Fundamental #13

http://m.designobserver.com/places/feature/038450

Al-Wakrah Stadium
Qatar, Zaha Hadid
theguardian.com

Hello Everyone:

Before I get going today, I would like to remind of my latest challenge, breaking 15,000 page views by the end of the summer, September 20, 2014.  We're closing in on 13,000, so let's see if we can add about 2,000 more.  Now for today's subject "Real Estate as Infrastructure as Architecture."  Below is a post on the first part of a rather difficult article, littered with English grammatical errors and oblique references.  I've tried to make some sense out of it in hopes that it'll make sense to you.

Modernity, if it could be said, is many things all at once.  Mostly, it has engendered the magical , occasionally violent transformation of substance into money and back.  The substance, in this case, being architecture.  Sometimes this architecture is built, other times is exists in the computer or in model form.  "Fundamentals #13" posits the question when the power to make the invisible visible (i.e architecture), how and when is it possible to resist this power, limit it, redirect or neutralize, or at the very least not be seduced by it?

Al Wakrah Stadium interior
youtube.com

This question cannot be simply asked by the individuals who hold the power within the small realm of the architecture profession.  Nor can it be easily posed in the realm of the elite, transnational cultural milieu in which the architectural discourse takes place.  This is not to say that opposing views and practices do not exist but they can be rendered moot by being given the privilege of sharing the world stage with what they oppose.  By contrast, officially blessed architecture, such as urbanism, with its unquestioning and happy complicity, allows unfettered access to the rationale of the world system-this access is necessary to anyone who thinks that cognitive maps of this system are necessary to change it.

Where architecture and the world collide is typically in the multi-national, multi-local, cross border world of real estate, which sometimes can take the form of a cultural monument, places of recreation, or other places of political-economic significance.  One example of a building as infrastructure is Zaha Hadid Al-Wakrah Sports Complex, designed for the 2022 World Cup Football (Soccer for you Americans) Competition in Qatar.  Ms. Hadid recently commemorated the deaths of hundreds of migrant workers, killed during the construction of the infrastructure, by issuing a rambling statement about power in the cultural realm being exchanged for silence in the political realm, the role of architecture in rising nation-states, finally divesting herself from solidarity with the workers after she famously declared her unity with them.

Foreign workers in Qatar
theguardian.com

Al Wakrah Stadium is an element of a larger more comprehensive program of converting oil money into cultural capital and real estate invest. This program includes a residential enclave-Lusail City, a "city with a vision-" which according to the developers Diar Real Estate Investment Company, "continually striving to improve and enhance people's quality of life and abiding [by] the most stringent international standards."  Yet, those so-called stringent international standards do not include the hundreds of foreign laborers who are building the stadium and live in virtual squalor.  This disingenuous statement from Diar Real Estate Company simply fuels the cry of worker exploitation and the real estate company will stand to profit from this exploitation.

Rem Koolhaus
dezeen.com

Thus, "Fundamentals" takes the position of agreeing with the curatorial program established by architect Rem Koolhaus at the 2014 Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy.  Perhaps the profession has strayed too far into flights of design fancy and it's time to get back to basics? Why not return go back to the beginning through incorporating historical perspective? For the Biennale, Mr. Koolhaus proposed the rubric "Absorbing Modernity: 1914-2014."  A century ago, World War began and was immediately followed by revolution in Europe and Russia, sweeping away the old and replacing it with something that reflect a more industrial aesthetic.  Even Le Corbusier felt compelled to address these cataclysmic changes-"Architecture or revolution?"  Now, one hundred years later, we are in the position to address the consequences.

However, Mr. Koolhaus is not advocating and Nietzschean-type "transvaluation of values" serviced by history, rather he seems to have interpreted fundamentals  as an eternal recurrence within the "architecture of twelve subsets: floor, door, wall, ceiling, toilet, façade, balcony, window, corridor, hearth, roof, and stairs."  The basic components of any building, large or small, from the dawn of time through today.  In the case of the Biennale exhibitions, the "Elements of Architecture," as they represent what the architect refers to  as "the fundamentals of our buildings used by any architect, anywhere, anytime."  They are understood are "unstable compounds" guided by heterogeneous forces.  The article wonders if this list is not some particular way of giving order to things.  Is this list some artifact of the very same modernity that is supposed to be absorbed in the sixty-five pavilions by an unsuspecting world?  By the time the Biennale program was announced, the list had grown to fifteen, with the more banal fireplace substituted for hearth and the addition of the more modern escalator, elevator, and ramp.  Still, the question remains, let's pretend those additional elements are folded into the "stair" component and go back to the original twelve.

Poster for the 2014 Venice Biennale
labrj.org.br

Regardless of how precisely we define the fundamentals, they remain just that. "Fundamentals" observes that the original list seems  somewhat archaic, recalling a typology of days gone by.  The reduces the meaning of "type" to the more utilitarian type that recalls the "kit of parts" relegated to the history books.  They become commodities, fetishes, if you will.  The fact that they are fetishized elevates this elements to a sacred almost magical level in the "invocation of architecture" as a timeless rational subset.  Timelessness meaning anytime, anywhere, part of what makes this "kit of parts" modern.  That and twelve is a good number with religious connotations, that might inspire magical qualities.

