Spaces & Sounds

hello...

2006-11-08T09:42:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's been a while. I'm still here. The last month or so has been a whirlwind - expect major announcements soon!

In the meantime, yesterday was a happy election day. Deval Patrick will be Governor of the Commonwealth, and small business won a rare victory on ballot question #1. Horray for small business!

sounds - 2 of the latest

2006-10-04T09:05:00.000-04:00

Guster - Ganging up on the Sun ***1/2

Guster's new album has been on my iPod playlist since it found it's way into my way into my backpack at Newbury Comics a month ago. I just couldn't help it. How can a Bostonian resist the charms of Guster. As opposed to the easy sing-along harmonies and catchy acoustic guitar of Goldfly and Lost and Gone Forever, the new one is one of those that grows on you. Good stuff. Check out the tour diary on their website, by the way. My webpage would kick ass too, if my daily adventures consisted of traveling around the world playing rock shows.

Cursive - Happy Hollow ****1/2

Staying on the topic of albums that grow on you, I'm still trying to get my arms around Cursive's latest. It is a wildly inventive "folk-metal" concept album, careening all over the sonic map while pulling you in with quirky hook after quirky hook, oddly charming melody after oddly charming melody. Playful lyrics on unusual recurring existentialist themes, emotionally pleading, a musical tapestry as if the Shins and Bright Eyes grew up listening to nothing but System of a Down and They Might Be Giants (what??), this one is a strange gem. Song titles include Bad Sects: "I know this is wrong....because we're told this is wrong" and Big Bang: "There was this big bang once, but the clergyman doesn't agree. Oh no... There was this big bang once, but it don't jive with Adam and Eve." Rock on, Cursive. Indeed.

Debate tonight

2006-09-25T10:58:00.000-04:00

Tonight's debate will feature yours truly vs. Heather in a battle of wits regarding the recently developed home decorating platform and also FY2007 laundry policies. I am the early front runner, but you can never count out Heather due to her superior intelligence and good looks.

Wait, that's not right, the real debate is Healy-Patrick at 6 p.m. on Fox. I can't wait, I hope Patrick shows her up. This gubernatorial campaign, much like the last two Presidential campaigns, has the potential for the Republicans to capitalize on the short-sightedness of the American electorate, making me want to move to Canada. That shouldn't happen in Massachusetts, of all places. We'll see.

Global warming

2006-09-21T12:57:00.000-04:00

Virgin businessman and billionaire Richard Branson pledged about $1 billion to fight global warming at Clinton's environmental summit. Well that's exciting and inspiring, and I applaud the announcement.

But...air travel has a major impact on global warming. Obviously it's impractical to not fly anywhere anymore, so I think Mr. Branson's committment to work toward renewable, sustainable energy sources without a conflict of interest will be quite a challenge.

MV

2006-09-10T21:46:00.000-04:00

After spending the weekend on the Vineyard for Heather's friend Stacy's wedding, I kept seeing parallels between Oak Bluffs and Seaside. The narrow, winding streets and organic mish-mash of seemingly residual spaces turned into small pocket parks and the larger planned greens:

the tightly knit neighborhoods of homes with porches lining the streets:

and mostly, the 7 acre green on the ocean, which seemed to be the grand-daddy of Seaside's much smaller green:

Great stuff. I liked Oak Bluffs' victorian charm over the colonial stateliness of Edgartown, but hey, that's just me. It was a great weekend, but I'm glad to be home for a while with no travel plans.

Wayne's wisdom

2006-09-08T11:17:00.000-04:00

There are too many things that require you to be smart. If you can't surrender to the stupid thing that is rock 'n' roll, what good is life?

- Wayne Coyne, the Flaming Lips

Politics

2006-09-05T12:07:00.000-04:00

Check out this cool map boston.com cooked up showing campaign contributions linked to address. There has to be better uses for this mapping technology. Zillow is a similar application, showing estimated home values (with links to tons of data) overlaid on an aerial photo.

By the way, Kerry Healy's tv campaign ad lists her primary objectives as suspending the gas tax and rolling back the income tax. Way to advertise yourself as a short-sighted politician. I first saw this ad at the gym and I almost fell off the treadmill.

Calling all rock stars

2006-08-31T09:16:00.000-04:00

I'm ready to start a new band, and man is it difficult to find normal people. Anyone know a singer, bassist, and/or drummer? Qualifications are that they don't take themselves too seriously or have an uncontrollable ego, they are willing to practice once or twice a week, and most importantly, that they are sane. Most of the posters on craiglist are nuts in one way or another, just some of them hide it better than others.

Extra points for someone near the T with a basement...

Scion

2006-08-21T17:27:00.000-04:00

I rented a Scion Zipcar last week. I think the Scion can be compared to the houses currently being mass-produced in subdivisions all across the US.

Consider the following for both:

- flashy exterior
- terrible performance & poor long term sustainability
- lots of interior options included to mask a fundamental lack of quality

Also, when I eventually buy a car it's not going to sound like the Nintendo RC Pro-Am go karts.

Rangeley

2006-08-17T10:50:00.000-04:00

I'm heading up to Rangeley tomorrow to hang out with Heather, Kittson, and David at the lake house - I can't wait. A much needed chill-out weekend. I'm even looking forward to the drive up. After I get through a day of meetings from hell today and a noon presentation tomorrow, I'm home free. I'm sure I just jinxed myself there.

Ugh

2006-08-09T21:59:00.000-04:00

A dismal site visit today to a not-to-be-named beautiful town in western Mass where my firm has been hired by the town to do a review of another engineer's development plans. The developer's plan is to turn a lot of this (actual picture from the site):

into something like this, but actually much worse because ugly 2-story detatched triplexes are proposed at a much lower density:

This is a travesty. I also saw this house in a brand new development in the same town.

Come on. Our communities are degenerating all across New England, and the effects are disastrous.

the plant II

2006-07-31T11:24:00.000-04:00

Finally a picture showing the crazy agave plant nextdoor that I mentioned a while ago. Heather took this about a week ago....since then the plant has taken a turn for the worse. It didn't handle Friday's storms too well, and is now held up with ropes to keep it from completely falling over and wrecking the greenhouse. The agave's days are numbered.

Memphis article

2006-07-28T10:32:00.000-04:00

The latest post-charrette article from Memphis.

Back in Boston

2006-07-26T09:38:00.000-04:00

The normal work week seems like a vacation after last week's charrette. Check the Miami Knight Program website for links to the final presentation and a daily update from Mary Newsom, Knight Fellow from Memphis. Much more to come as we work on the final report...

Working in Memphis II

2006-07-19T21:36:00.000-04:00

An intense week so far...don't be fooled by our one evening break to check out the Memphis Redbirds minor league game from the "Founder's Suite". Check this website for updates from Mary Newsom, Knight Fellow from Charlotte.

http://www.urbanartcommission.org/charrette/overview.html

Working in Memphis

2006-07-16T23:49:00.000-04:00

A fantastic weekend in Memphis! The charrette starts tomorrow...

the plant

2006-07-11T10:06:00.000-04:00

Heather and I have been wondering what the hell is going on with this crazy 20-30 foot tall tree that sprouted right through a hole in our neighbor's rooftop greenhouse. It wasn't there last year. Well, here's the story. Amazing. I'll have to get some pictures tonight to show the context, it is so strange.

The 4th, from our Beacon Hill roof

2006-07-04T23:34:00.000-04:00

the 3rd

2006-07-04T13:29:00.000-04:00

I checked out the scene at the Boston 4th of July rehearsal at the Hatch Shell last night, including watching the Pops drive right past me on Storrow Drive with a big police escort. The Esplanade was packed and the central seating area closed around 7; I walked around for a while before heading to Harvard Gardens for a beer and a bit of the Sox game. Steven Tyler and Joe Perry with the Pops is going to be awesome!

An Inconvenient Truth

2006-07-03T15:09:00.000-04:00

I saw Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" last week at the Coolidge Corner Theater. While a bit cheesy at times, the film manages to convey the urgency of climate change and global warming in a compelling way without any sense of Michael Moore-ish propaganda. The projected consequences within our lifetime are catastrophic, and the barriers to change are infuriating. Short-term thinking, intentional political misdirection, and worst of all, apathy, must be overcome.

Heather and I didn't need convincing as we already devote a large portion of our time as advocates for compact, walkable communities that minimize impact on the environment, and it was interesting to see how that fits into the bigger picture of global warming and climate change. Coincidentally, I just began Ecocities by Richard Register which is about designing our cities in balance with nature for long term sustainability. It all fits together.

We left the movie going in a hundred directions with new ideas, but the best impact we can have is by continuing to speak out and spread the word. Visit the website to see how you can make an impact with small changes like energy efficient light bulbs, and see the movie.

Statehouse

2006-06-30T20:38:00.000-04:00

I had a floating holiday I had to use or lose by the end of the month, so Heather and I took the opportunity to take a tour of the Massachusetts Statehouse today. It's only open during the week when I'm normally working, so I have wanted to see what it looks like inside for a long time. After walking past the building every day for years, it's about time!

I thought it was a great tour. We got all the history, stories, and traditions from a page who really had his facts straight. Cool stuff. The building is truly incredible, of course, and seeing all the reminders of Massachusetts' history everywhere you look was pretty cool. We also learned the origins of the terms "holy mackerel" and "red tape".

Red tape comes from the red ribbons used to bind the piles and piles of bills the Representatives have to review and vote on, a tradition carried over from the Brits. Mass still abides by it - we saw them as the House floor was all prepared for session.

It turns out the Mass House of Representatives had a "sacred cod" hanging in their chambers to represent the importance of the fishing industry to the Commonwealth. When one of the wings was added onto the Statehouse long ago and the House moved, the Senate inherited the old House chambers and expected that included the sacred cod. The Reps took the cod, which pissed off the Senate. To appease the Senators, the Reps made a gift of a new fish for the Senate to hang in their chambers..... A mackerel, of course.

