Paper Preparation

Topic: Changing the civic responsibilities of the Architect to better our environment.

AIA Code of Ethics
http://www.aia.org/SiteObjects/files/bookmark_ethics_final.pdf

I’m not going to post the whole list of rules the AIA has written and finally revised 2004, but please follow the link and review the codes governing our profession. One item you might notice missing is our responsibility to maintain a consideration and promote the environment while creating these magnificent structures for our client, society, and advancing our profession. It is interesting that whatever we do, as long as people like it, is okay for the earth to be graced by its beauty. Only until recently did the environmental concern REALLY become universal in architecture and materials. My goal and persuasion for this paper is to identify some universal codes of ethics to include with the AIA set of rules and prove their validity to be included in the above document.

Why We Buy

I see many characteristics that Paco Underhill is identifying with current retail stores. I just noticed several of these as I was at the mall yesterday and things like where the placement of merchandise and kiosks blocking other kiosks became evident. I will have many more compariosons coming soon...

Intense Regurgitation

Several concepts and ideas have attracted my attention during the first few days in Boston here at the BAC. Oddly enough, I was expecting a 6’2” professor and I still don’t know why you wrote this in your profile. I guess females on internet dating sites post more comments to taller men but why I believed this, I can only attribute to the resultant information posted online…

So, I haven’t slept in a while and that probably explains the random start.

I have carried something from every discussion with me this week. It hasn’t been the entire lecture, recorded in my notebook for future use I add, but an intimate meaning or concept that is new and discussed in class to further spark my interest. I have even gone as far as to incorporate findings from the video, “Social Life in Small Urban Spaces” by Whyte. Rules such as “Sitting” and “Congregation” have started to influence my design for the Copley Square Apple store. I found the visual proof much more stimulating than the articles, persuading me to believe. The scientific evidence over vast periods of time and varied locations, similar to Paco Underhill’s research, has stuck with me this week. I do remember the Bickford and Duncan articles proving many valid points about residential living and urban impact. As I stated in previous posts, “Pocket Parks” have increased social interaction in locations, where previously linear travel is the best description for the space, around Columbus, Ohio. I see why they are successful now after discussion about Whyte’s research. I plan on incorporating these ideas into my project and will prove to extend the activity of Copley Square into the already social gathering space that is the Apple Store.

A revelation came to me at the Apple store and study of human interaction. I see there are so many other reasons to convene at the Apple store than just for immediate purchase or research. In as sense, hanging out around the product and others using the product can be research, but how does Apple close on the sale? This is what I will continue to study.

Now back to my knives and long metal rulers. Items which might brand me dangerous in a public setting!

Duncan Landscape and Class

Duncan truly identifies the situation my sister and brother-in-law have chosen to live in, however I would not associate their location as a division of social status in the community. My sister lives in the "middle of no where" Iowa, just outside Cedar Rapids. She has chosen to live in a small development of houses with large yards in one of the few "forests" of "middle of no where" Iowa with approximately 30 other homes. To arrive at her community, one must travel the never ending rows of corn, take three numbered paved roads and four dirt roads before arriving at a tree line. Both she and her husband’s upbringing where residential suburbs of major cities and both were very active in public school activities. I myself had the same upbringing and chose to live in the same environment in Columbus, Ohio that I knew in Minnesota. Why are we so different in the appreciation of Landscape? I see a major difference in social activities as I would rather meet friends at a sporting event or bar where as my sister will sit in her living room reading a book. I see distinct characteristics of Alpha/Beta tendencies in this respect however economically we are similar in working class.

It is easy to identify various regions of Columbus, Ohio that mimic the effects of Alpha/Beta relationship. As Bickford has defined our suburbs are attracting individuals away from the older established neighborhood. I chose to live in a 1928 home because I value the architecture and more so, the trees taller than my house. I again am a “middle class” citizen but show characteristics of both Alpha and Beta social divisions in my selection of “Landscape.” My street describes Beta and my appreciation for older historic “scenery” would suggest Alpha given Bickford’s division of class in our current society. I would suppose a true Alpha social member would live on a large property with very little interaction between neighbors, but as Duncan describes, I fall under the Beta category.

I feel the person defines who they are, and from their upbringing suggests a “Landscape” they select as adults. Both social interaction and socioeconomic status growing up or achieved in life defines their habits and actions within the community. This exemplifies a pre-selected geographic location they have a tendency to select.

