Made in the 216 Holiday Shoppe opens tonight!

Made in the 216 hosted by Room Service.

Innerbelt Bridge Meeting, Friday November 6th

image borrowed from GCBL

Cleveland Planning Commission Innerbelt Bridge

Start: 9:00 am

End: 11:00 am

Cleveland City Hall

601 Lakeside Avenue

Cleveland, OH

United States

ODOT presents plans for the aesthetics of the Cleveland Innerbelt Bridge to The Cleveland Planning Commission. Read more about Innerbelt Bridge aesthetic considerations here.

Included in the conversation is making the bridge a multi-modal source of pride for the community. Advocates are calling for a bike and pedestrian path built on the bridge. Read more.

Open to the public. The Planning Commission can accept comments from the public.

via our pals at: GreenCityBlueLake who write a bunch about putting a bike and pedestrian pathway on the bridge as well.

The OhioCityBikeCoop (saving money by not typing spaces today) also has a bunch of info on their facebook page about the meeting.

Show up and show your support for making the city a little more people centric. Its the human thing to do.

Gearing up for the Cleveland Design Competition 2009

Eh? What could that be? Eh? Looking a little familiar is it?

This year I have decided to not wait until the very last second to start thinking about the Cleveland Design Competition and instead at least start developing the canvas upon which my little idea will sprout. I figure building downtown Cleveland in 3D should take me about a week of some evenings and maybe a little fiddling on the weekend (don't hold me to that though, I tend to procrastinate).

So, bring it.

All You Can Eat - Recap

photo cred: POST (someone with a camera)

Last weekend the Sculpture Center hosted an event named "All You Can Eat", billed as "a buffet of architectural ideas for Cleveland". The exhibit received 46 submissions, some traveling all the way from Georgia, of proposals for our fair city.

Opening night (Friday) saw a pretty impressive turnout and conversation topics mostly stayed on the positive aspects of the city and this exhibition in general. If anything the overall vibe was that there isn't enough attention paid to our built environment locally and it will take many events such as this to carry the movement forward. Everyone seemed starved for new ideas and, well, interesting solutions in lieu of the local pedestrian proffering typically construed as "ground-breaking" (or even "good") architecture.

Saturday's round table discussion (from what I hear) was pretty interesting. I didn't make it, however Ferringer did capture the first hour on video and it should eventually find it's way onto the Post webbernet site.

Some of my favorite submissions were from a third year studio class at Kent State CAED by Professor Charles Fredericks. The student's projects were part of a presentation made earlier in the day to the Fairfax Redevelopment Corporation. The projects, entitled "Curbside Urbanism" explored utilizing residual space for garden paths and pavilions to create public space interventions and redefine neighborhood characteristics.

Granted some of the submissions were not "ground breaking" or "innovative" but their application locally would definitely be, at the very least, amusing. To be honest their is nothing wrong with offering a tried and true solution to be experimented with locally however my attention is drawn more to the suggestions from the absurd to the over analytical is the suggested solution is experimental enough to create interesting results. My caveat to this was the board of "S.L. Brainard House @ 4107 Denison Ave." where the local chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America suggested a complete historic renovation of the residence. The drawings and photographs made the offering completely reasonable in scope and scale but also historically necessary to understand the regional built history.

It will take many more exhibits and calls for work to move architecture and design forward enough to overcome much of the static complacency the region suffers from (education is usually the best weapon). I believe the All You Can Eat exhibit, coupled with the Cleveland Design Competition has made Cleveland a blip on national architecture/design radar. I would argue we are almost a quarter of the way there, but to be truly successful it (the need for and exhibition/celebration of thoughtful design strategies and innovative ides) needs to be so overpowering as to be happily annoying.

resource:
All You Can Eat
All You Can Eat on Facebook

Cecil Balmond Lecture at UMich - Recap

Last Tuesday the MarJ and I once again hopped in the trusty xBox but this time pointed West, not as far west as our hearts yearn but western enough to notice a substantial change in license plate design. Our destination, Ann Arbor, Michigan home to the University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and other good things to see and hear Cecil Balmond (of Ove Arup -AGU and UPenn) work his magic. We intentional sandbagged our journey with a couple extra hours to make up any confusing Google directions and to give some time for a greater exploration of UMich's program then we were allowed at Buffalo.