So that's how I spent my vacation day. Well it wasn't all history and dorkiness - after the tour we went to Boston Beer Works for the Italy - Ukraine match.

South Station development

2006-06-28T14:59:00.000-04:00

City approves 40-story South Station tower. I work in the Leather District which is rapidly becoming less scary due to many loft conversion projects bringing in more "normal" people, and this project will continue the transformation of this great neighborhood. If it is executed correctly, that is...

Peter Gammons

2006-06-27T22:30:00.000-04:00

Massachusetts' own Peter Gammons is in the ICU tonight after surgery for a brain aneurysm. Check this link for his chills-inducing Hall of Fame induction speech. Peter Gammons is a good man, and I hope he gets well soon. In addition to his baseball knowledge and reporting talent, did you know he can play a mean blues guitar, and sing too?

Mayor Menino

2006-06-23T09:09:00.000-04:00

The Mayor halted all work on City roadways because he's fed up with the condition of the patch jobs. Wow. My developer clients are not going to be overjoyed at this news.

My new baby!

2006-06-20T09:52:00.000-04:00

My new Taylor! I can't stop playing my beautiful guitar.

normal.

2006-06-15T21:18:00.000-04:00

The big move out - move in is now complete, CNU is over, no travel in the near future, well, until mid-July, and the weird thing lately is just how normal life has been. Normal feels very strange. Like I need a new hobby. The World Cup makes me want to start playing soccer again, I'm ready to buy an amp to work towards starting a band again, and I'm going to learn how to paint.....soon....

Cows?

2006-06-08T14:06:00.000-04:00

Boston has cows.

I think this is a great public art project and it's very cool that the proceeds from the eventual cow art sale go to charity, but do we need to copy Chicago and the other cities that have had cows before us? Couldn't Boston choose a more appropriate subject? Perhaps lobsters? Sailboats? Larry Birds? Or cab drivers, complete with extended middle fingers?

CNU XIV

2006-06-06T22:00:00.000-04:00

Although I'm biased, I have to say that in my opinion last week's CNU XIV: Developing the New Urbanism was an incredible conference. Every CNU I have attended has left me inspired, and this one somehow rose above by maintaining a good balance between implementation details and lofty theory & intellectualism. I was running around for the first couple days of the conference due to Chapter commitments, Fellowship events, and the civil engineering session I moderated on Friday (came together at the last minute, of course), but it was really nice to sit back a bit Saturday and Sunday and take it all in.

The highlight for me was Dan Solomon's masterful keynote address about architectural style, meant to put the traditional/modernist debate to bed. The address was so intellectual (and I admit I was burnt out and ready for a nap at the time of it's delivery) it's definitely going to need another listen. Other highlights included a somewhat disjointed but highly original talk from Christopher Alexander, a session about Prince Charles' New Urbanist community, Poundbury, with commentary from Leon Krier, and the Knight Fellowship reunion dinner where I had the chance to meet a bunch of past Fellows.

Definitely check this link to hear part of Andres Duany's talk about male space and the New Urbanism. Hilarious. Unfortunately the session I moderated was at the same time, but luckily CNU has made technological advances this year and posted a ton of info online at The Daily NUws.

Off to CNU...

2006-05-31T15:16:00.000-04:00

I'll be back from CNU Sunday night, when I'll finally be able to take a deep breath and relax. I think.

Nantucket

2006-05-28T09:45:00.000-04:00

Surprise

2006-05-27T10:13:00.000-04:00

I haven't forgotten this blog thing, I swear. An unprecedented amount going on - after Mark & Katie's wedding last weekend:

two deadlines had to be handled this week AND I moved in with Heather. Some late nights and a lot of stress. This weekend Heather planned the first of our annual surprise trips. I had no idea where we were going until last night after work when I met Heather at the bus station and we headed to......Nantucket! Ah, a relaxing 3 day weekend with no plan except a dinner reservation tomorrow night. Exploring, eating, drinking, and lounging. Just what we needed!

Now I have to choose my surprise weekend plan for Columbus Day. I hear Framingham is lovely in the fall.

Celebration, FL

2006-05-16T13:50:00.000-04:00

For a field trip during our long weekend in Disney, Heather and I spent Saturday morning in Celebration, Florida. Celebration is a master-planned community developed by Disney a few miles away from the theme parks, and includes a mixed use downtown and approximately 4,000 homes. The downtown features shops, town hall, Michael-Graves-designed post office, movie theater, restaurants, offices, condos - basically everything is mixed up in an ideal New Urbanist configuration.

The downtown is centered around this beautiful gathering spot, viewed here from the walking trail around the lake.

The town's residential areas radiate from the town center, and several of the narrow streets have wide center medians that accommodate parks. In general, Celebration's parks are vastly oversized, although this center median with a stream is incredibly landscaped and very interesting.

There are townhouse style condos near the town center:

and in addition to many monstrous houses, there are plenty of more modestly sized homes, which I find much more attractive:

Despite the variation of housing sizes and architectural type within the town as a whole, homes of similar size seem to be grouped together into homogeneous neighborhoods, which is unfortunate.

Most homes have alleys in the back for garages, trash pickup, etc., but interestingly, in Celebration the alleys are overutilized at the expense of street life. Cars are parked in either 3-car garages or in a mish-mash way in the alleys, and in some cases driveways are constructed in place of backyards:

Painful:

The result in some cases is a complete lack of cars parked on the street, which when combined with the oversized median parks makes some of the streets seem overly wide and barren of energy:

Some streets work out well and with the additional benefit of mature street trees feel like a more comprehensive public realm:

After spending an hour or two exploring Celebration, Heather and I sat in rocking chairs by the lake to wait for our cab. We ended up chatting with Steve and Beth, who just moved to Celebration from Ludlow, MA in December and were raving about the town. They hadn't heard of New Urbanism, but were glowing about all the design features incorporated in their town.

They ended up showing us their house:

and giving us a ride to Epcot. I think this spontaneous meeting is partly due to the New Urbanist physical town layout, which facilitates interaction within the public realm, and also the simple fact that a majority of Celebration's residents chose to live there because they are friendly people interested in community and interaction with others.

Thank you to Steve & Beth!

Picture of the week

2006-05-11T08:04:00.000-04:00

Here's Heather and I in Disney, the California version. I'm heading to Disney, the Florida version, tonight to meet up with Heather and her friends Kittson & David who have been there all week. Florida, where the weather is sunny and 85, not raining and 45 like here. Yipee!

Deep-sea fishing

2006-05-09T14:20:00.000-04:00

What a weekend spent deep sea fishing in Gloucester for my cousin Mark's bachelor party. When I say deep sea fishing, what I really mean is spending all day on a boat 25 miles from shore hanging out and goofing around with Mark, my cousin Eric, my Uncle Frank, and a bunch of Mark's friends while holding fishing rods. We didn't catch many fish.

The two fish big enough to keep we had filleted on the boat, then we had a local restaurant fry them up. The best fish & chips I've ever had.

Arctic Monkeys review - no rating...

2006-05-04T23:14:00.000-04:00

Does England's Arctic Monkeys debut album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" live up to all the buzz? Yes, and then no. The first half of the album is the best stuff I've heard in a long time, a cranked up Libertines but way better - cheeky, clever, and utterly rocking. Great stuff. Then the band abruptly shifts into more standard Libertines style balladry, which would have been ok I guess but I wanted the party to continue. Not a coincidence the songs were listed separately on the album cover. Maybe someday I'll give part II a fresh unprejudiced listen, but for now only part I made the iPod playlist.

Old Orchard Beach

2006-04-30T09:59:00.000-04:00

I spent all day Saturday in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, volunteering my time at a community design workshop to come up with residents' redevelopment visions for the town's abandoned minor league baseball park. An extremely fulfilling day, although a bit frustrating in a few ways.

Over 100 residents attended the day-long event at the town's high school, and were broken into fourteen groups of 8-9 each to discuss their goals for the land and come up with consensus masterplans. Each team had an architect to offer design advice and an architecture student to act as a facilitator, my job was to be civil engineering "resource rover" and run around to all the teams to answer questions and help out.

Not much was needed in the way of civil engineering advice since the short 5 hour session didn't allow time to get into detail, and that was slightly frustrating. I spent most of my time trying to assist the student facilitators (my fellowship charrette training was a huge benefit) as they tried to keep their teams on track. Some groups started wandering down paths that were interesting but not relevant to the priority of building consensus for a masterplan in a very short period of time, and some groups included very opinionated citizens who dominated the conversation at the expense of the other participants. I found out quickly that wind farms are a hot topic in Old Orchard. It was helpful to not be assigned to any one group, because I could wander and help groups I thought really needed it, but it was also frustrating because I didn't really spend enough time with any one group to feel like I made a connection with anyone.

Here's the required charrette picture showing three hands working on one drawing in order to get it finished before the presentation deadline. One architect and two town residents, who had never done anything like this before, working on the group's consensus vision plan. That sums it all up...a very cool and inspiring moment happening simultaneously in fourteen rooms.

The fourteen groups made back-to-back five minute presentations to the assembled group at the end of the workshop. Two themes emerged - some groups had plans which kept the land as town land, incorporating town buildings, parks, and community buildings, while other groups proposed a mix of housing, retail, office, and parks. Almost every group proposed a community center. One thing was clear - it was incredible how the process produced clear visions from each group in just five hours. I'm looking forward to what the Memphis charrette produces in seven days.

An event like this really exposed the hopes and fears of a small town faced with a great opportunity. There was scattered mistrust of Town officials and more consistent opposition to development, but there were also ambitious plans detailing growth and outlining the aspirations of residents for their town. A work in progress - updates to come.

