tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47044433915182784712024-02-18T18:06:53.076-08:00Aaron KnorrAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03780982752429508910noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704443391518278471.post-78673072431304161182014-05-28T21:07:00.001-07:002014-05-28T21:07:04.562-07:00Out of Sight<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqD2zFe7RtYSIlL4eXi0IePjKnTHXMpsJDNP4YPsUYLAF0gYCozZgcdQFzvCeRPKJfaCQls25JHjkKFgTgGdBoeW-TRoTg_RiP64EhYyRB9fvAcLV93MJrivIR9-dSQVWaGuTOrNlhZL7Q/s1600/HaroldE_Edgerton12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqD2zFe7RtYSIlL4eXi0IePjKnTHXMpsJDNP4YPsUYLAF0gYCozZgcdQFzvCeRPKJfaCQls25JHjkKFgTgGdBoeW-TRoTg_RiP64EhYyRB9fvAcLV93MJrivIR9-dSQVWaGuTOrNlhZL7Q/s1600/HaroldE_Edgerton12.jpg" height="310" width="400" /></a></div>
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On view at the Vancouver Art Gallery through September 1, an exhibit centered on 80 photographs by Harold Edgerton, master / inventor of the ultra high-speed stroboscopic photograph. From VAG:</div>
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<em>Taking Edgerton's remapping of the possibilities of space and time as a thematic starting point, New Acquisitions explores artists' engagement with ideas around perception and representation, challenging viewers to reconsider what it is we see in our everyday encounters.</em><br />
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Another great example of an ultra slow-motion window into a scale of time beyond our regular perception is the work of Werner Mehl (see below). If you don't have time for the full video, fast-forward to [8:10] for stunning footage captured at 1 million frames per second...<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QfDoQwIAaXg" style="height: 307px; width: 407px;" width="459"></iframe><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03780982752429508910noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704443391518278471.post-78577628910247880872014-05-21T22:04:00.001-07:002014-05-28T21:55:29.462-07:00Street Names of Vancouver<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgADSTV1jVhfHjkUoZgj7U-MODUEmv_FuOWd1qG0oRJVOe8u4J_E1-yXbEY2vPY24Oakbtu_pig6zGGqvIsxPr5xq-mlnN42g9fsH2F_qRb-SUjg-lpUxo3SwD0UyvYbbLjYpZy2Cisw5hK/s1600/Bidwell_Haro_intersection.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgADSTV1jVhfHjkUoZgj7U-MODUEmv_FuOWd1qG0oRJVOe8u4J_E1-yXbEY2vPY24Oakbtu_pig6zGGqvIsxPr5xq-mlnN42g9fsH2F_qRb-SUjg-lpUxo3SwD0UyvYbbLjYpZy2Cisw5hK/s1600/Bidwell_Haro_intersection.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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Despite having lived in the neighborhood for 18 months now, I still have some difficulty orienting myself to the street names of Vancouver's West End. Unlike the rest of the city, where streets run north / south and avenues run east / west, the downtown peninsula is a (wonderfully) convoluted matrix of roads, rotated 45 degrees from the cardinal directions, and all sharing the suffix of "Street" regardless of orientation.</div>
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In an effort to commit the West End's street grid to memory, I have also found myself wondering where the street names of the neighborhood came from -- there are some familiar sounding names, but no clear rhyme or reason offering a clear logic for the whole. Fortunately for me, and anyone else that has ever pondered the City's street names, Elizabeth Walker has written an incredibly comprehensive and encylopedic history on the origins of every street name in Vancouver:</div>
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<a href="http://www.vpl.ca/bccd/pdf/Street_Names_of_Vancouver.pdf">http://www.vpl.ca/bccd/pdf/Street_Names_of_Vancouver.pdf</a><br />
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It turns out that the streets of District Lot 185 (the West End) were hastily named by surveyor / land commissioner / city councilor L.A. Hamilton, who "applied names from an admiralty chart of the Pacific Coast."</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03780982752429508910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704443391518278471.post-12968436836265449072014-04-23T01:24:00.002-07:002014-05-21T19:08:30.678-07:00A Matter of Perspective<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBfdd7kgpBDRagf11hX-eF6jUp97xEVDHiUGDO2-bqIIruBpKbAuGsFbLNBzoXqrS9-_D-l5f3pF4gpCtnpY_cGjOgI3wl-FBPhqg_E1acjqsOELhpRzPjB11oxL0nTfuHwOBZDqzqKrC1/s1600/UpsideDown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBfdd7kgpBDRagf11hX-eF6jUp97xEVDHiUGDO2-bqIIruBpKbAuGsFbLNBzoXqrS9-_D-l5f3pF4gpCtnpY_cGjOgI3wl-FBPhqg_E1acjqsOELhpRzPjB11oxL0nTfuHwOBZDqzqKrC1/s1600/UpsideDown.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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Most of my days are spent inhabiting mostly the same small corner of this planet; tending to many of the same daily routines and retracing many of the same well-worn paths. There are times when the habits developed from routine can make the familiar seem, superficially, rather perfunctory. How gratifying then to happen across something new, something previously unseen, in even the most everyday spaces. There is much to be said for making the familiar rather unfamiliar again.</div>
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Sometimes it's good to be reminded that we are all hanging, quite miraculously, from the underside of a great blue sphere...</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03780982752429508910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704443391518278471.post-28564468888767462822014-01-12T23:06:00.003-08:002014-01-12T23:09:05.824-08:00Through the (Looking) Lens<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
