101 Things I Learned in Architecture School: Matthew Frederick

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School was obviously written by someone who not only went through "the program" but also managed to pay attention to their own students to realize just what wasn't easily getting across.

The small pocket book (which fits perfect in the inner breast pocket of a decent coat or jacket) begins with an author's forward which could have simply read "There are no certainties in architecture except that you won't get it all right, all the time and every rule has enough exceptions to be really annoying".

Each of the 101 points (or lessons) is coupled with a sketch illustrating or commenting on the idea in question. It simplifies the confusing, makes sure of the questionable and seems to offer a rather simple way to explain to others why you spent 6 years of your life learning how to do something you cannot explain simply. I plan to test this book on the MarJ if she amuse me, and see if it clears anything up.

Some of the lessons are specific to school (#42: Those tedious first-year studio exercises in "spots and dots" and "lumps and bumps" really do have something to do with architecture) while others can also relate to the practice (#58: The proportions of a building are an aesthetic statement of how it was built) and some I already want to spray paint on certain new buildings located by the office in which I work (#62, #91).

Where the book excels is in its simplicity. It takes all of 10 minutes to thoroughly read/peruse (more if you are sitting in an architecture office laughing about school and buildings in general), it is completely accessible (we will test that later), it is cheap, compact and relevant from first year of design studio to post post graduation.

AIA Cleveland should be buying this thing in bulk to send to its members and it should be required reading for any first year architecture student. It was a great deal at $10 and I look forward to being able to have enough memorized to immediately see a project or presentation and give it the proper lesson code number to reference later.

Vote for the Bridge Design[Build] design of your liking

September 25, and 26th AllGoSigns, the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative and Ingenuity Festival is hosting an event on the trolley level of the Detroit Superior (or Veteran's Memorial) Bridge with art, food and fun times (fun times actually guaranteed), and it is all free.

Its called (drumroll) the Bridge Project.

Kent State University's CUDC is teaming up Villa Angela St. Joseph high school to offer a variety of built "interventions" along the bridge to interact, intrigue and excited visitors. They have already been working on their designs for a week and have put their early ideas up for public voting and discourse.

Please stop in and reward their hard work by selecting what you would like to experience during the Fest!

And don't forget to come and experience the Bridge Project!

PARKing Day Push - 9 days, c'mon Cleveland!

9 days left until PARK(ing) Day, 2009
Check out the official Cleveland PARK(ing) Day group site and get involved.
Its as easy as clicking a link, making a username, password, etc, etc, etc.

reminder - PARK(ing) Day is Friday, September 18th, 2009

2009 Open Architecture Network Winners Announced

The Winner of the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom is Announced – Teton Valley Community School, Victor, Idaho

www.openarchitecturechallenge.org

Innovative designs for schools in Colombia, India, Uganda and the United States also recognized.

September 8th, 2009 – Teton Valley Community School in Victor, Idaho and architecture firm Section Eight [design] receive the top award of the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom. An emerging practice, Section Eight [design] partnered with Teton Valley Community School to design the classroom of the future. Currently based out of a remodeled house, students at Teton Valley Community School are now one step closer to getting a real classroom.

View the winning designs and finalists: http://www.openarchitecturechallenge.org

Challenge Winner: Teton Valley Community School, Victor, Idaho, USA

Designed by: Section Eight [design], Victor, Idaho, USA

Founders' Award: The Corporación Educativa y Social Waldorf, Bogota, Colombia

Designed by: Arquitectura Justa, Bogota, Colombia

Best Urban Classroom Upgrade Design: Rumi School of Excellence, Hyderabad, India

Designed: IDEO, San Francisco, CA, USA

Best Rural Classroom Design: Building Tomorrow Academy, Wakiso and Kiboga, Uganda

Designed by: Gifford LLP, London, UK

Best Re-locatable Classroom Design: Druid Hills High School, Georgia, USA

Designed by: Perkins and Will, Georgia, USA

Cindy Riegel, President of the School Board says, "We are thrilled. The evolution of Section Eight's classroom design for the Teton Valley Community School was a truly collaborative process involving students, parents, teachers, and community members. It exemplifies the school's philosophy of real world learning and community engagement."

The need for safe, sustainable and smart classroom design has never been greater. Worldwide, 776 million people are illiterate. With less that six years left to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals the World Bank estimates ten million new classrooms are needed to reach its target on education. In addition, tens of millions of crumbling classrooms ¬ including many in the United States ¬ are in desperate need of upgrading. Meeting this demand for better learning environments will constitute the largest building project the world has ever undertaken.