Jane Jacobs

2006-04-25T16:17:00.000-04:00

Jane Jacobs, urban theorist, economist, and intellectual, died this morning in Toronto. It's hard to concisely put her influence into words, suffice to say there are dog-eared copies of her 1961 masterpiece "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" on the shelves of urban planners, architects, and other community activists worldwide, including mine.

She will be a lasting inspiration.

CNU happenings

2006-04-25T14:16:00.000-04:00

An interesting 24 hours. John Norquist, CNU President & CEO and former mayor of Milwaukee, was in town to speak last night at an event I helped put together to promote CNU XIV, and this morning I met with John and the chief editorial writer of the Boston Globe to talk about getting stories into the paper. It was amazing to see John in his element, he has an incredible amount of knowledge on a sweeping range of topics including architecture, housing, schools, diversity, transportation, funding mechanisms, US & world history, European culture, etc. etc. Not surprising given he was mayor of a major US city for 15 years, but it was still fascinating. He also told stories about his buddy Ray Flynn and the times they spent singing Irish songs in Milwaukee bars at 3 am.

I'm looking forward to this Saturday, I'll be volunteering my civil engineering and New Urbanist knowledge at a community workshop to brainstorm redevelopment options for the abandoned minor league ballpark in Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

Buckcherry - Middle East

2006-04-19T10:13:00.000-04:00

While the MTV audience was at Avalon with Alkaline Trio last night, the true rock crowd was with recently reunited Buckcherry downstairs at the Middle East. Don't get me wrong - I love both bands, but if a raunchy, sweaty, PBR soaked rock show is your thing, the Middle East was for you. Although singer Josh Todd seemed a bit dazed throughout Buckcherry's 80 minute set, lacking his usual frenzied energy and visceral hold over the crowd, Todd at 75% is more than most frontmen at 110%. The riotous power of Todd & guitarist Keith Nelson's high octane songs, evenly balanced between their two old albums and "Fifteen", out a week ago, carried the band through the set and had the sellout crowd literally bouncing off the walls.

Opener Rock n' Roll Soldiers impressed with ragged hook-heavy punk songs and raw energy. They seemed psyched to be on the bill and played a no holds barred set, as opposed to the headliners.

Happy Patriots' Day!

2006-04-17T18:53:00.000-04:00

Heather, Mark, Kate, and I explored Rockport and Gloucester this weekend. We arranged a getaway with no plan or agenda and minimal research beforehand, just a reservation at a bed & breakfast in Rockport. A vacation with absolutely no agenda is the way to go - it was so incredibly relaxing to wander off without a destination or a timetable and just make our way.

As for the towns, Rockport is a quaint old sea town - some great neighborhoods with weathered old houses although the Bearskin Neck shopping area bordered on being too cutesy for me. I'm more a fan of the gritty urban Gloucester type, but Rockport & Gloucester truly had something for everyone.

Rockport:

Mini-Stonehenge at Halibut Point State Park:

the bronze

2006-04-14T12:17:00.000-04:00

I am a huge fan of "third places" (first being home, second being work). In response to Eileen's trashing of Starbucks, I feel the need to point out the value of spots within communities where people can informally meet, relax, get work done, get a beer or a coffee, with the opportunity to people watch, possibly run into someone you know or meet someone, enjoy the commotion around you...basically to feel like a part of the community. Third places bind the community together, although Starbucks is not exactly a textbook example. Say what you will about Starbucks' coffee and corporate policy, but many communities don't have the luxury of an independent coffeehouse, local pub, or park - Starbucks is it.

Personally, my tiny apartment and love of cities and urban life combine to keep me looking for great "third places" to read, relax, get work done, whatever. Especially during the summer because we don't have ac. Unfortunately my neighborhood only has two tiny Starbucks, an uncomfortable crepe place, and a few local bars which are great for relaxing with a pint but too dark for reading or working. Indie coffeehouse needed! We did recently get a Whole Foods and a Cold Stone though, hooray.

Pictures of the week

2006-04-12T11:23:00.000-04:00

The Cape.
Summer is coming!

Weekend

2006-04-10T14:41:00.000-04:00

I finally had a weekend at home with no major plans, the only thing missing was Heather who spent the weekend in Florida with her friend Andrea and returned with a sunburn.

Friday I went to Boston Beer Works to meet up with Joe Eddy & friends, and for someone who hasn't been out much lately it was great. I love Beer Works' burgers, I love Beer Works' beer.

Saturday I performed a miracle by successfully editing the registry in my mom's computer to adjust the limits and restore the cd-rom drivers. I don't even know what that means, but the drive reads cds again and I was happy.

I finished "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey on Saturday, and although it was unlike anything I have ever read and I couldn't put it down, I have to say that much like other fashionable books (Life of Pi, Kiterunner, etc.) I thought it was a bit overrated. I was drawn in by the realistic and caustic view of the depths of alcoholism and addiction, Frey's writing style conveys the desperate feelings of hope/hopelessness, and ficton or non-fiction, Frey's portrayal of himself was ruthless and not for the weak. What turned me off was his complete change in personality over the course of the book. I won't ruin the plot for anyone, but I wasn't completely buying it. Still, a fantastic book.

Now back to the real world, where my boss's last email to the dept. included "we are officially in crunch mode" and used the word "overtime" six times. Yikes.

Thank you, Apple

2006-04-06T12:46:00.000-04:00

Apple has decided to make it easier to run Windows on their computers, which is a big deal to me. Since I bought my Mac laptop over a year ago I plan to never switch back, but since Macs don't run my engineering software I have had to do all my fellowship research work here in the office on nights and weekends. Now I can hopefully* work on research at home, which would be a huge development although probably a big hit on my productivity.

* Since I don't know what I'm talking about, with my luck this isn't going to work.

the Jury

2006-04-02T21:35:00.000-04:00

I had the rewarding experience of serving on the CNU New England first annual awards jury on Saturday. We spent the day deliberating at the offices of Cornish Associates in Providence as we reviewed the project entries and chose five winners, grouped by the scale of the region, the neighborhood, or the block, street, and building. The day included excellent debates about specific projects and principles of New Urbanism in general, a nice lunch in the Downcity Providence area, and a tour of the venue for the Chapter reception to be held at CNU XIV in June.

An interesting debate centered around the objective of our awards - are we setting the bar very high, making it difficult for any projects to be worthy especially with the relative lack of New Urbanist implementation in New England, or are we rewarding projects that are heading in the right direction but may have been hampered by resisting abutters, political climate, missing or poorly executed design elements, poor site conditions, etc. My opinion is that we should set the bar high to avoid diluting the meaning of New Urbanism and the value of the awards in the future. Better to not give any awards than give awards to projects that are anything less than great. Luckily, we had five great submittals that I am proud to stand behind.

Here's the jury:

L-R: Jack Davis (publisher, Hartford Courant), Matt Lawlor (lawyer, Boston), Michael Behrendt (town planner, Rochester, NH), Robert Orr (architect, CT), Patrick Pinnell (architect, CT), Carrie Marsh (planner, Portland, ME), David Scheuer (developer, VT), Norman Garrick (civil engineer, UConn), me.

After a long day in Providence it was really nice to take an early train home and relax watching movies for the rest of the night...

Duluth charrette

2006-03-31T14:19:00.000-05:00

Here's a summary article from last year's Knight Foundation charrette in Duluth. I'm beyond psyched for this year's charrette in Memphis, July 16-23.

Circus

2006-03-31T11:24:00.000-05:00

City Hall plaza update: the circus has come to town.

After review of my comments about the suffering plaza (yeah right), there has been action. The stupid mini-ampitheatre on Cambridge Street was filled in over the last couple months, making me quite curious about the plan. Well the plan, for now, is to shift this year's Big Apple Circus visit to City Hall plaza!

I'm sure this isn't the first time "circus" has been associated with City Hall.

Photo of the week

2006-03-28T20:28:00.000-05:00

Taken at a jobsite on the Mass Pike. The beauty of utilities.

But at what cost?

2006-03-24T09:06:00.000-05:00

Mayor Menino announced his vision for a new skyscraper downtown in the Financial District last week. He's calling for what would be Boston's tallest building on the site of an existing City parking garage at Winthrop Square.

Globe critic Robert Campbell wrote this viewpoint about the plans which I completely agree with. The idea of a new skyscraper mixing with the old Boston architecture is seductive and I'm all for it if the market can bear the additional office space, but in this location, without people living nearby to create 24 hour life, a skyscraper will overwhelm this little square and reinforce the canyon-like streets where everything closes at 5 and the world moves on leaving nothing but trash blowing like tumbleweeds in the streets. I say this from experience, because anytime I walk from my office to the gym past this garage at night I'm just a little freaked out.

Half birthdays and sick days

2006-03-19T16:52:00.000-05:00

I had never celebrated my half birthday until last week, to tell you the truth I never actually knew when it was, but now I'll never let a March 16 go by without suspicion of everyone and everything around me. Heather planned a surpise party, I thought we were heading out for a relaxing dinner at the Summer Shack and a whole group of our friends end up walking in the door and sitting down for dinner with us! We ended up moving downstairs for bowling at Kings, my second time ever with the normal size non-candlepin setup. Good times.

Unfortunately Heather and I seemed to be cursed on "holidays", because I felt myself coming down with something near the end of dinner and I knew it was going to be evil. By about 11 pm it had evolved into the worst stomach flu & fever nightmares I can remember having. I wouldn't wish my Thursday night through Saturday on anyone. But thanks for the pre-flu party!

Observations from a 48 hour sickness:

- 12 hours in front of the NCAA basketball tournament on a pull-out sofa bed in a delerious state due to a high fever makes time pass in a very very bizzare way.

- Two straight 12 hour stints on a pull-out sofa bed in front of the NCAA tournament with a high fever eventually makes your back hurt. A lot.

