Alpha Role...

I've been riding horses for a number of years now. I ride Rose(above) most of the time and the stable owner Gary would say about Rose, she's "bullet proof", not easily spooked, tame and easy to control. Gary also trained me each time I get on an animal, even though I may have ridden the same horse many times, to always start anew; whoa, left, right, back, etc... as if I've never been on the animal before. This is to assure the horse and yourself that you are both on the same track. Never assume anything. It's respect. There are few things as exhilarating as being on a 1200 pound horse(with a golf ball size brain) moving at a fast clip, and with a simple movement of the wrist, one can control these wonderful beasts.

I volunteer in a middle school teaching ESL. That same practiced patience while horseback to achieve an initial sense of control works wonders enabling students to understand their own responsibilities in the classroom. It works with clients and contractors too. So it was not much of a surprise when the NY Times had an article on "Becoming the Alpha Dog In Your Own Home", parents are taking the methods for inspiring animal discipline, order and devotion used by Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer, on their own children. Move over Dr. Spock...

Can we all just get along?

A new exhibit at the Center for Land Use Interpretation in Los Angeles sheds light on a little known attribute of the region, which is its urban oil fields. This industry successfully operates hidden behind fences and camouflaged into the architecture in the midst of the suburban sprawl.

On a local note, businesses in the industrial Ballard neighborhood of Seattle have been fighting tooth and nail to prevent the continuation of the Burke-Gillman bicycle trail along side a minor stretch of rail spur citing safety concerns. The reality though, is businesses feel the bicycle right of way will impede commerce. I'm sure if the bicycle trail could become a revenue source, these same pundits would take different view. If only we could monetize sanity.

Change is certain, progress isn't...

After a few weeks, Seattle can finally put a face to a Mayor. It may take a bit longer before we embrace the new mail voting system. Being unable to monitor voter counts over the day to gage the pulse of the election is frustrating. And the value of uncertified electronic tally's from precincts at the end of the evening that can identify successful candidates is no longer available. Live action on election day has become usurped by snail mail! Evening news accounts only offered tiny fractions of voter counts, with the results trickling in over the course the following week. An anti-climatic end. It was odd to see campaigns hustling for votes after the traditional 8PM voting cut off(and after seeing early returns), because the airport post office took mail till midnight. The day's end tally from closing precincts is a much better system, especially since the new format shows no signs of improving voter turnout. Knowing the winners of these elections sooner easily trumps mail balloting.

I don't remember whom I voted for mayor in the primary. I do remember voting against Mr. Nickels. And admit, as it turned out, with Nickles completely out of the field the remaining newbe's were not of my liking. As the election proceeded, the candidates differentiated them selves both in style and content not much different than what we might expect with career politicians like Nickels. And, when have we in the recent past elected lessor known civic stewards? I made choices, I'll admit to being 0 and 2. Maybe this experiment only lasts 4 years, thats o.k. too. This was a chance to realize government is not a professional vocation.

As a community we showed we are willing to seek solutions outside the box for governing our constituency. I hope the new mayor's tenure works out great without it becoming a career. And sooner than later, someone else who I may know little about or not, steps up to the table. Personality is more important in government than face. Best wishes, Mayor McGinn!

Art Imitating Life?

Ellen M. Banner / Seattle Times

The Green River here in the Puget Sound has been threatened by flooding this winter and as a precautionary measure, sand bags have been placed along the banks near major industry. Perfectly ephemeral opportunity with miles of canvas and no environmental impact statements to complete. Would graphics, color or maybe even words made more of an impression? I'm more inclined to accept art-imitating life, in place of the notion of inspired originality.

Vancouver

The Contrarian visited Vancouver recently and was briefly reminded how provincial Seattle seems compared to its neighbor up north. Borders and boundaries are always a good thing. Urban grids here in the downtown are steeped with blocks that are full of individual structures with FAR's and du/acre(unit density per acre) that would make any NIMBY explode! In Seattle, entire blocks are built as one structure(one yard), purporting their "mixed uses"; whereas in Vancouver they're unabashed about letting other stakeholders owning a piece of the block. The photo above of the Main Library by architect Moshe Safdie looms like Roman ruins in the dark winter rain feeling very much like an urban place.

The event of the evening was U-2 at BC Place. A good show, although I can remember when the smoke and light shows didn't compete with the music quite so much.

This is not architecture...

Only in Seattle. Well... maybe that's a little harsh, but this small gem of ludicrous thinking is part of our public sponsored subsidized housing. Whatever the architect or architects were thinking when they came up with the design below is truly a bit of obfuscation! Part of a small cluster of apartment units in an area chock full of other traditional brick walk up apartments. Seems the designers motives were to create the impression that this structure is really just a larger single family residence. At a passing glance you might think to enter this bucolic residence through the green front door. You could use the knocker, but alas, it is missing a knob. If you live here, you need to remind your friends that the glass door to the left or right is actually the way to get into either one of the two units. The non functioning green door is really just part of the exterior siding. Huh?....