In response, the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge was launched by Architecture for Humanity and principal partner Orient Global in collaboration with a consortium of other partners from around the world. This truly global initiative invited the architecture, design and engineering community to collaborate directly with students and teachers to rethink the classroom of the future. Designers entering the competition were given a simple mandate: collaborate with real students in real schools in their community to develop real solutions. Collectively more than 10,000 individuals participated in this global initiative.

More than 1,000 design teams from 65 countries registered for the competition. The winning design was selected from more than 400 qualified entries by a team of interdisciplinary online jurors. (See Jury Bios: http://bit.ly/oac09jury) Each design was rated on feasibility, sustainability, and innovation in the learning environment.

"The response to the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge has been remarkable. It has clearly captured people's imagination," said Richard F. Chandler, Chairman of Orient Global. "We congratulate the winning teams and everyone who took part in this international effort. Education is the first step in building prosperity for tomorrow's world. The challenge now is to implement the best of these designs in classrooms across the globe."

Many schools around the world share the facilities constraints faced by the Teton Valley Community School. Operating out of makeshift classrooms converted from residential use, a lack of space and an environment ill-suited for learning impedes students' opportunities. The winning classroom design developed by Section Eight [design] provides cost-effective and sustainable teaching spaces and extends the learning environment beyond the four walls of the classroom. Movable panels allow students to reconfigure their space as needed. The building itself is designed to be a learning tool. The mechanical room, a building component normally closed from view, can be seen from the science lab allowing students to learn how heating and cooling systems function first hand.

Teton Valley Community School will be awarded USD $50,000 to undertake the planning and construction of the winning design, and Section Eight [design] will receive a design grant of USD $5,000 to support the school. The school has begun a capital campaign to raise additional funds needed to build their new campus.

In addition to the overall winner, the competition recognized entries in each of three competition categories: best urban classroom upgrade design, best rural classroom design and best re-locatable classroom design. Three building partners, Rumi Schools of Excellence in India, Building Tomorrow in Uganda and Blazer Industries with The Modular Building Institute in the United States have committed to build classrooms based on these designs.

The Founders Award is awarded to the entry that best exemplifies the aims of Architecture for Humanity and the Open Architecture Network. It was awarded to the entry for The Corporación Educativa y Social Waldorf in Bogota, Colombia

designed by Arquitectura Justa for their integrated approach to providing safe spaces for students to learn and play.

Competition finalists will also receive awards, including software from industry leader Autodesk; SMART Board interactive whiteboard from SMART Technologies; Google SketchUp Pro 7; copies of the book the Third Teacher by OWP/P, VS America and Bruce Mau Design and an honorarium from partner Curriki for the best use of the competition design curriculum.

All the design solutions are now available on the Open Architecture Network for designers and school administrators to learn from and adapt to their own context. An international traveling exhibition of the winning designs and notable entries is set to launch in the fall.

To see all the entries and for more information, please visit: http://www.openarchitecturechallenge.org

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed - Jared Diamond

Published way back in 2005 I hadn't picked up a copy of Collapse (Penguin Books) until late this year as a way of attempting to reconcile specific local neighborhood degradation. While Collapse quantifies the failure of prehistorical to modern societies based upon a 5 point checklist (human environmental impact, climate change, relation with friendlies, relations with hostiles and political, cultural and social attitudes) the relationships developed between the multiple causes (while even sometimes recognized) show an accelerated impact greater than imagined when each cause is studied separately.

It was with this study of the symbiotic relationships that I found the book most interesting. Diamond holds that cultural stigma can be responsible for societies to continue practicing environmentally detrimental practices and failure to adapt properly to their environment (Easter Island, Greenland Norse, Western Montana), to the extreme of famish or population explosion due to improved healthcare and better nourishment, coupled with past cultural identities rationalizing genocide (Rwanda). Even leadership typologies are exposed, those being aware enough to directly influence their environment (Shogun Japan, Dominican Republic) to business practices (Chevron) and the creation of watchdog groups (establishment of the FSC -Forest Stewardship Council- and the counter by the lumber industry of the IFS -Sustainable Forestry Initiative, which does not require third party verification).