New ways of seeing the world are often the product of those working at the intersection of multiple disciplines. One such individual was little known artist / inventor Cornelius Varley, whose work was recently <a href="http://whyy.org/cms/fridayarts/cornelius-varley-and-his-fantastical-patent-graphic-telescope-machine/" target="_blank">on display</a> at the American Philosophical Society Museum in Philadelphia. Varley was primarily an artist, and exhibited talent for watercolor landscapes and portrait drawings; but also displayed an innate curiosity in the natural world and scientific instruments. <br />
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In 1811, Varley invented the "Patent Graphic Telescope"--a portable "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_lucida" target="_blank">camera lucida</a>" which allowed him to see a subject observed through a macro- or micro-scopic lens superimposed, through a series of mirrors, onto a drawing surface in front of him. This allowed Varley to produce a collection of beautifully detailed images of the living botanical world seen through his microscope with a near photographic accuracy.<br />
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The images deserve a closer look to appreciate the graphic detail of his work: a narrative of thoughts and observations are interwoven with the images; arrows suggest the movement that Varley observed as he was recording; all transcribed on rich watercolors rendered with scientific precision and organic artistry.<br />
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<a href="http://image.pbs.org/video-assets/WHYY/friday-arts/93694/images/Mezzanine_296.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-QsAdUGB9WM6RhwvJRNv0kBFdcLAwPxQZS-qrtGN1dcaYQbwk9wvAHfSQF8uBnYdOsPeas0pIfgGS0UuBKzjQsIwpjSu1k_wF8DBrp4W97DZ6843GwXyydv_rvM4IGM50fDX_vjrqUgA3/s1600/varley3.jpg" width="272" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.whyy.org/img/slides/varley2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_AM7fC4vUlNXB7RjpuA1ka_vo3QuZyM3fx4m9J4rOiF7g4LO5ZXzg-h8xezz3EnvRV7Ga7WG95P8Q5ax4dCTfC-tTXcbejePRtTJTG_iLpINjGpETcmMcTz3VhkeYsGxSLWMI647yl6cp/s1600/varley2.jpg" width="272" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.whyy.org/img/slides/varley5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie-8uju6CSusUegd38qdSATGPuJ-y0hqQihOB2TfZQS6_nzOOfvhdSW8PwRNJn4_-0w7k7urR90uiUSmHCN5AE0AM8Oi0Rz3qgnJeq2wYXUPGUoldzyWw9nPTqn2MzbjAMyNegmgIId2Es/s1600/varley5.jpg" width="272" /></a> </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03780982752429508910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704443391518278471.post-41464437919402523222014-01-09T23:10:00.001-08:002014-05-28T21:53:59.124-07:00Through the (Panoramic) Lens<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I was fortunate enough to attend a presentation hosted by local historian Michael Kluckner at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre last month on the photographic work of William J. Moore. The panoramic photographs were all taken with a rotating <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirkut" target="_blank">No. 8 Cirkut camera</a> and capture a remarkable collection of landscapes and portraits from early 20th century Vancouver. It is of course immediately striking how completely the identity of the city has changed in less than one hundred years. The images also beg the question, what will today's Vancouver look like as seen from one hundred years in the future?</div>
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An extensive collection of W.J. Moore's panoramic photographs have
been digitized by the City of Vancouver Archives and posted <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vancouver-archives/sets/72157625958366187/" target="_blank">here</a>. The images are best viewed in the 'original' size setting, where the incredible resolution of the photographs (the original negatives measured 8 inches by as much as 8 feet) truly bring the historic landscape to life.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAVe9SgTGg7ABPylbYuo-gvSo1UpAzB8RXoa7jq41pt95kt1egQxSVXJ6s0llT-7MM2npNxmO5aWiR32rWT_ujvt8A8O4GBe3MHIitS8gFcP4DrHiAXYQzisoXka6bCqOYXGOtxy8X0mtK/s1600/CW+Moore_World+Building.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAVe9SgTGg7ABPylbYuo-gvSo1UpAzB8RXoa7jq41pt95kt1egQxSVXJ6s0llT-7MM2npNxmO5aWiR32rWT_ujvt8A8O4GBe3MHIitS8gFcP4DrHiAXYQzisoXka6bCqOYXGOtxy8X0mtK/s1600/CW+Moore_World+Building.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vancouver-archives/5457281416/sizes/o/in/set-72157625958366187/" target="_blank">Downtown Vancouver from World Building (1921)</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKEeYS8Q2YHbljHj9UNkf5aaTpSkkX60tuwrcoZZpqoEI4ToClSFNLhh_TArYnTHF8Ojzsg0chCMP26GrE96UKPX4_QYaCzGg_RTV6c7Wk1LZAI0rovEirnejj7eXWZ-D32an_Tk7_bQTN/s1600/CW+Moore_Shipyard.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKEeYS8Q2YHbljHj9UNkf5aaTpSkkX60tuwrcoZZpqoEI4ToClSFNLhh_TArYnTHF8Ojzsg0chCMP26GrE96UKPX4_QYaCzGg_RTV6c7Wk1LZAI0rovEirnejj7eXWZ-D32an_Tk7_bQTN/s1600/CW+Moore_Shipyard.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vancouver-archives/5457290472/sizes/o/in/set-72157625958366187/" target="_blank">Pacific Construction Shipyard (1919)</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEholHF0slIrENbuBghabHWAObKPjQAiV95zegR9t1Hctre9grell469AhL2zgb0SrduVx5ZdsO4VKaLGncLPX5ZySxbnYdnuNx5K92rwNvObsoJvXyhgHfxHKNsQWLYP2WuycVlagrkG4oQ/s1600/CW+Moore_CPR+Dock.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEholHF0slIrENbuBghabHWAObKPjQAiV95zegR9t1Hctre9grell469AhL2zgb0SrduVx5ZdsO4VKaLGncLPX5ZySxbnYdnuNx5K92rwNvObsoJvXyhgHfxHKNsQWLYP2WuycVlagrkG4oQ/s1600/CW+Moore_CPR+Dock.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vancouver-archives/5456684819/sizes/o/in/set-72157625958366187/" target="_blank">CPR Terminal Dock (1926)</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic6mVVmBwtToYz4bexhwXRRpYfmkXRnv0IDhltmE9UUUdHhulZ9mJWSGz4d9aY4hwjKhtOrBJ7f01dusnCtFWHEhRI5aoyi7uiTThnYTOQYO6tCp1vQmexT385OGn-ZQWNweLyvHoDIpsI/s1600/CW+Moore_False+Creek+Flats.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic6mVVmBwtToYz4bexhwXRRpYfmkXRnv0IDhltmE9UUUdHhulZ9mJWSGz4d9aY4hwjKhtOrBJ7f01dusnCtFWHEhRI5aoyi7uiTThnYTOQYO6tCp1vQmexT385OGn-ZQWNweLyvHoDIpsI/s1600/CW+Moore_False+Creek+Flats.