Content vs Context

This winter Seattle faced a major snow storm and because our city is not quite used to such events, the public transportation department response was wholly inadequate and obviously unprepared. Simply, there was lack of organization, combined with too few plows serving the community. Normalcy returned in a week or so. After the storm the city spent some 400,000 dollars on consultants to determine what had gone wrong. Read the second sentence.

Seattle has also been facing a storm of criticism for its horrible multi-family housing standards. The Department of Planning has been trying to figure out a way to change rules to create a better denser community. Past administrations and council members (one even an architect) have been dealing with this issue at least as long as I've been in the Puget Sound, some 25 years. And its only gotten worse, especially when the architect got on board. The problem is, politicians are more context players, not content providers. Invariably the political decision making process naturally leans toward pleasing the masses within the context of the community in place of understanding what the community really needs.

Recently, the City Council spent the astronomical sum of 15,000 dollars for three architectural consultants($5,000 each) on a multi-family study. Obviously snow storms are a bigger priority. They were asked to produce 3 good schemes and 3 bad schemes for small infill sites. One over zealous consultant produced 18. During their presentations, the chair of the Planning, Land Use and Neighborhood committee, council member Sally Clark presided over the proceedings seemingly trying to grasp the material in front of her.

Politicians have a habit of needing information presented in the form of an elevator speech to grasp concepts. Let alone numbers and graphics. More disappointing, was the information itself, pictures of Spain, Brooklyn and London were offered as examples of good planning stewardship. I know, I know, context! But, what about Seattle? Architects have a tendency to define things visually. The reason we're dealing with these issues is that the regulations in place have created a single building typology that is both intolerable and inflexible to different site situations. Planning has become a beauty contest. You could see in the presentations, each offered a meager fix all solution of what new development should look like. Spending much more effort to design something instead of developing ordinance. By not fully understanding issues related to the specific existing community infrastructure(not London or Brooklyn) of right of ways, siting, setbacks, and open space, we are only creating another specific building example that will replace the previous disaster.

Politicians believe that if they simply address issues, progress will ensue. Scarier are the lack of intellectual voices that are not politically connected. Its hard to tell which might be worse, a layperson politician trying to grasp the complexity of city development or politically connected consultants in the pockets of politicians working to forward narrow specific agendas. The real issue is the lack of intellectual content available to make viable decisions and politicians reluctance to think outside the box. Read the second sentence.

Deep Soul Heaven

This is not a contrarian disposition. This is deep soul heaven. This is Sir Shambling, a person I know little about except his commitment to share this music. This is amazing stuff.

LEEDing to What?

I'm one of those who subscribes to the notion that I would prefer to not belong to any club that accepts people like me as members. Being "green" is the latest club. Now in architecture there is a new subset of available credentials above and beyond our professional licenses, called LEED certification.

This organization (if you're a member) essentially quantifies your buildings by scoring points of what somebody considers a "green" or "greener" aspect of the structure. Indeed there is a LEED Silver and Gold certification, and even a Platinum LEED certification. Apparently, only certain among us have the credit available to hold a Platinum rating.

To paraphrase Gerry Brown who when many years ago became the youngest governor of California explained, "... sometimes not doing something in government is actually accomplishing something." With sustainability in mind, we are actually better off not creating any new architecture, instead use the over capacity already in place. Unfortunately, under capitalism this is very difficult to achieve.

So environmental pundits with good intentions, I guess, created a kit of parts point system to evaluate and score the worthiness of a building to qualify and carry this branded label called LEED. Presumably there is a premium. During the last design awards program (AIA Seattle) one of the winning solutions discussed with the jury that the decision making process to include some feature was... well, it added some 2 points each to achieving LEED certification. I'm old enough to remember Green stamps.

Good design is not something you score. Neither is sustainability. Its bad enough the political beauty contests that occur at the annual design awards. As a licensed architect myself, I reject the notion that I need to belong to any organization to design and behave in a ecological manner. I believe I've been doing this all along. What's my license for?

Painted Ladies

I'm a fan of the U-District (college district) here in Seattle. It is one of the better examples of neighborhood plurality left in Seattle. I temper that thought with the atrocities that have occurred in the adjacent South Campus of the University. Thats another blog post. But the commercial University Avenue is still urban muscle. They're trying to destroy it, but haven't succeeded yet.

I've admired the above building for a long time. Back in the day, it housed a used bookstore run by a long time U-District character. There were always intriguing women there amongst the musty books and a number of cats. I bought my "used" mint condition copy of Graphic Standards (the architectural bible) for an absurdly decent price. How could he do that? It was also painted during his tenure in this wonderful painted lady hippy kaleidoscope of colors. Today, as its faded it still provides a glimpse of what was a less branded time, albeit the Sub shop.

The power of Paint!

