Cleveland Artist Spotlight

Cleveland Artist Spotlight: Dru McKeown

Super nice write up about my artistic endeavors, if such actions could be called such things, via Creative Compass (supported by the Community Patnership for Arts and Culture). I would like to thank them (Creative Workforce) a ton more and I don't properly know how to do so. The work they do has really been extremely helpful to myself. For once in my life I feel more in control and more in step with what I want to accomplish as an architect, as a researcher and as a designer than I ever did working in any of the firms I had spent time in previously (not that they were bad places, but I rarely got the opportunity to spend efforts on worthwhile endeavors).

Believe it or not, I truly understand how lucky I am to be able to spend my time doing things that I find worthy of expending my time upon and how fantastically lucky I am to be given these opportunities, working with the people I am working with, doing/making the things I am doing/making and being a part of a city that I truly love. It is all hearts and stars from here on out (to some extent).

I wish I could tell folks it was all hard work or what not, but really, it was the determination and vision of people with more tenacity than myself who make the opportunity for me doing what I want/need to to do possible. I want to thank the folks at Cuyahoga Arts & Culture for this chance to do something so much bigger than myself, whether working with people who couldn't really afford an architect/builder or just giving me a chance to donate my time and vision to a community, I thank you.

And so begins the first year with TOIstudio as a "for profit" organization. With my first client being a property owner that needs an architect who is willing to help tear off a roof, in a community that needs a bit of help forming an identity in a city that wants to come back swingin'. Nothing would make me happier than being an underdog in a leaky/cold studio to someone who makes it actually work. It has been a long time since purpose has truly fired this heart up, I can't wait to tackle the next obstacle that wants to bring me down.

Picking up a new mallet on the morrow. A bigger hammer usually gets the job done.

"Priorities for Street Design" aka "60 years of Misguided Intent"

From the window in the TOIstudio office there is an intersection in Lakewood, Ohio on Detroit Ave. that ODOT required the removal of a traffic light. The intersection in question connects two aged residential towers to bus stops and the local full service grocery store. It also connects a Northern portion of the neighborhood to the local public high school (the only one) as well as marks an end of what is considered the Downtown Business District (as noticeable by adjacent wayfinding). The removal of the traffic light means that there is over 1/3 a mile between signaled cross walks which, in such proximity to assisted care living, can be quite a distance and burden. To counter the loss of pedestrian crossing signals the city installed flashing lights on adjacent telephone poles and a metal "break-away" sign in the middle of the street informing automotive drivers of the law (that they probably should be aware of in the first place) that they must yield to pedestrians crossing the street. Throughout the day I get to watch drivers ignore their responsibilities in operating their motorized vehicles almost plowing over children, the elderly and other law-abiding citizens. It is summed up quite nicely in a video report.

In 2010 I worked with the CUDC (a local non-profit planning organization) on a public charrette entitled "Connecting Downtown Cleveland - Beyond the Burnham Plan (here is the pdf report) that studied quite a few of the questions being raised by the planning on impending construction of the new Cleveland Convention Center. My group concentrated on Public Square and connection Tower City to the Mall. Our design, based up a sinkhole created in Public Square which shut down the interior intersection for a couple month some years prior, leaving the perimeter open to traffic, reflected on how grand Public Square felt and the ease to traverse it when the main intersection at Ontario St. and Superior Avenue were removed. Despite opinion that this was impossible it now seems that the city of Cleveland is on the verge of implementing complete streets plans and using a redesign of Public Square as the linchpin. During a presentation I was trying to explain the following article to public member with the familiarity of dealing with an unnamed municipal planning organization. After the presentation I began the long look for the following article and here it is, after 3 years or so of non-deliberate looking:

A while back I stumbled up a blog post by former municipal civil engineer tasked with infrastructure planning and design (roads, sewer pipe, water pipe, stormwater) and who states that "A fair percentage of my time was spent convincing people that, when it came to their road, I knew more than they did.".

This was not only due to this fellows education and position, but most importantly, his job consisted of following sets of established standards;

"In the engineering profession's version of defensive medicine, we can't recommend standards that are not in the manual. We can't use logic to vary from a standard that gives us 60 mph design speeds on roads with intersections every 200 feet. We can't question why two cars would need to travel at high speed in opposite directions on a city block, let alone why we would want them to. We can yield to public pressure and post a speed limit -- itself a hazard -- but we can't recommend a road section that is not in the highway manual. 