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vancouver-archives/5456682913/sizes/o/in/set-72157625958366187/" target="_blank">Reclamation of False Creek Flats (1921)</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFQz3j6Wp0ud_H4S4eCXmUmqh6pRZtXVuGCnkTzzXY4QL1jBXtA83o5AJhToA83UEcfe9Wy8F7Wb0Cgbyxoa8XNkGm_EvzzxvGuj0spRTBQfoY54tAiP0cmlMeBRY4H2cgVuOF-x9laMOs/s1600/CW+Moore_Stanley+Park+Causeway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFQz3j6Wp0ud_H4S4eCXmUmqh6pRZtXVuGCnkTzzXY4QL1jBXtA83o5AJhToA83UEcfe9Wy8F7Wb0Cgbyxoa8XNkGm_EvzzxvGuj0spRTBQfoY54tAiP0cmlMeBRY4H2cgVuOF-x9laMOs/s1600/CW+Moore_Stanley+Park+Causeway.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vancouver-archives/5457291666/sizes/o/in/set-72157625958366187/" target="_blank">Stanley Park Causeway (1921)</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFL48wIl4S_G1aahFMo4L9Om3OtC51lFAKxAT9zOTx2nPiQizWld9unuvCy6DE04UaVoUphA5kAS3V6fyIT8WMuqb27NCoyTcrEKofrkHLnWeVctzNBCJFsKCfhhsJOLOiIMkYWV5X_FUW/s1600/CW+Moore_Ballpark.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFL48wIl4S_G1aahFMo4L9Om3OtC51lFAKxAT9zOTx2nPiQizWld9unuvCy6DE04UaVoUphA5kAS3V6fyIT8WMuqb27NCoyTcrEKofrkHLnWeVctzNBCJFsKCfhhsJOLOiIMkYWV5X_FUW/s1600/CW+Moore_Ballpark.jpg" /></a></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vancouver-archives/5457283864/sizes/o/in/set-72157625958366187/" target="_blank">Pennant Day at Capilano Stadium (1913)</a></td></tr>
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What if an architect were
concerned not with the order of columns but with creating
communities? What sort of design practice emerges from this line of
thinking? Architecture can be defined not just as physical infrastructure but also as social practice. This is not to suggest dispensing with architecture per se; but rather shifting the focus of the designer's attention from the artifact to the sociopolitical context in which we build our surroundings. Architectural design on its own can never match the impact of redesigning policy.<br />
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How might an architect take up the challenge of designing the conditions from which new architecture can emerge? It is necessary to begin by redefining the problem. A reconsidered practice requires an intimacy with territory and history; with ecology and psychology; with economies and with public affairs. It is through the conflicts of interaction and negotiation that hidden values are translated into the reconstruction of paradigms.<br />
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This is a world of economic pro formas, policy frameworks, spatial tactics, and imaginative speculation. It is a world of choreography and collaboration; of investigation and experimentation. It is a world ripe with possibility.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03780982752429508910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704443391518278471.post-78622450544987302142012-06-10T13:12:00.002-07:002012-06-10T20:46:04.901-07:00Explicit Rules / Implicit Tactics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiENKlMFhd5dmwKAzxFwbVtLjmMrBBa9jyXL6mk4XwyDFWZDsuX0PhU52MbRdXIHDeTbY2AWiHIx7sPrbvd66v2-Dpx9vwThyphenhyphen09Oj8PSOZsWu6rF7vHERdGrcIYzrXk45Y2qS4PTGA-y4Ki/s1600/LEISURESCAPE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiENKlMFhd5dmwKAzxFwbVtLjmMrBBa9jyXL6mk4XwyDFWZDsuX0PhU52MbRdXIHDeTbY2AWiHIx7sPrbvd66v2-Dpx9vwThyphenhyphen09Oj8PSOZsWu6rF7vHERdGrcIYzrXk45Y2qS4PTGA-y4Ki/s1600/LEISURESCAPE.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;">(originally published as "Grass" in <i>Vancouver Matters</i>, 2009) </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Southwest Marine Drive</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> marks a threshold in the City of Vancouver. To the north, Dunbar’s grid of single family homes and neighborhood shops roll over the heights; the pulse of traffic and everyday urban life keep time. To the south the scene shifts. Automobiles yield to horse and rider along the roadways. Immaculate 18-hole golf courses stretch out over much of the landscape. Many of the properties boast private tennis courts, pools, and pleasure boats. Early century cottages are being replaced by opulent and expansive estates which capitalize on some of the most expensive real estate in Canada. This is the Agricultural Land Reserve in Vancouver. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">A local developer boasts that “Southlands will make you forget you are still in the city.” Southlands can just as easily make you forget that you are in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). Occupying ground that is zoned provincially and locally for agricultural use (Vancouver’s only RA-1 designation), the area is surprisingly, and almost completely, devoid of what might be considered traditional agricultural production. Livestock, vegetable fields, and modest farm homes have been replaced by equestrian clubs, fairways, and lavish mansions. Today, the community exists as an exclusive, semi-rural “leisurescape” -- a hybrid landscape that values urban leisure in an idyllic rural setting over a working agricultural landscape. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Recontextualizing the ALR</b><b> </b> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The ALR was established in 1973 as a special provincial land use zone designed to protect and preserve British Columbia’s diminishing supply of farmland. Lands designated under the Act included those deemed “capable and suitable” for agricultural use, land that was at the time under cultivation, and land zoned locally for farming. The intent of the Act was to preserve land vital to provincial food security while sustaining the agricultural sector in the province. In terms of protecting the overall agricultural land base, the Reserve is often cited as a remarkable success – the ALR’s original boundaries remain largely intact and thousands of acres of farmland remain dedicated to agricultural uses. However rising land prices, urban growth, and fluctuating global markets continue to pose serious challenges to the viability of much the province’s prime agricultural land along the Lower Mainland’s urban/rural edge.