A couple of things were noticed immediately. Monica Ponce De Leon's (Of Office dA) posistion as dean of the Taubman College of Architecture is supplemented with an Associate Dean/Director and an Assistant Dean/Director, which was seemingly not offered to Steven Fong when he took the similar position at Kent State (and subsequently left). Secondly Ms. De Leon is lecturing all over the dang place as is illustrated in the hundreds of lecture posters that line the corridors of the school. Not that she is lecturing at every school on those posters but it came as a very noticeable difference between KSU and the last two schools I have visited in that there are lecture posters for lots of other schools on the walls, as if the school was striving for a non-insular learning experience. We didn't get a chance to talk to any of the students as we arrived on an open house day and most of the staff/students were busy with selling the school to prospective students and I didn't want to get mired. Instead we wandered the building, visited a gallery, looked lovingly upon the various lecture series (and is how I discovered a couple I couldn't find online) and then went out to walk some of the campus, which is tied together with a staggered series of open green spaces in a rather comfortable rambling way. I can imagine the campus is amazing to hang out on when the weather is nicer.

The Lecture:

Monica gave an amazing intro to Cecil. She seems like a genuinely nice and warm person which set the tone perfectly for Cecil's dry humor and deft sense of humanizing a rather difficult subject. The auditorium was packed with spill over to some back up spaces showing the lecture via closed circuit television. We got second row seats due to our pushy and uncompromising nature. For those there on account of the open house I can only say how lucky they are to be exposed to these sorts of ideas so early. Too early to understand but the intent and rigor should be now incubating in the back of those young noggins. If only I knew then...

I don't know how to properly sum up the Balmond lecture. He showed some built work and explained the thought process including a couple of Serpentine Galleries, the CCTV building and the pedestrian bridge in Coimbra, Portugal. He then walked the audience through the impetus behind a few unbuilt works and explained the purpose behind Ove Arup's Advanced Geometry Unit and his work at UPenn (H_edge) before giving us a glimpse of some unpublished work that he is currently working on based upon complex algorithmic interactions.

The intention behind a lot of the thinking of the projects, and arguing upon form based architecture versus architecture that strives for deeper exploration, was touched upon by Cecil but inherently augmented by the discussion. The overlying complexity of much of the forms was really nothing more than the scalable interpretation of a singular mathematical construct meaning that when a bias or intersection created an interstitial space/condition a revisiting of the original premise would allow for an intuitive solution that did not deviate from the overall scheme, resulting in very complex iterations that could be simply construed by understanding the basic premise. It was the complexity and simplicity, existing simultaneously that allowed for the natural discoveries to be made in the work and it was these experimentations that Cecil obviously savored. I was concerned that the MarJ, not being of architecture training, would find Cecil obtuse and confusing however her love of mathematics and Cecil's coherent lecture style gave us much to discuss on the 3 hour ride home. Obviously much of the audience wasn't ready for such heady discourse but it is sure to prove helpful in the coming studio years.

Throughout the lecture, however, Cecil's ability to concisely and clearly state his ideas (as illustrated in his written works) made the lecture experience quick paced and fluid. Illustrations deftly maneuvered the conversation through discussing the work with clients, contractors, other designers and the current audience. It was a sort of "happy learning" that made MarJ and I both realize we enjoy the lectures because you recieve the joy of learning something new and possibly exciting without the chore of having to recite/regurgitate it later (as if we were still in school). I don't know if Cecil's experience as an educator gave him experience in knowing how to easily discuss his ideas (and let his own excitement shine through) in a similar fashion to Dan Rockhill but I have noticed that educators seem to give better lectures than most "Design Professionals". They realize they have an audience there to listen to them care about what they are presenting about, they don't have to shock and awe the audience with made up architecture words that hinder the ability to understand a clear idea (those asking questions from the audience take note!).

Would I see him speak again? Undoubtedly, it was exciting and interesting and he presents fantastically. I feel very sorry for my friends who didn't get a chance to see him speak (cough) and hope they DO take the effort to catch him as soon as they can.

It was a fantastic lecture and I thank the University of Michigan for hosting it.

