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Week 10: Services stories, part 2 March 31, 2009

Posted by rda1 in : 10_Storytelling , add a comment

Woah, today was a roller coaster ride of design methods, field exercises and card games. All towards summarizing Laura Kurgan‘s Million Dollar Blocks case study and figuring out what design discovery and definition becomes through the IDEO…and the Brian Eno lenses. Between now and next week, you are invited to post your reflections on one reading and one diagram/visual model/tool for thinking that you’re working from for our 1:1 chats in week 11 and 12. News from Postopolis from me, seminar summaries from this week’s crew – thank you Nahana, Nobu, Sara – and last week’s – thank you Kristin and Madi. And Ari, add that Metropolis gem to the blogroll? Have a good week.

Week 9: Representing service stories March 31, 2009

Posted by rda1 in : 9_ServiceDesignVocab , add a comment

We were delighted to welcome Sylvia Harris to class this week, now we’re back at base after fieldtrips and Spring Break. Sylvia, one of the best known, most inspiring information designers for public institutions around, took us through the monumentally complex, vast wayfinding project she undertook with the team at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in uptown Manhattan. Not only were the project goals ambitious and worthwhile, and the outcomes effective and transformative, Sylvia’s presentation of the unfolding process was another key take-away for the class this week. We’ll discuss more about designers as storytellers in week 10.Meantime, Kristin and Madi are invited to share their write-up of the exercise they gave the class that reflected on our reading of Peter Galison’s War Against the Center. Not urban scale, nor specifically about designing services, but definitely a scrutinizing look at the relationship between strategy and its physical manifestations: a suburb-shaped morphology of Cold War paranoia. See also Dolores Hayden’s fantastic “A Field Guide to Sprawl” for a full photographic, deliciously awful glossary of what Galison describes.

Free Fresh Kills Site Tours March 20, 2009

Posted by gsk240 in : 3_Public space, 4_ServiceDesign, 8_Fieldtrip, Outside inspiration, Uncategorized , add a comment

I found out from someone who works for the landscape architecture office Field Operations  that  that NYC Parks Department  gives free tours of the Fresh Kills site in Staten Island. I found this exciting because I have an odd fascination with Staten Island (and its free ferry).

Free Tours of Fresh Kills!

You just sign up ahead of time. They pick you up from the station the day of the tour. I’m going on Saturday, April 4 in the afternoon if anyone wants to join me!

Week 8: Fieldtrip March 10, 2009

Posted by rda1 in : 8_Fieldtrip , 1 comment so far

In week 8, we’re on our way back to Queens Museum to look at Robert Moses’ astounding 1:1200 Panorama of the five boroughs of New York.

Meantime we’ve been paying attention to conclusions from the Idea07 conference about what emerges at the intersection of info space/urban place: Networks are everything, patterns are there to be recognized, we’re constantly seeking connections, the more we live online, the more we crave to regain our senses. Taking my cue, that’s enough blog posts for one day…

Week 6-7: The cartographic detour March 10, 2009

Posted by rda1 in : 6_DesignAsUrbanIntervention, 7_Place+Space , add a comment

In week 7 (Place+Space), Don Shillingburg from Peter Walker+Partners, the architects working on the 911 memorial, ran a fantastic masterclass, as a guest speaker.

His question: How do you set design parameters for public projects when inherently the outcomes will be co-created, open-ended?

He calls this exercise Best Square Wins, and yes, you had to be there.

Jonathan and Karla also took us through the info visualization classic, Snow’s cholera maps, and introduced us to Kevin Lynch’s mapping grammar. Sure, Lynch’s chapter on the elements of the city in Image of the City (1960) is about ‘reading’ city space but this toolset leads us to representations of other things – surprisingly enough, including services – we’ll return to this in week 9.

Weeks 5-6: Design as urban intervention March 10, 2009

Posted by rda1 in : 5_LegibleIntangibles, 6_DesignAsUrbanIntervention , add a comment

Over the last few weeks, we’ve focused on services at the urban scale, seeing the city as a medium, a place that situates our experience of complex information flow.