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Under increasing pressure from urban encroachment, the edge has become a site of opportunism. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Land values at the urban edge vastly exceed those of adjacent ALR properties. This disparity is the driving force behind the hundreds of exemption claims fielded each year by the Agricultural Land Commission – the economic value of agricultural land increases exponentially when freed from the land use restrictions of the Reserve</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">. Millions of dollars are at stake in each acre of land along this threshold. Where the line exists, it inspires creative interpretation by land owners and speculators eager to capitalize on the inherent value of their land. While the institution of the ALR is expressed as a permanent condition, the volatility of political whim and the high economic stakes involved ensure that the reality of the Reserve’s legal framework remains malleable and open to negotiation.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4704443391518278471#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="color: #b45f06;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">[1]</span></span></span></a><span style="color: #b45f06;"> </span>Despite the strong presence of the ALR, the complex urban forces present at the edge sustain a perpetual tension.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Synthetic Landscapes</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Though defined and codified in singular terms, agricultural land in Vancouver assumes complex and abstract forms at the urban/rural edge. Beyond serving as simply a space for cultivation and food production, the edge is comprised of multiple constituencies and interest groups that are invested in the future of this landscape. Though understood and imagined politically as a singular agrarian condition, the ALR edge has been strongly influenced by the urban domain. An emergent urbanism influenced by civic interests has woven its way into the fabric of the landscape along the ALR’s edge. Not fully suburban and not fully agrarian, Vancouver’s Southlands function as a hybrid landscape—a site for a “rural urbanism”. The typologies that result are representative of the different ways that the rural landscape is valued and codified by an urban society.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4704443391518278471#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="color: #b45f06;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">[2]</span></span></span></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Reserve itself exists as a political framework—a set of land use policies and guidelines that govern how ALR land can be used. Because this landscape is “imagined” in a regulatory sense, it is vulnerable to distortion—the exploitation of loopholes, political manipulation, and subversion of the rules are manifest in the physical fabric of the Reserve: dozens of “community institutions” (temples, churches, schools) have been constructed on ALR land at the edge; local urban teens exploit fallow parcels for social events; construction waste is smuggled to illicit micro-landfills hidden on farm parcels; water parks and go-kart tracks sit amidst active farm fields; driving range carts harvest golf balls, while farm machinery operates simultaneously on the other side of a screen netting.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Cultivating Potential</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="Default"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The result at Southlands is a heterotopic space in the city—a site of remarkable “otherness” and juxtaposition. Here, and elsewhere along the urban/rural edge, the ALR represents recreational, scenic, environmental, and economic opportunity. These interests operate both in conjunction and in conflict with agriculture to produce a contested landscape. The ALR in Vancouver has acquired a complexity that goes beyond its singular categorization. Exploring and understanding these anomalous conditions opens up a new set of possibilities along the edge. Neither strictly urban, nor strictly rural, the edge has assumed a multiplicitous character that defies conventional definitions and challenges existing notions of what is possible here. The edge has the potential to cultivate an exchange between a diverse and complex set of ecologies. By engaging and investing multiple interest groups in this landscape, its future existence becomes more secure by virtue of embedded advocacy. Change is inevitable, and productive, for any landscape; but the question of how change manifests itself at the ALR edge is what is at stake -- and is open to design.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">VISUAL GLOSSARY </span> </span></b></span> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Documenting ALR Edge Conditions in the Lower Mainland</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></b></span></div><div class="Pa1" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga9PzB1HwrLhcVYhRonBbiOKiS9ehssHfC-UznEcei1ZrNvLEKqCmYZHK9Joe4zoB1HkLjAEKtf72KNTRA_Txw4C-6AmvNL8Vf-eCHhYoDKEWhVttfBENzT6X-2-tFqEJA2RW4aP0A4Apb/s1600/AGRICULTURE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga9PzB1HwrLhcVYhRonBbiOKiS9ehssHfC-UznEcei1ZrNvLEKqCmYZHK9Joe4zoB1HkLjAEKtf72KNTRA_Txw4C-6AmvNL8Vf-eCHhYoDKEWhVttfBENzT6X-2-tFqEJA2RW4aP0A4Apb/s320/AGRICULTURE.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Direct Market </span></b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="A0"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="A0"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">BC’s prime agricultural land occupies a highly contested geography within the province. As Vancouver’s population continues to expand, the tension between urban growth and agricultural land becomes exacerbated. For urban edge farmers this presents challenges; and opportunities. Many Lower Mainland farmers have begun to reconsider their relationship to the urban areas they border, thinking of these as untapped markets for value-added organic products and recreational/tourist activities that could support traditional agricultural production. Agriculture at the metropolitan edge is becoming more urban. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQh769lMzzIpQ9RhYhBi3yYjdq8AVpvDWWR2t8eOg8llKWb_aqTwLG1XN__Djjj1InVUPRb7CZ16uBLO5sLv6L-PFnPlbyKu4li7toAVEJJ_izXLkB76SeVfxPsdNQeuveMI7pd1or_Zli/s1600/HABITAT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQh769lMzzIpQ9RhYhBi3yYjdq8AVpvDWWR2t8eOg8llKWb_aqTwLG1XN__Djjj1InVUPRb7CZ16uBLO5sLv6L-PFnPlbyKu4li7toAVEJJ_izXLkB76SeVfxPsdNQeuveMI7pd1or_Zli/s320/HABITAT.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Habitat </span></b></span></div></div><div class="Pa1"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">One of the ALR’s original mandates included a provision for the protection of wildlife habitat. While this responsibility has been passed on to other agencies, preserving nature-space remains one of the most valued aspects of the ALR. In addition to providing space for wildlife and migratory birds, the ALR represents scenic value for an urban population. Despite providing a highly valued public good, farmers receive no incentives for environmental stewardship. This condition represents the inequity that many urban edge farmers feel towards the ALR – highly restrictive land use regulations coupled with an uneven burden of responsibility.</span></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw6_BhaXxixsQivIjIcsxnzWJ1dncMxOfXkUVmvzrTIe7GYY897_BOdHwa1zhnleWH8Dt0MU1IpGtZWBG7b8L2P5Mak6g9FJ9vq3TZd-OPhoycrBxD9xLBxcb9DIl4ddOP2Sa8t725gNhi/s1600/LOOPHOLE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw6_BhaXxixsQivIjIcsxnzWJ1dncMxOfXkUVmvzrTIe7GYY897_BOdHwa1zhnleWH8Dt0MU1IpGtZWBG7b8L2P5Mak6g9FJ9vq3TZd-OPhoycrBxD9xLBxcb9DIl4ddOP2Sa8t725gNhi/s320/LOOPHOLE.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Loophole </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The ALR is a political construct – and thus it has a long history of strategic reinterpretation. A clause was recently amended allowing non-conforming land uses that serve a “community need.” The commission’s most recent service report allows for the removal of over 4,700 hectares of prime agricultural land for this purpose over the next three years. Such loosely defined terms have served as loopholes inspiring country clubs, religious institutions, industrial zones, and convention centers on ALR land. Redevelopment here often occurs in sudden, and often unplanned, surges as opportunities arise. </span></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzfgvLsn7GXUUqJa0ehizdhnlV0jnDbcN19qB3HHmMw7FeqlbkxfuPe5BoGiwT5Nn78BJIXZnhmrSAwl29tpjbz1jQV5u-MtOStHimKuJHi93ZO6Muw1JaOfdcspEdMC_YHdhBu0uf7YOT/s1600/SPECULATION.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzfgvLsn7GXUUqJa0ehizdhnlV0jnDbcN19qB3HHmMw7FeqlbkxfuPe5BoGiwT5Nn78BJIXZnhmrSAwl29tpjbz1jQV5u-MtOStHimKuJHi93ZO6Muw1JaOfdcspEdMC_YHdhBu0uf7YOT/s320/SPECULATION.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Speculation </span></b></span></div><div class="Pa1"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="A0"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Land prices on the urban edge often exceed those of adjacent farm properties by 10 times. Without political protection, farming as an industry cannot compete with a market valuation of the land based on residential and commercial uses. Speculators have bought up parcels at the agricultural edge, anticipating future exclusion from the ALR. This practice increases the cost of land, making farming here more difficult and development more attractive – a self-fulfilling cycle. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leisurescape </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Many Lower Mainland residents enjoy the ALR as a space of leisure: from formalized golf courses and go-kart tracks, to informal biking and bird watching. Agricultural land as a site of recreation produces a set of provocative, and contentious, adjacencies. Driving ranges and bike trails are buffered from farmland to prevent theft and vandalism, while u-pick operations and wineries create interfaces for urban and rural constituencies. Inviting urban populations onto agricultural land could yield new markets, and difficulties, for urban edge farmers. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rural Estate </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Most of Metro Vancouver’s agricultural districts remain profitable despite increasing challenges. Vancouver’s Southlands, however, consistently shows losses in its agricultural sector. The many hobby and equestrian farms here serve a different economic purpose for their owners -- properties that produce $2,500 annually in agricultural output are assessed as farm class properties and are taxed at a fraction of the previous rate. The result is a landscape of hobby farms that function as tax write-offs and pastimes for an increasingly “urban” rural population.</span></span></div><br />
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<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;"><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4704443391518278471#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="color: #666666;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Tms Rmn"; font-size: 10pt;">[1]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 8pt;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Country and the City</i>, Raymond Williams examines a literary tradition dating to the Middle Ages which bemoans the “death” of agrarian life and the urban consumption of rural landscapes. Williams calls the short-sighted resistance to change in the agrarian landscape “a problem of perspective.” Instead, he suggests that change in the rural landscape should be considered in terms of temporal increments beyond the immediate present; and that change should be productively accounted for in the designing the future countryside.