MOCA Lectures
The formal announcement of the MOCA's Talalay Lecture Series has been made two exciting speakers, Carolyn Strauss of slowLab and Cameron Sinclair of Architecture for Humanity
The New Face of Architecture
Carolyn Strauss
slowLab
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 <---according to MOCA the flier is incorrect, the lecture will be on the 22nd!
6pm (seating ends at 5:45)
Award-winning designer, curator, and founding director of slowLab Carolyn Strauss has emerged as an innovator in the concept of slow design as a fertile, holistic framework to understand and advance sustainable design. For Strauss, slow design describes a design philosophy guided by elevated awareness of process, quality of outcome, and enrichment of the community.
The New Face of Architecture
Cameron Sinclair
Architecture for Humanity
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
6pm (seating ends at 5:45)
Winner of the 2006 TED [Technology, Entertainment Design] Prize, the motto of Sinclair's group, Architecture for Humanity, design like you give a damn sums up his design vision. With projects ranging from designing mobile health clinics combating HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa to establishing mine clearance programs and building playgrounds in the Balkans his mission is to create sustainable and innovative living standards for the masses.
Programs Held Off-Site
Westfield Insurance™ Studio Theater
Idea Center at Playhouse Square
1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44115
Ticket Pricing
Students $5
MOCA Members $8
Non-Members $10
Patrons $80 one lecture / $150 both lectures (per person)
This very special package includes preferred seating, free parking, and a light supper following the lecture in an architecturally significant building.
Limited Seating
Please contact Andrea Kormos at 216.421.8671 xt. 21 to reserve your space.
I only want to add that I am extremely excited for this series and have already gotten my tickets so you better hurry as seating IS LIMITED!
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Car counting and watching the dance that is Public Square; the never ending burden of being bored
Whilst waiting for my bus on this morn I was taken aback by the massive number of automobiles that were zooming past me with only one occupant. I had decided to begin a quick and completely unscientific random sample.
In the 7 minutes or so that I was waiting at the bus stop I had counted a total of 174 cars. Of that quick sample only 34 had more than one occupant. Of those 34 vehicles operating at over 25% efficiency only one of the automobiles had more than 2 occupants meaning that only 1 out of 174 automobiles was operating at over what could be considered 50% efficiency.
Now we could begin to argue the semantics of "efficiency". Some could state that one would have to take into account vehicular mileage as well as designed seating capacity and eventually embodied energy to truly understand how "efficient" the automobile is, however I would like to base the premise that the vast majority of automobiles are designed with a comfortable seating capacity of 4 adult humans. Therefore I would state that any vehicle operating at less than full occupant capacity would therefore be working at less than full vehicular capacity.
This was my morning muse.
Of course my mind would then meander to hypothesizing whether a congestion charge upon commuting vehicles would encourage public transportation and cut down on the environmental (and economic impact) of under capacity commuting. Cleveland, however is one of those cities that doesn't suffer from expensive downtown parking or even a highway infrastructure operating at designed capacity, so in essence leveraging a congestion charge would probably pull businesses out of downtown to relocate in the suburbs even quicker then they would be doing without.
At about this point in my commute my bus had begun to traverse Public Square which in recent weeks has had the main cross traffic shut down to repair a sink hole that collapsed under the intersection of Superior and Ontario. The circular one way route around Public Square is still in use however the main cross intersection is closed to vehicular traffic in essence solidifying the main portion of Public Square into one actual large urban PUBLIC SQUARE which can be safely crossed and occupied by pedestrians (barring construction interference). While this traffic pattern may not be permanent it may prove worthwhile to at least take the time and effort to study how the square functions without the main vehicle intersection operating. Whether or not it may be feasible to completely reclaim the square for pedestrian traffic only and create a venue of events to activate the space or perhaps program it for a hybrid use of pedestrian and public transit only (with commuter vehicle traffic confined to circulate around the square) could, in fact, become a fine point of study and eventually contention into whether the city wants to become a walkable city at all.
I would argue that if public square became one large pedestrian location instead of multiple disparate elements segregated by high speed and high volume vehicular traffic that it may become a collection place for residents and visitors which may create opportunities for businesses looking for the next high profile location. There are few locations in the city that could actually be described as multi-nodal with Tower City being the fulcrum for many of the GCRTA's public transit systems (bus, rapid transit and soon the BTR) so the inherent exposure to such a location is already relatively high however short of street level business the are may be. Of course it is difficult to not further quantify that statement by referencing the prevalent surface parking that currently proves more economically feasible than office, retail or residential structures (hence it's proliferation) which is why downtown feels so very vast and empty anyway.
Hopefully someone is looking into it.
*edited because something wacky happened during the upload ~ed
In the 7 minutes or so that I was waiting at the bus stop I had counted a total of 174 cars. Of that quick sample only 34 had more than one occupant. Of those 34 vehicles operating at over 25% efficiency only one of the automobiles had more than 2 occupants meaning that only 1 out of 174 automobiles was operating at over what could be considered 50% efficiency.
Now we could begin to argue the semantics of "efficiency". Some could state that one would have to take into account vehicular mileage as well as designed seating capacity and eventually embodied energy to truly understand how "efficient" the automobile is, however I would like to base the premise that the vast majority of automobiles are designed with a comfortable seating capacity of 4 adult humans. Therefore I would state that any vehicle operating at less than full occupant capacity would therefore be working at less than full vehicular capacity.