- Two straight 12 hour stints in front of the NCAA tournament doesn't burn you out, it actually makes you want even more NCAA tournament.

- Red Gatorade is better than blue Gatorade.

- Jello is highly underrated.

- An all-toast diet makes you appreciate good jam.

- The Applebees shrimp commercial with those two nitwits playing the Gilligan theme not only convinced me never to spend my money in Applebees again, but almost caused me to turn the tv off entirely. Almost. I saw (or otherwise registered from my limbo half-sleep) that damn ad at least 25 times.

- Indiana has the best warmup pants in the history of college basketball. The program must have inherited them from either the local hospital or a circus.

- College coaches wearing sport jackets in their university's color sometimes looks good (North Carolina) and sometimes doesn't (Tennessee, Alabama). But it's always cool.

CT & RI

2006-03-15T09:42:00.000-05:00

Just when it seems like things are easing up a bit, work and CNU committments get turned up a notch. I'm losing control of my to-do lists.

What a great weekend visiting with the Wrights, Heather and I spent time with Joaquin (and Julie and Juan, of course) and took Diego to the aquarium on Saturday. Here's a better picture of the new guy:

Diego and I had a few jam sessions over the weekend, he's picked up the harmonica. Here he is playing the harp in his pjs.

Poor Diego, life for him is one big quiz show. Diego, how old are you??? One! Diego, who's that?? Little bruddah! Diego, what's his name??? Jahchin! Diego, what did you see this morning?? See ehyuns! Diego, what else?? Boo-gah whales! I guess that's how you communicate with someone who can only answer with two words at a time, max.

When he tries to communicate with us, it only gets through about half of the time. On the way to the aquarium, for 15 minutes straight, he chanted "Ta-guh, ta-guh, ta-guh, ta-guh" for at least fifteen minutes while pointing out the window and occasionally letting lose a big tiger roar and laughing. Who knew the southern CT/RI region is infested with tigers only visible to one year olds?

On our way to the hospital on Saturday we stumbled across this jewel of a street in New London, CT. Apparently the entire street is a historic preservation area, resulting in careful upkeep, architectural harmony, and incredible streetscape. The only drawback is the fact that the street is perfectly straight, it could use a slight bend or some variation in the curb line to keep it from becoming monotonous.

Joaquin

2006-03-10T14:11:00.000-05:00

Heather has a new nephew today! Joaquin Mateo DelPrado. I'm heading down tonight - more pictures to come...

Joaquin Mateo DelPrado was born on March 10, 2006, at 8:13am at the Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London. He weighs 9 LBS exactly and is 21 inches long just like his big brother did, but thats where the similarities end. Joaquin has jet black hair and lots of it! Diego is excited to meet his little brother!
Love,
Julie, Juan Carlos, Diego, and Joaquin

Knight Fellowship article

2006-03-08T10:42:00.000-05:00

Here's a good overview of the Knight Fellowship program and the annual charrette.

My former self

2006-03-07T18:07:00.000-05:00

Lombard sent me a lovely picture this morning:

The gravestone reads:

JF
In memory of
JONATHAN FORD
who departed this
life July 12, 1817
Aged 83 Years
8 Months
& 3 Days

There's also some kind of Revolutionary War plaque on it. Lombard, I don't know how you found this...I know you've always wished for a grave with my name on it. Pretty damn cool (and weird). My former self lived from 1734-1817 and participated in the Revolutionary War. Probably as a cook.

Sounds of the week

2006-03-05T14:34:00.000-05:00

I have been on a cd-buying binge lately. That's how I operate. Months with no new additions to the iPod, then cd purchases at an alarming rate, repeat as desired. Here are capsule reviews of a few of the latest:

Dandy Warhols - Odditorium
***
You have to be in the mood for the Dandy Warhols too cool slowed-down party music. Odditorium is not up to the standards of "Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia", but way better than "Welcome to the Monkey House". Solid Dandy Warhols.

Gavin DeGraw - Chariot
***1/2
The double album is great roots rock, and rises above the cheese factor that turns me off from most albums of this genre. Very cool combo of the original studio album and loose 1st & 2nd take 1-night re-recordings of the songs between tours.

Queens of the Stone Age - Over the Years and Through the Woods (Live CD/DVD)
**
QOTSA are one of my favorite eccentric, "stoner" rock bands. This live album is missing the wild energy of bootlegs I've heard from their tour with Dave Grohl on drums, but still proof that their ferocious sound is legit. Live recordings show what a band is really all about, and this one adds to the overwhelming evidence that they are the real deal. Any newcomers to QOTSA should buy their first 2 studio albums first.

the Dirtbombs - If You Don't Already Have a Look
****
Detroit's ass-kicking fuzzed out 2 drummer 2 bassist punk outfit somehow combines 2-minute hardcore punk songs with soul/r&b influences. Some songs were written & recorded in an hour, and they sound it. Not a bad thing.

Danger Doom - Mouse & the Mask
****1/2
Crackling-smooth beats heavy on the hooks from Danger Mouse combined with playfully clever rhymes from MF Doom and cameos from cartoon characters. Brilliant!

Miami & Memphis

2006-02-24T23:24:00.000-05:00

The site of this year's seven day Knight Fellowship Charrette was chosen today after two presentations outlining the Memphis and Austin proposals and lengthy discussion among the 12 fellows. We voted anonymously, and the first vote returned an overwhelming decision: Memphis! The proposals were very different - Austin is a 1600+ acre greenfield (undeveloped) development site at a soon to be completed highway interchange north of Austin, and Intown Memphis is a struggling community just east of downtown Memphis, located between two growing hospitals and struggling to overcome several tough issues.

A quick picture summary - here's the scene of the charrette training and Fellowship charrette presentations and discussion inside the beautiful new Leon Krier designed architecture building on Miami's campus. Lots of maps, photographs, schedules, and charts.

We spotted several toucans while walking to get coffee on Miami's campus:

This was the view from happy hour on Miami Beach yesterday after our program ended. Tough life.

We saw this boat (the little one) which had a helicopter, cigarette boat, Hummer, and Mini Cooper all on board. Insane.

A few pictures from the Miami Beach art deco architecture tour a few of us took yesterday:

Coral Gables

2006-02-22T22:32:00.000-05:00

Back in Coral Gables for day 1 of the NCI charrette leader certification training as part of my fellowship at Miami - another fantastic and very inspiring day here. We spent the first half of the day getting background on the three parts of the charrette: preparation, charrette, and post-charrette implementation, and the second half of the day was spent practicing with hands-on public meeting simulations. I had to role-play as a city representative for a project for one part of the meeting, then facilitate a 9 person public visioning session for the second part of the meeting. Way more difficult than I expected, and I didn't think it would be easy... We'll be getting into more detail about how to facilitate public meetings and more intricacies of the urban design public process tomorrow.

Our fellowship group will be deciding this week whether to hold this year's Knight Program charrette this summer in Memphis or Austin. Both cities have put together incredible applications and will be presenting their case, and I really think the decision will be difficult because the proposals are very different from each other.

After the training was done for the day we grabbed pre-dinner cocktails at the Biltmore. Not too bad, especially for all of you reading back in Boston:

The view from our table of the biggest pool I have ever seen:

Then we headed into Miami for dinner at a Cuban restaurant. Chicken, rice, plantains, and endless sangria. I'm off to bed now to get some sleep before starting the day tomorrow with a run out in the warm Florida sun. Life is tough...

Change of plans

2006-02-20T21:01:00.000-05:00

Well, the long weekend didn't exactly go as planned. Instead of visiting my brother in Chicago I spent the weekend at the gym, working on research at the office, and watching movies with Heather. Remember that meal I cooked on Tuesday? Well, in an amazing coincidence, Heather had one of the worst stomach flus I've ever seen starting Wednesday, with the effects still not completely fought off. Flying was probably not the most brilliant idea, so we postponed the trip.

And before all you wiseasses start in - she wasn't feeling well before the meal I cooked, and I actually have been forced into service as a cook while she's been sick serving scrambled eggs, toast, and crackers like a pro.

We had the chance to watch a bunch of movies - including Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room, Last Days, and Good Night and Good Luck. The three had some similarities: Enron and GN&GL were both about hateable bad guys and the role of silent accomplices & whistleblowers, with Enron's silent accomplices helping to carry out the worst corporate fraud in our history, and GN&GL's Edward Murrow and Fred Friendly daring to stand up to Joseph McCarthy. I loved Good Night and Good Luck, great film, tremendous directing by George Clooney.

Last Days was a fascinating artistic idea from Gus Van Sant. The film is based on Kurt Cobain's last days and follows a rock star trying to recover from drug addiction and the pressures of public life and stardom in a secluded house in the woods. Much of the movie is unscripted and ad-libbed, and the direction and cinematography leaves a lot to viewer interpretation. For example, extended mood shots and shots where the actors are out of frame, the lead character mumbles through the whole movie (we turned on subtitles), and the lack of background musical score leaves the viewer to figure out what's important rather than be led to it. I thought it worked, the main character didn't speak coherently through most of the whole movie but came across as complicated and likable. If you rent the dvd, make sure to watch the "behind the scenes" extras to see more about the artistic concepts behind the film. Cool stuff.

Off to Coral Gables again tonight through Saturday for a fellowship workshop! Wish I actually had time to enjoy the sunny Florida weather.

Food

2006-02-15T09:56:00.000-05:00

I actually cooked a meal, yes, a real meal with more than 5 ingredients, last night. Heather was in Philadelphia for the day and off to Charlotte today so I figured a relaxing meal at home would be a good Valentine's Day gift. I cooked one of the "easy" healthy recipes in my latest Men's Health magazine. Easy, my ass! It turned out great, and would probably have been easy for people with some cooking experience, but Tuscan chicken pasta with ingredients like peppers and garlic that had to be diced and mashed, pasta and chicken to be cooked, separately, beans, rosemary, and spinach to be measured... I mean, come on, this is not something a normal person whips up in 15 minutes on a workday after a workout. But it was pretty good, and very healthy.

