Roadtrip (10)! - Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape + Design 2011-2012 Lectures

Oh, Daniels at University of Toronto, I wish you were so much closer.  Physically I mean, I carry you in my heart.  Following has been lifted directly from the school lecture website (because I am lazy and still have this horrid cough for which I am blaming my studio students for infecting me with).  I am also having a rather difficult time convincing upon them the importance of lectures and visiting schools and places, etc.  Remember when  you were in architecture school and all those far away places sounded so exotic?  Those schools full of your burgeoning competition?  I remember visiting Portland for a school conference and a bunch of environmental geeks from across the country and I were all staying at the same hotel, we would talk about how one school was better then another and architecture and of course how we would save the planet through architecture, etc.  Sigh, the days.

Go visit a campus and live the glory of youth, explore, learn, find fellow geeks with which to converse and convort.  Fill the mind with ideas and the heart with hope.

Besides, Toronto has a decent music scene, I liked it.

Daniels 2011-2012 Public Lectures

09/27/2011 - 04/02/2012

Gregg Pasquarelli / Elizabeth Meyer / Catherine Mosbach / Finn Geipel / Didier Faustino / Fernando Romero / Jeanne Gang / David Gissen / William Morrish / Hrvoje Njiric / Liz Diller

Lectures are open to the public and admission is complimentary.

Out of Practice

09/27/2011

Gregg Pasquarelli

SHoP Architects, NYC

6:30 PM | 230 College Street, Room 103

This lecture is presented as part of the bulthaup 2011-2012 Public Lectures

The John H. Daniels School of Architecture, Landscape, and Design is pleased to welcome Gregg Pasquarelli as the first speaker in its 2011/2012 Public Lecture Series. Pasquarelli will discuss SHoP Architects' current projects, with a focus on how the firm seeks to reinvent the business model of architectural practice.

Daniels 2011-2012 Public Lecture

10/11/2011

Elizabeth Meyer

University of Virginia School of Architecture

6:30 PM | 230 College Street, Room 103

2011 Michael Hough / Ontario Association of Landscape Architects Visiting Critic

Elizabeth K. Meyer is one of the leading landscape architectural theorists in the United States. In 2010, she was on the MVVA team that won the City+Arch+River design competition for the St. Louis Gateway Arch Grounds and their surroundings. In 2011, she was one of two landscape architects included in the annual DesignIntelligence rankings of Most Admired Educators in the United States.

Daniels 2011-2012 Public Lecture

11/08/2011

Catherine Mosbach

Landscape Architect, Paris

6:30 PM | 230 College Street, Room 103

Catherine Mosbach is a renowned French landscape architect. She graduated with a DEUG (Master’s-level degree) in Natural and Life Sciences (Physics and Chemistry section) from the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, and subsequently obtained a degree in Landscape Architecture from the Ecole nationale supérieure du paysage in Versailles (1987).

Daniels 2011-2012 Public Lecture

11/15/2011

Finn Geipel

LIN, Paris

6:30 PM | 230 College Street, Room 103

Finn Geipel is co-director of LIN, a European agency for architecture and urbanism, based in Berlin and Paris. He worked for Labfac Stuttgart in association with Bernd Hoge and Jochen Hunger from 1983 to 1987, and Labfac Paris in association with Nicolas Michelin from 1987 to 2001. He has been a guest professor at the École Spéciale d’Architecture ESA, Paris, the École d’Architecture Paris la Seine EAPS, Columbia University, New York, and the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura ESARQ, Barcelona.

Daniels 2011-2012 Public Lecture

11/22/2011

Didier Faustino

Bureau des Mésarchitectures, Paris

6:30 PM | 230 College Street, Room 103

This lecture is presented as part of the bulthaup 2011-2012 Public Lectures

Didier Faustino is a Licensed Architect and visual artist, and the co-founder of Bureau des Mésarchitectures.  He lives and works in both Paris and Lisbon.

Daniels 2011-2012 Public Lecture

01/31/2012

Fernando Romero

FREE, Mexico City

6:30 PM | 230 College Street, Room 103

Kohn Shnier Lecture

Daniels 2011-2012 Public Lecture

02/07/2012

Jeanne Gang

Studio Gang, Chicago

6:30 PM | 230 College Street, Room 103

This lecture is presented as part of the bulthaup 2011-2012 Public Lectures

Jeanne Gang is the founder and principal of Studio Gang Architects, a rising international practice based in Chicago whose work confronts pressing contemporary issues. Driven by curiosity, intelligence, and radical creativity, Jeanne has produced some of today’s most innovative and award-winning architecture.