Sculpture Center Architectural Themed Exhibit Tonight and Tomorrow

Friday, October 30, 5-10 PM
Saturday, October 31, noon – 5 PM
Roundtable Conversation on Saturday at 3 PM

Labeled "All You Can Eat" by the people that name such things, an exhibition hits the shoulder season of the Cleveland Sculpture Center offering a large and varied selection of exhibits based upon the architectural vacuum that is Cleveland.

Having already stolen a completely unwarranted preview (I had no warrant) I will admit I am pleasantly surprised at the turnout in both scale and quality. Caveat: I have not really looked all that much into the exhibition, I just hung around causing trouble when it was being installed.

However the mere fact that it is being pulled off is impressive enough. I hope you come, take a gander, make your snarky remarks and then go home and think on what you really saw and thought.

Saturday includes a round table discussion hosted by some people who are probably listed on the web site.

Roadtrip (9)! - Bowling Green State University

BGSU School of Architecture and Environmental Design has posted their 2009/2010 Lecture series (probably a while ago but Google and the BGSU main page points to old architecture department pages) so I am posting them here because it is closer than Buffalo and UofMich, both of which I have already trekked out to for recent lectures.

Wednesday, Oct. 28th (tonight!)
Perry Kulper
6.30 pm in the Sky Bank Room

Ulrike Passe
Monday, Nov. 16th, 2009
121 West Hall
6pm

Leah Ray
Wednesday, Dec. 3rd, 2009
Student Union Theater
6pm

Katerina Ruedi Ray
Monday, February 15th, 2010
Student Union Theater
6.30pm

Jose Oubrerie
TBD

Monica Ponce De Leon
Monday, March 19th, 2010
Student Union Theater OR BGSU Ballroom
6.30pm

I would love to post all the info that is on the site regarding the speakers but for some reason it is a swf and I can't copy and paste the text. So go to the lecture website yourself for more info.

The Aesthetics of Equity: Craig L. Wilkins

Not since Ian Borden's Skateboarding, Space and the City have I wanted to notate and dog ear pages like I have in Craig L. Wilkins The Aesthetics of Equity, a 200+ page romp through the tragic pitfalls and failures of current architecture practice in education and understanding exactly who the client or even the practitioner really is. I admit that the idea of racial disparity within the architectural profession is not a new argument but Wilkins manages to approach it in a much more logical manner than simply the marginalization of difference for difference sake and instead concentrates on the cultural shift in ideals that has admittedly hamstrung the profession, taken us from the field and the love of craft to becoming paper pushers behind desks in cubicles.

It is the ideals of the social contract, of wanting to do good that has brought so many students into the profession (the emulation of Michael Brady or Howard Roark cannot be enough of a reason) but it is the propagation of the profession as a profession that can only exist in social stratification that hinders our ability to make the changes or to accept the differing views that could allow real physical good to occur. Granted props are given to groups such as Architecture for Humanity, for attempting to bridge this chasm but it is the existence of those very groups that identify just how broken the system is. Wilkins argues that is the exclusion of minority/marginalized groups that has forced the architecture profession to become too self referential for its own good, relying on outdated information and standards to legally force the public acceptance. Art(architecture) in a vacuum does nothing to further the social good and who can the client be if not those affected by what is shaping the spaces?

Wilkins does a very fine job of championing his arguments with diagrams, copious notations and quotes as well as a relying on what are referred to as "remixes", recaps of the previous chapter written in "conventional" tone that is more plain spoken than the academic parsing of the previous pages. While much of the work centers on racial discrimination in architectural education and practice it isn't hard to see/understand the much of the current problem stems much deeper, necessitating what could be no less than a formal revolution of architectural thought, not from the form based perspective as much as a use/creation one.

The introduction of "hip hop architecture" in the book can be confusing to those not entirely open to understanding the impetus of the hip hop movement or to those who currently are only exposed to the misogynistic, racist, homophobic, shallow and boisterous nature of "gangsta rap", especially as Wilkins, in order to accentuate the need for understanding the intent behind the thought, refuses to simply explain what hip hop architecture looks like. For those requiring the visual interpretation to validate the idea, it doesn't exist simply because it cannot easily be categorized (and attempting to catalog the idea would devalue the exercise of its execution). While I do not claim to fully understand the many facets of Wilkins interpretation of hip hop architecture it could be argued that what Wilkins is referring to is simply architecture that is aware of the place and people in which it exists and interacts with. A simple notion that is all too often forgotten in broad stroke misapplication of misnamed solutions (Green, new urbanism, etc.) and fails to take the community (physically, mentally, historically) into context when developing (in concert) a physical intervention, usually in left over or fringe/forgotten.