When the public and politicians tell engineers that their top priorities are safety and then cost, the engineer's brain hears something completely different. The engineer hears, "Once you set a design speed and handle the projected volume of traffic, safety is the top priority. Do what it takes to make the road safe, but do it as cheaply as you can." This is why engineers return projects with asinine "safety" features, like pedestrian bridges and tunnels that nobody will ever use, and costs that are astronomical. 

An engineer designing a street or road prioritizes the world in this way, no matter how they are instructed: 

1. Traffic speed
2. Traffic volume
3. Safety
4. Cost

The rest of the world generally would prioritize things differently, as follows: 

1. Safety
2. Cost
3. Traffic volume
4. Traffic speed

In other words, the engineer first assumes that all traffic must travel at speed. Given that speed, all roads and streets are then designed to handle a projected volume. Once those parameters are set, only then does an engineer look at mitigating for safety and, finally, how to reduce the overall cost (which at that point is nearly always ridiculously expensive)."

And while this reliance on extremely old standards are no longer accepted practice the problem remains that those in charge of municipal departments most likely studied under the old model and are therefore more apt to reinforce these outdated and disproven techniques that recent (early 90's) ACSE and APA guidelines have attempted to confront. 

In no way am I suggesting that street design is easy. There are a lot of complex issues that affect adjacent property owners, users and safety personnel, many with inherent contradictory needs. It becomes a question of balance and context, but most importantly it becomes an issue of having the ability to confront the status quo when it is quite obvious that accepted guidelines do not serve the community they are supposed to (I am allowing for the use of highways where appropriate, slicing through neighborhoods not being one of them). 

Another link to the referenced blog post:
Strong Towns "Confessions of a Recovering Engineer"

Which I rediscovered through this article:
Atlantic Cities "What Happens When a Town Puts People Before Cars"

Getting There

It is all about the process.

I was wandering through this blog a while back and realized that despite my very first post this thing has become primarily my day planner. Not for all the amazing events I go to and am a big deal at, but really for just the interesting things happening around town that I figured would be fun to go to if you were an art/environmental/design/food/beer nerd (eg me). Also, this thing got way less personal, albeit with brief moments of deeply personal bits and pieces left out there for really no reason.

I tried the whole "online community of rabble rousers" bit and found that mostly discouraging. Betwixt the undercurrents of racism/sexism/classism that is evident when every other statement is "I'm not _(biased)_ some of my best friends are _(some sort of distinguishable other group)_" or just blatant stupid/ignorant hatred (see most of the comments on Cleveland.com, if you dare) one can get pretty fed up with the armchair quarterbacks bitching about their world view being threatened by people actually doing things. And the internet is great for that. For people who want to just sit back and bitch about things not going their way. You really don't need much, some vitriol, an internet connection and some way to transcribe your insanity into text and/or photographs. There is the path of least resistance and I dub thee "the internet".

Whatev.

So I am taking back this blog a big. No more daily planner for me (although I will probably mention some things coming up it should not be the bulk of the postings), not that anyone reads this, I think most of my traffic comes from Russian porn mirror sites or something stupid like that. Luckily I have reached a point in my life where taking back my voice is easy. I used to be slightly concerned with what the bosses or "powers that be" would think of my little windmill tilting. The Breuer Tower thing didn't exactly go over well at the old place, not that it was mentioned to my face, just conversations in passing. Can't bite the hand that feeds you, I guess, even if you are being fed poisoned oats (or at least the old moldy bits no one else wants).

Happily the new place of employ is giving me the power to be myself. Not that it is free reign to go out and say malicious and stupid things, but I suppose they sort of understand that the crazy guy in the corner is going to vent somewhere and you may as well let him attempt to curate it into some sort of solidified and slightly comprehensive statement of values instead of thinking he just has tourettes. So the office is giving me a day off a week (sans pay, which is fine as I keep my medical) to work on projects I deem interesting. They are mostly art installations or research or maybe even some sort of architecture/planning things that may turn into big enough projects to shepherd back into the office.

You may ask "Why? Why would anyone put up with your shit, Dru? Why would anyone let you work on side projects when you could be cranking away in the office full time, making your magic equate bonus billable hours galore?" 

"Because I am that awesome." would be my reply. Although what it really means is that some architecture firms find value in staff working on research/exploratory projects on the side and have found the perfect chance to exploit my personal ambition as a marketing tool with the low, low price of me just not being in the office one day a week.

