Brilliant Simplicity Coming to Baltimore

I've been working with the folks at Metropolis magazine and the Maryland Institute College of Art to bring Metropolis editor in chief Susan Szenasy to town for a screening of her new documentary Brilliant Simplicity. I'm happy to say that we have a date and time set. Details below. The evening is free and open to the public, but you do need to RSVP. So mark your calendars and hope to see you there:

The Metropolis Tour: Brilliant Simplicity

Metropolis magazine and the Maryland Institute College of Art present a conversation with editor in chief Susan S. Szenasy on the pressing need for research in design. Szenasy will screen Brilliant Simplicity: 15 Designers Research Collaborate Innovate, a new, short film that traces the many ways breakthroughs can happen in a design practice and she will challenge you to consider new approaches in your own work.

When: Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Where: Falvey Hall. The Brown Center, MICA
Time: 7:00
Cost: Free
RSVP: www.metropolismag.com/mica

Design Conversation Recap

Our wonderful host : Wind Up Space owner, Russell deOcampo

Last night was the first-ever design conversation in Baltimore and it was quite a nice turn out. We filled a good portion of the Wind Up Space in the Station North neighborhood with a mix of city planners, DOT reps, architects, graphic designers, teachers, non-profit leaders, media reps, and folks interested in the built environment. We drank the bar out of Natty Boh (sorry, Russell).



Mark Cameron from the Neighborhood Design Center kicked off the night explaining how this group evolved out of recent meetings discussing the possible creation of a Design Center in Baltimore.

(Sorry for the crap photo, Fred..)

Mark was followed by architect Fred Scharmen, who announced an upcoming bike rack competition for Station North. Winners get $4,000 to fabricate their designs. Fred plans on posting more details about it on the Design Center Baltimore Facebook page. If you haven't joined in, you should CLICK HERE and do so. All are welcome. (P.S.: If you haven't read Fred's article about Baltimore on the Archinect site, you really need to check it out: Click Here.)

Fred mentioned a similar competition in New York City that inspired David Byrne to design racks based on neighborhood geography. The best has to be the one called "Jersey" located near the Lincoln Tunnel:

Below: "The Villager"

Below: "The Chelsea"

Something that I saw recently stuck out to me: it's an actual bike parking area on a city street (I believe this was designed for a competition in San Francisco, but don't quote me on that). It takes the lone rack and transforms it into a truly visible spot for bikers. With North Avenue's wide sidewalks, could this be a possibility in Station North?


I talked last night about my travels around the country covering design and sustainability for magazines. I promised to leave participants with some resources for further reading, so that is below.

Moving forward, we're planning on holding these design conversations every first Wednesday of the month, which would make the next one on October 1 (which is around the time of Baltimore Architecture Week, FYI). My hope is that we can move these beyond just a networking opportunity to become a place of focused and creative design exchange. It'll be tricky figuring out how to keep all of these disparate areas of design engaged in one overall conversation, but I think the very fact that we had such a diversity of professions in one room —all interested and passionate about the design of Baltimore's built and visual environment—is a hell of a good start.

If you were there and have comments about last night, ideas for future topics, ways you think that we should move forward, or examples of best practices from other groups like this, please leave a comment!

Further Reading: Making Sustainability Visible in Cities


It's time to move beyond the idea that building green is more expensive, but that it pays off in long-term energy costs. There are architects and planners who are actively bunking that notion through their designs.

Ankrom Ansom in Portland, OR is in the construction phase of the Mirabella, a 30-story, 224-unit tower (rendering above), which is on track to become the nation’s first LEED Platinum Continued Care Retirement Community. The building is located in the city's developing South Waterfront neighborhood, which requires that every building achieve at least LEED Silver; when it is complete, it will be the largest green community in the country. Ankrom Ansom architects found that going platinum was actually financially beneficial for the client and saved $3 million at the outset. (Changing to variable speed motors on the HVAC system, for example, cost $58,000, but the switch will save about $42,000 a year in energy costs.) Developers also benefited from Oregon state incentives for upgrading to the platinum rating, which is a reminder of the important value of the right kind of tax incentives. If this topic interests you, keep an eye out for a feature article that I wrote about design for aging in the October issue of Architect magazine.

Vegas's New Game
A link to a short article I wrote for the The New York Times Magazine about the green school prototype competition in Las Vegas, where officials are challenging architects to build schools with better energy efficiency for less money (you'll need to scroll down the page to find it).