And by the way, if I ate what Men's Health has recommended you include as part of your daily diet over the course of my subscription, I would definitely explode. Plenty of lean meat and chicken, fruit and nuts, protein shakes, 1 glass of wine, 1 cup of tea, 2 glasses of milk, 7 glasses of water, flaxseed, fiber, soy... Maybe I'll try it someday and see how healthy I feel.

Financial planning from a real pro

2006-02-10T13:03:00.000-05:00

I have been making more money than I can spend lately, which some call "saving". The key is to stop going out to bars so much...become a homebody and spend all your free time reading urban design books and working on research and your credit card balance will reach new lows.

Lacost...olo

2006-02-06T21:01:00.000-05:00

Ern's boyfriend Frank is a fashion designer, who knew? He came up with this brilliant design, which would sell like crazy, I'm sure of it, if it weren't for the fact that the two actual clothing manufacturers involved would be tripping over themselves to sue him. The shirt looks quite respectable:

Until you zoom in on the logo:

Super Lombard

2006-02-06T09:33:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Lombard and his Steelers, SuperBowl champions. Brings me back to the days in Chicago where we'd split Sundays between the Pats, Steelers, and Browns, always humoring Joe with Steelers time. I remember one day he actually swore them off in a fit of rage, only to be back in front of the tv seven days later, McDonalds fish sandwich in hand. A true fan.

Congratulations to me as well, for winning the first quarter in my office squares pool. Quite a year for casual gambling - a squares quarter ($40), the year-long office NFL pool ($180), and most importantly and least luck-based, my fantasy football championship (pride). Time to take it to Vegas!

As for commercials, they ranged from mediocre to poor except for the pregame Patriots linemen ad with Brady in the back acting like a rock star. I loved it - the linemen getting the spotlight and spoofing Brady. I thought it was a sign of good commercials to come, but it was actually the peak.

Calla - TT the Bear's

2006-02-02T00:49:00.000-05:00

It's a good thing Calla's songs are so strong, because they mailed in their show at TT the Bear's last night and I still remain a devoted fan. Strangely, they were without their second guitarist, and their full, raw sound was so noticeably lacking that it made me wonder. Did they get in a fight? Is he sick? Did he fall off the tour bus? I can't imagine they actually chose to go without, but I think that's what happened. Guitarist/lead vocalist Aurelio Valle gamely attempted both rhythm and lead guitar parts, but songs like "Initiate", "Strangler", and "It Dawned on Me" were crying for more depth.

Sean Donovan's seductive rolling basslines took center stage in the mix last night, and that was a big silver lining. Aurelio did his thing, singing and picking out warm guitar lines on his hollow-body guitar with the usual attitude of affected-but-shy indifference. Having seen them several times before, last night it just seemed tired.

Despite an off night at TT's last night, I'll be there next time they're in town.

South Street Diner

2006-01-31T21:40:00.000-05:00

I worked less than one hundred yards from the South Street Diner for over four years before ever setting foot inside. The diner, located at the corner of South Street and Kneeland Street in Boston, has a reputation as an all hours locals spot in the sort-of up and coming Leather District of Boston. It also has a reputation for extremely bad food in my office, and I found out the reputation is well deserved after having brunch there with JR, Ern, and JR's friend Nancy on Sunday.

JR is on a noble quest to find the best brunch spot in Boston, and I'm not one to pass up trying something new, but I think the fact that 50+ employees in my office do not frequent the place is a more than subtle message. The refreshingly brash and gritty atmosphere did not make up for the runny omelet with barely cooked bacon, cold toast, and hash browns that seemed microwaved. Mmmm. See you again in four years.

Winter.

2006-01-31T09:48:00.000-05:00

Ugh, it's hard to keep a blog current when work is crazy and you have a cold. My to-do lists are becoming scary. I wish I were here:

Fredo

2006-01-26T13:15:00.000-05:00

Let me begin by saying some of my best friends graduated from Boston College, and by no means should I stereotype many thousands of BC students and alumni. But I also have vowed twice (I didn't learn) to never again set foot on BC campus because of the shameful way Notre Dame football fans were treated on gameday by what seemed like everyone around us not wearing blue & gold. BC fans, translate "f-ck Notre Dame" and think about what you're actually saying. I really don't understand the hatred directed our way, although I think there's a connection to the "Yankees suck" nonsense.

Anyway, NDnation has listed ND's opponent on October 13, 2007 as "Fredo", after the character in the Godfather. Hilarious. And by the way, the editor's note in the Fredo post is a bit much in my opinion, but I can understand where the frustration is coming from.

Calla

2006-01-25T14:32:00.000-05:00

Calla plays at TT's next Wednesday. Anyone in?

Kobe & tv

2006-01-24T17:43:00.000-05:00

I didn't know Kobe scored 81 points Sunday night until I read Eileen's post about it this evening, confirming the success of my efforts to weed tv and the internet out of my life. So successful, in fact, that important news stories and useful information like the weather don't find their way into my head until it's too late. Witness me wearing sneakers and my nice winter coat in a blizzard yesterday. That blizzard came out of nowhere.

Check the always entertaining Boston Sports Guy's column about Kobe.

Harvest, etc.

2006-01-22T21:44:00.000-05:00

Lots of eating over the weekend. Hit trusted Fajitas & Ritas on Friday night, and for the first time since I can remember I didn't have a 'rita. Now I have a craving for one. Mom came into the city Saturday, and we had lunch at 75 Chestnut, which is Beacon Hill's best kept secret. Oops.

On Saturday night, after several weeks of colds and other distractions, Heather and I had our Christmas date. We caught a movie at the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square, where they were holding a "celebration of Werner Herzog". Hurray Werner! We both celebrated Werner by falling asleep during his "The Wild Blue Yonder", which was actually a very cool visually poetic science fiction film, just very slow.

The Brattle Theatre is a fantastic little independent theater with an incredibly diverse film offering. Check this article for some background and history. Unfortunately they face closing unless they raise a lot of money by the end of February to pay their lease and stay open. Support them!

Harvest, located on a little alley off Brattle Street, was excellent. Four stars. I ordered Salmon with cauliflower, tangerine, and wheat something or other mixed together, it was quite unique and pefectly prepared. I'm looking forward to a return visit in the spring when we can check out their patio, but I should make a reservation for that now...

New Urbanist/Walmart Summit

2006-01-18T09:25:00.000-05:00

Notes by Laura Hall on a meeting with Walmart to discuss an urban model, based on ideas that came out of the Mississippi Katrina charrette:

1. Prototypical designs: Wal-Mart is actively working on what they
call "non-prototypical" designs, including green and multilevel urban
buildings. Green buildings they are most proud of are those in
McKinney, Texas and Aurora, Colorado. Lots of cool "green" stuff, but
both buildings still have long blank walls and sit behind large parking
lots. They also showed us examples of their urban, multi-level
buildings. From my notes, these examples are in Honolulu, Baldwin
Hills, Korea, Coral Springs and Long Beach. Most of them looked like
they had public streets in front of them. When I expressed my surprise
that I hadn't heard about these, one of them remarked that the only news
that gets written about Wal-Mart is bad news. Currently, though, they
see this model being used mostly in dense urban settings outside of the
U.S.

2. Architecture: They are actively considering the mixed-used,
multi-level Wal-Mart design that Ben Pentreath drew for Pass Christian
during the Forum charrette. They did call us on the carpet about the
architectural style, though. One of them said he had heard that Ben was
from England, and that although he thought his drawing was beautiful, he
respectfully said that it looked like Buckingham Palace! They said they
were more interested in an architecture for the Pass Christian store
that reflected the South. (Yes, you've read this correctly.)

3. Suburban vs. Urban: Before the Mississippi Forum, Wal-Mart
hadn't considered an urban building model to be appropriate along the
Gulf Coast. They said they've only built urban buildings where there
was already an urban setting, and mostly out of the U.S. They normally
don't create the urban setting themselves. We were asked, "When is the
Wal-Mart Village coming to Pass Christian?" in reference to Tom Low's
charrette drawing.

4. SmartCode: We told them that the Pass Christian SmartCode could
enable the development of the Wal-Mart Village. As a group, they were
interested in learning more about the SmartCode. None of them had heard
about it before. One of them said that it sounded like a great idea
because the same rules would then apply to everyone - not one set of
standards for Wal-Mart and one set of standards for everyone else as is
often the case in the communities where they work. At least two of them
are now planning to attend the SmartCode workshop in Biloxi in March.

5. Wal-Mart and New Urbanism: After the meeting, one of them told
me that New Urbanist communities only have high end stores and that the
regular people need to have places to shop, too. Having a Wal-Mart
included in these projects would increase diversity and choice.

6. Pace of rebuilding: We made it very clear that the Pass
Christian Mayor and Board of Aldermen want Wal-Mart rebuilt as soon as
possible since it had represented 15% of their city budget prior to
Katrina. They do not want design considerations to slow down the
rebuilding. One of the Wal-Mart executives told a member of our team,
"But quick doesn't have to mean ugly."

7. Follow up: They have given us their commitment to send 1-2
people from Wal-Mart's Real Estate and Design division to the Pass
Christian SmartCode charrette Feb. 15-19 to work on the design of the
Pass Christian Wal-Mart store and/or village. We told them that this
would be a roll-up-your-sleeves-event where real plans would be made.
They said they understood this and they then gave us the names of their
local architects for follow-up.

We couldn't have asked for a better meeting, and we remain very hopeful
about the implications for Pass Christian, Ocean Springs and other
communities. All feedback is welcome and appreciated as the City of Pass Christian
moves forward with their rebuilding plans.