For those teaching or working on public projects I recommend this read if only to further reinforce that new ideas can come from anywhere and valid opinions exist outside of the regulated schools of thought so it is our job to listen as much (if not more) than teach. For general practitioners of architecture interested in the philosophical means behind modern movements I would also offer this book as a primer on Lockean theory and a fine intro to Lefebvre's work (as well as others, did I mention all the notations?). For those who feel that the work they do focuses too little on the people affected or who wondered why most architects look the same this book is also for you. For those only interested in the form and theory behind shape making this book is mostly words so having it on your bookshelf will make you appear smarter and obviously appearances are important.

It was a good read, I am looking forward to going through it again with a pen and post-its in hand as I am sure to be using this book as a resource in further research.

house turned inside out - postponed!

I was getting all ready to post about the "house turned inside out" event, especially since Martin Papcun gave that really nice presentation at the last Pecha-kucha (it was hard to hear but the images were really fantastic and the jewelry was amazing) only to just get an email that it was being postponed until the 27th!

So mark your calendars appropriately and tell your friends the news otherwise they are going to show up Saturday and feel all stupid and you did NOTHING to prevent that!

House, turned inside out

3601 Siam Road, Cleveland

Opening October 27, 2009

4-9pm

Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative hosts Martin Papcun (Prague, Czech Republic) as he presents his newest large-scale, site-specific installation at 3601 Siam Road in Ohio City.

The artist, along with construction partners American Tank Fabricating and Affordable Demolition & Hauling Inc., has sliced into the walls of a house and turned them inside out to reveal the interior of the home. The installation, House, turned inside out, is a massive, yet intricate deconstruction. The installation will be open to the public for one month.

The project is funded by a grant from CEC ArtsLink New York.

For more info, contact:

Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative

820 Prospect Avenue

Cleveland, OH 44115

(216) 357-3434

www.cudc.kent.edu/shrink

HoJo Demo pix updated, added

I don't know what my fascination is with the demolition of this building. Mostly I remember it at as a landmark from my youth that acted as some sort of traveled distance marker which for the life of me I cannot recall for what. I do remember that the distinctive blue on the building and the vacant windows marked a blight that always made me realize how tenuous Cleveland's relationship between it's people and the land is.

Regardless, I have added more photos of the HoJo being demo'ed for everyone's amusement, especially my own.

Hopefully I won't be too sick to snap some photo's on the morrow. I'm thinking they will have the thing pretty much down by then.

Today's blog has been interrupted by the author

yadda yadda yadda - complain - complain- moan - yadda*

Until I read the following passage:

"But Landmarks doesn’t just enforce the status quo. Preservation and innovation aren’t mutually exclusive, and never were. No sooner was Brooklyn Heights designated historic in 1965 than the fledgling commission green-lighted Ulrich Franzen’s elegant, sere, and implacably modern design for the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The commission realized early on—though at times it has forgotten—that copying ye olde dormers or pasting shards of antique façades onto new buildings threatens to turn the city into a reliquary, killing old architecture with unthinking conservatism. A flexible definition of appropriateness recognizes what makes a district historic."

Summation.*

It is an interesting point of view, one that needs further exploration.

*parts edited for clarity and because it was mostly a rant that wouldn't do anyone any good.

Shoreway Howard Johnson Motor Inn demo pix

For your action enjoyment I am going to take some sweet pix of the Shoreway Howard Johnson Motor Inn finally being demo'ed. I don't know if anything will eventually go in that location, as deserving as it is for something that could be really amazing and beneficial to the community.

Random views around Cleveland

I apologize about how I have been slacking a bit lately on the blog posts but I have been suffering some computer issues and am attempting to sort it out. Which I hope eventually to.