So I get a 3 day weekend to work on things and the office gets me for 4 days relatively undistracted.

Win-mutha-f-er-win.

What this means is that my weekends should be pretty packed of me accomplishing great things. Which it isn't. I admit this weekend in particular I sat on my buttocks playing SimCity (sucks) watching some Rhino tutorial videos, sketching some quick connection details and fretting about my weight instead of actually doing much. I have also become completely freaked by the laser cutter sitting in my home office hoping to be assembled and have a home found for it. It takes up my whole side table and makes the office feel half as big.

I'm freaking out on the inside.

Regardless, things are looking up.

I have a laser cutter. Half the battle right there in making awesome stuff. Also the Creative Workforce Fellowship has given me some street cred maybe and oh yeah...

I passed my final ARE exam, meaning I am a full growed up architect. Check it.

I, Dru (andrew) McKeown, am an Architect (in the great state of Ohio)

The above could not legally have been stated aloud before. Not allowed to be aloud. Now, perfectly legal. I have stamps and bidness cards and all the accoutrement thereof. Not an intern, etc, an actual Architect. Huzzah.

So, I'm taking back the street. More inane ramblings to come.

NOACA proposed improvements for public review

3 regional projects, two in Cuyahoga County and one in Lorain County, have been made available for public review.

NOACA April 2013 Project Planning Reviews

One of the projects specifically, the construction of a pedestrian bridge from Dock 32 to Voinovich Park in Cleveland, was on that I find special interest in.  Proposed in 2006 the request for a movable type pedestrian bridge structure which enclosed the constructed "North Coast Harbor" adjacent to the Rock Hall (where the Goodtime docks) would create a pedestrian shortcut between the Science Center and First Energy Football Stadium to Voinovich Park, one of the few public park places of lakefront in Cleveland proper.

The bridge itself was to designed by Miguel Rosales of Rosales + Partners, an architecture and engineering firm that are no slouches in pedestrian bridge design. Rosales presented 6 proposals (Steve Litt in the way back machine) of which a twin drawbridge was selected (although I personally appreciated the Thomas Heatherwick "rolling bridge" like proposal - its a youtube link).

If you were paying attention you were probably wondering, "Hey, where the heck did that project go off to?" which is very similar to the questions I raised last time I was strolling around the Mather and Rock Hall looking at the frozen lake.  Surprisingly (not surprisingly really) some unforseen considerations (Coast Guard requiring a manned control booth to operate the bridge) leading to extended design schedule has pushed the project 6 years which has created a $2.4 million shortfall (inflation and added project scope eg "more stuff than originally planned for". NOACA is being asked for $1.5 million while the project sponsor will provide the remaining.

This is one of those projects that I think is personally necessary to improving the Lakefront, something any Clevelander bemoans as necessary, and is more pleasing then an interchange in the suburbs. HOWEVER the fact that the project was so poorly executed as to miss the targeted budget by 40% makes me a tad frustrated. I suppose it is entirely possible that the shortfall was evident long before and this proposal for bridge funds is just a formality, but when projects drag on and costs increase so tremendously one begins to wonder who isn't doing their job, and there are lots of possibilities.

The easy 4:

The design/designer might not be realistic in response to the budget.

The client may be adding project scope (growing the project).

The cost estimator might be completely missing the mark.

More importantly, all three might be hesitating to have "the discussion" that not everything is unicorns and roses and there are some problems with the greatest of plans. I like to call this "the disconnect" and it shouldn't happen as much as it does. The only surprise everyone likes is when it involves cupcakes, surprise price overages, and to a lesser extent underages, do not serve the client or the project goals efficiently.

I'm going to support the dang project though. Anything to get PEOPLE moving around the city and visiting new corners is for the greater good of livability downtown which is the cornerstone of the region. I'm just not going to be extremely happy about it.

Make your own voice heard.

Fleet Avenue Streetscape Public Meeting AKA Cleveland's First Complete and Green Street to be constructed

Fleet Avenue Streetscape Public Meting

Thursday, May 23rd, 2013

St. John Nepomucene Church

3875 Independence Blvd.

Cleveland, Ohio

In a nutshell plans are being proposed for streetscape improvements  green infrastructure and bicycle lanes to be installed between East 49th and East 65th Streets. Councilman (and local great guy) Tony Brancatelli believes that the project is critical to realizing reinvestment in Slavic Village.

Project funds become available July.