The modernity that Rem Koolhaus has in mind is focused on a tightly encapsulated one hundred year "phase-change from distinct national architecture to a 'single modern language,' with 'hidden ways of remaining 'national..."  The "Fundamental #13" dismisses this as an elitist cultural argument saddled with the European nineteenth century concept of style regardless whether it is international or national in character.  The modernity that Rem Koolhaus is referring to is globalization.  Quoting Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Globalization takes place only in capital and data.  Everything else is damage control." (Spivak, 1, 2012)  This simplified approach clarifies the idea of "land" or "real estate"are temporal "global" things like money.  If this is the case, then why is no land or ground on the Biennale program, except those of the disappearing nation?  "Fundamental #13" calls this triskaidekaphobia-fear of the number thirteen.  A fear that "Fundamental #13" will perform some sleight-of-hand to ward off the erasure of history by capital.  Uncharacteristically for Mr. Koolhaus, this hesitation presents itself as a hesitation before a globalizing force, bracketed in order to study its secondary qualities as they were the main focus.

Model of Venice Biennale
Rem Koolhaus
dezeen.com

The 2014 Venice Biennale is supposed to be about architecture and only architecture-not "staritects," urbanism, site, landscape, war, or poverty.  Ah, but that's the beauty of the grand exhibitions, the afore mentioned find their way into the mix, issues that architects and urbanists have been grappling with since the end of World War I.  The fundamental goes on to make an argument connecting Marcel Duchamp's upside urinal, infrastructure and its connection to the outside world.  Admittedly, it's a little hard to grasp the point of the article's case for globalization.  As a measure of helpfulness, the article does offer up a bibliography complied by the Buell Center that might illuminate the reader.  However, the article does offer this caveat, "...learning to read real estate as a contingent historical construction, in relation to architecture.  Which is not the same as reading the signs stuck into the lawn by real estate agents to advertise the qualities of a particular lot..." Infrastructure is what repeats.  Land in the modern sense of real estate is a primary form of infrastructure, we take its repetitious qualities for granted, staying put while changing hands.  By detaching architecture from the land (metaphorically and literally) are attention is diverted from the bankers, realtors, developers, and the client.  This true of a single building or a planned urban development.

Like me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/lenorelowen

Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/glamavon and on Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/glamtroy

Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Lenore/Lowen

Google+ http://plus.google.com/+LenoreLowen
Instagram- find me at hpblogger

Urban Agriculture As A Tool For Real Estate Sales

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2014/05/gentrification-and-the-urban-garden.html

Golden Gate Community Park Garden
sfrecpark.org

Hello Everyone:

Today I'd like to spend some time talking about community gardens.  They seem to be sprouting everywhere and used to attract younger potential residents escaping the sky-high housing prices in San Francisco .  One such enterprise is the Golden Gate Community Garden in the East San Francisco Bay Area.  Lauren Markham, in a recent post for New Yorker Magazine titled "Gentrification and the Urban Garden," shares with readers how these gardens are being used to attract potential residents to Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley area (NOBE).  NOBE is a collection of long established neighborhoods that, since the fifties has been home to low- and middle income African-Americans.  The creation of a community garden is part of the rebranding of the area to drum up real estate business in the area and is an example of how something as simple can be used in the name of gentrification.

Phat Beets Produce logo
co-soap.com

The Golden Gate Community Garden is a program run by the city of Oakland, involving several community garden programs including one manned by the non-profit organization Phat Beets Produce.  On the surface, a community garden sounds like a great addition to any neighborhood.  A plot of land for growing fresh produce, worked by the residents.  It's a nice way to encourage people to come together and take pride in their neighborhood.  A community garden is a great selling point for any potential homeowner.   In 2012 Bay-Area realtor Linnette Edwards posted a video promoting NOBE, a name devised by developers for the area.  The video touts "The fabulous edible garden movement..."  The video was part of the sales pitch used by Ms. Edwards to attract potential clients.  Max Cadji, a Phat Beets volunteer, doesn't quite it that way. "Our work wasn't the cause of gentrification, but our programs and our aesthetic were being used to sell and help displace people."  In response, the organization produced a parody video, demanding that Ms. Edwards remove Phat Beets from the NOBE website.

Oakmore neighborhood
Oakland, California
friedmanrealtor.com

Linnette Edwards understands the criticism and empathizes with those who've been displaced from their communities but firmly believes that promoting the community garden and local farmers markets will benefit both newcomers and long-term residents.  "The energy of community gardens helps curb crime," says Ms. Edwards.  "Having a new park in the area creates a hub of community and conversation."  Ms. Edwards continues, "First, there is a community garden.  then what we hope will follow is a café, and a little market that might pop up providing organic food.  These all draw people to an area."  They are a draw but not the sole reason.  In terms of dollars and cents, Ms. Edwards explains, "The way that these community gardens translate into home prices is self-evident...It impacts resale value."  However, Ms. Edwards does not know of any real-estate agents who actually fund the gardens but suggest that, perhaps, they should.

Berkeley Hills
Berkeley, California
friedmanrealtor.com

Prior to the NOBE rebrand, it was difficult to find a grocery store in the area.  There was an abundance of liquor stores and bodegas but finding healthy affordable food was a challenge.  These "food deserts" have been the targets of community organizations such as Phat Beets, which try to provide access to low-cost nutritious food in low-income communities.  Such programs typically have an anti-commercial stance: "we don't need to buy our food from big chain stores at a high markup, or rely on government handouts, because we can grow our own."  Be that as it may, the community gardens have aesthetic appeal, giving the area a certain rustic charm that makes real estate more attractive.  It didn't take a long time for realtors and developers to cash in on that commercial potential.
"It's not uncommon for real-estate agents to stage veggie beds in the back yard," say Ms. Edwards who has often employed this tactic herself.  "It's a life style that buyers buy into," she explained.  "The life style of growing food.  Which they may or may not do, but they're buying into that food culture."