The City and State supporting citizen participation:
Oregon and Washington states both recycle food and natural waste as well as cans, bottles, plastic, paper, etc. In Olympia, WA, for example, the district gives homeowners in-house composting bins with instructions on how to recycle. Yard and food waste is recycled weekly.

Seeing Outside Accepted Systems:

Not all sustainable solutions need to be expensive outlays of development dollars or government-backed initiatives. In fact, it’s extremely important to move the definition of sustainability away from this and start thinking about the less visible forms that can take root, no pun intended, organically. Take the Baltimore Arabber—it emerged out of a need to transport produce to neighborhoods without access to real markets.

Another example:
How do we contend with the devastation of abandoned houses, empty lots, shrinking urban populations? In Detroit, an interesting thing has emerged. Residents started buying the vacant properties adjacent to their homes and doubling their lot in life, so to speak. The city saw that the citizens were trying to pioneer a solution within their own communites and they supported the system that emerged through tax incentives that made it easier for neighbors to buy abandoned lots. MICA professor Daniel D'Oco, principal of Interboro architects and planners, was there last night and he wrote an article about this program for the new book/magazine (dubbed a boogazine) Verb Crisis. The solutions aren't always pretty or slick, but they are honest. It's valuable to remember that there can be multiple visions of a healthy neighborhood. To quote the wise Jane Jacobs: “There is a quality meaner than outright ugliness or disorder and this meaner quality is the dishonest mask of pretended order, achieved by ignoring or suppressing the real order that is struggling to exist and to be served.” Amen.

The Rise of Social Design and Raising Awareness in Communities

At the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale, the U.S. will highlight organizations and individuals engaging communities in a conversation about their built environment. The fifteen participants in the Biennale exhibition work in vastly different landscapes—from California/Mexico border towns, to downtown Brooklyn, to rural Alabama. Yet the underpinnings of their efforts are the same. Whether it is Detroit’s Collaborative Design Center or Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard, each represents the movement of architecture and design into the realm of social justice and offers a compelling vision for the small scale, grassroots change that is possible when creative minds come together without ego.

Projects are bringing together art and design professionals with community-based advocates and researchers to effect real change at a neighborhood level. There are lots of great examples of that kind of outreach here. You may want to read about the events that happened in Denver at the Democratic National Convention. Here's a link to a blog that I wrote for Metropolis magazine. Note that the Green Constitutional Congress plans to travel the country. Should we work to bring it to Baltimore?

I also highlighted the work of some groups engaging in fun urban interactions that raise awareness about important issues. Rebar in San Francisco created the PARK(ing) project as a response to the "paucity of space for humans to rest, relax, or just do nothing" in their city.

They write that: "more than 70% of San Francisco's downtown outdoor space is dedicated to the private vehicle, while only a fraction of that space is allocated to the public realm. Feeding the meter of a parking space enables one to rent precious downtown real estate, typically on a 1/2 hour to 2-hour basis. What is the range of possible occupancy activities for this short-term lease?" Check out their answer to that question.

So what do you want to raise awareness about in Baltimore? If you want inspiration, get your hands on a copy of the book Temporary Urban Spaces: Concepts for the Use of City Spaces. And I hope to see you out and about in the city very soon...

Event Reminder: Design Conversation

Don't forget—tomorrow night is the first Baltimore design conversation. If you're in town, be sure to stop by the Wind Up Space from 6 - 8 p.m. Hope to see you there!

Linotype in Portland

I'm in Portland, Maine for the weekend to see my brother, our friends Sei, Wendy, and Melissa, and my husband, Matt, play in a musical festival here (their band is called Hearts by Darts).


Mike and his friend, Sei, recorded their first album up here with the help of Ron Harrity, founder of Peapod Recordings. Yesterday we dropped the band off for practice and saw inside the New Systems Laundry building, a warehouse near downtown. It's been transformed into artist's space and there are several designers creating screenprint posters:





And then there was this: a classic 1880's linotype machine used by a local bookseller/preserver.


The machine is operated by one individual at a keyboard.

(That's my sister-in-law, Anne)

Here's a description of how it works from a linotype Web site:

Having adjusted the machine for the required point size and line length, the metal heated to the correct temperature—about 550 degrees Fahrenheit—he commences setting.