In weeks 5-6, comparing Simmel’s 1903 essay, The Metropolis and Mental Life, with William Mitchell’s opening chapter from his 1998 City of Bits was our way in: We were struck that Mitchell, in striving to predict the impact of digital information on our encounters in architectural space, came off as more dated than Simmel’s observations from a hundred years ago. But we still like his binary framework.

And as you read Simmel’s characterization of the urban creature, you glimpse where all your preconceptions about city dwellers – that we’re jaded, blasé, over-fastidious (Yelp, foodie blogs, anyone?) and unfriendly to tourists – come from.

The DT’s Public Space Potluck March 18! March 6, 2009

Posted by rda1 in : Outside inspiration , 1 comment so far

Mark your calendars!The next Public Space Potluck is set for Wednesday, March 18, at 6:30pm under the palm trees at the World Financial Center Wintergarden. This location is a “public-private” space, going along with the theme of our upcoming Design Trust Council event “Public Space / Private Money,” a discussion on how public spaces funded by private investments can retain a public identity.  The Wintergarden is surely a wonderful asset to the public, but is it really a public space?

From Wintergarden manager Brookfield Properties:

“…The world-renowned Winter Garden is a spectacular 10-story enclosed glass atrium featuring an enormous indoor sanctuary with a cascading marble semicircular staircase, fashioned of Italian marble, leading to a grove of sixteen 45-foot palm trees. . . . the Winter Garden is a celebrated venue for performances, site-specific installations, premieres and commissioned works – year-round and free to the public. Over 40 restaurants, major brand and specialty retailers and business services make shopping and dining an unforgettable experience.” (emphasis by the Design Trust)

Inspired by Design Trust Board Member Zach McKown, who hosted a dinner on the Brooklyn Bridge last summer, the Design Trust staff has organized a series of potluck dinners in public spaces in New York City. Dinners were held in Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza, on the Staten Island Ferry, and most recently at the DT office to celebrate the inauguration of President Obama, with an accompanying ping-pong tournament.

Please write to rsvp@designtrust.org if you plan to attend.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The DT Staff

Design Trust for Public Space

338 West 39th Street, 10th Floor

New York City 10018

t: 212-695-2432 x13

f: 212-695-6101

w: designtrust.org

What would Google do? March 6, 2009

Posted by rda1 in : 6_DesignAsUrbanIntervention, Outside inspiration , 1 comment so far

I’m quoting Cynthia here – thanks for directing us to this (and for the compliment!). Check this out everyone:

On the Media, 2/27/09, http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2009/02/27/06

Jeff Jarvis interview re: his book “What Would Google Do?”  Jarvis

works at City University of NY, School of Journalism. Sounds like the

book reflects your SDPS White Board Diagrams from last week !!!!.  All

about service; service design. Lot’s of interesting case studies

shared.

Timothy “Speed” Levitch on the NYC Grid March 3, 2009

Posted by alj263 in : Uncategorized , add a comment

Timothy “Speed” Levitch’s beautiful, poetic, incoherent and often quite insane rhapsodies are works of art in and of themselves. He has a way of describing the most indescribable aspects of living in this city, with a sense of timelessness that seems impossible to replicate. Somehow he is able to identify persistent truths about New York, even as the ground shifts under him (and the enormous double-decker tour bus underscores this as a metaphor). A documentary on his tour-giving days, “The Cruise” shows him in his absolute best element: out on the streets and left unbridled. In this video, he discusses the grid system in a way that is just incredibly compelling in its peculiarity. I can honestly say that growing up in this city, I had never once thought of abandoning the grid system in favor of something else. (Sorry for the lack of embedded video… blocked by YouTube) 

David Harvey Lecture on 3/11 March 2, 2009

Posted by sl1814 in : Outside inspiration , add a comment

After reading Harvey earlier in the semester, this lecture might illuminate the themes of property and publicness that we’ve been discussing:

Is Marxism Relevant Today?

Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 6:15pm

Davis Auditorium, the Schapiro Center

David Harvey,Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Prabhat Patnaik, one of India’s most distinguished economists and political commentators, and Duncan Foley, Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research, will discuss the question “Is Marxism Relevant Today?”

Co-sponsored by the Committee on Global Thought This event is free and open to the public.

No Tickets, no reservations required.

Seating is on a first come, first served basis.