In the meantime enjoy this photo of the the old metal panel skin being taken off the building at 2000 East 9th Street on the Southwest corner of Euclid and East 9th exposing the brick/block beneath. I fear they cut some of the decorative pieces where it interfered with the metal skin. I don't know what the future really holds for this building, I don't work downtown anymore but it is nice to see things happening along Euclid.

Yay!

Dan Rockhill Lecture @ Univ.of Buffalo : recap

image from Studio 804 website

Last Friday the MarJ and I hopped in the TOIbox and headed east to the University of Buffalo to see Dan Rockhill speak at what we were to find out the 40th anniversary of the School of Architecture and Planning. Despite our directions from Google Maps (it was mostly a signage issue) we were able to find Crosby Hall on the South Campus. We even made it a bit early in order to do our due diligence and poke around a bit in order to see what the program was like before the lecture began. From what we could glean from our observations and some gentle questioning to a student or two the beginning of the Fall Semester dealt mostly with precedence studies. From the projects displayed on the walls the studies were more technical and biased toward passive design strategies but also illustrated the intent behind good precedence studies. The students were not merely creating a toolbox of previously successful projects, instead they were attempting to disseminate the driving force behind a selected design strategy in order to determine if the process and product were successful and (I can imagine) what changes or alterations could be attempted.

After our explorations we found ourselves in a medium sized lecture hall with between 80 to 100 other audience members ranging from students to faculty to alumni. It was then that we were informed that the School was celebrating it's 40th anniversary and that Dan Rockhill was indeed a University of Buffalo alumni and with that the presentation began.

I have been to numerous lectures, I actually enjoy them, especially if they delve deeper into the project's intent instead of merely demonstrating a slide show of built work with only the slightest veneer of the effort and thought that went into each project. This Dan did not do. Instead he spoke deliberately and clearly upon each project's intent, weaving between what the project goals were with his own personal goals and illustrating issues, shortfalls and successes. I was taken aback by a couple of points.

First, he didn't talk like an architect. He didn't talk down to his audience by using big, complex language to muddy and idea; instead his explanations and anecdotes evoked the sort of plain spoken charm that explains his success working with non-profit and municipal groups. He knows how to talk to people and he did a fantastic job Friday.

Secondly, Mr. Rockhill's Design/Build philosophy embodies the almost original beauty behind architect as master builder but couples this pedagogy with a playful exuberance that melds with the theoretical study of standard architectural educations instead of warring against it. The premise is that there is necessity for both. As the process unfolds there is a deliberate attempt to mix theoretical rhetoric with practical application but in doing so simply enough that the associations are manageable in both project scope and style.

The lecture began with Rockhill concentrating on the work of his firm, Rockhill and Associates, a design/build/construction practice that operates out of Lecompton, Kansas. A bevy of slides and stories explained how the projects are designed and built by the firm which allows for a time consuming amount of control and the ability to test new ideas and techniques. By assuming the task of construction explanation of construction techniques can wait until proofed in the field which allows for greater exploration by the designer to be made. As noted in the lecture they were able to be "asking clients for an excuse to practice architecture". Their precedence is the vernacular style of rural Kansas houses exemplifying decades of proven passive design strategies and the aesthetic of rural life. The structures were simple but beautiful and so very damn logical that when the intent was explained it was difficult to imagine any other outcome.

The second portion of the lecture dealt with Mr. Rockhill's design build studio called Studio 804 taught at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. Treated as a separate non-profit by the University, Studio 804 has full immersion design/build curriculum which is gifted one whole semester to design and build a complete structure. What began as an exercise in teaching students how buildings could be assembled became an award winning design studio using "marginalized neighborhoods" in Kansas and Missouri as playgrounds for energy efficient and low cost housing (albeit the latest project, a LEED platinum residential building, is hard to consider "low cost" at $350k). Regardless the projects are quite nice and utilize a rich palette of materials and modern strategies for living not typically seen in affordable housing.

In all it was a fantastic lecture and a wonderful excuse to visit University of Buffalo. I am hoping I was allowed to attend the lecture (I didn't ask ahead of time, I figure if one publishes it online without any stipulations it is considered free reign) and I look forward again to the next excuse to visit. Especially now that I know where I am going.

Books:

Designing and Building: Rockhill and Associates

Studio 804 Schemata