While the historical lessons are well intentioned I found the doggedly pace of the book off putting and at times quit while only half way through a chapter not to pick up the book again for a week or so. There was quite a bit of self referential aside which may be fine for readers with short attention spans but in its own right could become a drinking game (Every time Diamond refers his checklist, drink!). The material was very interesting, the conclusions are logical enough to be believable and the end result is that Diamond doesn't depend on an Utopian vision to save us all, if anything the book ends on a note of hope in only that the last 150 years of human civilization have been so dramatically harmful that humans as a race are starting to realize that we are all in this together and that more than technology or prayer, is our saving grace.

In fact, I found so much of the material intriguing I will at my own leisure delve a bit further into the topics, so much so as to use the reference list provided by Diamond in the back of Collapse, which I am sure as a professor, Diamond would appreciate.

Ending thoughts? The topics are interesting and the import of societal collapse, especially now, is one of the most serious concerns of our time. The comparison Diamond makes of bacteria cultures in his TED talk to human societies demonstrate that the collapse comes quickly after the pinnacle as it takes all of our raw resources to reach the point of peak population, at which time we have reached the exhaustion of said resources. The book, in my view, stumbles but there is more than enough of interest buried inside to keep the journey going. I would suggest it as necessary reading to anyone interested in social, philosophical or economic studies as well as a primer on symbiotic relationships for those interested in urban or city planning.

As Diamond notes, we are all in this Polder together.

RTA attempts to solve some of the local Circulator dilemma

In an effort to rectify budget shortfalls the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) has identified a savings in discontinuing the many local Circulator routes that services many of Cleveland's neighborhoods to staunch local opposition. GCRTA seems to recognize the that their proposed solution is putting many customers in a bind and is planning to start a one-year pilot project in January 2010 in attempt to alleviate this problem.

The Weekly Shopper Service pilot program will offer one day a week, 6 hour long Circulator service from "major residential complexes and high density areas to shopping and medical facilities".

It sounds better than nothing and is still in the planning stages which means that input from the public and elected officials is needed to shape and finalize plans. Therefore it is up to the public to prod RTA and our officials to fulfill the services we require. My main concern is that areas of "high density" will already be close to shopping and medical facilities (such as in Lakewood) so the service won't be serving those that need it the most. I understand that GCRTA feels that they can concentrate efforts in order to achieve more but I wonder how easy such a thing (service vs need vs operational cost vs quality of life vs cost cutting justification) is to quantify.

And I am not going to complain about how high our fares are just yet, because I think we all agree that they are a bit high.

And by a bit I mean ridiculously high.

If the city and GCRTA would team up to get rid of the surface lots downtown to increase the value of the public transit service I think they could then justify the fare increase, until then it is becoming increasing cheaper for me to drive myself.

You are what you eat - help avoiding GMO's

Just in case you were needing some help navigating the grocery store (a necessary evil in our hurried lives I suppose since the farmer's market near my house is open when I am at work). Of course by voting with cash (or credit) you are telling the big bad box store exactly what you are willing to shell out your hard earned money for in a way that they can arguably listen to.

With that in mind the MarJ shot me a link for a Non-GMO shopping guide (.pdf)

brought to us by the Institute for Responsible Technology

Simply because it is there is not a good enough excuse

Re: urban farming in particular

I am constantly vexed at the land use argument being the trump card anytime there is a mention that Cleveland can fit some program in, that may or may not be adequate to “urban” life, simply as an excuse that there is ample space so why not?

The very same argument was made for the justification of ethnic gentrification in cities, of the post war suburban boom, greenfield development, strip mining, deforestation or freeway widening and for the very same reason that exact premise is flawed.

Not just flawed as if the idea is not the best solution but flawed in such a manner that it is detrimental to civilization on a massive scale and Cleveland in specific (for the case of this argument).

In regards to urban farming there are a myriad of more logical conclusions than simple land re-use, some have been touched on. There is the greater variety offered to the denizens who do not or cannot produce their own food. There is the cultural character that these varieties impart, in such a way that the cultural celebration of food remains undiminished. An elephant ear at the Irish Festival tastes the same as an elephant ear at an Italian festival but the difference in the cased meats is astounding. One may be more expected at a festival but which is more cultural accurate?

