Demand freedom for Iranians

An Indelible Design

The designer of the POW/MIA flag has passed.

The Churning American Landscape

As much as we don't like it, the American built landscape churns. Two recent Plain Dealer stories tell two tales of demolition or impending demolition. One talks about the dismantling of the Catholic presence in Cleveland's urban neighborhoods, the other talks about a developer wanting to demolish a piece of agrarian history embedded within the suburban millieu of Twinsburg and Solon.

As an architect, BOTC wants these buildings to remain. The Church of Saint Andrew and the Corbett Farm House are landmarks, monuments, and touchstones of everyday life and generational histories. The architectures remind us a former times, speak to another era of society, remind us of the skill of craftsmen, and the humble skills of designers long passed. Thes buildings can survive us and should survive us--yet, again, because of the flux of the American landscape they will be demolished and their remains strewn about many landfills.

The demolition reminds BOTC of a Son Volt song, written by the ascetic Jay Farrar:

"Way Down Watson"

PUT WHISKEY ON THE WOUNDS
SALT THE GLASS AND SAY GOODBYE

NO FEEL-GOOD SCENES TO BRING IT BACK
JUST FALLEN BRICK AND BROKEN GLASS

WRECKING BALL OPERATOR
TWENTY YEARS PULLING THE LEVER
THESE WINDOWS SHIELD THE COLD FROM THE WEATHER OF MY SOUL

FEEL THE HEART STRINGS SINKING FAST
ANOTHER TREASURE FOUND ANOTHER TUMBLING DOWN

I PROTECT MY EARS AND EYES FROM THE DUST AND NOISE
WORD COMES DOWN TO THE BITTER END THE DIESEL HUMS THE CYCLE SPINS

WHEN WE MEET ON THAT HARD HAT GROUND
JUST A PHOTOGRAPH NO ONE ELSE AROUND

WORDS TO LIVE BY IT JUST GOES TO SHOW
SOMEDAY WE ALL GOTTA GO

FEEL THE HEART STRINGS SINKING FAST
ANOTHER TREASURE FOUND ANOTHER TUMBLING DOWN

The Right Choice

For once, BOTC agrees with the Cuyahoga County Commissioners.

BOTC believes that the Mall site is a far better choice for the Medical Mart and Convention Center than the Tower City site. However, our reasoning is not based on money, but rather, based on what we believe is good for downtown urbanism.

BOTC has felt that the placement of the facility at Tower City would have dampened the dynamism of Cleveland’s central core. A visitor to Cleveland could have come to Tower City and never set a foot outside the complex. A medical mart visitor would come from the airport via the Rapid and conducted business, eated, and sleept all in one complex and never emerged into the city.

With the convention facility on the Mall, visitors will be required to navigate the entire central core. Visitors will migrate from hotels around downtown, traverse Daniel Burnham’s Mall, Public Square, and the Warehouse District and Playhouse Square, because they will not be able to stay in one self-serve complex. Cleveland natives will mix everyday with convention visitors on our downtown sidewalks, hopefully enhancing city life.

BOTC also likes the Mall site because the architects and urban designers will be forced to re-interpret and grapple with Daniel Burnham. The Mall was designed as the "green lungs" of a growing industrial city—yet the Mall has remained somewhat fallow in recent decades. The insertion of a magnet facility will re-energize the Mall and resuscitate Burnham’s vision of civic Cleveland.

Now, let’s hope we can get this thing built without corruption.

Coosje van Bruggen, RIP

May the enigmatic Free Stamp always remain enigmatic.

Frustration

BOTC became very upset this morning upon reading about Mayor Jackson's trip to Chicago.

How is it that Cleveland's most important urban project is being hatched, designed, and thrown toghether in a secluded Chicago conference room with no public or critical comment?

The urban design implications of this project are profound. If this is screwed up, downtown can die. It this is successful, dowtown can thrive. Are local designers + planners even involved with the project?

BOTC has warned about the implications of the Medical Mart before:

Since Cuyahoga County has signed the deal to bring the Medical Mart to Cleveland and to establish a new convention center, many in the design community need to voice their opinions on the future sites of such institutions. Surely we know more about design than Dimora + Hagan.The placement of each building or buildings within the downtown context will impact how the city is used, how the city is experienced, and how the city will literally wear away or strengthen. The investment made in the near future will alter the dynamics of our downtown core for decades to come. The ramifications of these impositions need to understood.