</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;"></span></div></div><div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4704443391518278471#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="color: #666666;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Tms Rmn"; font-size: 10pt;">[2]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 8pt;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Imagined Country: Society, Culture & Environment</i>, John Rennie Short discusses the different ways that the “countryside” is imagined by an urban society and the significance of myth-making in the way that this rural landscape is imagined. The “pastoral” notion of a more wholesome and nourishing existence in the countryside has long been evoked—the agricultural landscape as “a perfect past to an imperfect present and uncertain future.”. While the urban imagination of the rural is often out of sync with the realities of the working landscape, such collective imaginations can serve as powerful forces in shaping policy and practice.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><br />
</div></div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03780982752429508910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4704443391518278471.post-81337157901947401552012-06-10T01:48:00.001-07:002012-06-10T19:34:08.389-07:00Architecture and Authenticity in the National Pastime<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">A Case for Rethinking the Post-Modern Ballpark Paradigm</span></h3>
<h3 style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></h3>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;"><i>(originally posted November 14, 2005)</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>1.</b> <b>The View from Section 212</b></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></i></span></div>
<div style="color: black; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Unique is
the only way I can describe it. No other ballpark can be transformed by its
fans into the equivalent of a 737 at takeoff. No other stadium has the
booming, echoing, audible resonance of this one. None has the quality of
plastic white light. Or the spatial intimacy created by its artificially
lowered sky… </span></i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
<i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Retro is
all the rage in baseball today. Retro jerseys, retro memorabilia, and
above all, retro stadiums. Ever since Camden Yards opened in 1992, stadiums
have gone out of their way to make reference to baseball’s early century “glory
days” when the game was played in parks called Ebbets, Forbes, and Crosley. The
success of such schemes (as defined by dollars and cents in a short-term
analysis of profit generated) has guaranteed that the ultra-conservative world
of baseball’s power brokers continue the retro building craze until something
more fashionable comes along. Proponents point to the old-fashioned materials,
the urban experience, and the quirky dimensions as the reasons that these new
parks are clearly superior to any version of the pre-1990s stadium, except
perhaps the Wrigleys and Fenways upon which the new versions are loosely based.
Some of the new parks [I’ll name SBC, PNC, Camden Yards, and Safeco Field]
approach spectacular. But the majority [in this class I’ll list Miller, Minute
Maid, BankOne, Ballpark at Arlington, Great American, Comerica, and Citizens Bank]
leave one wanting more at best; disappointed and depressed by the experience at worst. None of this second tier of new parks adds to its city’s urban context, one of
the major arguments for wrestling hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars from
the locals to subsidize construction. None show any notable originality
or substance in their configuration or architectural styling. And none
will still be considered novelties in twenty years time. </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I am
convinced that several of the nearly extinct modern ballparks from the
mid-twentieth century are just as valid, and in some ways more valid, than the
post-modern retro park that is fashionable today for the following reasons: <i>purity,
memory, and authenticity</i>. For the same reasons, I feel that all pre-Skydome
stadiums (including our own Metrodome) have a certain intangible <i>je ne sais pas</i> that has
disappeared with the invention of the amusement/baseball typology. I am not
trying to defend the cookie-cutter as the best type of stadium; nor am I
decrying the retro park as wholly superficial and inadequate. Rather, I am
suggesting that new does not automatically equal better; and also that the
future of ballpark building (especially a proposed new ballpark in the Twin
Cities) could learn from all generations of stadium design, avoiding cliché,
aspiring to authenticity, and doing what all great ballparks do best: provide a
graceful setting for the beauty of the game.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>2. Purity of Form and Function</b><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></i></span><br />
<div style="color: black;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
cloud-like white roof seems to emit a soft, dynamic glow- like a fabric filter,
diffusing the intense afternoon sun. The artificial sky mediates the warm
summer sun and a late spring snowstorm equally. We take the good with the bad…</span></i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The modern
era of architecture emphasized <i>purity</i> of form and <i>clarity</i> of
function. While often regarded as inconsiderate of context and human
interaction, this movement transcended what some would consider the eclectic
and unrefined styles that preceded it. Modern designs were unified, often
geometric, and operated without obvious historical references. Many unique and
inspired post-war stadiums were decidedly modern: Memorial, Dodgers Stadium,
Shea, Astrodome, Busch, Kauffman, and Olympic Stadiums. The trend continued
with a series of more brutalist, utilitarian buildings constructed during the late 1960s
and 70s: Fulton County, Veterans, Riverfront, Three
Rivers, and the Kingdome.