Also around the corner, the above piece of wasted lumber was for years this painted blueish grey and white slug of structure that has this weird doughnut style setback from the street. Its never worked (for me anyway) until now. The audacity of the carnival paint job almost completely disguises the problematic structure itself. Almost... Who would of thought?

Edward Rondthaler

From typesetting to Foenetics, Mr Rondthaler had interesting parallel vocations. In the typesetting industry he was more renown for the mechanics of delivering type than designing it. And from the graphics of typesetting carried forward, to the interaction of sounds implied in the images of those letters. He embraced rationality and simplicity. He recently passed away at 104. It might be interesting to compare the new languages used in phone texting with Soundspel, a simplified English spelling system he championed.

Ivar's Clam Chowda

In the Seattle Times...

Talk about visionary. If what is said about Ivar Haglund and his forward thinking that submarines could become a viable mode of transport is correct. What better way to get the point across than underwater billboards. For Real?

Watch your eye...

Google has never been unabashed about the aesthetic design of their web pages. In fact, at Google, aesthetic decisions must always be approved by technical engineering justification. Google does spend a inordinate amount of time tracking your eyeballs. Making sure they know where your eyes take you as you parse any page, allowing them to maximize the information experience. Woe is the creative type in that place. But in this fun site one can track ones own ability to master eye to mind coordination. It has been told that Leonardo Da Vinci could draw a perfect circle by hand. Leonardo would also wear pink to make his complexion look fresh. Which is also true. But, at least now we can enjoy challenging our senses with The eyeballing game. I don't think it will turn anyone into a Da Vinci or Sergey Brin, but it might.

Where's the beef?

Recently here in Seattle there has been a heated discussion over the expansion of Seattle Children's hospital as a Hearing examiner deemed the project too "aggressive" to the surrounding community. Predictably the arguments involve the scale of the development and the associated impacts on congestion and property values, so on and so on. If there are any precedents in the area, one could view the UW Medical Center located on the South Campus or the Swedish Hospital in Capital Hill. With medicine, bigger is better, this is intrinsically the nature of the beast. But the bucolic Laurelhurst community is arguing the expansion will go beyond the benefit of the institution, to the point of destroying the community's livability. The community at large in Seattle has reacted by countering this to be a myopic self serving constituency. But of course, they don't live there. Maybe as egregious, was the the chief administration officer saying, "... if we're not able (to move forward) or we're delayed significantly, that puts our region's children at risk." Defending his territory by striking terror in the hearts and minds of those who wish to embrace the care of children but are uncomfortable living in an area where one might not want to nurture a family. The reality is, that there is a valid argument against institutional scale redevelopment. Fred Hutch, which is a wonderful community institution, fundamentally affected the delicate balance of a industrial/residential community in the downtown Cascade neighborhood. And this happened not because of the size of the institution, but the manner in which it was designed. There is usually plenty of space to place these facilities, but designers have a tendency to choose outlying suburban models and plop them smack dab in more urban, or in this case, residential areas. Beginning with the vacation of right of ways, they become walled off fortresses with blockbusting cartesian structures that have no affinity with the neighborhoods they are expected to coexist with. Looking at the quick sketch above without out any labels, one could mistake that project with Northgate Mall or another Fred Meyer. Would anyone really want to live next to this? By not fully understanding issues related to the existing community infrastructure of right of ways, siting and setbacks, landscaping and construction sequencing, the institution is doomed to become an isolated island, in spite of its wonderful intentions. In this case both sides are justifiably correct. Children's hospital needs to expand and the community needs a better design. The problem here is not the size or the scope of the institution, but in the manner the architects and planners have laid it out.

Now you see it...

Now you might not...

My calendar came up with this wonderful Eames photo of a circus contortionist this week which reminded me of a series of world war 1 camouflaged ships. I'm a pattern Guy! In both instances, the simple use of alternating panels help distort the physical form to create a enhanced distraction. I would of loved to see that fellow in action with that outfit, but the photo is enough and shows the bandwidth the Eames's embraced in all manner of design and culture.

Our First Post

Remember to post your vote by the 18th!

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote."-Benjamin Franklin. After 15 years of working the election polls here in the Emerald City, it is with some sadness to not be able to experience the community bonding that occurs in polling precincts despite opposing individual political agendas. On the other hand, it just may be that more of us will get involved by the ease of mailing in a ballot. Like the results, we'll just have to wait and see.

Welcome

We're about to start running some posts toward the end of the month as I am still doing some additional noodling on how to best utilize the blog. We're going to be mostly about design and planning (as that is my profession), but I will also venture into other arenas as I see fit. As the site implores we will seek a unique perspective. A big topic will address authorship in creativity and the notion of boundaries as a metaphor for community plurality. But enough seriousness, we also hope to include commentary on anything we deem important from baseball to Bosnia. We also plan to keep things simple and brief. And not to confuse anyone, we are not really a "we", but actually a "I". Hopefully, an interesting eye.