BOTC agrees with Steve Litt that the process should be open to the public because of the civic nature of projects. We also believe that studies for the placement of the convention sites should include a broader study of the entirety of downtown since the placement of the convention center in relation to hotels, transportation hubs, attraction districts, and university campuses, will alter the hydraulics of the city.

For example, if the Medical Mart is built in the Tower City complex and the convention center is built on the Mall, Public Square suddenly takes on the important function of connector tissue than transcends everyday Clevelander use. Should Public Square then be re-designed?These questions should be asked and answered before any downtown site is ultimately chosen.

Previous plans for Cleveland were developed in Chicago offices - - but Daniel Burnham was a genius. We should not have the same confidence in our Chicago counterparts today without intense design scrutiny.

Public Square as it should be used . . .

BOTC has long believed that Public Square is an archaic remnant of a past urbanism. Public Square does not seem to maintain a place in the collective memory of Northeast Ohioans like it once did (a la Dick Feagler). The Square is a glorified RTA stop with a Civil War monument and a statue of Tom Johnson.

However, over the past few days, the Square has come alive with protest and argument. Local Jews and Palestians have transformed the common public space into a figurative sparring ground to vent their disgust, frustrations, and agony over the latest Middle East violence. See video and the story from the Plain Dealer here.

So maybe BOTC is wrong about Public Square. However, we lament that it required a war to make Public Square a vibrant American commons.

Obama-structure

Obama-structure is coming.

Millions of dollars are going to be disseminated around the country for "infrastructure" related projects.

Are our politicians and notable movers and shakers going to be ready to get our region a piece of the action?

There is no excuse for Greater Cleveland and Cuyhoga County not to be at the front of the hand-out line. Cuyahoga County helped the president-elect solidify his historic electoral win. The region deserves the fruits of victory.

But where are our politicians, especially those on the left side of the aisle? There needs to be a concentrated effort between Sherrod Brown, Dennis Kucinich, Marsha Fudge, Mayor Frank Jackson, Peter Lawson Jones, and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, all NEO democrats, to build a pipeline of funding from Washington to Cuyahoga County. As New Haven was to Lyndon Johnson, Cleveland must become to President Obama--a city of experimentation and federal investment dollars.

And the first project that must be funded is the Technology + Innovation Corridor.

We Must Always Remember

Soul of the City

How does one measure the depth of civic engagement in a particular city? What metrics can we use to register the strength of conscience? How can the soul of the city be indexed?

BOTC has written before about the simple care of the city. By “simple care” we mean the neighborly awareness and recognition of other urban dwellers or users. The exhibition of simple care is most apparent during the winter when some landlords or owners make little or no attempt at removing snow and ice from city sidewalks. No snow removal reflects an obvious disregard or de-valuing of the city. Hence, snow removal is a simple metric of civic engagement.

Another more ritualized metric that can be utilized is the community parade. BOTC has always been interested in the community parade—not necessarily at the scale of Cleveland’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, but more on the scale of the community Memorial Day Parade. BOTC has documented several local Memorial Day parades and ceremonies over the years, including events in Bedford, Chagrin Falls, Parma Heights, and Parma.

The Memorial Day Parade, an American ritual that has its roots in the Civil War, is, if closely examined and witnessed, a poignant and touching exhibition of civic engagement and patriotism. Although the routines stay the same every years, the gathering of veterans’ groups, high school bands, boy and girl scouts, police and fire departments, assures the solemnity and importance of the annual procession. The young and the old march together, maintaining the generational passage of the sacred tradition of honoring the fallen. The grizzled veteran straightens at the playing of the National Anthem or weeps at the emotion of Taps, all in public view and in participation with others who have not served. Children hold little American flags and fidget during moments of respectful silence, beginning to understand the rituals that they will perform in later decades. They all honor citizens who sacrificed.

However, what happens if no one comes to the parade? What if very little people actually spend a half-hour of their holiday participating in—just merely watching, mind you--the Memorial Day Parade? This is what occurred in Parma yesterday. Parma is a city of, according to the US Census Bureau, around 80,000 people. Approximately 9,300 veterans live in the city, or about 14% of Parma’s population, more than average American city. Many houses fly Marine Corps and Navy flags. Blue Star Flags hang in many windows. Yet, how can so little people turn out for such a solemn occasion?