Blighted lot in Oakland, California
seeclickfix.com

 Typically, the most suitable lots for urban agriculture are blighted lots, found in low-income communities such as NOBE and other post-industrial neighborhoods such as West Oakland and West Berkeley.  As it happens, these neighborhoods are also in the sights of developers eager for construction.  One example is the long neglected lot across the street from Jeff DeMartini's commercial property in West Berkeley, previously his grandfather's cabinet factory.  The lot was overgrown with grass, weeds were invading the sidewalk, graffiti depicting male genitalia, and the occasional dead tree came crashing down.  Last year, the community agriculture organization Urban Adamah bought the lot and announced its intention to install a small farm complete with livestock.  At first, Mr. Demartini thought the chickens and goats might further degrade the site but within a matter of weeks, interest in his property increased as renters came calling.

Urban Adamah farm
urbanadamah.org

  According to Gopal Dayaneni, a member of the advocacy group Movement Generation, "One of the signs of a so-called 'quality' neighborhood is open space and green space.  In real estate terms this translates to higher prices.  Often, community farms are started with the intention of supporting low-income communities, says Tiny Gray Garcia an activist and journalist.  Once they go up Ms Garcia adds, "the real-estate companies come in and start to reassess the land and property value to displace poor people of color.  The community-gardening people may be well meaning, but they don't always understand that they're pawns in the game."  Harsh.

 Ideological differences can surface even when the relationship between developers and farming non-profits is strong.  For example, before the recession, the San Francisco based development company Emerald Fund invest in an undeveloped two-acre plot in West Oakland with the intention of building housing units.  The lot ran up against a gentrifying area but was also bordered by run-down Victorians, abandoned industrial buildings, tarp-covered van and buses that were, perhaps, being used as homes.  Enter the recession and the Emerald Fund gave up on its residential development plans.  Marc Babsin, a principal at the firm said that in order to recoup some of the lost costs, the company got in touch with with City Slicker Farms which sought and won a state grant to increase urban green space.  The grant funds allowed the community agricultural organization to purchase much of the land.  "We had to spend a lot of time and resources, when we owned it, keeping the homeless out.  People would set up encampments, people would dump things there.  Instead of that, having this very activated space where people are coming and going and growing vegetables-it's got to be better for the neighborhood and property values," said Mr. Babsin.

The Emerald Fund is still hoping to build on the remaining land and wants to make sure that the farm is still there as a draw for future condominium residents, not replaced by more blight.  "The farm is for the whole community-not just for your condos," says City Slicker Farm executive director, Barbara Finnin.  Ms. Finnin pointed out that poor people have been gardening and raising chicken in low-income urban communities across America for years.  "That it is now fashionable is more a function of whose stories get heard and whose don't," opines Ms. Finnin.  And those stories are part of the broader connection to gentrification-a sometimes painful transformation process and sometimes profitable process for the parties involved.  If young home owner want to raise chickens and goats, real-estate agents love them. Personally speaking, chickens and goats belong on farms with people who know what to do with them not as neighborhood enhancements.

For more information on the community agriculture organization featured here:

http://www.phatbeetsproduce.org

http://www.urbanadamah.org

http://www.cityslickerfarms.org

Like me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/lenorelowen

Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/glamavon and on Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/glamtroy

Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Lenore/Lowen

Google+ http://plus.google.com/+LenoreLowen
Instagram- find me at hpblogger

How Historic Preservation Can Be An Agent of Change

http://archplanbaltimore.blogspot.com/2014/05/preservation-that-brings-about-change.html

Ice House
Baltimore, MD
photo courtesy of ArchPlan
baltimorebrew.com

Hello Everyone:

Today I would like to spend some time talking about preservation as a mechanism of change and economic development.  To help with today's post, I'll be using a recent article by Klaus Philipsen, FAIA, for Community Architect.  The title of the post is "Preservation as Change Agent and Economic Development" and makes the case for how sustainability and historic preservation are connected and can lend themselves to civic engagement. Mr. Philipsen notes, "On first blush it seems unlikely that architects as designers of 'what ought to be' and agents of change would be good advocates for preservation, be it of nature or of buildings.  Wouldn't an architect always opts for building stuff instead preserving nature?  Tearing something down for new construction instead of preserving it for tedious rehabilitation?"  Good questions one and all but this is the fall-back position that has reigned for time in memoriam but perhaps this, like everything else, is changing.

Greennmount Row Houses
Baltimore, MD
photo courtesy of ArchPlan
archplanbaltimore.blogspot.com

Klaus Philipsen observes that the architecture profession is still tainted by the "tear it down and something new" mindset.  This may sound egotistical but it seems to Mr. Philipsen that architects want to build soul-less modernist monuments for themselves and if it means paving paradise with new towns, UFO-like stadia, and anonymous office parks then away with the places that the public hold dear and the architects consider kitsch.  As cities begin to recover from tabla rasa disease, architects are still fighting this stereotype.  This stereotype of the architect is firmly etched into the minds of the layperson.

Even if the average person has never heard of Le Corbusier's plans to overhaul Paris or Frank Lloyd Wright's anti-urbanist rants, the image of the architect as the builder of soulless modernist edifices to the self still persists.  This rather, personally speaking, annoying and slightly offensive image of the architect has continued despite attempts by the media to put a friendlier face on the field.  Mr. Philipsen points out, "...architects have pushed the reset button many times, embraced Jane Jacobs, become porch loving new-urbanists, and elevated the worn look of old lofts to the level of hippest thing in town."