Daniels 2011-2012 Public Lecture

03/06/2012

David Gissen

California College of the Arts, San Francisco

6:30 PM | 230 College Street, Room 103

David Gissen is a historian and theorist of architecture and urbanism. He is associate professor of architecture and visual studies and coordinator of the  history/theory curriculum for architecture at the California College of the Arts. His recent work specifically focuses on developing a novel concept of nature in architectural thought and the parameters for an experimental form of practice in architectural history.

Daniels 2011-2012 Public Lecture

03/20/2012

William Morrish

Parsons The New School For Design, NYC

6:30 PM | 230 College Street, Room 103

2012 Michael Hough / Ontario Association of Landscape Architects Visiting Critic

William Morrish is an urban designer and Dean of the School of Constructed Environments at Parsons The New School For Design in New York.

Affordable Utopias

03/27/2012

Hrvoje Njiric

njiric+ arhitekti, Zagreb

6:30 PM | 230 College Street, Room 103

This lecture is presented as part of the bulthaup 2011-2012 Public Lectures

Daniels 2011-2012 Public Lecture

04/02/2012

Liz Diller

Diller Scofidio + Renfro, NYC

6:30 PM | 230 College Street, Room 103

This lecture is presented as part of the bulthaup 2011-2012 Public Lectures

Don't X Out Public Transit Rally - 09.20

Cleveland:

Public Square [Franfurt Ave. + Ontario St.]

12pm

Recent proposed legislation plans to cut federal funding for public transportation, negatively affecting (locally) already strained systems.  Despite studies indicating that Transit Oriented Development (TOD) provides economic boons to communities cutting public transit affects how employees and tourists can access cities.

The Don't X Out Public Transit Rally is an attempt to create grassroots support to indicated to our legislative bodies how important we feel public transit is.

*from the website:

What Role Can You Play?
Get involved by taking action on September 20 and telling Congress that now is the time to invest in public transportation infrastructure! Now is not the time for cuts. 

• Attend a rally event near you
• Contact your Congressional representatives
• Spread the word
• Ride public transit and WEAR RED!

Other public rallies are coordinated to take place around the nation.

**

"Don't X Out Public Transportation Day is the combined effort of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), National Association of Public Transportation Advocates in Action (NAPTA), Reconnecting America, Transit Riders for Public Transportation, Transportation for America (T4), the Transportation Equity Network, Transportation Workers Union (TWU), and transit riders and advocates across the country. This national rally day and call to action highlights the severe effects a more than a one-third cut to federal transit funding would have and the need for increased investment in public transportation."

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/19/3921914/leaders-discuss-dire-impacts-of.html#ixzz1YQ24PRAi

More Sources:

Transportation for America

Mobilizing the Region

Benefit for Intermusuem Conservation Association - 9.18

Sunday, September 18, 2011 the Cleveland Intermuseum Conservation Association will be having a benefit of which Robert Maschke will be opening his two modernist white homes you see from the Shoreway to the public.  The benefit will include a tour of art in both homes, refreshments and snackz!

Cool Cleveland has posted a video interview explaining more.

I made a comment on the CoolCleveland page regarding this and was going to smash out something more succinct or interesting but I have a cold and its my birthday and I'm going back to bed, so instead I am just going to copy and paste my comment as my intention has in no way changed.

"Love ‘em or hate them, you can’t miss them. It is great that Maschke is offering to share them with the public this way (via the ICA). What a fantastic opportunity to take a closer look at style of home most do not have the fortune to visit. This is an example of great community involvement/education/exposure (from an architectural point of view), and not a bad marketing strategy to boot!"

Yes, I just quoted myself, the epitome of lazy and self referential right there.

Pecha Kucha Cleveland Vol. 13 tonight!

September 16, 2011 7:00 pm – 10:30 pmCleveland #13at Subway/Streetcar Level of the Detroit Superior Bridge (Veteran's Memorial Bridge)

FREE

Entrance Marked on Map Below (Enter from the parking lot of County Engineer's Offices)

Volume 13 will make for September to remember (yes, we're poets too) as we take over the subway lower level of the Detroit Superior Bridge once again for celebration of PKN Volume 13 presenters!

Join us for our most unlucky volume yet (is 13 still an unlucky number?) as we take over the Subway/Streetcar Level of the Detroit Superior Bridge. On Friday, September 16th, 2011, at 8:20pm, PechaKucha Night Cleveland - Volume 13 helps kick off the weekend long Ingenuity Fest (http://ingenuitycleveland.com/) Just wait until you see the presenter list for this one!