This lack of visible and tangible participation in one of the civic days of obligation is quite distressing. This is, in our estimation, a metric that portends negatively for the soul of the city, our city. Once an urbanism or suburbanism loses its pride and erodes into apathy, the core begins to rot and weakens, eventually withering away.

BOTC hopes what we witnessed is merely an anomaly.

A Lecture worth a Damn

Cameron Sinclair performs God's work.

That is our reaction to Cameron's lecture last night at the Idea Center. The lecture, the last in the recent Talalay Lecture Series sponsored by MOCA Cleveland, was clearly the most interesting, potent, and relevant talk we have experienced in quite a while.

While many of us play within the esotericism of current architectural and urban thought, Sinclair and his organization Architecture for Humanity acts, facilitates, and builds hundreds of buildings around the world, influencing thousands of people on many continents. Sinclair truly builds for the masses, all by utilizing decentralized and open networks of emerging global architectural talent, instead of top-down master dictated central planning structures.

Although we live in a spikey world of innovation and creativity (see Richard Florida's recent book Who's Your City), we also live in a flat world (see Tom Friedman's The World is Flat) which allows the distribution of innovative architectural ideas through emerging digital networks. AFH takes advantage eager+willing+idealistic professionals and designers around the globe to solve problems that heavy + clunky international organizations and NGOs cannot. AFH's portfolio of work exhibits the agency that thoughtfully construed architecture can possess, facilitating the building of community, the dissemination of education, the easing of tension and strife, the enlightening of intellect, and the bolstering of local economies. All architects wish that we could create building which could have such a profound influence.

The question for us, in Cleveland, is what we can do to aid in AFH's vital mission of delivering sensitive and effective design solutions to populations who do not usually have access to architectural and engineering professionals. Sadly, we here in Cleveland do not necessarily have to look more than a few miles to perform work that can be immediately beneficial.

Bravo, Mr. Sinclair. Your work inspires and touches the soul.

A Slow response to a Slow Lecture

Carolyn Strauss, director of SlowLAB, a design think tank based in New York and Amsterdam, presented her work and thoughts to a small audience at the Idea Center on April 22. Her lecture was the second in the current Talalay Lecture Series “The New Face of Architecture” sponsored by the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA).

Unfortunately for the audience, there was nothing really new about her ideas, thoughts, or work, or anything readily applicable to architectural generation. Rather the talk was purely anecdotal and catalogue-like, warm-and-fuzzy, and unsubstantial.

The crux of Strauss’s presentation centered on the idea of “the slow” or the concept of “slowness,” a so-called movement that searches to leach out the hidden textures, histories, and dynamics of a given space, artifact, infrastructure, setting, atmosphere, or event. The slowness notion, according to Strauss, can be traced back to the slow food movement, which sought the raise awareness of local cuisine and food production in specific regions of Italy. Supposedly this notion of the slow is transferrable to other creative disciplines, such as architecture and urban design. Strauss sought to make these connections between ideas of regional cuisine with ideas of recent installation art and urban mapping from around the world, often citing the work a confederation of designers, artists, cartographers, and geographers.

Yet very little of the work was architectural in the traditional sense. The work shown varied from the documentation of weeds and flowers embedded in walls or sidewalk cracks, installation projection art that simulated a tree shedding leaves, and a documentary focusing on the plight of an immigrant shoe repair shop and its owner. While singularly interesting and potentially potent, the exhibited work as a collection did not cohesively suggest a new paradigm of thought that could manifest in a slow architecture or slow urbanism.

Ultimately many in the audience recognized that the lecture was merely an index of catalogued resistant moments in our globalized economy and culture. This resistance is not really new, novel, or groundbreaking in thought or practice—similar resistance practices and thought can be found in many disciplines being executed around the world. The idea of resistance or critical resistance, again, is nothing new.

The notion of a slow resistance or merely slowness in architecture and urbanism is hardly novel. Firstly we can look to Marxist architectural historian Kenneth Frampton and his ever-evolving essay “Critical Regionalism” which exhibits the notion of global-resistive regionalism in architectural design. Slowness can be found in the delicate essays of David Leatherbarrow, a theorist who writes cogently about weathering, surfacing, and siting of architecture within specific environments. The slow can also be weaned from the writings of landscape historians such a JB Jackson (The Necessity of Ruins) and John Stilgoe (Outside Lies Magic). Although the above are authors and not designers, they do posit notions and provide potential constitutional foundations for slow design.