Midtown Baltimore
photo courtesy of ArchPlan
archplanbaltimore.blogspot.com

Other than this digression about the poor architect's image issues, Mr. Philipsen asks, "how can preservation be anything but stagnation?"  His answer is scale is the magic key to understanding the "dialectic effects of preservation both of buildings and nature."  To figure out the right scale, one has to step back and look the big picture.  Mr. Philipsen refers to a previous blog post about open space, in which he advocates preserving nature can add more value to a site than buildings.  Simply put, saving a group of small not so awe-inspiring building can add more value than building something shiny and new. Historic preservation can be a tool for change and an economic strategy.  Mr. Philipsen emphasizes that preservation is not about change for the sake of a greater change, more of a paradigm shift.  Mr. Philispen then goes on to spend two paragraphs about the history of the exploding city.  He does this because he believes that it is the secret to the riddle of preservation.  Why would cities splay themselves across the suburban landscape until the they are disengaged shadows of the past?  Mr. Philipsen then goes on to answer this question with a brief history or urbanism.  I'll let you read this for yourselves and spend some time talking about the social and environmental effects of value creation.

Suburban lawn
Baltimore, MD
photo courtesy of ArchPlan
archplanbaltimore.blogspot.com

As always, "the greenest building is one that is already there."  It doesn't matter if the building may have poor energy characteristics, it can still the net zero building in total energy calculations.  The reason for this is the preservation and reuse of older buildings contributes to sustainability in two ways: energy and "footprint." Reusing buildings saves energy because the inherent energy in the infrastructure is used instead of exhaling additional energy during demolition, disposal, rebuilding. This is the case, even when adaptive reuse pencils out more than new construction, once the external costs for a new building are factored in.  This thought becomes quite possible if one considers the amount energy expended in building from scratch.  Footprint and location is another factor in the total energy calculations.  An older building adapted for residential or commercial purposes is not consuming farm fields, especially when we take into account the fact that urban households take up less space then their exurban counterparts which can sit on five or six acres, consuming natural resources and infrastructure.  The savings get bigger when transportation time is reduced when buildings are rehabilitated in a central urban core.

Archival Baltimore
baltimorefishbowl.com

Preservation makes people happy.  It certainly puts a smile on my face.  While no one has proven this conclusively, but it certainly stands in contrast to the fearful and hostile posture of people languishing in the mire of a changing society.  Klaus Philispen cites philosopher Walter Benjamin, who explored the idea of recognition and remembrance as a source of comfort, "The past materialized into space."  The remembrance and preserving of things past gives us the textures and complexities that we crave.  The tell the story of who we are now.  Older buildings exhibit the craftsmanship and preferences of the period they were made and as they developed over time, making the place unique and identifiable.  A structure may not be obviously beautiful but sometimes, the beauty of a building maybe found in the details and the site.  In this case, preservation moves from narrowly focusing on the singular part to the larger context of site and history, no matter how banal it may be.  A lunch counter in Mississippi may be just a lunch counter, until research reveals its connection to the Civil Rights Movement.

Baltimore Washington Monument
kilduff.nt

Let us consider, for a moment, what the Baltimore Washington Monument without the surrounding beautiful brownstone Federalist-era buildings surrounding it.  The same is true for the re-purposed Canton Canneries.  Where would this, otherwise non-descript place, be without the small formstone row houses where immigrants once lived?  The housing market has answered this question by selling would-be residents on the attractiveness of small houses.  This is pretty good considering that no one would have given a second thought to reviving modest housing, far from the water, without a lot of demolition or new construction.  Current GIS based research by the National Trust has clearly proven that well-preserved neighborhoods do thrive.  Neighborhoods such as Hampden, Remington, Woodberry, and Highlandtown are examples where careful investment in adaptive reuse in specific larger industrial buildings can accommodate community revitalization in places that were previously written off.  Preservation, in the form of slow incremental change, can result in bigger changes.  Michael Powe of the National Trust put together a series of indicator maps that demonstrate the positive effects of preservation.

Baltimore Harbor area
carfreebaltimore.com

Another reason for preservation as an agent of change and economic development is the desire for authenticity, the vernacular, the rough-edged charm of a former industrial city and may be the reason why Baltimore is nicknamed "Charm City."  The fabled millennials, who seem to be willing to settle anywhere, are apparently drawn to the complex nature of a real city with its history on full display. While sustainability celebrates permanence in an age of disposability, the shabby charm of neglect is a welcome counterpoint.  In contrast to this shabby charm, there are still parts of Baltimore and other legacy cities that remain fallow.  The residents are trapped in an endless cycle of poverty and crime.  Once again, slum clearance is rearing its serpent-like head as a desirable solution.  However, if you pay close enough attention, you can find beauty among the ruins of a neglected place and imagine a new more vibrant life in divested neighborhoods. Like all legacy cities, Baltimore is still reeling from urban unrest in the sixties and de-industrialization. Time will tell if young architects are willing to set aside their egos and become agents of change and economic development.

