more rewarding.

Ameritrust Tower deal goes 'boom(?)', much like its lobby

Even as rumors circulate about the possible sale of the Ameritrust Tower someone is still taking the time to drive about the lobby in a Bobcat. While I must admit that driving a Bobcat about is rather fun, and the prospect of driving one around the lobby of a building that I am supposed to systematically demolish could make me feel rather giddy (if I felt the building deserved it) I should point out that this particular exercise in County mandated destruction derby depresses me.

The best part of the above mentioned article is the responses. Oh internet, you so crazy!

Marcel Breuer: Design and Architecture Exhibit

If you happen to be in Washington DC between November 3rd and February 17th you may want to stop in at the
National Building Museum and check out the Marcel Breuer exhibit.

I found the timing of this show interesting, especially as I received the notice around the same time that I was sent the Plain Dealer article stating that the County Commissioners may not demolish the Tower after all. In what one could call an 'interesting' turn of events, it seems that the County didn't fulfill their due diligence in planning their new administrative complex. Whether the fault could be blamed on poor planning, lack of planning, total absence of foresight or some other descriptive term that basically calls the project incompetent, it is becoming more and more apparent that the premise for the project was severely flawed. The question that remains is how much the taxpayers are going to pay for this mistake. I am guessing the whole thing won't be cheap.

I am sure someone out there is doing some interesting investigative reporting on where the money came from and where the money went. I know I would be interested to see a breakdown.

Hopefully something that fills in the gaps on where the majority of the money went and to whom. I thought this was a fine start.