Re-Packaging

The ultimate design contest: the ubiquitous NYC Condom wrapper.





Gothamist reports the finalists of the Department of Health's design contest. Vote!

Hold on to your metro-themed packages; they'll be a collector's item soon.

Just kidding. The original is also staying, and I'm not advocating keeping old condom wrappers.

The Downside of Modernism

A friend sent me a link to Unhappy Hipsters-

While I'm not truly sure I agree with giving people posing in modern interiors the label "hipsters," the captions for the photos are at times pretty funny. And designery as I may be, upon occasion, I can agree that some modern furniture, and aesthetics, can be a little ridiculous (see landscape-as-enormous-plane-of-gravel).

Maybe folks in Dwell should be encouraged to smile more.


You can come out when you can properly explain the differences between Modernist architecture and postmodern ornamentation.

Out with Landscape, in with Fashion Designer

Puma put my design, selected by them and the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, on a teeshirt. It's for sale at Puma stores and online, right now (half the proceeds go to the Trust):


If you know me, you might accurately guess that I don't love the colors they selected. But still, it's an honor. I get some free gear out of the deal, too. Below is my design- I'd envisioned orange on a red-orange shirt, but you can't have everything.



The marathon's on November 1st. If you have a TV, you may have seen Edward Norton plugging the cause on any number of shows. For more about the Marathon effort, go here. For more about our team, the Thousandmilers, go here. We're having a fundraiser benefit on Tuesday (with "special guests!")

Run, Brian, run! (also Maasai warriors, Edward, David Blaine, and Alanis Morisette! And people from AECOM Corporate Communications, and NYC hedge fund tycoons! YESSSS!!!)

Design, in These Times

Interesting article from the NYT, affirming thoughts I've had, that although these are painful times for most of us, there is value to economic downturn: Design Loves a Depression

hello world

I'm re-acquainting myself with the world as it is at five a.m. It's been since design school all-nighters since we were at all familiar with eachother. It's like I'm being (unpleasantly) reborn into the early morning world, as a function of this foreign concept called insomnia, and the disorienting nightmares that accompany the associated restlessness.

We had our third round of layoffs at work today. I have been very head-in-the-sand until recently, about all of it, being very fatalistic and optimistic, as I had no control and little knowledge or understanding of our office situation. Our new leadership has now improved the lines of communication and brought us all into the know about why everything has hit our office so hard, and now I'm losing sleep.

It's early Saturday morning and I'm literally losing sleep- me, the girl who can easily sleep eleven hours a night and relishes her weekend mornings for this. Maybe thinking it through here will help me and I'll be able to take myself back up to the loft and get a few hours of sleep to enjoy what's supposed to be the nicest day yet (75 degrees!).

But for now, I'm stuck down here in front of the screen stressing about work. We lost a few more people today, which brings our total layoffs up to something like 26, and now we are down to the mid to low forties in our office. It's especially frustrating to see people who you'd consider to be highly valuable lost, while others you might not choose to keep working with still remain. I lost a coworker/friend I work with closely, and now I'll have to take her work on (I saw her cad files today, oy vey, there's a lot to do that was supposed to be done a week ago). We found out that with corporate restructuring, we're also losing our compensation pay (comp time) as of next month, which totally blows in a field where overworking is seemingly ingrained in the culture. I volunteered to participate in a design competition in the office, and that always proves to be difficult since it's generally a clash of egos and styles in competitions, especially as it's unpaid time. I'm not sure what I was thinking, volunteering for that. Stupid idealist/pleaser. On top of that I'll be out for a week beginning mid-week next week, and have to juggle project work and the conclusion to my participation in the competition.

I have been so looking forward to going back to Seattle, words cannot describe. Right now it's giving me a little heartburn as it adds a layer of complication, but I do need this break. I miss my friends and the culture there. I love it here, and New York is the right place for me now, but I need a breather, and a return to social familiarity (if only a brief one). At this point, I'm hoping that my trip back allows me a little peace of mind, and potentially a little raucous scandal.