Like me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/lenorelowen

Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/glamavon and on Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/glamtroy

Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Lenore/Lowen

Google+ http://plus.google.com/+LenoreLowen
Instagram- find me at hpblogger

The Thrill Of The Magic of Architecture

http://blog.preservationleadershipforum.org/2014/05/23/old-places-matter-architecture/#.U4Ou35RdVYw

Glasgow School of Art with extension
Glasgow, Scotland
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
glasgowarchitecture.co.uk

Hello Everyone:

Today we're going to revisit our friend Tom Mayes of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  When Mr. Mayes was a 2013 Rome Prize winner for Historic Preservation at the American Academy, he post a series of articles on "Why Old Places Matter."  The articles were posted to the Preservation Leadership Forum blog and considered subjects such as national identity, history, beauty and their importance to old places.  Today we're going to look at his post about why architecture matters.  Architecture is more than just putting up four walls, a ceiling, and a floor.  It's that and the unique decorative details that give it character.  People love old places and can appreciate their art and craftsmanship.  It doesn't matter if it's a school like the Glasgow School of Art or a converted barn such as the one Mr. Mayes describes in his post.  It's about how all those elements make you experience a place, engaging your sense.  It's Mr. Mayes calls "Architecture with a big 'A.'"

Rendering of House for an Art Lover (c.1901)
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
houseforanartlover.co.uk

The converted barn in this particular case was old house that his father's friend, Jim Withers, was using as a barn. The confluence of the woodwork, the high ceilings, the wide mantelpiece supported by intricate moulding.  The way the decorative brackets unwrapped themselves in spiral onto the steps of a curved staircase.  The relationship of the woodwork to the high plaster walls.  It left Mr. Mayes with an inexplicable feeling of wholeness.  This feeling is something that we experience when confronted with a building that for, one reason or another, causes us to fall silent.  It is this sense of harmony, balance, and proportion that Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his contemporaries invested in their work. It is why we're all dumbstruck standing in the Taj Mahal.  It's the magic of architecture. ( See, e.g. de Bottom, 2006)

The Pantheon (c. 2nd century CE)
Rome, Italy
monolithic.org

This magic quality of architecture has been recognized and held dear by people throughout the span of time. From the Roman emperors who employed architects to look after their buildings; Filippo Brunelleschi who studied the dome of The Pantheon to discover its secrets of proportion and construction; modernist Philip Johnson who referenced the history of architecture in his design, people have looked back at the entire history of world architecture for inspiration.  These wonderful places are, simply put, art.  Architecture is like any work of art, it helps us understand who we are as people and our abilities. The Pantheon, for example, like Fallingwater or The Pyramids, are icons of western civilization.  They and other great works, such as St. Paul's Cathedral in London, England, represent an important moment in our history.  Mr. Mayes cites a recent talk given by Ashley Wilson, Grahma Gund Architect at the National Trust, explaining the importance of the Farnsworth House by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe:

After the Farnsworth House, modern architecture was forever altered.  There are very few buildings that can be identified as the first of a movement.  One that comes to mind is the early 15th-century buildings that kick-started the Renaissance, the Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence.  Nothing was the same after that building was built.

Philip Kennicott wrote in The Washington Post in reference to a discussion of the downtown central library by Mies van der Rohe:

historic preservation experts, architecture critics and other cranks...ground their beliefs on the complicated and difficult to express fundamental value of retaining important cultural objects simply because they are beautiful or play an important role in the history of culture. (Kennicott. The Washington Post, 2014)

Villa Rotonda (c.1564)
Andrea Palladio
it.wikipedia.org

"Cultural heritage" is one of those oft-used phrases in preservation.  It's a vaguely defined phrase but a useful way of bringing together a group of idea.  In reference to architecture, i.e. old buildings as cultural heritage, what cultural heritage is referring to is symbols that give life to identity, continuity, memory, and inspiration to our lives not just valuing them for the sake of culture-not that's it's a bad thing.  Old places contribute to our memory, civilization, history, and our understanding of our selves.  Tom Mayes does note that a building doesn't have to be old for it to represent continuity in our civilization.  The example he gives are the protests over the impending loss of the American Folk Art Museum building in New York City. (Quirk, Arc Daily, 2014; Kimmelman, New York Times, 2014)  The imminent loss is being regarded as a preservation issue, even though it was designed in 2001.  No irony here.  Why is this the case?  The reason this is the case is that the building, from its inception, was regarded as a work of art and it's impending demolition is considered on par, with many, as a form of iconoclasm.  Mr. Mayes concludes, "This controversy highlights the fact that preservation is about the present-about valuing things that matter now-not only about things of the past."

Rendering of The Willow Tea Room (1904)
Glasgow, Scotland
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
houseforanartlover.co.uk

Even though contemporary have their value in art and architecture, age give a building another layer of meaning. People have long understood that age imparts a special quality to buildings.  Nineteenth century critic John Ruskin wrote that old buildings were important because they contained the spirit of the people who made them, "that spirit which is given only by the hand and eye of the workman," and that they reflect the spirit of the age in which they were built. (Ruskin, 1961, 184)  This was the spirit that made its presence known to Mr. Mayes in Jim Withers's old house, revealing itself in the craftsmanship. That fine craftsmanship that Mr. Mayes admired is also found in the magnificent work of the arts and crafts movement, such as The Gamble House in Pasadena or The Willow Tea Room in Glasgow, Scotland.  However, you can also find exquisite examples in the vernacular buildings.  You can sense the hand of the maker in the details of a log cabin.  Every time one of these treasures is lost, a part of our spirit is lost with it.

