SDPS is on the Urban Omnibus! February 11, 2009
Posted by rda1 in : Outside inspiration , 1 comment so farYou’re famous: Yesterday the Architectural League launched its Urban Omnibus blog with a story about Candy Chang’s lovely neighborhood post-its project. UO invited me to respond on their forum, so you guys in SDPS got a little a shout-out.
Week 3-4 Out+About assignment: Post here! February 10, 2009
Posted by rda1 in : 3_Public space, Assignments, Outside inspiration , 3commentsThanks to Ari and Angela for their great presentation today – for pushing the observation to interpretation and for the Grand Army Plaza example. Please post your slides. Meantime, Nobu and Sara went to Port Authority; Sonaar and Karla went to Grand Central; Cynthia, Gloria and Jeehyun went to the DMV; Madeline and Jonathan went for a stroll on the Brooklyn Promenade; Here are Mike and Nahanaeli’s on flickr. Kristin, can you share yours too?
Mark your diary: Laura Kurgan’s DCrit talk on March 24 February 8, 2009
Posted by rda1 in : Outside inspiration , add a commentI have held 8 spaces for a talk by Laura Kurgan on March 24. It’s part of the SVA Design Crit MFA lecture series, and Laura’s from Columbia Architecture Program’s Spatial Information Design Lab. She’ll be talking about the Million Dollar Blocks project. I want those presenting in week 10 (Nobu and Sara) to attend this (it’s the day of our week 9 class), so there’s room for 6 more from class. We’ll discuss on 2/10.
Papercamp is this weekend February 4, 2009
Posted by rda1 in : Outside inspiration , add a commentSome of you might be interested in this, just in from Matt Jones (of Nokia/Dopplr fame): He writes:The London ‘prototype’ was pretty damn fun(http://adactio.com/journal/1546/), and this weekend, http://www.barcamp.org/Papercamp-NY-2009hope you guys might be able to make it, or put the word out… …So here I am putting the word out. Albany anyone?
About the header on this blog February 4, 2009
Posted by rda1 in : 10_Storytelling, 11_Ethics, 3_Public space, Outside inspiration , add a commentTerry Richardson’s garish, super-model-filled ad campaign for a luxe vodka brand has been up for months in the Broadway Lafayette subway station near NYU. Cutting up/tagging ads is a long-established subway tradition; all part of that dynamic stance between authors/audiences, designers/users we’ve been talking about in class. So while a bit of glamor’s welcome in trying times, these posters invite specific outrage: One day, a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 appeared over the ads. It simply read: Public Space for Public Good. And here it is. We in SDPS drink to that, but perhaps not fancy liquor ; )
Open Source and Public Space February 3, 2009
Posted by alj263 in : 3_Public space, Outside inspiration, Uncategorized , add a comment
Building on the Low and Smith reading from this week, Wired has an interesting article on Mark Gorton‘s idea to bring the open source movement to urban planning (and thus public space). Gorton is one of the founders of Limewire, the unstable and ever-annoying P2P network, but he is also the single largest supporter of Transportation Alternatives, the New York-based transit advocacy organization. TA is a great organization, largely responsible for the increased presence of protected and/or highly visible bike lanes in the city, among other initiatives.
Gorton started The Open Planning Project (TOPP) in 1999 as an exploratory project to see how open source tools could improve public services, especially in the area of transportation. They have some interesting projects worth checking out, including Grand Army Plaza.
This is an interview with Gorton from Streetfilms.org, a great site dedicated to chronicling novel planning solutions.