Engineering should take about a year and begin in the fall so construction is expected to break ground in late 2013 or early 2014.

Bike Cleveland wants cyclists to show support for connecting bike lanes to Broadway Avenue (not a bad idea in the least).

links:
Public Meeting Flier
Bike Cleveland notice
Slavic Village website notice

Hope is a dangerous thing if used incorrectly.

It seems that whenever I find myself questioning the authenticity of the ideals behind "architecture" whether through a regional or institutional lens, I find some stupid article online that reinvigorates my passion of attempting to create sensitive and thoughtful solutions.

A nice library in Mexico City. An interesting retail policy in the UK. An art installation in LA. A re-invigoration of Main Street Retail to bring life back to tired areas.

I am completely unconvinced as to whether this is a good or bad thing.

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).

Building the Circle 2035: Height, Density & Social Equity Discussion - 2013.04.10

Building the Circle 2035: Height, Density and Social Equity

Wednesday, April 10, 2013 at 6:00 p.m.

Gartner Auditorium

Cleveland Musuem of Art

11150 East Boulevard

Cleveland, OH 44106

Circle Neighbors

Moderator: Steven Litt, Art and Architecture Critic, The Plain Dealer. Panel: Chris Ronayne, President, UCI Inc; Ari Maron, Partner, MRN Ltd.; and India Pierce Lee, Program Director for Neighborhoods, Housing, and Community, Cleveland Foundation.

University Circle is on a roll. With jobs, development and non-profit institutions on the rise, land within the district will rise in value, and along with it, the pressure to build taller buildings and more densely populated areas.

Join us as we look a couple of decades ahead at the future of Cleveland's premier medical, educational and cultural district. University Circle already offers national examples on how anchor institutions, developers, foundations and local government can collaborate to nurture growth. What's coming next?

Our discussion will tally University Circle's successes to date and examine the planning policies and principles that will shape University Circle in years to come. The conversation will touch on specific areas that appear destined for redevelopment and examine how rising wealth in the district could benefit surrounding neighborhoods. Most important, we'll look at where the biggest opportunities lie for University Circle—and how the district and the city can make the most of them.

For reservations: 216-707-2527 or visit WCCMA.net and click the RSVP button.

Circle Neighbors is a free lecture series sponsored by the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art in collaboration with the Cleveland Botanical Garden, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, The Women's Committee of The Cleveland Orchestra, and the Western Reserve Historical Society.

CSU 42nd Student Art Show: 2013.03.29 (opening)

Cleveland State University
The Galleries ar CSU
42nd Student Art Show
March 29, 2013
1307 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44115

THE 42nd STUDENT SHOW – a juried exhibition with awards and prizes
Showing from March 29th until May 4th.

University of Toronto Daniels has a youtube channel!

I admit, there is something about lectures and podcasts from extremely intelligent people that can make my whole dang day. Perhaps I work under the assumption that if I watch enough TED talks I will absorb some brilliance or at the very least get to see some more robotic birds fly around an auditorium.

Recently I re-discovered that Daniels Faculty of Architecture at University of Toronto has their own youtube channel where they post their lectures and what not. I admit, I am a Daniel's fanboy. If only I had known about that university when thinking on grad school (and not being so in debt that I went to my fallback fallback's).

So there it is, enjoy. What else are you going to do at work, draw restroom elevations? You're welcome.

CLOG - UnPublished call for submissions

One of my favorite journals has offered up another call for submissions which I think would be extremely perfect for so many folks and places around Cleveland. See below:

CLOG : UNPUBLISHED (call for submissions)

With relatively few outlets devoted to architectural criticism today and a professional tendency to declare a new architectural movement every ten years or so, a staggering amount of built work goes unexamined. How many times have we seen the same signature building reviewed? How many unknown projects must, by extension, never receive a critical appraisal? 

CLOG : UNPUBLISHED will critically examine completed buildings that have thus far flown under the radar and/or have been forgotten. The submission process will be two-part. 

Stage 1 (Due April 1, 2013)

Contributors are to submit 1-2 images of a building from any time period along with a two-sentence statement explaining why that particular building deserves a critical examination. Assessments may be positive, negative, or mixed. CLOG is not seeking portfolio projects or simply “favorite” buildings. The subject must have been built, and must not have been recently published in major publications, historical surveys, or blogs. 