Rose stained glass window
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
scottishstainedglass.com

While the spirit of a building may not be fully revealed to use, Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmas wrote, "There is a a tacit wisdom of architecture accumulated in history and tradition.  But in today's panicked rush for the new, we rarely stop and listen to this wisdom." (Pallasmaa, 319)  One example that Washington D.C. architect Alexander Singletary shared with Tom Mayes, an architect or planner raised in the sixties suburbs is less likely to be aware of the ideal environmental siting of a farmhouse as a nineteenth century builder who was raised in that particular landscape.  Thus when we lose a building, a piece of that knowledge disappears with it.  Another example is the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle, Washington where a light well was closed, later reopened, adding light in the center of the building without additional energy consumption.  Many early twentieth century Washington D.C. apartment contain louvered doors with overhead transoms to deal with the notoriously hot and humid Washington summers, though not in use anymore.  This wisdom is increasingly appreciated in light of the naturally sustainability of older buildings-documented by the National Trust's Preservation Green Lab.

Glasgow School of Art
Glasgow, Scotland
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
visit-glasgow.info

Other than environmental wisdom, old buildings have a symbolic meaning and secret histories that reveal themselves over time.  What does an old building say about the intentions about the maker at the time and how do we know it? We're familiar with the use of the neo-classical order in civic buildings, but few are familiar with the animal heads and garlands (Hersey, 1988).  Further, we may not recognize the historic knowledge embedded within architecture-clues of our history hidden by slaves in the walls of the plantation, Hebrew letters on medieval buildings in Rome that once contained a synagogue.

Tom Mayes quotes Juhani Pallasmaa, "The significance of architecture is not in its form, but in its capacity to reveal deeper layer of existence."  Old building help us understand the deeper layers of who we are.  It's a real thrill when an architectural landmark reveal symbolic and historic meaning. Architecture helps us become more cognizant of who we are, our past values, our place in the long line of civilization, and the what future can hold.  It's the thrill of being in a place that touches your soul.

Like me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/lenorelowen

Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/glamavon and on Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/glamtroy

Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Lenore/Lowen

Google+ http://plus.google.com/+LenoreLowen
Instagram- find me at hpblogger

Garden Cities Reconsidered

http://www.citylab.com//2014/50//why-garden-city-is-making-an-unlikely-comeback/371717/

Garden City diagram
scarysquirrel.org

Hello Everyone:

In a recent article in City Lab titled, "Why the 'Garden City Is Making an Unlikely Comeback," Anthony Flint sat down with architect and Yale University Architecture Dean Robert A.M. Stern to talk about the return of the Garden City.  Mr. Stern was New York City to to mark the publication of his book Planned Paradise, the launch of his furniture line, and is scheduled this month to give the keynote presentation at the Congress for New Urbanism in Buffalo.  In Planned Paradise, Mr. Stern argues that the nineteenth century town planning movement and template provides useful lessons for today.

Sir Ebenezer Howord
rickmansworthherts.freereserve.co.uk

The Garden City idea first gained gained traction in the late nineteenth century as an antidote to the dark and dirty urban industrial core.  The publication of Ebenezer Howard's Garden Cities of To-Morrow (1902) introduced a new concept in city planning, an ideal town that was a blend of town and country with an ideal population of no more than 30,000 on 6,000 acres, a density on thirty dwelling units per 2.5 acres, and a variety of housing types to accommodate different income levels.  I've used the book for a research paper in school and I can safely say that the diagrams, like the one above are pretty straight forward in a Victorian way.  This utopia was based on scientific research mixed with an accountant's sensibility.  If you look at the diagram, you'll notice that the settlement circles are ringed with greenbelts and connected by transit corridors.  This ideal community, was intended to be repeatable and evaluated on solid metrics.

Letchworth Garden City
letchworth.com

The first garden city is Letchworth, England-financed by Cadbury Chocolates and Lever Soap.  The community was founded in 1904 and designed by Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin.  The community sits on 1600 hectares (nearly 4,000 acres) of agricultural land, encompassing the villages of Letchworth, Willan, and Norton. (http://www.north-herts.gov.uk)  In the United States, the best-known model is Greenbelt, Maryland (1934), planned by Rexford Guy Tugwell, part of the New Deal era affordable housing initiatives.  Inspired  by the beautiful gardens and cities of England, Rexford Tugwell wanted to develop a similar community in the United States. Greenbelt  was one of three sites developed by Mr. Tugwell, the other two being Green Hills, Ohio and Greendale, Wisconsin. (http://www.nps.gov)  The traditional plan-a central civic square with boulevards radiating out-is also the foundation for Canberra, Australia's urban plan and the New Urbanist planned community of Seaside, Florida.

Aerial view of Chandigarh
Le Corbusier
flickriver.com

Anthony Flint describes Planned Paradise as "...an encyclopedia of other versions throughout the world: nearly 1,000 of them, in 25 countries."  Mr. Flint asks, "So could it be that this is a model that actually works pretty well?" Mr. Flint doesn't answer his own question, rather he uses one of the book's examples to illustrate his point.  Mr. Flint cites Le Corbusier's attempt at town planning in Chandigarh, India as an example of a "gambit to rescue an august planning tradition 'tragically interrupted' by 20th century modernism, though there is a little bit of Ebenezer Howard in some of the modernist Stern disdains..."  Perhaps it's me, but I really don't see any of the swarths of green space in the plan for Chandigarh.  What is apparent is the architect's idea of "towers in the garden" approach to community planning, emphasis on the towers.  Recent demographic and market trends suggest growth in the urban centers, however Robert Stern argues differently.  Mr. Stern makes the case that there is ample room to grow differently, blend town and country all over again.