There is also the condition of re-aligning the public understanding of where food comes from. When you simply purchase items from a shelf and your only concern is that price that appears with the bar code is scanned you are as distanced as you can get from the production of that item. Therefore you do not understand what it is you are truly consuming. What was fed to that boneless, skinless chicken breast you are taking home (and in effect what are you eating?), when did those green peppers truly ripen and through what chemical enhancement? Those tomatoes that taste like a mixture of mealy watery goo, where fore whence they came, and why, if they are so friggin’ tasteless, are they our only option at Giant Eagle? When we start concerning ourselves with where our food comes from and why it tastes the way it does we may begin to want to TASTE GOOD FOOD again. This is an imperative adjunct of agriculture, urban or otherwise, as it raises awareness and imparts knowledge of our food system.

There is the reconnecting of an entire society with dirt. It sounds silly but exposure to bacteria and germs in dirt is quite the good thing. Studies have linked increased allergies and asthma to lessened time playing out in the dirt as children. Families that farm together share the wonder of germinating, growing, harvesting and eating things that they grow, together. It all sounds rather utopian but can be witnessed in any small scale farm or even a garden plot.

There are the economic benefits of exchanging effort and time for consumables.

There are the community benefits of sharing public space for a specific purpose, meeting your neighbors, sharing advice, watching out for each other’s little parcels and eventually community ownership of areas typically considered blight.

And yes, there is finally finding a use for empty land. This reason worries me the most because it simply insinuates that without program empty land will become a blight and nuisance that neighbors can no longer go out of their way to be concerned with the going-ons in the vacant adjacent lot. The lot that years ago may have been a thriving sand lot for baseball, or soccer pitch or any myriad of explorative games that kids play but now becomes an area of concern, of possible gang activity, of nefarious nature, simply because we can no longer be bothered to concern ourselves with anything outside view of our television.

And while I love the idea of more urban farms in communities, especially the many that are isolated food deserts offering little in the way of local nourishment, I think the argument needs to be a little stronger than “we simply have all this space” and should be more along the lines that “the community would benefit greatly from a little land reutilization”.

We need to have the honest discussion about issues such as these, where we can appreciate that the people on the "other side" are also intelligent hardworking people who deserve a little more than simply a brush off retort of fear statistics without the deeper conversation of the positive attributes a little change can bring.

I think there is a hunger for it.

More choices: The North Coast Harbor Pedestrian Bridge

The Cleveland City Planning Commission has put the 6 options for the North Coast Pedestrian Bridge online for the public to view and comment on. All six designs are offered by Miguel Rosales of Rosales + Partners - Transportation Design, who's portfolio contains an extensive array of pedestrian and vehicular bridges. Not as well known as Santiago Calatrava, Rosales's designs possess the beauty of understanding the physical forces exerted upon a spanning structure and attempts to celebrate rather than hide these relationships.

Take the time to check out the presentations here:
Connecting Cleveland the waterfront district plan

...and take the survey if you want your opinion heard/read/noticed.

Complete caveat, I like option F the best. I will sum up my reasons simply with "mechanized playfulness".

Steven Litt makes sentences too.

Getting your 2 cents ('Merican) counted on the 3C rail corridor

Ohio's 3C "Quick Start" Passenger Rail Plan Public Meeting
Wednesday, September 16th
Cleveland Airport Holiday Inn, 4181 W. 150th St., Cleveland.
4-7pm

With Ohio’s 3C “Quick Start” Passenger Rail Service, more than 60% of Ohio’s population will have increased travel options by 2011.

Trains, operating at up to 79 miles per hour in 2011 and up to 110 miles per hour in the future, will connect Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati, generating jobs and economic development along the way.

The service will be safe, efficient and cost effective, connecting Ohio to the nationally-prioritized Chicago Hub Network – all using federal stimulus dollars.

You can check also pay attention to the 3C "Quick Start" Passenger Rail website.

The Ohio Rail Development Commission has also put an online survey regarding the public's concerns and comments about the proposed 3C rail project. I highly suggest you take the time to get your opinion counted. You can also look at the bar graphs and see how the topics are fairing. Last time I checked there were 2592 people surveyed which in the scheme of things isn't that many.

PARK(ing) Day: Cleveland, 2009

September 18, 2009
Various(?) sites around the city

The Cleveland Chapter of Architecture for Humanity is partnering with Green City Blue Lake and the only member of LAUNCHcleveland who survived the great "freeze tag game of aught-8" in attempting to once again raise awareness that CITIES ARE MADE FOR PEOPLE.

Utilizing the international PARK(ing) Day craze and the power of the internets we are attempting to coordinate multiple "parks".