New York's supposed to be the setting for scandal, right? What's all this talk of stress and work when you live one of the most fabulous places in the world? Good question. I'm working on it... and that's not to say there haven't been some fabulous and scandalous times- but I tend to be a deliberate and careful individual, which causes me to do more thinking and internalizing and doing things out of my perception of duty. This can serve me well at sometimes, sure. I still have a job; and my role there is actually looking very good despite everything. But I'm looking to inject a little balance in my life- a little time and state of mind for rest. The company policy formally supports this, but the office culture does not. It's a very New York thing to be a slave to professional success and duty, but it's unfortunately at its worst in the design/architecture arena.

The sun has risen; it's six thirty and I've been awake since at least four. I'm going to haul myself back up the ladder and see if I can get a few hours of sleep in before I get up to greet the beautiful day which I theoretically should be spending in the office making diagrams for a competition.

We'll see about that.

design moment

2009 Pritzker Prize recipient, Swiss Architect Peter Zumthor-

'I work a little bit like a sculptor. When I start, my first idea for a building- it is already with the material. I believe architecture is about that- it's not about paper, it's not about forms. It's about space and material.'

...Me too. Sometimes I wish I worked in an environment where I was able to work more like a sculptor, and less like a lawyer or policymaker. Maybe someday, here...

they were the best of times

I am doing what I really want to be doing with my life right now. That's pretty awesome. A year ago I didn't have too much of an idea what I wanted to be doing. I was a bit at a loss.

I would say I'm a pretty passionate/opinionated person about things that are important to me, and one of those things is doing good things with one's energy. I think it's our duty, especially those of us with decent educations, to use our faculties to make a positive impact.


I became a landscape architect because I wanted to make great places, for people and for the world. When I started working, I began to learn how ideology crossed with pragmatism in everyone's life in different ways, and started trying to figure out how to simultaneously live for my own well-being and happiness as well as do right by the world.

Situational difficulties and distractions took precedence for a year or two, and I found myself asking where I really wanted to be, as I was struggling to feel passionate about what I was doing with life.

I wouldn't have been able to predict that where I'd eventually take myself would be so great for me both personally and professionally. I made a gamble based on a social/cultural instinct, and it's turning out to be wonderful for me with regard to my life's efforts and personal/professional focus. I'm designing for environmental education in urban environments as I've been aiming to do since my research grant on environmental learning.

My current project work has me designing public schoolyards in Brooklyn: completely barren asphalt yards to be turned into proper playgrounds through contracts from New York Department of Parks. It is so rewarding to be working with students and communities in designing better learning and community spaces, and helping people learn and grow to value their environments by providing them with good ones.

I have been going through series of meetings and design charettes with school staff, community members, and young students themselves. Working with them directly is such an important and tangible reminder as to why I do what I do every day. There were days when I'd be at work in Seattle and question whether I was doing what I really what I found valuable with my 9 hours every day. So I made a change, and the opportunity waiting for me turned out to be wonderful.

Oddly enough, I'm working for the same firm, and the office environment and culture can be more stressful and difficult by far than my old office. Granted, I'm still getting accustomed, and don't have the luxury of experience or comfort in the big, new, New York office. But I enjoy it because I love what I'm working on, and it's a challenge. I can't imagine using my brain and finite time on earth to do something like trade stocks or sell ads or take photos of famous people or fly charter jets, no matter how capable I was, or how financially rewarding it was. I spent some time teaching myself how to balance personal benefit with that of others in life and work, but I still believe passionately that we owe it to eachother to do right by our communities. We have responsibilities in concentric rings: from within -ourselves- to those close to us, radiating outward to our outermost communities of global proportions. Call your mother, send a card to remind her you love her. Travel less, consume less to remind your fellow global citizens you love them, too.

So here's to you, PS 170. Even if the economy was great, I can't imagine myself taking a resort-design position to make more money and receive the immediate gratification of travel. Your kids are awesome and I feel honored to be given the opportunity to do right by all of you.

Design On the Cheap

a cool slideshow of cheap, creative design from the New York Times-

ny news

After pushing it out day after day due to busy schedules, I finally got a call from the New York principal, and as a miracle I was at my desk, and it went better than I could have possibly imagined. I think she is truly interested in me; we had a good chat that included me learning that all of her practice line (corporate speak for market of focus) is public realm city stuff (read: new york city parks, greenways, and playgrounds, etc.) which I am totally pumped for. They have a contract to redesign forty asphalt schoolyards into new playgrounds that they'll be starting on the second half of soon, and I'm totally incredibly a hundred and fifty nine percent into the idea. It's exactly what I want to do.