Protests

2006-01-17T08:41:00.000-05:00

I couldn't believe it, but there were riot police on Beacon Hill over the weekend. I couldn't find a story about it on the internet, but a Nazi group planned a protest at the African Meeting House on Joy Street on Saturday. So stupid. I didn't see any Nazis; instead the scene was dominated by a large group of anti-Nazi demonstrators blocking the street, walking in circles chanting. Quite a scene.

Good for them, and it was also good to see the Boston police just blocked the street from cars and left them alone.

Green Manhattan

2006-01-13T10:26:00.000-05:00

New York City is the greenest city in the United States, according to this article published a few years ago in The New Yorker. I love this article, because it clearly, and in great detail, articulates the view that good urban planning has a far greater impact on the future of our environment than "site level" green design features such as green roofs and energy efficient heating systems.

In other words, a building designed with every fashionable green feature but built in the wrong place, i.e. following sprawling development patterns, increasing vehicle miles traveled and congestion, and missing urban infill opportunities, is not an environmentally sound impact when looking at the big picture. Here's an excerpt:

When most Americans think about environmentalism, they picture wild,
unspoiled landscapes - the earth before it was transmogrified by human
habitation. New York City is one of the most thoroughly altered landscapes
imaginable, an almost wholly artificial environment, in which the terrain¹s
primeval contours have long since been obliterated and most of the parts
that resemble nature (the trees on side streets, the rocks in Central Park)
are essentially decorations. Ecology-minded discussions of New York City
often have a hopeless tone, and focus on ways in which the city might be
made to seem somewhat less oppressively man-made: by increasing the area
devoted to parks and greenery, by incorporating vegetation into buildings
themselves, by reducing traffic congestion, by easing the intensity of
development, by creating open space around structures. But most such
changes would actually undermine the city¹s extraordinary energy efficiency, which arises from the characteristics that make it surreally synthetic.

Because densely populated urban centers concentrate human activity, we
think of them as pollution crisis zones. Calculated by the square foot, New York City generates more greenhouse gases, uses more energy, and produces more
solid waste than most other American regions of comparable size. On a map
depicting negative environmental impacts in relation to surface area,
therefore, Manhattan would look like an intense hot spot, surrounded, at
varying distances, by belts of deepening green.

If you plotted the same negative impacts by resident or by household,
however, the color scheme would be reversed. My little town has about four
thousand residents, spread over 38.7 thickly wooded square miles, and there
are many places within our town limits from which no sign of settlement is
visible in any direction. But if you moved eight million people like us,
along with our dwellings and possessions and current rates of energy use,
into a space the size of New York City, our profligacy would be impossible
to miss, because you¹d have to stack our houses and cars and garages and
lawn tractors and swimming pools and septic tanks higher than skyscrapers.
(Conversely, if you made all eight million New Yorkers live at the density
of my town, they would require a space equivalent to the land area of the
six New England states plus Delaware and New Jersey.) Spreading people out
increases the damage they do to the environment, while making the problems
harder to see and to address.

MFA: Architects on Film

2006-01-12T13:26:00.000-05:00

Check out the Architects on Film series at the Museum of Fine Arts today through February 5.

Lou

2006-01-12T09:15:00.000-05:00

I love Lou Holtz, although I didn't know he was a big Republican. I guess as part of Notre Dame leadership, chances are that he would be. Nobody's perfect. Here are some great quotes from the man.

Boston City Hall

2006-01-08T19:22:00.000-05:00

Eileen posted a link on her blog to this list of "squares most in need of improvement", topped by our own City Hall Plaza. Not surprising really.

I think it's easy to look back and condemn the mistakes of 60s urban renewal, but looking back at the thinking at the time that enabled the wiping out of the West End and creation of the soulless Goverment Center makes it easier to understand why it happened. Here's a link to an interesting discussion by Boston architects on the subject.

No one denies City Hall Plaza needs change, and there have been plenty of campaigns attempting to fix the space with creative design ideas, but all have either been shot down by loud opposition, failed to gain necessary financing, or faded to obscurity due to conservative Boston politics. With such a high profile space, loud opposition is bound to surface no matter what the proposal, which makes it difficult to actually gain consensus on anything. So City Hall Plaza remains, although it did gain this street art thing within the last couple years.

I personally think the plaza could be dressed up, but the underlying challenge is that the space is too damn big. I think the addition of two four/five story buildings on Cambridge Street makes sense. The buildings should be permeable somehow to allow movement from Cambridge Street to the resulting plaza, City Hall, and Fanueil Hall and the North End beyond, and should include uses that activate the resulting plaza space at all hours of the day.

I believe the new buildings should include a restaurant, a bar or coffee shop open late, and possible civic use such as a historical center or visitors' center, with offices and/or residences on upper floors. Major improvements to the plaza itself must be made to make it a place where people want to spend time. This idea has several benefits:

1. Completes Cambridge Street and activates the existing uses (bagel shop, CVS, Kinsale Irish pub, etc.);
2. Results in a manageable, active urban plaza space with a more comfortable feeling of enclosure;
3. Improves the Cambridge Street - North End view corridor from both ends (picture below); and
4. Reinforces connection from Beacon Hill and Boston Common through Government Center to Fanueil Hall and the North End.

Happy New Year!

2006-01-01T17:27:00.000-05:00

Ode to a retired iPod

2005-12-30T20:33:00.000-05:00

O iPod, you have served me well. Through countless walks to and from work in the heat and cold, rain and snow, plane flights and train rides, miles and miles on the treadmill and by the river, green line trips to and from Freeman Street, you have provided a soundtrack for 2 long years. True, your screen may no longer work, I can't fit all my songs on your hard drive - they don't even make 10 GB iPods anymore, and your third set of headphones may be worn to bare wire, but I was ready to stick with you. Until I found a shiny new Ipod in my Christmas stocking from Heather. But I won't forget you! I swear! You'll provide a valuable backup of my songs as you sit in a drawer, unused. Well, not all my songs, only 10 GB. They don't even make 'em that small anymore.

iPod, RIP.

Maverick Gardens

2005-12-29T11:49:00.000-05:00

I made it out to Maverick Gardens yesterday for construction inspections. Maverick is a HOPE VI housing redevelopment site in East Boston replacing "distressed" housing with new development. I only worked on Phase II, which is the wharf redevelopment on the coastline, but it was interesting to check out Phase I across Sumner Street. Here's the incredible view of downtown Boston from Sumner Street:

A view of construction along a new, extremely narrow one-way street. Very urban street section including zero building setback, narrow sidewalks, and narrow parking lanes and through lane width. The street will appear much less dry and harsh when the street trees mature.

Backyards victimized by unfortunate fence choices:

Check out the view looking down the street towards the Harbor. Quite a terminated vista.

I'm very optomistic to see how buildout of future phases establishes a more coherent community than what is in progress right now.

Mitt

2005-12-27T21:22:00.000-05:00

I walked past Mitt Romney ringing the bell for the Salvation Army in Downtown Crossing last week in front of five television cameras. The poor guy, he's humbly trying to do something charitable and all the cameramen make it into a big scene.

Journalism?

2005-12-22T09:09:00.000-05:00

Here is an example of a story undermining New Urbanism by an author who didn't take the time to learn what New Urbanism really is or actually talk to a New Urbanist. I'd expect more from a source such as NBC. The concern regarding casinos in Biloxi is certainly understandable, but tying that to New Urbanism and then painting NU in such a slanted manner is subversive and irresponsible.

New Urban Progress

2005-12-21T15:20:00.000-05:00

I was lucky enough to have Mike Lydon, fellow New Urbanist, author of the New Urban Progress blog, and all around excellent guy, fit me into his busy schedule yesterday while he's home from his first semester at Michigan's urban planning and design school. Despite technically being a Wolverine, it seems that Mike is enjoying school quite a bit. I was especially surprised to hear that not all students in his program are urban design nerds like we are. What?

Also interesting is the fact that few schools center their programs around traditional neighborhood development and traditional architecture as Notre Dame and Miami do, so even though the dean is a New Urbanist and there are NU faculty, Mike feels in the minority as a dedicated New Urbanist. I think being exposed to all aspects of design thought is incredibly valuable and makes a well-rounded designer, but I'd hate to miss out on what I'd learn at a full-time NU program.

Most appealing to me was hearing about Mike's life as an urban design student, the studio time, history of urban form class, designing and drawing.... Studying and drawing full time, and not just at night and on weekends, sounds amazing to me. If I converted my current free time activity into my full time activity, would I have to find a new hobby to fill up my free time? Hmmm.

1986

2005-12-21T14:04:00.000-05:00

Jeremy wants a Steve Grogan throwback jersey for Christmas. Not me! I'd settle for nothing less than Fryar or Tatupu.

Webzine

2005-12-20T12:43:00.000-05:00

Check out the second edition of CNU New England's webzine for excellent articles, urban design tips, book review, and upcoming events. Unfortunately, the wrong file was uploaded for my reading list page, so ignore that for now.

Anyone looking to donate time maintaining our website? There's a free CNU membership in it for you...

Mary's blog

2005-12-15T15:18:00.000-05:00

Mary Newsom, Associate Editor at the Charlotte Observer and Knight Fellow, just started a blog called "the Naked City". In her post about Seaside she states that the question of Seaside being "real" or "elitist" is irrelevant. I agree; the "real & elitist" issue regarding Seaside is valid in that Seaside IS lacking reality and elitist in a way, but irrelevant because that's not Seaside's lasting value to New Urbanism and the evolution of urban design.