Examples of a potential subject include—but are certainly not limited to—a building that has never received a critical appraisal in the mainstream architectural press and/or historical surveys; a building that was critically appraised or once widely-studied soon after completion, but which has since been largely forgotten by architecture critics and historians; a building that has been examined and appraised in the past, but not for its architectural qualities (for example, a building that may have been widely studied by social historians but never given a critical architectural assessment). 

Submission forms are available at www.clog-online.com/submissions and once completed should be emailed to submissions@clog-online.com accompanied by up to two 300 dpi images no less than 5.5” wide. 

Stage 2

Those contributors that have been accepted in Stage 1 will be invited to submit a more in-depth critical assessment of the proposed building which can consist of a (up to) 500 word text and/or a graphic piece (to be due at a later date).

The lacking of a meaningful geometry

This is going to get a little personal. In no way should this be construed as any sort of slight against any individual and I hope that those that are not like minded are not easily offended. This is sort of aimed at any and all architecture/design students out there (as well as some practitioners) and it centers around a form that surprisingly is driven by having a center, the simple curve.

From an architectural point of view there is something about a properly proportioned curve that can make movement towards and alongside very exciting and dramatic. A slow reveal of what lay ahead as one glides along the face or the inherent grandeur of the closest point, made taller by perspective when one approaches from a tangent. They are forms that when overlapped create the most complex and potentially interesting spaces where they cross, hold and release. When juxtaposed with a harsh line or angle the area they encompass is immediately protected and deferred. They can undulate, dancing back and forth, they can diminish, creating tighter arcs until the foci is reached, they can expand to the point of becoming linear.

So what then is my problem with the curve? Well, specifically, and similar to the use of any geometry, there is an inherent requirement that the geometry is located in relation to something else. For those of you who had developed a curved form and attempting to create construction documents or a model of said shape, the one thing requisite to accuracy is the workpoint and relation of line(s) to said work point. My problem isn't with the curve, or line, or point, or plane, it is when the objects in question are arbitrary in their spatial relationship. When they are merely located, as in under the guise of night, haphazardly left strewn over sketch paper without a sense of relation or size with which to recreate. Why surely there is an intent left in the maddening scribbles, but without the logical reasoning of size and direction I cannot replicate nor grasp how these simple forms are meant to dance. Do they focus on a singular point of import? Do they create moments of specific compression and expansion with which to form moments of respite? Is there some misunderstood tension as if an old married couple who is secretly in love yet enjoys a good argument? How am I to know?

So I ask you, dear designers and such, if you are going to plop some geometry on me for whatever reason, especially something that goes completely against the function of space or requirements of construction, give me but a little explanation. It will alleviate quite a bit of cursing your name, repeatedly and vehemently and I attempt to work through was at least could be a painted word picture.

Dru- out.

Kent State CAED MATr Project 2013 - Call for Participants

Kent State CAED MATr Project 2013 - Call for Participants

Due: Friday, February 15, 2013

The Lecture Committee in Kent State University’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design seeks participants for MATr PROJECT – re-envisioned as a variable (1-3) credit workshop dedicated to providing students with an opportunity for physical engagement with real material knowledge and the physical material world.

The 2013 MATr project will be run by Brandon Clifford and Wes McGee of Matter Design. While both are academics (Clifford teaches at MIT and McGee at the University of Michigan), Clifford has bachelors and masters degrees in architecture while McGee has a bachelor degree in mechanical engineering and a master degree in industrial design.

ELIGIBILITY | MATr Project is open to all students in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design. In addition, a limited number of spots will be reserved for alumni of the CAED for a participation fee of $100.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION | Friday, February 15, 2013 at 5pm

LEARN MORE HERE |  Call for participants_sp2013

Kent CAED Events Blog

Thngs I miss from teaching

There is an enormous multitude of "things" I miss from teaching, the most obvious that comes to mind is searching through the library and digging through journals in search of that one perfect article for the next lesson. A simple series of examples and thoughts I could point out as precedence to grant some import to the obtuse or difficult design problem that the students had set before them. Something I would make them read and write short responses or questions to (3 of them actually, I got the idea from another professor from NCU - Charlotte) the articles, due prior to the next class, that had quite a bit to do with the exercise for the week. I would show up early to studio, a couple or few hours, and set down in the library or in the faculty lounge, reading whatever I could find, making my usual marks in the margins or jotting notes in my sketchbook.