While this generation of stadiums lacked some of the flair of more eccentric
stadiums before and after, there is something to be appreciated in their
utility. </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The modern
ballparks were typically geometric in their field dimensions. Baseball is
unique among the major professional sports in that the field of play can take
many different forms and dimensions depending on the particularities of the
particular arena. While the symmetrical layout of a Dodgers or Kauffman Stadium
may seem like a lost opportunity to articulate the uniqueness of the field, I
find something satisfying in the purity of such a layout. There’s something
democratic and simple about it that does not distract from the game at hand, or
bring into question the fairness of the playing field. The same cannot be said
for the strange short porch, dangerous angles, and tilted warning track in Houston’s new stadium,
for example. These features seem rather arbitrary, serving only the purpose
of providing some strange and identifiable quirk that could lead to some
bizarre, unexpected, or comedic situation during the game - like a cheap
homerun or severe knee injury.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Such quirks
lend themselves to the marketing of the ballpark experience, mixing identity
and commerce. The older generation of stadiums was unique in that each of the
stadiums had a name of some civic or team related importance. In contrast,
corporate sponsorship and selling of naming rights has become standard in the
newer generation of ballparks. Beyond that, the newer parks have been blanketed
in advertisements, sponsorships, restaurants, amusement attractions, hotels,
and gimmicks that make the true baseball fan nauseous: the contemporary stadium
is equal parts amusement-park and ball-park. The merry-go-round, the swimming
pool, and the choo-choo train certainly attract another type of fan; as do the
posh luxury suites and catered box seats. But the unfortunate side-effect of
these attractions is the distractions they create at the ballgame. Their
visual, spatial, and audible clutter take away from the beauty and simplicity
of baseball; and in some ways cheapen the game around which they revolve. One
more point I will add to the corporate complication of the ballpark experience
is the undesirable side-effect of increasing ticket prices and exclusivity of
seating. From 1991 to 2001, the average ticket price for a family of four to
attend a baseball game basically doubled, from $76 to $146. Most diehard fans are
priced out of the better seats and banished to the far reaches of the outfield
bleachers. In their place, cell-phone toting business clients and VIPs more
interested in making their presence known on the jumbo-tron than enjoying the
game occupy the prime seats. </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The older
stadiums come with a sense of informality, of equality that is absent in the
hierarchical layout of the newer profit-generating stadium. The coliseum-like
layout of Shea or Busch Stadium puts all Mets or Cardinals fans in the same
vintage seat, in essentially the same seating bowl. As a contrast, the Ballpark
at Arlington
chops each price group into a separate, disjointed clod of seats which vary in
comfort and amenity as the price increases. One promotes the civic unity that
sports, at their best, are unique to promote; the other suggests the economic segregation of
society and disjoints the camaraderie of the fans in attendance.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>3. Real and Synthetic Memory<i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; text-align: left;">
<div style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">A seven year old boy is oblivious to those around
him who bemoan the insufficiencies of this engineered bubble that passes for a
ballpark. Instead, his gaze is transfixed on Texas Rangers third-baseman Steve Buschele.
This man who existed previously as only statistics and a static image, frozen
like a mannequin on a baseball card, has come to life before his very eyes. The
game takes on a new meaning… </span></i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Baseball is
a game of <i>tradition</i>. Memories of
players and records past are cherished by fans. The ballpark, too, is a place
of tradition and memory. Every visit recalls championships won, players past,
and the bonding with friends and family that is facilitated by the casual pace
of the national pastime. The ballpark is the register of baseball memories.
More than statistics, uniforms, players, and mementos, the ballpark is the
physical manifestation of our recollections of the game; the tangible space
that connects us, through all our senses, to events of the past.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Strangely,
when we collectively recall the tradition of the game, we often skip over the
recent past and mid-century years to focus on the “good old days” of the
pre-war years; an era that few if any of us have any real memories of. There is
a societal tendency to imagine the distant past as some sort of idyllic era,
free of the problems and complications of contemporary life. These notions of a
utopian past are generally based more on wistful imagination than on any
substantiated truth. Of course, it should also be noted that these notions of
historical nostalgia are often cyclical, much like fashion, changing as the
years pass and memories become blurred. Who’s to say that the next generation
won’t adore those buildings which we condemn today? </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">New
stadiums today aspire to an early century ideal that is today fashionable- a
reminder of what we consider a vibrant urban and social period in our past. The
result is all too often a display of false nostalgia- replacing real, acquired
history with reminders of a synthetic, imagined memory of the “way things used
to be.” Far from compensating for a lack of history, this type of remembering
through architecture tends to come across as regressive and without substance.