The List - addition

2005-12-13T21:08:00.000-05:00

An addition to the Christmas list for anyone that cares, or for people like Lombard who have been way more naughty than nice and have some catching up to do:

6. Town Planning in Practice, by Raymond Unwin, Princeton Architectural Press. This one may be hard to track down.

Seaside

2005-12-12T14:34:00.000-05:00

As I sit here on a plane from Atlanta back to cold and snowy Boston, I think the best word to sum up my state after 4 days in Seaside, Florida is shellshocked. This was the second of my trips for the Knight Fellowship (see my previous Miami posts), we all came down for the Seaside Institute’s three-day Advanced Traditional Neighborhood Design Techniques seminar and managed to pack in Fellowship meetings, unbelieveable dinners, discussions, and debates, and extra tours of other nearby New Urbanist developments in addition to one of the best seminars I have attended. Where do I start?

Seaside, widely recognized as the setting for Jim Carrey’s the Truman Show, is one of the first New Urbanist towns ever built. Construction began in the early 1980s and continues to this day, but the town as it stands now is a model of New Urbanism in many ways. It is laid out centered on a town green on the north side of the state highway that runs along the Florida panhandle coastline. The town green is lined by two and three-story mixed-use buildings - a local market, record store, bookstore, shops, and offices.

Tiny temporary liner buildings serve as business incubators and allow for flexibility as the town evolves through the volatile retail market.

The Seaside post office has its own special spot anchoring the green, and in reality, the whole town.

At the seminar, Robert Davis, the town founder (developer isn’t a strong enough word for the monumental achievement of Seaside), and Andres Duany, revolutionary urban designer and leader of the New Urbanism, spoke at length about the strategies they employed during Seaside’s design and mistakes they made. Absolutely riveting to urban design freaks like myself, and a bit surreal to be learning about urbanism from the best of the best in a setting as historic and intensely New Urbanist as Seaside.

Seaside’s New Urbanist bones, the incredibly narrow interconnected streets with informal parallel parking,

mixed-use buildings and town center,

Charter school,

chapel with formal greenspace,

incredible vista terminations including beach pavilions, the chapel, rotundas, and other town buildings,

and narrow paths behind residential lots,

I could go on and on. It was interesting to notice the lack of sidewalks leading to informal low-speed streets and a tighter feeling of enclosure. Classic New Urbanism, which I have never really experienced to this extent. Not even close. One interesting measure of community that I experienced: can you run out for a cup of coffee and a muffin in the 15 minutes before the airport shuttle comes to your house to run you to the airport? In Seaside’s case as I found out, the answer is yes.

The interesting thing about Seaside is that due to its location on the Florida coast, the quality of construction and feeling of community, and the obvious appeal to a market that has been underserved, the value of property has skyrocketed and more than two-thirds of the homes are not owner occupied. Most are multi-million dollar vacation homes, which leads to a strange feeling that we were wandering around a quasi-ghost town. The community feeling was strange, not surprisingly. Seaside is widely identified as a New Urbanist prototype, which is true when looking at the physical urban design DNA, but any criticism of New Urbanism based on Seaside being for the rich only, or too pretty, or as a resort town, is technically true but does not hold up as criticism of New Urbanism. Andres called Seaside a “propaganda machine”, which is exactly how I view it. Seaside’s value comes in those who come to visit based on its reputation and leave with an increased understanding of New Urbanism by living it, breathing it, experiencing it, then take that with them to their region and apply it.

The physical urban design really does facilitate the creation of community, as it did for our fellowship group in four short days. The Fellows were put up in for-rent cottages across the town; I stayed with Geoff Dyer, an urban designer from Calgary, and Kris Smith, a community representative in Miami, in a three bedroom cottage in a neighborhood about four blocks east of the town green. Our cottage:

Almost all cottages have porches, are extremely close to each other, and feature the back path system (called “Krier walks” for Leon Krier who came up with the idea), and show how urban design can influence community life. Andres revealed that part of the reason they implemented the back paths was to decrease residents’ tendency to revert to their private backyards, thus forcing them to use their porches and reinforce street life, which was the priority all along. He stated he wasn’t sure that was such a good idea. I actually believe the porches are fantastic, but the back walks are incredibly interesting as well as they weave through the town, provide spots to hide utilities, connect here and there to back porches and decks, and add another level of complexity to a town design that already is completely immersive.

Thursday night after dinner the Fellows walked around the town enjoying tours of all our cottages, and it was so cool to see different building types (cottages, lofts, townhouses, houses), different interior designs, different parts of town, streets, etc. Saturday we spent two hours discussing the seminar and a few Fellows’ research projects at Tony and Steve’s cottage, and Saturday night we had after dinner wine and cocktails at Mary and Janet’s loft, located over shops in a pedestrian alley.

Three other New Urbanist towns are within a stone’s throw of Seaside: Watercolor, which wraps around the west and north of Seaside, Alys Beach, which is 10 minutes down the state highway, and Rosemary Beach, which is about 5 minutes down from Alys Beach. We toured Watercolor as part of the seminar, but since the tour group was way too large I ended up breaking off and touring around with Janet Seibert, Austin, Texas’ arts director and another Knight Fellow. Watercolor was built after Seaside broke the ice and introduced this relatively radical type of development to the local planning directors, highway engineers, residents, and real estate market. I think the development team gave the marketing people a few too many seats at the table; Watercolor’s houses are in the traditional style of Seaside but bigger and flashier, the hotel is very nice but way upscale, and everything seems too slick.

The town green is beautiful however, and when we were there the paths were lined with candles in paper bags. Hundreds of them. I liked Watercolor’s urbanism quite a bit, the bending streets and small residential parks were fantastic, alleys accommodate garages and utilities, and there were great pathway connections to an existing natural resource preserve.

I tried to get a bit artistic with my camera to capture the sunset and night scene with the glass reeds lining the bridge over the natural resource area. Haven't quite figured out my camera yet.

Rosemary Beach was designed by Andres Duany and his DPZ team as a critique of Seaside. The colors are less understated, the term thrown around was “saturated” color. And since Seaside had proven there was an incredible market for Atlanta/Birmingham/Dallas money looking for multi-million dollar vacation homes built in New Urbanist town center developments, the homes in Rosemary are huge. Each one is an architectural masterpiece, and as I walked around I actually became turned off. Too much architectural detail, too much beautiful architecture all in the similar Spanish style gave off the “Disneyland” feel way more than Seaside. It was too much, and with every single house screaming for attention it made it hard for the houses to really contribute to an overall whole.

I really liked the mixed-use main street and town hall though. Pretty amazing.

Duany and his team next set about to create a critique of Rosemary. The result is Alys Beach, which is just starting to be constructed and is absolutely breathtaking. Wow. You can see the obvious change in direction from the style of Rosemary. They went from saturated color to no color.

For those who don’t really know much about New Urbanism, please don’t get the impression that this is all it’s about. If this type of mega resort development is going to be built, at least it is being done the right way, and it is interesting to see the premium put on New Urbanist town center development but that is only a small fraction of what New Urbanism is all about. For example, see the site about CNU's efforts in the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

So to summarize what I saw in this small section of the Florida panhandle: the amount of effort, MONEY, and masterful new New Urbanist urban design and architecture built in such a short period of time is staggering.

10 Pin

2005-12-06T10:22:00.000-05:00

I have to admit it, I let one of my longstanding stubborn Massachusetts assertions go on Saturday. My company holiday party was at Kings where I bowled for the first time ever with the bigger, heavier bowling balls, and it was way more fun than candlepin. It helped that Heather and I kicked ass and beat the 4 other couples we were bowling against.

The List

2005-12-05T15:53:00.000-05:00

Christmas lists make me uncomfortable, and not just because I'm Jewish. Just like wedding registries, it seems strange to pick out and ask your friends and family for a whole bunch of stuff. But Heather's family sends their lists around unabashedly, and when you think about it it's far better to know what someone wants instead of getting them presents they aren't going to use.

So here's my wish list; you'll see it's not very demanding:

1. World Peace
2. Bowl victory for the Irish
3. Spread of the New Urbanism worldwide
4. Apple gift certificates. My ipod's screen looks like it was run over by a car, and my laptop could use some memory.
5. J. Crew gift certificates. I need some pants.

Thanksgiving rock brawl

2005-12-02T14:06:00.000-05:00

I don't think there's anyone in the rock world I dislike more than Scott Stapp, former lead singer of Creed. What a tool. It seems he got himself into a brawl with 311, on Thanksgiving no less. Talk about a classic case of good vs. evil.

Paste

2005-11-30T09:44:00.000-05:00

Paste Magazine rules. They cover music that is at the mellower end of my range, for example this month's issue features articles about Fiona Apple, Wilco, etc., but every issue has over 100 short reviews of new music, movies, and books. The reviews span all genres - it's an awesome source for new stuff.

The best part of being a subscriber is the free "sampler" cd that comes with every issue. Although it's obviously a promotion intended to sell records, it's good stuff - every cd is a thoughtful mix of new music from different genres and every cd has turned me on to one or 2 new artists. This month's cd has an amazing song from Imogen Heap which I never would have heard otherwise. I have a feeling she may be a bit cheesy and techno, but "Hide and Seek" made me stop in my tracks.

Thanks to Maria for forwarding me the magazine suggestion months ago!

Thanksgiving recap

2005-11-29T09:41:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving highlights:

We had snow Thursday morning, I was shocked as was Ripley. Maybe I should check the weather forecast once in a while. Nah.

Dinner at my Aunt & Uncle's lived up to the always lofty expectations. It was great to see everyone, have Katie Bennett and her parents there, and meet Eric G.'s girlfriend Christina. Here's Eric and Christina after dinner; they were still up for dancing which means they didn't eat nearly enough turkey.

We saw The Ice Harvest Thursday night. It was great - surprisingly unpredictable and gritty, reminding me a little bit of George Clooney's Out of Sight which is one of my favorites.