One of the main entrances, and location of PechaKucha Night, is located in the Northeastern parking lot at the Cuyahoga County Engineers Office (on the Superior Viaduct "across" from SPACES Gallery). We are increasing seating and audio capacity to make up for the 100 more than expected crowd last year when we crammed over 350 people in the bridge to watch some pretty amazing presentations!

While presentations do not start until 8:20pm, we encourage you to show up at least an hour early to experience all that the 3112 foot long bridge , built in 1918, has to offer. 12-14 local creatives will present their work, ideas, and obsessions in a series of short presentations on art, fashion, food, architecture, film, furniture, music, and photography. SPACE WILL BE TIGHT so be sure to come early and enjoy a few beverages prior to being inspired, influenced, confused, provoked, and probably slightly intoxicated by the wonderfully variegated topic mix. Keep an eye on the list of presenters - we will be updating it over the next few weeks.

DONT FORGET TO INVITE FRIENDS!:)

If you are interested in presenting at a future PechaKucha Night, have a venue idea, or just questions in general, please contact us at pkncleveland@gmail.com.

See ya on the 16th of Sept!

Cheers,
Mike Christoff & Raseem Parker pkncleveland@gmail.com

Presenters

• Williard "Woody" Melton - From Museums to Homes and Everything In Between: The Journey to Art Handler
• Garrett Weider - Graffiti Mixed Media
• Michelle Ginther - Print Maker
• Kevin Cronin - Cleveland Bikes
• Christopher Lynn - SPACES: Bring us home to meet your parents
• Chris Auberach-Brown - Smart Audience
• Alex Matsov - Heritage Documentation Programs
• Brien Strancar
• Oliver Barrett
• Dixon's Violin
• IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
• Sharie Renee
• Martin Voorbij - Show Your Hope
• Anthony Buehrer

Mose` Ricci Lecture - Kent CAED - 09.12

Another lecture at Kent State University:

Mose` Ricci of Riccispaini Architetti Associati
Monday, September 12, 2011
Cartwright Hall Auditorium
Kent State University
6.30pm

Ricci is a professor of architecture and urban design at the University of Genoa and a visiting critic to the Florence International Program of Kent State's College of Architecture and Environmental Design.

Bike Cleveland Summit Weekend

The first Bike Cleveland Summit hosted by the newly minted BikeCleveland organization (a cornucopia of new and established local cycling advocates) is being hosted this weekend in (surprise!) Cleveland. The summit is positioned as a "regional strategic planning event" or in regular terms, an intro to BikeCleveland and the creation of the framework for bicycle advocacy. As Cleveland administration is showing support for the Complete Streets initiative it is imperative that local advocates are involved, to support ideas and programs that are cost effective and beneficial to non-automotive transportation so that our new systems not only work, but can be held up as a model of great design, planning and implementation.

Registration is closed for the summit (sorry I didn't get this up earlier, had way too much going on and was freaking out a bit) however it shouldn't be hard to find people involved to get your voice heard. At the very least you should be aware that this movement is underway and going forward.

Roadtrip (9!) - Bowling Green State University 2011-2012 AIAS Lecture Series

Bowling Green State University, which is around 1.5 hours from Cleveland (I'm thinking) has posted their Department of Architecture's 2011-2012 AIAS Lecture Series which I am posting below for your viewing and visiting pleasure. I always liked visiting BGSU for the variety of events and they boasted one of my all time favorite college bands that could consistently bring, what we liked to call in our younger days, the rawk. Alas the band, Stylex, is no more, however BGSU is still there and always worth a quick visit, especially as the architecture program looks to be maturing.

Fall 2011
9/19 - Brian Kennedy - 7:30pm BTSU Theater
9/21 - Christian Unverzagt - 6:30pm BTSU Theater
10/24 - Graham Owen - 6:30pm BTSU Multi-Purpose room
11/02 - Michael Speaks - 6:30pm BTSU Theater
12/09 - Craig Dykers - t.b.d. Donnell Theater - Wolfe Center for the Arts

Spring 2012
03/12 - Jill Downen - 6:30pm BTSU Theater
03/26 - Thomas Christoffersen - 6:30pm BTSU Theater with the AIA Toledo

TBD - Farshid Moussavi

-again with the lack of a flyer, waddup?! Also, I would suggest links to the speaker's firms or web pages or some sort of extended info to entice those of us who are looking for reasons to explore.

Roadtrip (8)! Univ. of Buffalo Arch/Planning Lecture Series - 2011

I really enjoyed visiting Univ. of Buffalo for lectures. The students were really pleasant and obviously excited about their curriculum, which was really refreshing. They are gonna be my first lecture series posting (lets say because I am starting alphabetically.

Lectures

All Lectures begin at 5:30 pm in Crosby 301 unless otherwise noted in the credits at the bottom of the page.