Recently another friend has taken an adjunct position at the 'local' university I had taught at and had asked for a few suggestions for articles regarding the idea of "materiality", a rather wide topic in fact. I sorted through my folder of pdfs and sent a small selection of various degrees of difficulty. Sometimes I would bombard my students with Frampton, spin them with Graf or just be straight shooting with good ol' Ching. Either way, as the semester would go on the quality and level of responses would improve until they were more a joy to read and respond to then not.

Something that the profession duly lacks, at least locally, is the sort of discourse from reading assignments.; parsing of ideas, conversation regarding interpretation, mayhaps even anecdotal comparison.

Lately I have been reading CLOG (while letting copies of LOG pile up (what is up with these names?), but taking the train to the office is granting me an extra hour and half of reading time each day, that I wouldn't normally utilize, however my chance for discussion is slim. The audience isn't as interested as if they were in studio class. The profession is lacking the sort of discovery and wonder, its place taken by attempting to decipher the intent of those running the projects, or instead, attempting to get the project to run smoothly.

It is a chance lost, I fear.

Blaine Brownell Lecture - KSU CAED

I am a big fan of Brownell's Transmaterial books and Transstudio website. They are thoughtfully organized and offer all the information one would want when looking at new materials being offered to designers. It also allows one to take stock of how newer materials perform in order to re-purpose familiar (and potentially cheaper/more available) materials to fulfill a newly discovered purpose. They are more then eye-candy, however at times that adds the frustration of being a designer. It is akin to being in a toy store but not being able to touch anything.

Blaine Brownell Lecture

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

KIVA, Kent State University

7pm

More from Kent CAED events blog (ps, happy birthday Peter!):

Blaine Brownell is a Minnesota based architect, author, educator, and former Fulbright scholar. . He worked with Yung-Ho Chang, Mark Wamble, and NBBJ before establishing the design/research practice Transstudio, which focuses on disruptive material applications and emergent environmental building strategies. Brownell is considered one of the preeminent scholars of advanced materials for architecture and design, having authored theTransmaterial series for Princeton Architectural Press (2006-2010), in addition to an online material catalog that provides today’s architect and designer with a steady flow of inspiration that could be likened to a 21st Century version of the Grammar of Ornament. Brownell has been published in over forty design, business, and science journals, and has lectured widely in North America, Europe, and Asia. He was selected for a “40 Under 40” award by Building Design & Construction magazine in 2006, and Transmaterial was nominated for an International Book Award by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2007. Brownell was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Tokyo University of Science as a Fulbright recipient (2006-07), and the Visiting Professor of Sustainable Design at the University of Michigan (2007-08). He is currently an assistant professor and director of the Master of Science program in Sustainable Design at the University of Minnesota (2008-present).

http://arch.design.umn.edu/directory/brownellb/

http://transstudio.com/

http://transmaterial.net/index.php/author/admin/

http://www.architectmagazine.com/blogs/post.aspx?BlogId=mindmatterblog&UserName=Blaine+Brownell

Blaine E. Brownell, AIA LEED AP

Assistant Professor, Co-Director, Master of Science Program in Architecture,University of Minnesota, School of Architecture

Creative Culture Grants - Finalists, Get Your Vote In!

Cuyahoga Arts & Culture [CAC] new Creative Culture Grants awards $150,000 American Dollars(!) to 2 creative local projects as selected by popular democratic opinion, meaning you have to vote.

Voting occurs from February 1st until February 20th. so do us all a favor and figure out your favorite and vote for it.

VOTE!

There are six proposals under consideration:

(taken from the CAC CCG webpage)

AHA! FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

Lead Organization: LAND studio

Project Partners: Cleveland Public Library, Positively Cleveland, Downtown Cleveland Alliance and others.

This project is a free, multi-day festival of lights in downtown Cleveland’s public spaces to celebrate the recent development boom and “illuminate” changes to our urban landscape. AHA will bring together people from across the region in the spring or summer of 2014 to highlight these beloved public spaces through art installations using light, video projections and live cultural performances by a combination of local, national and international artists.

CLEVELAND IMAGE FESTIVAL

Lead Organization: Cleveland Museum of Art

Project Partners: The Transformer Station, LAND studio, the Great Lakes Science Center and others.

Celebrate historical, contemporary and emerging image-making during the Cleveland Image Festival in April 2014. Throughout the month, at programs and displays at museums galleries, and public spaces throughout Cuyahoga County, you’ll have a chance to discover and learn how digital image technologies are transforming culture through the widespread accessibility of the Internet and social media. Engage and participate through social media platforms and other avenues in this collaborative project by Cuyahoga County’s leading arts and culture venues.