But that is not to say that slowness has not been made manifest through existing built work. Exhibitions of slowness can be found in the contemporary phenomenological architecture of Tod Williams + Bille Tsien, Juhani Pallasmaa, Steven Holl, Will Bruder, Rick Joy, Jacque Herzog + Pierre De Meuron, among many others. Much of the work of the great Alvar Aalto possesses a prediction towards the phenomenological and ruination, and therefore the slow. Whether or not identified taxonomically within the current milieu , slowness already does possess a pedigree within the cannon of 20th century modernism.

In conclusion we were disappointed in the lack of a rigorous process and annunciation of principal that such a doctrine can possess. The notion of slowness does possess merit and potential, even if its recent incarnation and presentation was rather shallow and directionless. Strauss should continue her work but recognize the movement’s hagiography and situate the antecedents that should strengthen the work.

As for MOCA’s selection of lecturers in this series, the museum is batting well below its average. Strauss’s talk was clearly weak. Although the Ball + Nogues lecture received only luke-warm praise, the duo’s built work and installations at least provided hope for a furtherance of thought. Let’s hope that Cameron Sinclair’s talk later this week provides an actual new face of architecture, not merely a simulacrum.

Parma garners attention from the AIA

Parma's urban concerns have snagged the attention of the American Institute of Architects.

The city will host a team of sustainability experts, designers, and planners who will conduct a study on Cleveland's most populous suburb.

See the story here.

Also, recent work from Parma Studio, the Fall 2007 graduate urban design studio at Kent State's Urban Design Center, is still on exhibit at Parmatown Mall. See the press release here.

Visions of Parma

If one was to exhibit urban design speculations about the storied suburb of Parma, Ohio, where would that be? Of course, the exhibtion would be hung in Parmatown Mall.

Work from Kent State's CUDC Fall 2007 Urban Design Studio is now on display in a vacant storefront in the Mall. The student work considered a Parma 2.0, the next iteration of this suburb that is currently losing population, investment, and value. How does a blue-collar suburb regain its footing as heavy manufacturing leaves the city and the region? How does design instigate needed change?

Student proposals include the imposition of cultural concourses, linear universities, race-track urbanisms, religious enclave networks, and the construction of a Parma Dam and resulting Lake Parma. A more sober proposal looks at the potential of reclaiming and re-appropriating foreclosed properties to create a new suburbansim.

All are worth a look.

The Permanent Convention Trip

While the County Commissioners are all hot and bothered about the new Convention Center and Medical Mart deal that will be signed today, several conventions-worth of Cuyahoga County citizens are going, this year alone, on a permanent convention trip, never to come back. See the PD article from this morning.

13,000 people left the county - - -last year!

Cuyahoga County has lost more people (97,887) in the last seven years than any other county in the country, except for Orleans Parish (New Orleans), which we all know was related to Hurricane Katrina.

How and why is this happening? We have some of the country's leading arts and cultural institutions, as well as leading academic institutions. We are located on the world's largest reservoir of fresh water. Etc, Etc.

Although we here at BOTC believe the in the catalytic nature of design, design is not going to save us. We firmly believe that the obstacles to the transformation and emergence of a new Cleveland + Cuyahoga County are located in the inert pyramids of local and state political power. They need to be toppled, obliterated, and rebuilt as more nimble apparatuses that can anticipate the shifts in economies, demographics, and culture. Only after we have re-constructed our decision-making bodies will true non-machine created leadership will emerge that begin to salvage our region.

Let us be your convention guide . . .

Since Cuyahoga County has signed the deal to bring the Medical Mart to Cleveland and to establish a new convention center, many in the design community need to voice their opinions on the future sites of such institutions. Surely we know more about design than Dimora + Hagan.

The placement of each building or buildings within the downtown context will impact how the city is used, how the city is experienced, and how the city will literally wear away or strengthen. The investment made in the near future will alter the dynamics of our downtown core for decades to come. The ramifications of these impositions need to understood.

BOTC agrees with Steve Litt that the process should be open to the public because of the civic nature of projects. We also believe that studies for the placement of the convention sites should include a broader study of the entirety of downtown since the placement of the convention center in relation to hotels, transportation hubs, attraction districts, and university campuses, will alter the hydraulics of the city.