Vintage picture of Forest Hills
Queens, New York
queensnewyork.com

According to Robert Stern, "There are vast swaths of abandoned land that are not going to be redeveloped as skyscraper neighborhoods."  We can infer from this that he referring to blighted suburban areas.  Mr. Stern suggests that cities such as Detroit would be a great testing ground for re-introducing garden city planning because the infrastructure is in place for reinventing the urban grid.  The key components in the formula: a town square, a place of worship, public transportation, a local store, hotel, small houses (Forest Hills, Queen for example) can be dispensed in more judicious quantities.  Further, Mr. Stern argues that Jane Jacobs might have been "too dismissive" of suburban development.  He implies that there has to be a balance, "Suburbs are like cholesterol...there's good and there's bad, all to be sensibly calibrated."

Seaside, Florida
nestofposies-blog.com

The need for some sort of balance between "good" and "bad" suburbs is the fashionable argument among planners, possibly the most powerful.  From coast to coast and into Europe, growing cities are becoming extremely unaffordable.  More attention is being given to a diversity of housing types and less concentration on making places for low- to middle-income singles and individuals.  "I don't mean to sound all de Blasio," says Mr. Stern, referring to the more equity minded Mayor of New York City William de Blasio, "but there's a little bit of that."  Academia tends to bypass the town-and-country blueprint mainly because of its use of traditional architecture, according to Mr. Stern.  However, the neo-traditional design, evident in Seaside, can be a source of comfort for people, make them part of the community.  "Whatever else, one cannot say that Zaha Hadid is cozy.  It may be great for an opera or a swim meet but you don't want to go home to one of those things."

What does all this mean?  Modernism is not the devil, the suburbs are not dead, and let's stop beating the drum about reviving the urban center.  Robert Stern's book offers a discourse in re-incorporating garden city planning in the twenty-first century.  It suggests that there can be a reasonable balance between town and country.

Like me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/lenorelowen

Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/glamavon and on Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/glamtroy

Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Lenore/Lowen

Google+ http://plus.google.com/+LenoreLowen
Instagram- find me at hpblogger

Big Data

http://blog.preservationleadershipforum.org/2014/03/04/big-data-osb/#.U3ZZ1hdVYx

"Chicago: City of Big Data"
chicagoarchitecture.org

Hello Everyone:

Welcome to a new week.  I was checking the page view count today and I saw we're at 12,385.  I'm thinking we can do 15,000 page views by then end of summer, what do you think?  Moving on, today's post is about big data as the new frontier in historic preservation.  This is the subject of a March 4, 2014 post by Mike Powe for the Preservation Leadership Forum.  As part of today's post I want to mention the "Chicago: City of Big Data" exhibit currently up Chicago Architecture Forum Atrium.  What is "Big Data" and what can it do for historic preservation?

Big Data Exhibit
Landon Bone Baker, architect
landonbonebaker.com

We hear it all the time "The age of 'Big Data' is upon us."  Sensors, mobile devices, and software applications (apps) collect a variety of information every single minute of the day, resulting in an endless mountain of data to used in an endless variety of ways.  For some, this ceaseless data gathering raises concerns over privacy and the National Security Agency, while others associate Big Data with Google and the social networks.  Big Data can be harnessed for purposes of good and it isn't the exclusive provenance of high-tech companies and super secret state intelligence agencies.  Big Data can be used to facilitate major changes, affecting our responses to climate change, human genomes, and traffic patterns.  At the micro-level, Big Data can be used for local community improvements or understanding the power of older buildings. Mike Powe offers his readers a quick lesson on Big Data and how it can enhance preservation.

"Chicago: City of Big Data" dashboard
dataconomy.com

What Is Big Data?

Let's first define what the term Big Data means. Mr. Powe defines the term using a 2012 New York Times primer on the topic which suggests that Big Data is "a meme and marketing term, for sure, but also shorthand for advancing trends in technology that open the door to a new approach to understanding the world and making decisions."  To illustrate the point about how much data collection has grown, Mr. Powe cites an estimate published in Foreign Affairs which stated that in 2000 only 25% of information was digitized; currently less than 2% is not digitized.  This is a huge reversal.  Even as bottomless quantities of data are being processed, right now, for private gain, Mike Powe argues that Big Data potentially provide great benefit for the public.  In the United States, for example, government agencies are releasing information for public and commercial interests in every sphere of the public sector.

Cover to MyHistoricLA
preservation.lacity.org

What Does Big Data Offer Preservation?

How can Big Data enhance historic preservation efforts?  The answer is Big Data can help gather catalogs of historic resources, lead to smarter preservation polices, and engage a wide spectrum of the public with information about the nature of their towns and cities.  Mr. Powe then give us an outline of how we can use Big Data to support preservation:

1) The world of Big Data allows us to develop and implement new survey tools that use smartphones and tablets to catalog resources.  In Los Angeles, the Office of Historic Resources, a division of the Department of Planning, is conducting a citywide survey called Survey LA which involves photographing and documenting resources using tablet computers and smartphones.  Residents are encouraged to participate by collecting the information and uploading the information directly into a citywide database that will eventually be completely mapped and searchable.  In Muncie, Indiana Donovan Rypkema and Cara Bertron of PlaceEconomics are using a pilot analytic tool called ReLocal.  Here, teams of volunteers collect property information using mobile devices, describing the condition of the building and neighborhood.  Once all the data is put together, the ReLocal data was used to create a strategy with recommendations for fostering stable and sustainable communities throughout Muncie.

2) Big Data creates new opportunities to demonstrate how older buildings support sustainability and vitality.  Many large American cities recently began mandating public disclosure of energy use in buildings.  The information that came out concluded that older buildings performed as well or better than newer buildings in terms of energy usage.  The National Trust for Historic Preservation's Preservation Green Lab provided empirical support for the oft-quoted Carl Elefante aphorism, "the greenest building is the one that already exists.  Now here's the data to support it.