DARING TO BE "DUMBO"

Lead Organization: Dancing Wheels

Project Partners: WKYC-TV Ch. 3, The Diversity Center of Cleveland, Girl Scouts of America and others.

Led by Dancing Wheels, this project will expand on the dance company’s world premiere performances of the multi-media ballet “Dumbo” (May 6-11, 2013) to create an entertaining and educational TV documentary based on the issues of bullying and social injustice.  Using the life stories of artists and community figures, the documentary will explain how they rose above the ridicule to become successful.  The program will be made into a school assembly program that will be performed at schools and in the community throughout the county.  The documentary will premiere in March 2014 and will air on WKYC-TV Ch. 3 in Northeast Ohio, and outreach programs will take place between April and August 2014. 

EAST MEETS WEST: CLEVELAND ROAD TRIP

Lead Organization: Zygote Press, Inc.

Project Partners: LAND studio, St. Clair Superior Community Development Corp., Gordon Square Arts District and others.

This project is a year-long, community-wide collaboration between businesses, artists, commuters, neighborhood residents and city government intended to bridge the east (via Superior Ave.) and west (via Detroit Ave.) side divide of the Detroit-Superior Bridge over the Cuyahoga River.  Between August 2013 and August 2014, EmW will employ a multi-media approach to bridge this gap using sign-painting and artist installations to unite the neighborhoods along this corridor while giving artists the opportunity to work collaboratively with businesses beginning in the Gordon Square Arts District on Detroit and ending at East 55th St. and Superior Ave.

MOBILE ENCOUNTERS

Lead Organization: Cleveland Museum of Natural History

Project Partners: Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, Bike Cleveland and others.

This projectwill temporarily transform two streets in Cleveland into physically active cultural corridors.  Concentrating multiple urban acupuncture points of activity, the temporary interventions will stimulate long-term change, complete with safe bicycle amenities, pop-up shops, reactivated vacant lots, organized play activities and interactive public art installations, which respond to the distinct cultural flavor of each neighborhood.  To take place on Payne Avenue between E. 30th St. and E. 40th St. (May 18 - June 9, 2013), and on Lorain Avenue between W. 41st St. and W. 32nd St. (August 24 - September 14, 2013). 

OUT OF THE BOX AND INTO THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Lead Organization: Cleveland Public Theatre

Project Partners: Cuyahoga County Public Library, Northeast Shores Development Corporation, St. Clair Superior Development Corporation and others.

Cleveland Public Theatre seeks to build on the momentum that inspired Gordon Square Arts District and energize neighborhoods in the process of revitalization.  By commissioning artists to make great performances inspired by neighborhoods, and transforming vacant spaces into exciting new places to make art, we break out of the confines of conventional arts institutions into the community.  A dozen performances throughout Cuyahoga County to take place in vacant commercial, industrial and public spaces are planned, beginning in February 2014, culminating with a festival of performances in July 2014 (performances will be free or pay as you can). 

More info about the Creative Culture Grants

2013 CPAC Fellowship - Thank you Cuyahoga County, I hope I can live up to your expectations

I found out a while back, November maybe, that I had been selected as a finalist for the 2013 Community Partnership for Arts and Culture Community Workforce Fellowship. I did my best to keep it under wraps until the final awards ceremony last week at MOCA when it became a bit more real (I had to walk on a small stage, accept a certificate and get out of there without falling over myself). The honor is amazing so I want to take some time and effort and put out there exactly what this may mean. For those you not interested in self exploration of the creative process or whatever, this isn't the post for you.

I have been very lucky in this "creative career" trajectory and while I am humbled by the recognition (which is very nice!) and the grant (to be used for doing "more stuff") I am well aware that this could not have happened without whatever force connected me to so many talented and driven people that pushed me to do more then just punch a clock and never be satisfied with "good enough". I'm not going to name drop, but those of you whom know of which I speak, well, know.

TOIstudio started as an experiment in sorting out why a math and science nerd such as myself loved the act of design. Not just of creation, but what was behind the creation. While many failed experiments (which could be construed as set backs) occurred, most of the time they created a pool of knowledge of what didn't work which at times can be more useful then what does work. Nowadays TOIstudio is just a name to hide behind so that I don't have to brand anything with myself. It is an acute acknowledgement that I work horribly in a vacuum, that I would rather collaborate and have meaningful discussions about making things and how people move about within them, then not. I enjoy being challenged and frustrated, enraged at times, so that I feel the blood in my ears as I work to prove out a vision. It is my way to ride the coattails of very talented people and suck any and all knowledge from them that I can. The very marrow of existence (I haven't seen that movie in a while).