Friday my Mom had the family over for more turkey and Heather drove up to join us. We ate, then napped in front of the tv watching the Texas/A&M game. Is something wrong with this picture?

Then Friday night was dinner with my Dad and Grandmother at a very cozy restaurant in downtown Hudson, which I had no idea was so nice! I hadn't seen my Grandmother in at least a year, so it was good to catch up.

Spent Saturday and Sunday morning in CT with Heather and her family. Heather's awesome friends Kittson and David were in town so we had lunch with them then went to a cider mill and wandered around Westerly, RI. Here are a few pictures of Westerly, which I really liked. Their residential area features some great old houses in a tightly knit neighborhood, but the 'hood seems a bit disconnected from the equally fantastic retail/office downtown and green. Heather and I will be arranging a tour of Westerly and Stonington this spring for CNU NE, so I will educate myself some more.

Town Hall, taken from the town green:

Backs of main street buildings facing the river:

The town green:

Saturday night Julie (Heather's sister) and Juan had a party at their place featuring a football game that ended as soon as Heather's mom's team scored. Hmmm. Diego was the life of the party, of course.

I watched the ND-Stanford game with Heather and her mom, and almost had a heart attack as ND needed a last minute drive to pull ahead 38-31. I'm sure I was more relaxed than my brother, who bought his plane ticket to the Fiesta Bowl more than a week ago...

OJ

2005-11-23T14:18:00.000-05:00

I'm glad I'm not in the orange juice business. I had no idea it's so cut-throat.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Love thee Notre Dame!!

2005-11-21T13:26:00.000-05:00

It was amazing to get back to Chicago and Notre Dame over the weekend. Spent Thursday night in Chicago with my brother then on Friday we headed to South Bend to stay with Heather's sister Erin and her husband Matt. CJ's for lunch Friday, wow, it has doubled in size. They just reopened after fire shut them down, and it is encouraging to see them still swamped with people although it was strange - not quite the old CJ's we all knew and loved. Mishawaka Brewing Company for dinner - good stuff although by that time Heather and I were delerious due to a long day and lack of sleep from the night out in Chicago Thursday.

Saturday - game day. Ah, it feels good to be winning, the atmosphere on campus for #6 ND was electric. Tailgating, complete with cups and a shotgun speech, lived up to the memories, but unfortunately due to road relocations (!) the moon tower lot is no more. Here's Heather at the cups table, she proved to be a natural and for the rest of the day was highly recruited to be on teams at this winter's Cups VII tournament in Chicago.

Here are the siblings: me and my bro, Heather and Erin. The cool siblings are the ones with sunglasses. Obviously.

ND coasted to an easy win on a cold, crisp fall day, and being inside the sold-out stadium again was a huge rush. Saturday night Erin and Matt had a party at their house, their friends were very fun and the night ended with a 2am guitar sing-along. Good times. Yesterday we had brunch at Tippecanoe on Matt's excellent recommendation, I don't remember them having brunch when I was there, it was awesome!

The weekend spent wandering campus, driving around South Bend, tailgating, and getting back inside the stadium reminded me of how much I love Notre Dame and need to get back way more often...

GO IRISH!!

Busy week

2005-11-16T12:37:00.000-05:00

I think anyone that has creamy peanut butter in their fridge is just plain crazy. Sorry Heather.

I still think about going back to grad school for urban design. Maybe next year.

Heather and I are heading out to ND tomorrow night for the Syracuse game this weekend. The temperature in South Bend is 29 right now, and rain/snow is expected Saturday for the game. Yikes.

Check this list of Mitch quotes. Here's one I found there that I had never heard. I didn't know that was possible.

This one time I was in a convenience store, and a guy came up and asked me, "What's the score?" and I said, "What is the game? If it's a competition between me and you, and the object is to ask the other guy questions he doesn't give a sh*t about, then you are winning, one to nothing."

Weekend

2005-11-13T19:09:00.000-05:00

A pretty relaxing weekend, poor Heather has been very sick so we laid low. Went to work Saturday morning for a while, then we had very important visitors.....Heather's sister Julie, brother-in-law Juan, and 16 month old nephew Diego! Here's me being very serious and giving Diego some Lucky Charms.

That kid is hilarious, he's just beginning to talk but learned a bunch of sign language first, so he waves his hand in front of his stomach to say "please" and touches his fingertips together to say "more". I was playing guitar and stopped, and he looked at me with an on the verge of crying glare and made the "please" sign for more. Or maybe he was begging me to stop and I just caught the sign a bit late.

Saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Saturday night, which I thought was great except for a few super cheesy scenes that kind of ruined the credibility of the movie as a whole. But Tim Burton is a stylistic genius, and the imagination and color were there as always, but I still pick the old one.

Hell freezes over

2005-11-11T21:41:00.000-05:00

Wal-mart invited a group of leading New Urbanists to Bentonville, Arkansas, a.k.a. the innermost circle, to talk about the possibility of designing an more urban Wal-mart model that fits into the surrounding context. Hmmm. I'd like to be a fly on the wall at that meeting.

Coolidge Corner

2005-11-10T12:37:00.000-05:00

Ok, here's the analysis I did of Coolidge Corner as a retail node surrounded by tight, well connected residential blocks. The 1/4 mile 5 minute walk "pedestrian shed" radius is overlaid, with MBTA stops aligning. Usually the edges of 2 pedestrian sheds would touch, but Brookline is high density and green line stops are more closely spaced in this area.

Major thoroughfares show the transit and major intersection coinciding.

Existing green space shows small residential "pocket parks" outside the 1/4 mile retail core radius. Within the radius, the busy pedestrian oriented streets define the public space.

Miami - Day 3

2005-11-07T22:01:00.000-05:00

Just now getting to posting about it, but Day 3 may have been the best. Up early again and we spent the day with Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Dean of the architecture school. She gave us a lecture about the Charter of the New Urbanism and her views of the state of the movement and challenges confronting us, then we had hands-on urban design training from Geoff Dyer, urban designer from Calgary, which might have been my favorite part of the trip. I did an analysis of Coolidge Corner in Brookline with 4 sketches analyzing existing street network, green space, and existing retail. As soon as I can figure out how to scan the oversized sketches, I'll post them.

Then lectures from Jamie Correa, architecture professor, about the charrette they ran in Punta Gorda, Florida after the hurricane there last year, and from Chuck Bohl and Dean Plater-Zyberk again about the post Katrina mega-charrette in Mississippi. It was especially interesting to hear about the management challenges they faced. Here are examples of draft plans for Gautier and Waveland that the community could use as a guide, if they choose.

Check this link for a list of example plans.

Dean Plater-Zyberk took us out to dinner at one of her favorite spots on Miami Beach, which was incredibly generous of her. Even after such a great day, it was a huge relief to get back to my hotel room and have time to myself again. I'll be catching up on sleep for a week...

Miami - Day 2

2005-11-04T23:05:00.000-05:00

Another exhausting and fulfilling day here in Miami. Woke up early and went for a 4 mile run with Glenn Kellogg, an urban economist from Washington DC. We saw some interesting residential neighborhoods with amazing Mediterranean architecture, and quite a bit of hurricane damage and debris. I feel like the situation down here is not adequately reported up north, especially after Katrina. The director of our program still doesn't have power and is staying with the fellows here in our hotel with his wife and 3 kids, and Kim, who works for the program, is still without power and living by candlelight and taking cold showers every day. Driving around the city we see piles of debris several feet high pretty much the length of every neighborhood street, and maybe one out of 10 traffic lights are still out. Very strange.

After the early run and breakfast, we headed out for a tour of Coral Gables given by Ari Millas, a local architect, who was charming with his interweaving of local history (Coral Gables was founded in the 1920s by Fred Merrick, from Boston), current politics, and his unique view of architecture. We met the mayor, who entertained us in City Hall for about 10 minutes before being pulled back into hurricane relief. Here's a picture of CIty Hall:

Coral Gables has a thing about designing parking garages to fit into the community. Taxpayers pay for garages like this:

Lunch at the local bookstore, followed by an extended roundtable back at the University where 5 of us presented what we're working on and thoughts for our reseearch over the course of the next year. My favorite part of the trip so far - a group of 12, including an architect, an urban designer, an engineer, a writer, an artist, a municipal planner, an urban housing representative, a city liason to one of Miami's poorest neighborhoods, a landscape architect, and a developer. Obviously, some thought went into the professional makeup and geographic mix of our fellowship class, and it was so fascinating to combine the different viewpoints when talking about specific projects and challenges.

Tomorrow includes a lecture from Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Dean of the Architecture School and one of the principal co-founders of the CNU, who just returned from awarding Prince Charles the Vincent Scully prize in community building for his work across the pond. Here's a link to a story about it, for some reason I can't directly link from my laptop right now: http://www.europaconcorsi.com/db/rec/inbox.php?id=7600. Then hands-on urban design drafting training, and a lecture about the massive CNU charrettes to help rebuild the Mississippi Gulf Coast following Katrina.

Ok, long past bedtime, I leave you with a picture of my new favorite building at night:

Miami - Day 1

2005-11-03T22:07:00.000-05:00

What a whirlwind day here in Miami, well, Coral Gables actually, on my first day of the fellowship program. We met up for breakfast and grabbed cabs to the brand new building at Miami's architecture school, designed by renowned European architect, inspiration to New Urbanists, and my hero Leon Krier. The building houses a technical classroom, gallery, and auditorium. It's amazing.

My fellowship class is made up of 12 mid-career professionals, and interestingly, only 1 architect. Lots of mini-presentations today, a tour of the Miami campus (a lot smaller than I expected), and dinner outside at a great Italian restaurant. Tomorrow - a tour of Coral Gables with a past fellow and the mayor, presentations from each of the fellows about our work and research (found out about that today!), and dinner at a local Greek restaurant. Doesn't look like we'll get to South Beach this trip!