crossings

One of my favorite design competitions to announce winners recently is the ARC International Wildlife Crossing Infrastructure Design Competition. My personal favorite finalist is Zwarts & Jansma with OKRA Landscape Architects, IV-infra and Planecologie (above). You can see more images of their proposal on their website. The Zwarts&Jansma proposal creates a continuous landform bridging over the roadway valley. This proposal seems to have the best seamless wildlife landscape.

Lapsang Souchong

It's like liquid campfire smoke... in a good way.

Lapsang Souchong, unlike most teas, is smoke dried over pine fire giving it a distinctive smokey taste. I just bought this tea for the first time (I learned about it from a tea class at Brooklyn Brainery) and it really is a wonderful tea for the long days/nights of portfolio work I have been doing for upcoming grad school application deadlines. I'm really hoping that I will have long nights of grad school next year where I can also drink lots of tea. The best part about this tea is that since it is highly oxidized and smoked it can be brewed a few times using the same tea and the flavor changes slightly each time.

imonaboat

up the ante

tomorrow i try for 4 miles

highlights include:

brooklyn heights promenade

a prison

a few churches

and avoiding this hill

World's Fair : A Few Years Late

REX/OMA Theater

made it back from texas.

this is the theater that I posted about awhile ago.

(Virtual) Run Across America

I'm virtually running across America! (Slowly)

http://exercise.lbl.gov/index.html

This website provides a (somewhat crude) program that will track your running progress along the transcontinental (TransAmerica) trail and also lets you track your progress with teams or partners. The image above is my progress at 16.5 miles from the start.

At this pace it should take me about 4 years to make it across. Maybe I should pick up the speed.

Support Hoops at Superfront!

The days are counting down and we are still 60% away from our goal!

If we don't reach our goal we don't get any of the funding!

Considering helping us out at the link below:

HooPlay

This weekend we finished installing our hoops!

Pole Dance

Last thursday was the preview party for SO-IL's PS1 Pole Dance

See Iwan Baan's amazing photos of the space.

Or see my iphone quality photos of the space...

farmshow

PS1 Colors

For a couple of weekends I have been helping install a mock-up for this summer's PS1 installation Pole Dance by SO-IL. It should make for a colorful summer party. See their video below.

SO-IL PS1 Pole Dance from SO-IL on Vimeo.

Kombucha

Today is my first attempt at making Kombucha.

My roommate says it smells like feet.

Baked

PB Krispy Bar, the cross-section of deliciousness from Baked on Van Brunt.

Rex @ Ted

A week ago I attended a lecture @ Cooper Union to see Foreign Office Architects (FOA)'s Alejandro Saera-Polo speak about his office's current work. Although I overall tend to like FOA's work (or atleast some ideas behind it) Saera-Polo's lecture focused on what he felt was an architects position in contemporary culture especially focusing on the current economic climate. His lecture, titled "Cheapness", began with evaluation of today's architectural culture in comparison to the architectural culture of the past. The architectural culture of the past being one focused on the equality of various socio-economic boundaries while the architectural culture of today is one that is to be devoid of politics and focused on economics. Summed up, his lecture focused on the envelope of the building and how an architect can use the skin to create an architectural expression rather than trying to solve a social problem through the form of the building. The projects he focused on were mostly commercial programs so perhaps his argument works in just the realm of commercial architecture. Even though I found this stance slightly depressing, I felt that Saera-Polo's project for a Shopping Center in Istanbul, Turkey goes against some of the statements that he made in his lecture. Although the shopping center follows the programmatic requirements needed to make it economically successful, to say that they weren't attempting to redesign the form of a shopping center is deceitful. The topography of the project rises and dips to create a public space within the surrounding shopping landscape that not only allows the necessary storefront condition but also creates a seemingly successful gathering space for the community.

Soon after this lecture I watched Joshua Prince-Ramus's Ted Talk which continues the discussion of the growing importance of economic constraints in architecture. While Saera-Polo's lecture left me feeling disillusioned, Prince-Ramus's lecture was inspiring with the level of ingenuity and consideration that can still be reached within the economic and programmatic constraints of an established building typology.