So.

What does the fellowship mean, exactly? That I cannot quite answer. Yet. To me it is a stepping stone, a way to set up a strong foundation to continue research in design without many of the normal constraints. It gives me a voice. It gives me some very appreciated financial backing. It gives me some confidence that what I am doing could be interesting to someone else (which I admit is pretty exhilarating).

For those of you paying attention, way back in 2007 by first attempt at a shop flooded in some freak rainstorm. I was located in Midtown and the space  have a very poorly designed sanitary/storm clean out (eg lacking a closure device or cap) and my space flooded  destroying quite a bit of equipment, belongings and momentum. The idea was to build a shop/gallery space to give architects a creative outlet through more personal art then buildings. That idea still holds somewhat.

Fast forward to 2012 and the nice fellow who was letting me squat in his shop while we put together BookBox decides he has had enough of civilization and moves out West to Montana to teach architecture. To be fair it is beautiful out there and the school appears to have a decent program that he finds happiness at. Apparently. So another shop closes down.

Now the beginnings of 2013 encroach. I am finishing up my first pass at the Architecture Registration Exams and am currently looking at a new space for a shop. Someplace to live, work and create a gallery space in. My big plans have changed little so far, the dreams just seem more, reasonable. CPAC has given me more momentum however, more focus. Maybe a stronger voice. Either way it is humbling and scary. All I can think about is letting down the strangers who had enough interest in my work to tell me to keep going, keep digging and making and testing. And playing.

I'm scared to death of screwing up. Which is fine though, it means I'm on the right track.

Thanks Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, Cleveland, Community Partnership for Arts and Culture.

Thanks to those that let me hang out with them and their process, frustration and creation.

Thanks to those who put up with me and what I do.

I look forward to making more stuff. Thanks.

Kent State Architecture Proposals Unveiled

I admit, I didn't make it down to Kent to watch the proposals in person. I was thinking I could live stream it via the KentUtubevideo channel I posted earlier. I was able to see some images, mostly disjointed from the audio, with a whole bunch of hiccups, freezing and skips. About 5 sentences into Westlake Reed Leskosky's proposal I couldn't take the video player's horrible-ness and just gave up.

KentPatch did post some images that they received from the school regarding the proposals and I am trying to get in contact with folks about sharing the video link somewheres on the internets.

I don't have many comments (at this time) but I will say this, when illustrating a crit space in use, put the model on a table so that someone can actually see the damn thing from eyelevel, every time I see a model on the floor I question the entire design premise. Sure, it looks great for seagulls but what about the folks who have to interact with it. When I see something like that in an architect's proposal I get a little flustered. It just means that the designer who put these slides together missed a very important element in their design studio and I start to question everything. Over-thinking of schematic proposals is not a good idea.

That's a Pro-tip, write it down.

Kent Patch Article: Kent State Architecture Proposals Unveiled

UPDATE!

Videos have been posted online (they are near the bottom with yesterday's date).

relinked below for your clicking/scrolling pleasure:

Team 1 - Bowen + Weiss/Manfredi
Team 2 - Bialosky + ARO
Team 3 - Westlake Reed Leskosky
Team 4 - The Collaborative + Muller Hull

Teams present concepts for KSU CAED Building - 2013.01.14

The final four shortlisted teams which submitted RFQ's for Kent State University's College of Architecture and Environmental Design will be presenting concepts to the University's selection committee and then make the presentations available to the general public Thursday, January 17, 2013 in Cartwright Hall from 7-9pm.

If you are unable to attend there will be a live streaming.

I won't be able to attend so if someone would be kind enough to post and share images I will promise good vibes or something.

Who are the four teams?
Kent CAED Events blog

The ABC of Architects

I ran across this today at lunch time (I swear!) and figured I would share it. While limited to some of the most popular works by the most popular architects it is quite an impressive array that blends examples well (the video is quite nicely done) but also is an interesting take on finding elevation form parti's, something that some students have difficulty with as they overcomplicate the effort (everything is supposed to be hard, right?

Sort of my feel good post for the day. I hope it brought some sunshine to your deskbound activities.

via the every profusive ArchDaily