This was my morning muse.
Of course my mind would then meander to hypothesizing whether a congestion charge upon commuting vehicles would encourage public transportation and cut down on the environmental (and economic impact) of under capacity commuting. Cleveland, however is one of those cities that doesn't suffer from expensive downtown parking or even a highway infrastructure operating at designed capacity, so in essence leveraging a congestion charge would probably pull businesses out of downtown to relocate in the suburbs even quicker then they would be doing without.
At about this point in my commute my bus had begun to traverse Public Square which in recent weeks has had the main cross traffic shut down to repair a sink hole that collapsed under the intersection of Superior and Ontario. The circular one way route around Public Square is still in use however the main cross intersection is closed to vehicular traffic in essence solidifying the main portion of Public Square into one actual large urban PUBLIC SQUARE which can be safely crossed and occupied by pedestrians (barring construction interference). While this traffic pattern may not be permanent it may prove worthwhile to at least take the time and effort to study how the square functions without the main vehicle intersection operating. Whether or not it may be feasible to completely reclaim the square for pedestrian traffic only and create a venue of events to activate the space or perhaps program it for a hybrid use of pedestrian and public transit only (with commuter vehicle traffic confined to circulate around the square) could, in fact, become a fine point of study and eventually contention into whether the city wants to become a walkable city at all.
I would argue that if public square became one large pedestrian location instead of multiple disparate elements segregated by high speed and high volume vehicular traffic that it may become a collection place for residents and visitors which may create opportunities for businesses looking for the next high profile location. There are few locations in the city that could actually be described as multi-nodal with Tower City being the fulcrum for many of the GCRTA's public transit systems (bus, rapid transit and soon the BTR) so the inherent exposure to such a location is already relatively high however short of street level business the are may be. Of course it is difficult to not further quantify that statement by referencing the prevalent surface parking that currently proves more economically feasible than office, retail or residential structures (hence it's proliferation) which is why downtown feels so very vast and empty anyway.
Hopefully someone is looking into it.
*edited because something wacky happened during the upload ~ed
1/3 Movie Night - It needs to be at least three times as big!
1/3 Movie Night
Zoolander
Thursday, April 3
Bella Dubby
7.30pmish
Caught in the love triangle between beauty and art our protagonist, Derek Zoolander must do battle against the status quo to find love, a nice outfit and himself in this epic Ben Stiller classic. Perfectly poised to blush away those ugly gray winter blues.
Brought to you by LAUNCH Cleveland 1/3 movienight, trying to be beautiful since 2008!
Zoolander
Thursday, April 3
Bella Dubby
7.30pmish
Caught in the love triangle between beauty and art our protagonist, Derek Zoolander must do battle against the status quo to find love, a nice outfit and himself in this epic Ben Stiller classic. Perfectly poised to blush away those ugly gray winter blues.Brought to you by LAUNCH Cleveland 1/3 movienight, trying to be beautiful since 2008!
Yes, it was a bike rack.
I only post this picture because I found it funny and I don't think anyone else 'got it'. Yes, they covered a bike rack with a "Cleveland Road Apple" or Orange Barrel. Good one guys.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Cleveland Headlines You May Have Missed
April Fool's day always takes me by surprise. I usually sit and think about all the fun photoshopped images I could have made to create some faux headlines if only I had 'had the time'. Since I was either too forgetful or too lazy to make some fun pictures I will instead post the basic premise of some PD headlines I was eventually planning to get around to making.
Huge hole in Public Square to be filled with cheese steak wrappers from Jimmy Dimora's car.
Ameritrust Tower sold to Marcel Breuer's zombie. Plans mixed use high-end condo development.
Space alien's claim Cleveland as own after misinterpreting FREE stamp. Leave after evaluating infrastructure.
Bicycle rack discovered in Downtown Cleveland, immediately hidden with orange barrel.
Current rate of downtown exodus may save Cleveland Public Schools as enrollment drops to 17.
Canadian tourists perpetuate myth that Canadians are all polite by responding "It's charming and everyone is really nice." when asked to describe their visit to Cleveland.
When asked about his lack of response regarding the local economic and housing crisis Mayor Frank Jackson had nothing to say.
Cleveland City Council member indicted on not having enough felony convictions to hold a public office.
Cleveland bloggers given opportunity to direct city. Internet collapses as no one has anything to look at except for pictures of cats in strange hats and pornography.
Huge hole in Public Square to be filled with cheese steak wrappers from Jimmy Dimora's car.
Ameritrust Tower sold to Marcel Breuer's zombie. Plans mixed use high-end condo development.
Space alien's claim Cleveland as own after misinterpreting FREE stamp. Leave after evaluating infrastructure.
Bicycle rack discovered in Downtown Cleveland, immediately hidden with orange barrel.
Current rate of downtown exodus may save Cleveland Public Schools as enrollment drops to 17.
Canadian tourists perpetuate myth that Canadians are all polite by responding "It's charming and everyone is really nice." when asked to describe their visit to Cleveland.
When asked about his lack of response regarding the local economic and housing crisis Mayor Frank Jackson had nothing to say.
Cleveland City Council member indicted on not having enough felony convictions to hold a public office.
Cleveland bloggers given opportunity to direct city. Internet collapses as no one has anything to look at except for pictures of cats in strange hats and pornography.
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