Susan Bickford Architecture of Citizenship

I was able to refrain from the pastel islands of insight, and when doing so found the sticky note tool in Acrobat to facilitate a way to save the environment (not printing) and put a ton of information in a little bit of space.

This is my first series of blog sites and in the attempt to not recreate a very well written article, I will regurgitate my margin mania of thought I created while reading.

In Susan Bickford’s article “City Spaces and the Architecture of Citizenship” there are many key points in which I agree, and a few I don’t. I used to work for the “developer” and “builder” designing houses (I can already hear the oohs!). I have since moved on to another field of architecture so say what you will about the industry. A little background of my experience include certain elements of the job that were frustrating, like selecting 8 shades of brown, and others very rewarding (being able to use white trim!), not that bad... really. We never created a gate in front of the community main drive and sold to everyone. Especially with the housing market being as terrible as it is now. Some ideas Bickford focuses too strongly on, I feel, are the segregations of race and how housing is the leading factor for this. What drives the housing market in my opinion is pre-existing location social structure. Nobody moves to a large home in “Pleasantville” without established school district(s) and “community,” restaurants, retail, and services. I find in the development timeline that the Mall comes first, the School second, and the Homes immediately after.

From experience, everyone has an idea where they want to live. That can be described by what school district your kids will attend, how close the grocery store is, what mall you are near, and does the gas station down the street have bars on the windows. After those key factors, 50% of the “community” will feel comfort about anywhere.

I believe our society has two types of people. Those who can walk up to a perfect stranger and talk to them, whereas others wont, and this is absolutely facilitated by architecture, environment, and atmosphere. I would converse with 107 different people at a festival before stopping in the parking garage at 10:00 PM to see how someone is enjoying their walk to the car like myself.

Bickford states “…I argue that the architecture of our urban and suburban lives provides a hostile environment for the development of democratic imagination and participation.” and I agree with this statement. I look downtown at the buildings while I walk to lunch after reading this article and have noticed that not many are inviting to enter, especially government buildings. They seem very separated by architecture from other structures and have no public outreach to citizens. How is this reflected on the citizen’s moral while in the urban environment? Is this casting a shadow over our built environment “sphere” in which we work and live?

Our best example of “community” in Columbus, Ohio, existing in the downtown environment is the newly constructed Arena District. It does segregate the rest of downtown by using streets as gates, but accomplishes an atmosphere individuals can enjoy at almost anytime. Hockey, Concerts, Restaurants, Bars, Courtyards, and Festivals fill this area of town almost every weekend. How does this help reverse “the fall of public man?” A bar atmosphere sets this in an interesting environment where the intimate self more comfortable in one's home is placed in a just slightly less private situation where they may or may not decide to express public communication. Is the modern movement in residential design satisfying the public scale internal to one’s comfort of “home” with larger rooms, taller ceilings, and more lights? Allowing each to invite guests to converse ideas in their controlled public space of opinion?

Arendt stated very clearly “The reality of the public realm relies on the simultaneous presence of innumerable perspectives…” How can we achieve this in design? I’ve seen change in a few areas of our city commonly referred to as “Pocket Parks.” A simple renovation like this has produced a surprisingly diverse atmosphere of conversation and activity.

Short North Community "Pocket Park"

As Bickford describes “Gentrified areas are characterized by ‘boutique retailing, elite consumption, and upscale housing’; poor and working-class residents are displaced as rents go up and low-income housing is destroyed or converted.” I have seen evidence that re-vitalizing an area in the city results in the displacement existing residents due to rent increase but how is it accomplished that a neighborhood could be redefined to the "public" as desirable without redesigning what lacks in the social activities, thus giving reason to raise rent?

Does this revitalization attract crime?

I agree that Suburbs can cripple urban life and atmosphere. Each creates an island of wealth which feeds the “mainland” of community for these people... city and school. What I think comforts individuals that reside behind “gated” protection is knowing that each is equal economically to one another. I have noticed at community events, being invited into from the “outside”, opinions are voiced among neighbors and unknowingly, strangers. Do we as a society need to feel equal to one another before freely expressing our ideas and opinions?

I will save my further experiences with mall wars and public transportation choking “community” for my next post. I look forward to reading and responding to everyone’s opinion! Please post!