3) Big Data can used to present information about the historic resources of communities in novel, alluring ways that engage large public audience.  During the last year, city maps presenting the age of buildings have captured a great deal of attention over the web.  Publications such as 
The Atlantic Cities, the Wired MapLab blog, Gizmodo, Curbed, New York Magazine, and so on have published articles  highlighting maps of cities' historic development.  It's fascinating to look at historic maps of New York or Chicago and see how those cities have grown and changed over the last fifty or hundred years.  Wired MapLab blog has even provided a step-by-step guide for readers interested in creating a building age map of their hometown.

Grid map
blog.preservationleadershipforum.org

The Limits of Big Data

Like anything, Big Data has its limits.  At the macro-level, the information collected from real time sources can help a city see general trends and draw correlations between measures.  What Big Data can't do is help us comprehend why things are the way they are.  Causation is more difficult to discern than basic correlation and coincidence.  Next, there is the issue of accuracy.  When faced with reams of informations, it's common to disregard the fact that some of the data may be missing or wrong. When focusing in on a large dataset, you still need to check the veracity of the information on ground.  Last, Big Data can be a powerful tool for informing discussions but the job of interpreting the information still requires creativity, patience, and knowledge.  Regardless of how huge the dataset is, it takes a real amount of dedication and persistence to make the data mean something and make a difference.

Chicago "Big Data"
chicagotribune.com

Big Data has also become a twenty-first century design material.  Architects, planners, engineers, and average citizens are making increasing use of information to better understand urban issues and kindle design innovation. (bigdata.architecture.org)  A new exhibit presented by the Chicago Architecture Foundation (http://www.architecture.org) reveals the potential use of urban data and offers an alternative look at Chicago and cities everywhere.  There are interactive displays and recreated sections of the city, affording visitors with a unique view into their own personal data.  If you're in Chicago, it's definitely worth checking out.  Even if your not planning to go to Chicago, it's worth noting that Big Data collection is

blogs.loc,gov

a tool.  Like any tool, it can be used for purposes of good or bad.  Big Data can help us understand our cities and towns.  It can locate historic resources and provide information about them.  Also, like any tool, Big Data is only as good as the person using it.  Thus, caution must be exercised.

Like me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/lenorelowen

Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/glamavon and on Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/glamtroy

Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Lenore/Lowen

Google+ http://plus.google.com/+LenoreLowen
Instagram- find me at hpblogger

A Helpful Glossary

http://blog.preservationnation.org/2014/05/06/preservation-tips-tools-deciphering-preservation-jargon/#.U21PBq1dVYx

Downtown Lewiston, Idaho
resultsrealty.net

Hello Everyone:

Today I thought I might try to shed some light on some of the jargon used in historic preservation.  As a student of historic preservation, I remember hearing all these terms and barely catching their meaning.  Fortunately, I had resources available that I could look at to figure out what phrases like "certificate of appropriateness" meant.  The majority of preservation minded citizens don't have a textbook on the subject handy to look up the jargon that often comes flying at them.  With the help of Sarah Heffern, the social media strategist for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, I'd help you decipher the "preservation code" in order to help sit through a community meeting without that glazed expression you'll get when the "legalese" starts come at you.

Archival photo of the Aspinall Federal Building
designcurial.com

Affirmative Maintenance: the requirement in historic preservation ordinances that a building's structural components must be maintained.  Not an affirmation of the fact that a building's structural components require maintenance.

Building Code: the Uniform Building Code (UBC) are the laws that set the minimum standards for construction and use of a structure in order to protect public health.


Certificate of Appropriateness (COA): a COA is a certificate issued by your local preservation commission indicating its approval of an application to alter, demolish, move, or add on to an already protected place.

Contributing Structure: a structure or building located in a historic district that has historic, architectural, or archeological significance to that district.

Demolition by Neglect: I know I've mentioned this term a few times in relation to posts on blight. Allow me to explain.  Demolition by neglect is the process of allowing a building to deteriorate to a point where razing it is necessary in order to protect human health and safety.

Archival photograph of Corinth Plantation
blog.preservationnation.org

Designation: the act of identifying historic buildings and districts subject to regulation under historic preservation ordinances or related laws.

Easement (Preservation or Conservation): in this context, we're talking about the partial interest in a property that can be transferred to a nonprofit or governmental agency through gift or sale to ensure the protection of a continual historic resource and/or land area.

Guidelines: these are interpretative standards or criteria, more advisory than mandatory.

Site Plan: this is a architecture term and, at first glance, seems pretty self-explanatory-a plan of the site. Actually, it is a proposed plan for development submitted by the property own for review by the local planning commission or related government agency that deals with issues such as placement of structures, landscaping, pedestrian and vehicular circulation, lighting, signage, and other features.

Zoning: zoning laws are sometimes considered the devil's handiwork because of the perception that they restrict development.  Truthfully, you want zoning laws.  Zoning laws are there to regulate land and building use which typically specify allowed usage such as residential or commercial, restrictions on development such as height limits, set back requirements, bulk, and so on.  Zoning laws are what keeps some one from putting a landfill next your children's school or a high-rise behind your house.

These are just some of the jargon that you will hear at community preservation meetings.  My thanks to Sarah Heffern for defining these terms for us and hopefully they'll be of use to you.

Like me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/lenorelowen

Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/glamavon and on Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/glamtroy

Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Lenore/Lowen

Google+ http://plus.google.com/+LenoreLowen
Instagram- find me at hpblogger