I'm supposed to hear back from her next week after she talks with the rest of her studio, my fingers are crossed. Many times crossed.

places to dream about, or someday dream inside

I spend a lot of time thinking about my environment, as a designer (and your environment, and everyone else's). Over time, and after many living arrangements, however, I've lessened the reigns, per se, of my obsession with my living space. My first apartment definitely got more aesthetic attention than my later ones. You begin to run out of steam after moving every year or two.



I'm not, however, completely cured of my craigslist or redfin browsing, which I go through periodic bouts of... homes on the market up the street at Highland Drive or charming homes in France or New York, I'm guilty of fantasizing about potential alternate habitats. I love the light, airy, wall-of-windows modern lofts. I love the exposed-brick manhattan apartments. J'adore the Parisian ones with their tall, skinny windows that open up to wrought-iron juliet balconies with thin, scrolled handles. I have fond feelings for the standard Seattle 1920's wood-floored, brick construction one-bedrooms with hexagonal tiles in the bathroom, and turqouise-trimmed tilework in the kitchen.

I like to go for walks on Queen Anne and look at the lovely homes and wonder what life inside them is like. Dusk is the best time for it, when the lights are beginning to turn on and you can see the fireplaces, paint colors, and any ceiling detail. I have an incurable weakness for good ceilings. I love coffered ones, exposed beams, coved ones, you name it (my favorite might be coffered, or anything with good, unpainted woodwork.). I love the ceilings in old and elegant European cities' buildings that have intricate moulding, or tin panels.


I was reading the New York Times today online and flipped through the real estate slide shows (as I do fairly regularly, I'm addicted to nyt slideshows) when I came across a great apartment in Berlin. I love the simple quality of the space... light and bright, simple and modern, with heavy historical details in the walls and ceiling mouldings. An ideal city digs. The dark, modern finishes in the kitchen, replete with chandelier, and the simple, clean walls... I'd totally hit that. Of course, I'd have to add a garden gnome somewhere, and sprinkle a few other ridiculous pieces around.

With the killer balcony, I'd have the perfect location for a flamingo or two, as well...

I've relegated myself to potentially having to live in a shoebox in new york. I don't expect my own Sex In The City apartment in The Village, or anything like this flat, but a girl can dream... someday, maybe, a little moulding or coffers, or scroll-ey handles.

the abstract home improvement

in the NYTimes, quite the concept...



_click_

beijing

I, like many skeptics, have been somewhat hesitant to embrace the olympics. Between the commercialization and the controversy this year with China's environmental and human rights/political controversies, I found the entire situation to be a little unsettling.

However, viral circumstances caused me to cancel my plans tonight for a date with kleenex and remote, and I ended up planted in front of the 2008 Olympics opening ceremonies.

I cried. I oohed and ahhed. I vowed to go to China. I've never been all that interested in going to China, but those ceremonies made it seem pretty kickass.

Though I do have an odd weakness for on-screen sentimentality, the presentation of the ceremonies was really phenomenal and well thought out in its own right. China is at a very crucial time in its development as a modern country, and it's really interesting to see how they choose to present themselves as a culture and nation given all that they're dealing with.

The ceremonies were stunning- a great show of firepower, technology, and artistry. Fireworks, dancers, LCD projections, people on cables flying through the air- it had the elements you expect, but were unusually uniquely and well-woven together with impressive artistic and technical craft. It told a story about China's history and culture and its future role in the world.

What I really liked, though, was that for as "westernized" as we say China is becoming, this wasn't just a big generic happy show overlayed with silk and calligraphy. There were impressive undertones of significantly Chinese nature- the repeated scenes of 2008 (in quantity) perfectly-synchronized dancers, drummers, and martial artists all spoke loudly of the traditional significance of the group in asian cultures, and of communism. Opening with the many many drummers was so intense it was intimidating, but it was entirely fascinating to see those incredible group scenes operate en masse with such military precision. There was also a clear message about the children being inheritors of our legacy and environment, which was kind of poignant. In my interpretation, the way that the designers choose to tell their story is a fascinating statement about the culture in itself.