• 09.14.11 Philip Beesley

  09.21.11 Michael Conrad

  10.05.11 John Peterson

10.12.11 Philippe Rahm, Martell/McHale Lecture

11.02.11 Annie Han

11.16.11 Mabel Wilson

View selected lectures



Lectures @ 5.30 pm, 301 Crosby Hall, UB South Campus, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, at 5 p.m.

Peter Q. Bohlin Lecture - KSU CAED Toguchi Lecture Series

Peter Q. Bohlin [FAIA, Bohlin Cywinski, Jackson Architects]
Tuesday, September 6th, 2011
Cartwright Hall Auditorium - Kent State University, Kent, Ohio
7.15pm

Kent State University is launching their fall lecture series (list and poster coming soon, I swear it) but I wanted to get the first one online so everyone knows. Knowledge is power and all that.

2011 Cleveland Design Competition Awards Reception and Exhibition

2011 Cleveland Design Competition Awards Reception & Exhibition
	On Friday August 19th, 2011, you are invited to attend the 2011 Cleveland Design Competition Awards Reception and Exhibition to view all of the submissions from the 2011 Cleveland Design Competition: A NEW School Vision and celebrate this years' winning proposals! The evening will include light Hors d'oeuvres, beverages, conversation, and the announcement of the winners of the 2011 Cleveland Design Competition by Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Chairwoman of the Board, Kathryn Lincoln. The program for the evening (which may be slightly altered over the course of the next couple weeks) is as follows:
	What: 2011 Cleveland Design Competition Awards Reception & Exhibition Where: Cleveland State University Student Center, 2121 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115 When: Friday, August 19th, 2011 6:00pm-7:00pm - Hors d'oeuvres and Open Exhibit 7:00pm - Welcome & Announcement of Competition Winners Announcement of the Awards by Kathryn Lincoln, Chair of the Board of Directors, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy 7:30pm-8:30pm - Open Exhibition 9:00pm - Awards Reception & Exhibition Conclusion When: Free and Open to the Public

Re-Imagining Cleveland's Transportation Future - Film Fest you probably missed

Last week the 2019 Sustainable Transportation and Action Team [STAT2019] held a small film fest at the Capitol Theater in Detroit Shoreway to bring together a plethora of professionals involved with transit with a couple of goals in mind. Firstly, to expose the various professional groups to each other and give them a forum to get acquainted, secondly, to offer a way to see what other communities are successfully achieving in order to understand how similar techniques could work locally.

I wanted to offer the list of films here for those that would be interested, you can watch them, and others, online for free.

• Journey to Pittsburgh to Walk and Bike
• Gary Toth: Reinventing Transportation Planning as Community Development
• Indianapolis Cultural Trail
• Chicago's Bus Tracker - Taking the Guesswork Out of Waiting for the Bus
• Major Bike Mojo in Minneapolis
• The Case for Open Data in Transit
• Making Streets Safer for Seniors
• Portland Bicycle Boulevards
• NACTO's Cities for Cycling
• Portland (Green) Bike Box!
• Snowy Neckdowns - Winter Traffic Calming
• MBA Traffic Calming

The event was sponsored by SC2019, NOACA, Access for All and the Cleveland Earthday Coalition. Flyer by TOIstudio.

The complications with walking: Part One - Standing Up

By now anyone with access to a television, internet or newspaper has heard the story of Raquel Nelson, an Atlanta mother recently convicted of vehicular manslaughter owed to the death of her son at the hands of an "imparied" driver while the Nelson family was crossing the street. You see, in Georgia, crossing a street not at a marked pedestrian way places the fault upon the pedestrian, even though the driver was currently under the influence of "drugs and alcohol" (according to early releases) and had been previously convicted of hit and run, once on the exact same stretch of road, that had little import on allocation of charges.

The conviction resulted in 12 months probation, community service and court costs. The possible maximum conviction was 36 months in jail. There has been little word on sentence of the driver as he had pleaded guilty.

The event occurred as Raquel was crossing the street from a bus stop to her apartment. A full recount of the story can be found here (thanks to the AP). The question isn't whether the action of crossing the street violated the law but whether the law itself and the planning that resulted in this occurrence should itself be held up to question. From my point of view there are many additional guilty parties; the traffic engineers who allowed for such a high speed thoroughfare in such close proximity to residences, the public transit organization that located the bus stop away from legal crossings, the legislative body that makes pedestrians second class citizens to automobiles, the law enforcement agencies that allowed someone twice convicted of hit and run to stay behind the wheel and the urban planners, that allowed this sort of development (hub and highway spoke) to itself occur.