A light press of the key buttons actuates a mechanism that releases the matrices. These are small pieces of brass in which the characters or dies are stamped. The matrices travel from the magazine channels where they are housed, by means of a miniature conveyor belt, into the assembler box. This assembler box is the composing stick of the Linotype. After each word the operator touches the spaceband key which allows a spaceband to fall before setting the first letter of the following word. These spacebands are steel wedges and are used to spread out the line of matrices to the required width. When these spacebands have entered the assembler they are so positioned that their minimum width is between the matrices.

Junk Mail (and the Failures of Modern Marriage)

Something awful happens when you get married. Or, more precisely, something awful happens when you get married and decide to register for gifts. Suddenly, you are on the mail order grid. I'm not sure the Wüsthof knives are worth the quadrupling of our mail intake.

It's hard to pinpoint which company is selling our name. Occasionally I get a clue: I bought a baby book for a pregnant friend from Amazon.com and within 24 hours I'm getting emails from Fisher Price about Rainforest Giraffe Ring Stackers. F*@&ing Amazon.

Most of the time, though, I can only hazard a guess. Was it you Williams-Sonoma? Or you, Restoration Hardware, with all of your overpriced crap? (PS: never register there).

My mom has a clever system. When she signs up for new accounts—magazine subscriptions, online services, listervs, etc—she misspells her name by a letter. Or she uses her middle name with one account, her maiden name on another. No two are alike. This way, when the unwanted catalogues and junk email inevitably come, she knows who sold her out. Calling up customer service and telling them what they can do with their b.s. marketing ploys makes for a nice outlet after a bad day.

Yesterday, amidst the hundreds of credit card offers and furniture and clothing catalogues, I got a copy of The Nest magazine. What?

The Nest, it turns out, is a subsidiary of the The Knot, that online wedding planning site that obsessively parses every aspect of the classic American wedding. And offers grounbreaking polls like, What's Your Biggest Wedding Fear?! (Note to The Knot: Mine is getting put on your mailing list. Fear realized.)

How did I get on The Knot radar in the first place? Not sure, but I'm blaming you Target.

The Nest, I am told, is for this next stage of my life. It is "the must have magazine for modern marrieds."

Screen Grab: it's "cheaper than therapy!"

So what does this 140-page publication have to say about modern marriage? Apparently, it's a lot like a marriage from the 50's, with a notable exception. Rather than pictures of housewives, you've got pictures of the mythical SuperWomen, the virgin/whore, professional/housewife who knows that when hosting a wine tasting, a malbec is best paired with piave. And if YOU didn't know that, naive newlywed, well thank the heavens you have this magazine to fill you in. Buckle up ladies, it's time to get neurotic.



Let's start with the cover. The Fall 2008 issue features a smiling, real-life couple. "She's a fundraising dynomo! He's a chief White House correspondent!" [for Fox news, btw, suggesting this rag's intended audience]. The picture shows the husband smiling up at his wife, cup of coffee in hand and the morning paper splayed out on the dining table. The "fundraising dynamo" is standing over the table in a classic ready-to-serve-you stance. Look closely and you'll notice that even their coffee mugs run the gender line: his a sturdy, white ceramic. Hers a whimsical mug with a girl in a dress and the word "Shopping..." legible in what is likely a nod to her womanly desire to spend hours at the mall.

Inside, you get advice on everything from money and decor, to sex and cooking. The stereotypes persist in all categories. There are those pesky in-laws and the need to keep up appearances."In-Law Proof Your Home" advises that you hide the liquor and the sex toys, and swap out pictures of friends for family photos. They offer this important Hint:

"You can slide your family photo behind your crazy vaca one in the frame. Should you get a surprise visit, you can quickly swap out the incriminating shots!"

Riiiight. Cause that doesn't look odd. "Excuse me while I take apart my picture frame..."

Other tips: stock the fridge, lest your in-laws think you're not taking care of your husband, and fill vases with flowers so "your house will look polished."

That said, be sure you don't actually eat too much out of that fridge. You wouldn't want to tip the scales away from your wonderful wedding weight. In the article "Prime Time" you get tips on how to prepare the perfect steak. Strip for him! Filet for her!



There's decorating advice for men and women: For her, a lovely, prissy bedroom with floral print walls. For him, a Man Room with a Lazyboy, a BeerTender, a foosball table, and a flatscreen.