As a sidebar, one of the scenes was when they had 2008 people come out onto the floor with parasol-like contraptions that expanded into these big round photographs of faces of smiling children from around the world. Sounds kind of cliche, but it was pretty cool in reality, and of course, made me cry.

Of course, as a designer who works in Asia and other foreign locales upon occasion, I thought the whole design element of the production was fascinating as well. I've found that the Asian aesthetic oftentimes tends to be much more bold and colorful than those of most western cultures. A lot of our design packages going off to or being done withinin China or Korea end up looking like Fantasia to me compared to the stuff we do here in the Northwest, so I was curious to see how the presentation played out. It was certainly bold, and very colorful, and very impressive, but it was really well done so as to not be excessive or gaudy, while still being notable, and I was impressed. Just the design of the new stadium, the Nest, as it's being called, is amazing and iconic.

My sketchy memory may work to my statement's advantage, but this seems significantly more notable than any other Olympics design or presentation before. It's a momentous point in China's history, and they're really trying to live up to it.

Now if only they will use that momentum, and implement the magic they're able to work in pyrotechnics, fancy LCDs, and rhythmic determination into their air and water quality management soon, and stop bulldozing ancient traditional homes for giant high-rises, and let the poor Tibetans decide what to do with themselves, and...

tetris apartments

no, really. not a euphanism. Ljubljana, Slovenia.

I've never thought much of traveling to Slovenia, but this gives me some sort of inkling that I could get along there.

Yes, Please, to public housing like this. I'd get in line for one.

[more here]

cool sites of the moment

"Gardening from a west coast urban organic perspective"- planters that double as bike racks, composting, grow your own shittakes, encouraging local food networks...
http://www.heavypetal.ca/

Also cool about local and organic, the 100 Mile Diet - http://100milediet.org/how-to-change-the-food-system

Great general indie design-
http://www.designpublic.com/

i got a 95

Green is very hip these days (compared to previous days). Interesting how it's taking on, with regard to marketing, there are some novel approaches out there, and even the "greenwashing" of products or concepts that aren't much more sustainable than their traditional counterparts. But if there's one thing that cannot be debated, it's walking more and driving less. Better for our wide American bottoms, and the embarrassing score we get RE: energy consumption.

There's a cool calculator, Walkscore, which will score your home's walkability within its neighborhood:

http://walkscore.com/

It indexes all of the amenities, down to a hundredth of a mile in distance, to your home, and gives you a score. You can link it to real estate websites when selling a property. Pretty cool, says the Landscape Architect / Urban Designer nerd that I am.

Of course there are always flaws in an automated system, I noticed some of the amenities listed as closest weren't really the closest, but it's still a good tool for evaluating a location quickly.

On a broader scale, there's the concept of One Planet Living, which is a nice lens for both personal and global impact. The concept behind it is that given the way that many of us live, there are not enough resources to go around if we were all to live that way. If everyone on Earth were to live like the average European it would take three worlds, and five if we all lived like the average American. Test your ecological footprint on the WWFs website and they'll compare your impact to the average American, European, and African individual's. It will then also give suggestions of easy and high-impact changes you can make given your lifestyle to reduce your footprint. I have a pretty small footprint compared to even the average European, given my lifestyle, but there is always a way to improve...

Here's to a future.

design competition / PDX

Last fall our office collaborated in a design competition for Portland (Oregon) Metro that asked students and professionals to envision how the urban environment might develop over time to allow increased human density and increased habitat. My office participated in it, and the process was both cool and difficult. I contributed mainly in the environmental education piece and graphic production but also in the conceptualization and brainstorming in the beginning. Our entry focused on not only the sustainable design of the site, a residential block, through ecological and community-making best practices, would transform the place, but how crucial policy and education would be in instigating and embracing systematic change that nurtured environmental sensitivity within a densifying urban fabric.

The contest was the brainchild of our design director, and the legwork and coordination of another coworker of mine, but when it came down to it, neither of them could make it to the award announcements and ceremony in Portland last week, so they sent me (we had a 24-person team and they sent me, haha).