For example, if the Medical Mart is built in the Tower City complex and the convention center is built on the Mall, Public Square suddenly takes on the important function of connector tissue than transcends everyday Clevelander use. Should Public Square then be re-designed?

These questions should be asked and answered before any downtown site is ultimately chosen. We here at Blog on the City in coordination with Cleveland Design City will track the deliberations and critique as needed.

The Simple Care for the City

BOTC walks the streets of Downtown Cleveland everyday, usually working our way down East East 14th and Euclid, between the parking garage and the office. When you walk the same route everyday, you tend to notice things--little things--that can inform you to the state of the city. The details and micro-conditions are usually indicitive of the greater whole, or to steal a phrase from architectural theorist Marco Frascari, the detail tells the tale.

While constuction continues on the Euclid Corridor project, new details emerge, like the symbolic cross walk paving, the embedded public art, the articulated trash cans, and such. These are exciting, pleasing, and exhibit a care for the city.

Other "details" emerge after something like the recent blizzard, that exhibit a disregard for the city and the people who use it everyday. These "details" are not design related, yet testify to the lack of care for the city. Namely, along Euclid Avenue, the phenomenom of un-shoveled and icy city sidewalks and public spaces in front of absentee landlord-owned properties exhibit a disinterest in the greater good of downtown pedestrians. While some building owners assisduously clear and maintain clear sidewalks for their building tenants, as well as the passer-by, others disrespect the city by not investing this small gesture to make Cleveland more friendly and simply walkable.

Creating a better city does not always necessitate investment of million of dollars. Rather a better city can be realized with ten minutes with a shovel and some salt.

UPDATE: A BOTC colleague expressed dismay that the Union Club, a bastion of Euclid Avenue rectitude, is also guilty of failing to clear their sidewalks.

Bad Water Rising on Public Square

BOTC is usually optomisitc about our fair city, despite its many faults.

However, this morning, the literal belly button of Cleveland burst and then caved-in.

A water main break at the heart of Public Square, at the intersection of Ontario + Superior, has created one hell of crater. See the NewsChannel 5 slideshow here.

This is not a good omen for the city.

And as Design Rag reminded me, why not take the opportunity to re-think the Square?

BOTC has commented on this in the past.

Endorsement: John McCain

Even though John McCain is the de facto Republican Presidential nominee, we still offer our very lucrative BOTC endorsement.

Unlike his soon-to-be Democratic opponent, the traditionally urban, Chicago-based Barack Obama, John McCain hails from the American Southwest, a surging, spawling, and very dynamic region of the country. Although Phoenix is usually panned, like sister city Houston, for its uncontrollable growth, these cities possess the DNA of true American urbanism--an essential suburban horizontalism. These new cities of new economies are not riddled with the same hollow cores of the cities of the rust belt nor the same concerns about migrating jobs and brain drain. The urbanisms reflect new urbanism of churning economies, geographies, lifestyles, family structures, immigration patterns, infrastructures, etc--these are the urban paradigms of the new American Century.

There is much to learn from what has been accomplished and destroyed in Phoenix. John McCain, a son of Phoenix, and his potential administration could inject a new enthusiasm and interest in the value of the perimeter and how the urban peripheries can still serve their important purpose in our metropolian areas, albeit more efficiently and productively.

Endorsement: Barack Obama

We here at BOTC spent the night watching the most likely final debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. We had hunches about who we wanted to endorse before hand, but we wanted to wait until after the debate to make our choice, just in case. You never know--maybe Senator Clinton would have offered a rousing speech about the value of urban civic space. But, of course, she did not.

So we offer our endorsement of Barack Obama for the Democratic Presidential Nomination. Although both talked about the investment in infrastructure, we feel that a President Obama would make more robust investment in urban infrastructures. Obama possesses an idealism that will most likely produce urban renewal-like programs on the scale of LBJ's Great Society, which will prove very lucrative and thrilling to architects and urban designers.

Even though the physical city of Cleveland was not talked about much, our fair city would be a perfect testing laboratory for radical and progressive design endeavors that can conflate issue of urban shrinkage, landscape urbanism, new public housing paradigms, new economy geographies, green technologies, and endowed transportation corridors. If a President Obama is true to his word, our cities will be the fertile territories for an American urban rebirth.