Ms. Raquel Nelson has the option of a retrial, however nothing can be done now for her son. The legacy of his death should require us all to rethink our actions, as drivers, planners, voters and pedestrians and vehemently demand that our communities be safer for ourselves and our children.

An online petition can be found on the Transportation for America website demanding a full pardon for Raquel Nelson. The next question is how to halt the potentially fatal pattern of poor planning and rectify our already dangerous systems and neighborhoods.

PBS has also posted a very interesting video on pedestrian v. vehicular transit in Georgia.

The trouble with "alternative transportation"

The trouble with "alternative transportation" is that the nom de plume indicates that any transportation mode, alternative to automotive, is secondary and not considered mainstream, or is less important. I have been hearing this term used to describe cycling, taking public transit and even walking as public dollars are being allocated to infrastructure projects. It never sounded right to me, and I had quite a hard time discerning just why that was until I had proper time to ponder (and a few beers).

Let's jump in the way back machine. The year was 1977. A younger George Lucas was about to legitimize cheesy poofs as a diet for basement dwellers, Elvis was faking his death and a bouncing baby boy had just emerged into this cruel dark world. He was limited in his mobility. Eventually he was able to roll over, crawl and dance. Years later his father built him his first bicycle, a very heavy cumbersome device that resulted in various bruises and skinned limbs but no major damage. At the tender age of 9 the young boy was moved to the suburbs and enrolled at a public school that had large yellow lumbering noisy buses, filled with larger, lumberinger and meaner kids, and so the young man got his first taste of regular public transit (to be fair, he grew up taking the bus, but these timelines are important!). At 13 he learned how to drive a car but couldn't do so legally until he turned 16 years of age, 15 years after becoming mobile on his own two feet. Let me create a list for you.

Birth

Age 0 - not mobile, mostly cold, doesn't really do much

Age 1 - walking (sans skipping or hopping but mobile)

Age 5ish - riding a bike, probably in the street

Age 9 - regular bus rider (10 times a week, 45 weeks a year)

Age 16 - auto operator

Age ? - Cruise Ship Captain

Age ? - Spaceship Pilot

Age ? - Jet Pack owner

Age ? - FTL?

As the above list illustrates, I, and most likely the vast majority of people, begin our evolution of transportation via being a pedestrian, evolving into cyclists, maybe dabbling (those primary educator years are our dabbling years) in public transit and then eventually, possibly, becoming auto drivers. So why is walking, cycling and taking the bus considered "alternative"? Alternative to what? Driving from my bedroom to the kitchen for a snack? Driving from my desk at work to the restroom to tweet? How did our infatuation with the auto come at the expense of logic and our love for freedom? On foot I can walk just about anywhere, when I am in a car I am limited to following expensive vast roads at certain speeds and I have to follow the logic of seemingly random traffic signals (same as on a bike mind you), however I have to pay for all that GAS, those poor dead dinosaurs and ferns that have undergone so many centuries of crushing and pressure and decomp just to be converted into heat and mechanical energy. Pumped from their slumber in the ground and transported across the globe (some hyperbole, I think we get most of our gas from Canada) just for little ol' me? How am I that important?

I'll stick with walking and riding for now, the most that I can. I won't give up my car or motorcycle, but I won't refer to them as my primary mode of transportation and I will continue to fight against neighborhoods and communities designed solely around the auto in lieu of the actual people that live there. It's crazy, I know, but I like myself mostly, and I want to keep it that way.

Veteran's Memorial Bridge & Subway Tour July 2nd, 2011

Veteran's Memorial Bridge & Subway Tour

When: Saturday, July 2, 2011

Times: Open from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.Location: Northeast Corner of W. 25th Street & Detroit Avenue, at the west end of the bridge. Free parking is available at the Department of Public Works Bridge Garage, which is located at the tour’s entrance.Cost: FREE

The Cuyahoga County Engineers will be re-opening the Subway Level of the Veteran's Memorial Bridge [Detroit/Superior Avenue Bridge] this Saturday to pedestrians.

The tour is self guided and offers some fantastic views of the city of Cleveland. It also exposes a rather interesting view into the evolution of how the city was stitched together in an age before the auto was king. Currently the CUDC (and other fine folks) have spearheaded a campaign to turn the subway level into a public pedestrian and cycling access path across the Cuyahoga River. The ability to help them receive funding via the National Historic Trust has recently closed, however there are other ways to offer support, such as telling your friends and visiting the bridge when it is open.

So come down, bring a camera and plan on grabbing a quick lunch as some local bistro. You can park on the West Side and walk over to have lunch on the East, or vice versa. Whatever. I'm not going to tell you how to live your life.