And we won two significant awards, holy crap. Out of 108 entries in the whole show, we won second in our category by the jurors and best at the event as voted by the attendees- which also meant that we were the only entrants to receive more than one award. It was all very overwhelming, as the train got me down there late, and I entered the art museum to the proceedings already begun and had to nose through the crowd and orient myself as to what was going on. However, it was good I was there to represent our team, in light of the winning. I actually got to meet Susan Szenasy, the editor of the very-cool New York-based Metropolis magazine and juror of the contest. She was very kind, and pretty down-to-earth-seeming, which I found especially interesting given her intellectual/savvy/shrewd image and reputation. I wouldn't mind being her successor in the effort toward functional and beautiful sustainable design through intellectual critique by an opinionated woman. ;)

Annnyway, our little office has Portland Metro calling about our approach to our design, and The Oregonian interviewed us immediately on Friday. Pretty crazy. Here's the entry: http://www.integratinghabitats.org/photos/max/PE3001.jpg
and the competition premise and context:
http://www.metro-region.org/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=21627

And I absolutely must swoon and thank Laurie in our office for hooking me up with a sweet hotel last minute. I must post photos of its kickass design to Flickr soon, but it's too late right this minute, and a link to the Ace hotel will have to suffice for now. There's an Ace in Seattle (the original one) and one in PDX, and the design is so incredibly indie and ReadyMade (a magazine which is provided, along with Spin and The Believer and graphic quarterlies, in the hotel's library loft and your room's bedside table).... From the mod/reused/ironic/carefully-thought-through design elements which are pretty minimalist while being designed in detail and accented with meaning; to the made-in-oregon and organic everything; to its careful but unique and mod conversion of the historic brick building a half-block away from Powell's, Portland's legendary bookstore; the place is so cool.

So very cool. So very, very cool. Almost too cool, with its retiring, polite-enough-but-unimpressed staff, poem stenciled on the wall, and abundance of grey. I love grey, and I really like this hotel, and the fun little elements about it. But, and I'm not sure if it's Portland's in-ness that is making me predisposed to wanting to buck the trend, but the place seems like it's trying too hard.

Like the city itself, the Ace seems as though it's so thoughtfully contrived, to be cool and smart like everything is in that area, that it has turned into this homogenized, over-the-top cool. As though Portland is so lovely, to me, that there isn't enough contrast, it's kind of vanilla. So many lovely little things here and there, as in the park blocks, and in the new cool spots in the Pearl, that you don't have the contrast of the weird or edgy, like I'm used to in Seattle. So yeah, Portland is doing a lot of things better, I hear it all the time and I'll acknowledge, has it's sh!t together more than Seattle (I will give you the way better planning and transportation setups, and dreamy walkability), but there's something I'm used to about Seattle's organic funk and creativity, that kind of crazy mishmash I like...and plus, the Emerald City is way prettier.

But really, Portland and Seattle are siblings that could stand to stop being compared to each other...they really are different beasts. Seattle is the first child, the one that was an unplanned early pregnancy and was a result of passion, and not planning, and whose Alaska Yukon Gold Rush gestational period was the equivalent of a teen mother on coke. With the lovely good looks going for it, Seattle had to learn on its own as it grew, and was sent through the wringer along the way, a result of its bickering, dysfunctional parents. Portland came along later, to founding fathers who knew how they wanted to raise a polite, genteel, livable city. Sure it wasn't as stunningly good-looking, but that would be compensated for in proper thought and planning. Seattle became the temperamental, dysfunctional, chain-smoking starlet with potential but no organization or focus to pull anything off, and Portland the cute, friendly, A-Type little sibling that tried harder. These are children, I think, who could stand to stop being compared to each other ...don't ask about Tacoma, though, it's the unfortunate stepchild, not nearly as cute or smart, had to go into the military to get much a of a future, and is always overlooked.

To conclude, it was a good trip. Nice train ride down, nice stay in a nice place for a very nice reason, albeit too short, and a nice train ride back. I hope, next time, however, to have more time to enjoy my fair-trade Stumptown espresso beverage alongside my complimentary Macbook while scanning for hipsters over my equally-hip periodical literature in the loft.

design lust

swoon.

http://www.paristic.fr/index.php

I'm in love.