And there's the need to accumulate and show off all that stuff. The article about "Housewarming Party How-To" says that a housewarming party is a "coming-out shindig for your new life together in your shared pad and a way to make people feel welcome in it. Okay, and maybe to gloat (just a little) over your new space with all that cool wedding swag on display." The authors go on to explain that "Housewarming gifts are optional (don't look so depressed)."

And then there's vacation, where apparently the squeamish newlywed is too afraid to try the local fare. While in Prague, they suggest you go to a restaurant and "try the pork knee (don't be scared!)"

I could go on. But I'm only a quarter of the way through the table of contents.

I was born in 1973. My parents lived in faculty housing on the campus of an all-girl's liberal arts college where my father taught history. It was the height of the ERA movement and my first book was a copy of Any Woman Can: Love and Sexual Fulfillment for the single, widowed, divorced...and Married gifted to my mother by a couple of female students. The inscription reads, in part,: "For baby Elizabeth when she is old enough to read..."

This was also the era of the Enjoli ad and the beginning of the idea that a woman could bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, put the kids to bed, and fuck her husband silly all while looking smashing. The tagline: "The new 8 hour perfume for the 24 hour woman."

Something happened on the way to this female liberation. Women got screwed. Today, I would argue that we identify more with that woman in the Enjoli ad than the pioneers of women's rights, with the exception that now we're frying up organic, fair-traded, free range turkey bacon. The Nest perpetuates the worst possible vision of the modern American woman and the modern American marriage: Impossible standards, impossibly childish ideas of partnership, the notion that women you can do it all in the boardroom, the bedroom, and the baby's room, and that we are still responsible for coddling our husbands. It's an amazing set of contradictions. Let's not forget that we live in the era of the first female presidential candidate, but we also live in a time when her pantsuits are billed as breaking news.

A screen grab from Google yesterday.

Whew. That was a rant. See what all this junk mail is doing to me?

Designing Democracy

South Korean designer Minsuk Cho’s Air Forest, a 10,000 square foot architectural pavilion located in Denver’s City Park as a part of the interactive arts event Dialog:City.

OK. It's getting old. I know. All the links to my Metropolis posts and fewer new posts unique to this blog. But I promise some more design news soon. In the meantime...

Read what I posted this morning about the activities at the DNC and the rise of the designer-as-activist (and I definitely promise more on that topic soon).

Haute Barnyard

Another blog of mine went live on Metropolis this morning. This one's about the farm-to-table trend in the restaurant industry. It's called Billionaire's Farmhouse. Click here to check it out.

Paper Kingdom

A new post of mine is up on Metropolismag.com about artist Elena Johnston and her new book documenting the last two decades of rock poster art in Baltimore. Check it out. (And thanks to Eric for bringing this book to my attention.)

Design Conversation Baltimore

(Click on the image above for a larger version of the invitation)

save. the. date.

A fun event is kicking off on September 3rd. A group of folks have been batting around the notion of a Baltimore Design Center and out of those meetings came an idea for a monthly gathering of people interested in talking about design and architecture in Baltimore (think design with a capital "D": everything from buildings to graphics to urban planning). We thought it would be nice to meet over drinks once a month for some conversation and collaboration. Each gathering will have a loose topic, but mostly it's an open forum and an excuse to meet people and drink a pint (or three). And you definitely don't need to be a designer or an architect to join in.

The first gathering is on Sept. 3rd at the Wind Up Space in Station North from 6-8 PM. Snacks provided; you buy your own drinks.

The more the merrier, so if you're in Baltimore, pop by. It promises to be a fun evening.

Smoking without Cigarettes

Still from Mad Men

I've been catching up on the last season of Mad Men and boy oh boy does that show make you want to pick up a pack of smokes (and a bottle of whiskey.) The show is set in a Madison Avenue ad agency in 1959/1960 and Lucky Strikes are still handed out on the sandwich cart. It's the climax of the cigarette, that glamorous age before reality set in. Smoking was sexy and posing with a cigarette was a big part of the visual culture.



So what happens now that smoking is taboo? We're still fascinated with the concept, the body language, the idea of it. I've been noticing images evoking the idea of smoking minus the actual cigarettes. This month's Vanity Fair has a spread with actress Carla Gugino playing pin-up girl. Looks like she could take a drag off that chess piece.



And here's actress Mischa Barton "smoking" a flower on this month's cover of Nylon.