If you are interested in any way please fill out this Google online form. We will be (hopefully) mapping out the locations by early next week.

Right now we will have something around East 4th and Prospect and hope to support another park by Gordon Square in connection with the Rust Belt to Artist Belt conference/event/happening.

Feel free to pass this along and if you want. You can either drop by one of the parks or host your own. All we ask is that you let us know so we can map it so people in the neighborhood can know and drop by.

See you on the streets.

Lake Erie. Just sayin', don't take it for granted.

I remember when a friend visited me from KC, Missouri and we went to Headlands Beach (at the time I lived in Fairport Harbor). When I was in the KC he would get sick of me complaining about being "landlocked" and "missing the sound of waves crashing" and would inevitably shove me in his old Honda and we would go to one of the "lakes" that Missouri has to offer.

To me, if you can see the other side, it isn't a lake.

Well, that point was made pretty clear when my buddy first stepped onto the sand, squinted against the sun and pointed off to the horizon asking "So...what's over there?"

"Canada."

"Yeah, so this is a Lake."

Later on I would have a discussion with a research librarian about why the Great Lakes aren't considered inland seas. I don't remember the reason much anymore. I think it had to do with whether it let out into the ocean and was surrounded mostly by land (lake) as opposed to being salty due to ocean inlet access (sea) although there are exceptions.

Anyway, living on Lake Erie is pretty dang neat-o and it is probably the greatest resources Cleveland has. Going there is free, the view is usually pretty amazing and sometimes just sitting down and watching the world do its thing for a bit is exactly what any good doctor would order.

Yay, Cleveland
-end cheerleading

Detroit Ave. not quite as sexy as Euclid Ave.

I noticed these new articulated buses along bus line #26 about a week ago and tried in vain to capture the image of the articulated older style bus (not quite as fancy and streamlined as those new numbers cruising up and down Euclid Avenue, strutting like they own the place) on my cell phone but darned if those guys aren't too quick to capture. All the photos I have of them on my phone, and I have quite a few, are all cropped in strange places like the bus was streaking out of frame, which in essence it was.

Is this news? I don't know. Gas prices seem to be down and everyone and their mother got $4.5k to put down on some "fuel efficient" jobby (even though the mpg ratings aren't what I would consider efficient, most of the people I know have cars that were too efficient to qualify. Where is our cash money?) . Sure the ratings for walkable cities have been tied to Real Estate values and it is easier to walk when first traveling to an area by bus than by car (since you can hop back on the bus along your path instead of having to backtrack) but is GCRTA really that in tune? Especially as they are planning to cut Circulator Routes and raise fares?

I ask these questions because they haven't been addressed in the weekly RTA emails I get (but don't read too closely so maybe it WAS in there) and I would like to hear reasoning such as "strengthening the main corridor lines to service more people with more efficient vehicles that get not only better mileage but due to passenger capacity and layout can get more people off and on quicker so that funds can be shifted to bringing back heavily used circulators or routes that had to be changed/removed inconviencing the riders who most rely on GCRTA".

That is what I would like to hear or even read. Soon or something.

Electric Roller Disco Tech - Friday, Aug. 28th

Electric Roller Disco Tech
Friday, August 28th, 2009
Leff Electric building, 1163 East 40th St., Cleveland, 44114
7-10pm

...for a night of music, fun, dance and rolling -- all with a view of Lake Erie. Bring your roller skates, roller blades, and heelies. Don't have wheels? No problem. Just bring yourself and a desire to see an old space in a new light.

Electric Roller DiscoTech will include local art, DJs from Progressive Arts Alliance, dancing, a RetroPop Bar and a "wheel-in-theatre".

This event is a partnership between the Cleveland Executive Fellowship, Pop Up City and St. Clair Superior Development Corporation.

Rollerskating

Roll out on your skates, blades, and heelies!

Dancing

Progressive Arts Alliance spins retro music, featuring Disc Jockey Santina Protopapa.

Retro Pop Bar

Popping the tops off of your fizzy 80's favorites.

Outdoor Lounge

Take a break and get some fresh air as you relax in front of Leff Electric.

Wheel Art

Make a one-of-a-kind work of art with paint and wheels. 7-8pm.

Wheel-in Theatre

An 80's movie and popcorn at dusk.

Sunset

Over the downtown skyline, as seen from the West windows of Leff Electric.

Flyer - pdf