justforview

Alright kids, let this be a lesson. Don’t vandalize. And adults, don’t leave paint lying around for us to literally paint the town red. According to the Enquirer the mysterious Washington Park vandal has been identified by red spots on his jacket.

Now if we can just catch the idiot that painted the southern gates all one solid color as if it makes it looks nicer. Its stone, you shouldn’t paint it. Maybe power-washing would have been a better choice, but the patina adds to the character.

Check out this video of more DIY urban planning. This comes from streetblog’s Streetfilms and covers Depave.org’s efforts.

What struck me is the woman half way through who talks about why she moved to Portland. This is the power of a city promoting and building DIY planning opportunities.

Today on Fountain Square there was a lot of random things happening. On one side there was a Guitar Hero (video game) booth where I witnessed an older woman and a young boy battling it out. There was also a large inflatable Oscar Meyar hot dog that couldn’t muster up the strength to fully inflate. The weirdest thing was a series of putt-putt greens scattered throughout the tables. I didn’t see any one playing on them and am not sure why they were there, but alas. Finally, something in the US Bank building seemed to be on fire. Smoke was pouring out of the street vents and there was four or five fire trucks. But everyone seemed relatively calm about it all.

How do you see this? Reverse graffiti is made by drawing into the dirt and grime found in everyday spaces. Think “wash me”, but way more advanced. The images and video below are some beautiful examples by Moose from England, who is actually working largely for ad agencies, and Alexander Orion, working in Brazil.

Yesterday Indianapolis celebrated the completion of the first phase of the Cultural Trail. There is more to be done, but the completion of this stage is noteworthy for a number of reasons. First, there is no other project like it, probably anywhere but certainly not in the region of similar sized cities. Secondly, in the context of current social and economic trends it signifies the type of efforts that can be accomplished. Related to that point, it shows that cities like Indianapolis can be forward thinking, and innovative and not just rely on what other cities have done.

The Cultural Trail, when fully completed, will be a “urban bike and pedestrian path that connects neighborhoods, Cultural Districts and entertainment amenities, and serves as the downtown hub for the entire central Indiana greenway system.”

The design of the Cultural Trail reclaims lanes of city streets and dedicates this space to pedestrians and cyclist. This entire greenway system and specifically the cultural trail integrates issues of mobility, health, economic development, physical planning and land-use, social justice, cultural heritage and public art and much more all through the redistribution of public space.

This project is an excellent example of good planning and design, not just in its final product, but also the process, financing and functionality.

These images are from a few weeks back, and center around one intersection, but show a good amount of the various details.

Dan Witz is an amazingly detail oriented street artist who is a master at optical illusion, creating 2D images and placing them in public spaces so that they appear to be 3D. Often, changes in scale or color are the only way to know they aren’t real. But his latest project, Ugly New Buildings, really plays up on the illusionary factor.

There are many more at his site as well as a statement about the project and its title.

I came across this excellent series of videos about Bogotá’s mayor, Peñalosa. The series talks at length about the public spaces of the city and how the mayor has created an extensive system of pedestrian, bicycle and bus transit. The scale and political will is unmatched. Check it out.

UPDATE: And an interview in the NYTimes with Peñalosa

Here is another great project from LA. I came across this article in the LA Times that describes Ari Kletzky’s public art project, the Islands of LA National Park. The artist says that the project is intended to “generate discussion to explore use of public space by turning islands into a work of art”.

This is the function that I think all public art should have. It should be generative, not just in terms of discussion, but also action. This project seems really interesting because it is multifaceted. It engages the general public, but also specific groups to think about, discuss and implement ideas in public spaces that otherwise receive no attention.

But please don’t use guerrilla tactics to advertise to me. I saw this at the exit to the fountain sq. garage today and can’t help but wonder a couple of things. First, is it from a street team, and if so is there any enforcement? As an admirer of street art and the like I have to be offended. I understand that corporations have rights and even that their ability to co-opt these things in some way legitimizes them.

Still, it is against the law and it just seems wrong for corporate interest to appropriate tactics used by individuals because much the same corporate interest have reduced their power. I guess it goes both ways, corporations appropriate individuals’ tactics as much as is the case here (in one of the 3CDC’s brand colors, no less). But what gives individuals the power to resist the corporate dominance of public space, particularly through advertising in this case, is that individuals often can’t be traced back to a corporate entity and don’t really receive any personal gain from it. The risk is the same, but the payoff is much higher for corporations. Shouldn’t the punishment fit the extent of the benefit gained through illegal means.

Community Living Rooms are something that I first came across this article in DESIGNER/builder Magazine, but this article in the NY Times caught my eye. I am glad to see that they have caught on, and in LA of all places. I think that it interesting how they were done in collaboration with the transit authority, but still retain their original intent

The idea is to “build an outdoor living room that included a couch and end tables (a bench flanked by planter boxes), ottomans (sitting boxes that could be moved around to create space on the sidewalk), and other seating (three- or four-step stoops that didn’t lead to doors but sat up against walls or fences).

There is a strong intention to make these spaces domesticated public spaces that encourage people to use public space for living. Rather than create some officially designated park space they build off the existing needs and spaces in a community.

The original efforts in Oakland were done illegally and were intended as an anti-gentrification statement as well as a functional solution to a design problem. Despite the dirty g-word the logic makes sense to me and if you read the DB article it might help place it in context.

For those that think that gentrification is not a problem, or inevitable I hope this begins to illustrate that it is not a simple process that is universally bad, or good. It is not about black and white, but shades of gray that should be accepted, but not un-mediated. Community Living Rooms are one intervention that I think helps to mediate the differences in social, economic and cultural uses of public space. It is an innovative design solution that doesn’t just solve a functional issue, but is confronts a social reality.