Instead of developing a richness of their own, these buildings exist as empty,
rhetorical shells of an imagined and arbitrary past.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">While we
now adore the timelessness of Wrigley and Fenway, we should remember that these
stadiums too went through a period when they were considered out of date,
unsuitable, and unsightly. Because they were able to ride out the first boom of
stadium construction, they are cherished today for providing us with a physical
connection to a bygone era. The modern, mid-century stadiums similarly
represent an entire generation of baseball tradition and memories- albeit a
presently underappreciated one that is on the verge of extinction. The presence
of classic ballparks from the 1950s and 60s in the landscape of professional
baseball lends validity to this colorful era of the game’s past. Preserving the
gems of this period is, in a sense, the preservation of the physical monuments
to our memories of those decades of baseball history. </span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>4. Authenticity of Meaning</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent2" style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;">
<div style="color: black;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>In
1983, a heavy snow load deflated the largest pressure-supported dome in the
world, and forced postponement of a scheduled contest between the Twins and the
visiting California
Angels, a reminder of the fragility of a 1/32” thick roof- 10 acres of teflon
fabric held aloft by 250,000 cubic feet of air per minute…</i></span></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">What is
meant by <i>authenticity</i> in architecture? Webster defines the term as “being
actually and exactly what is claimed.” Often authenticity refers to a design
that is true to its context (geographical, social and historical) and its
intentions. It does not hide behind falsities and thin veneers, but rather
exists as a unified and articulated product of its purpose and design problem.
The question of authenticity is not purely aesthetic- what <i>look</i> is more
appropriate for a ballpark? I have my preferences and you have yours. But what
is at the essence of the argument are the concepts of intention, expression,
and meaning. Difficult to define, but present and potent at a subconscious and
theoretical level.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The retro
ballpark purports, through articulation and façadism, to mimic the coziness,
the connectedness, and the material aesthetic of the early century stadium. It
attempts to achieve validity by taking these elements and images of the past
and producing facsimiles- suggesting an attachment to the past through
association rather than through physical connection. The truth is that the
contemporary version is, more often than not, simply a bloated, bastardized version
of the original. Far from a truthful rendition of the beloved blueprint, the
retro version becomes an awkward Franken-park; full of rhetoric but lacking
depth; not fully modern and not fully traditional, the retro park seems to lack
the real advantages of either prototype. For a version of stadium so concerned
with uniqueness and connection to the eclectic history of the game, many of the
retro parks have become simply copies of one another; they are the new cookie
cutter! This standardization is a consequence of a monopoly on the
architectural production of baseball facilities, where two large firms control
the design of every stadium imagined in the last two decades. Details and
design ideas are repeated in the same way as the multi-use parks of the 1970s;
except today they are mixed and matched seemingly without regard for
cohesiveness. The formula is well-established: start with a concrete and steel
frame, paste on ¾” faux brick veneer liberally, insert a few bronze statues of
team icons, a huge uninhabited turret at the home-plate entrance, slather the
entire concoction in some contrived historical reference, and voila! I am
cynical in my description, but the final product reeks of superficiality and a
cursory attempt at connecting with local identity. </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The classic
mid-century modern stadiums, on the other hand, displayed an authentic
imagination- as do the classics of the present day. Dodgers Stadium was a new
kind of ballpark- a merging of time honored ideas with modern sensibilities and
materials. There is something fresh and exciting in the experience of Kauffman
or Busch- a uniqueness, a truth to their time and place, and a transparency of
form and function. They are somehow true to their era, and strive for a
progressive interpretation of the ballpark form. Moreover, they are true to
their purpose: a backdrop to the beautiful game they host. In the end, the
great architecture of baseball is like that of an exceptional art gallery:
poetic and sublime in its own right, but resisting self-aggrandizement in favor
of the art that everyone came to see.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: small;">5. Final Thoughts<span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></b><br />
<div style="color: black;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Are these
unique moments, personal memories, and technical marvels enough to validate the
preservation of a comparatively unsatisfactory place to enjoy a baseball game?
Probably not. Does this mean I won’t miss those peculiarities, recollections,
and familiarities I’ve become endeared to? Absolutely not. The object is
inseparable from my memories of it- not unlike a child’s favorite stuffed
animal; unsightly and outgrown, but familiar and rich with personal history. My
only request is that the replacement lives up to the promise of the
possibilities…</span></i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Diversity
is enriching. Sameness in any form is stifling and bland. I would suggest that
a variety of different styles of stadium, dating from different generations and
architectural styles, add a richness to the major league game that is lost with
the senseless destruction and abandonment of those not-quite-yet-classic
stadiums that remain successful. Recognizing and preserving the quality of
those ballparks that are worthy of enduring (especially Dodgers Stadium,
Kauffman Stadium, the now lost Busch Stadium and vacant Astrodome) is important
to the history and continuity of the game. The same as the experience of the
city, variety adds flavor and interest to the virtual fraternity of major
league ballparks.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03780982752429508910noreply@blogger.com034 Kirby Puckett Pl, Minneapolis, MN 55415, USA44.974270831315074 -93.25950622558593844.963038831315075 -93.279247225585934 44.985502831315074 -93.239765225585941