tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57841892011-04-21T17:13:44.073-04:00SkunkloveCity Living & Social Philosophyharvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.comBlogger1581100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1126325556712989712005-09-10T00:10:00.000-04:002005-09-10T00:12:36.720-04:00It's Because I Have a Real Job Now.Oh God. I'm not even sure I should bother posting here anymore, but here is my latest article for the New York Spirit. Enjoy. I suppose it will be on their website in October.There used to be a mini-golf course at that intersection. I remember because I had my tenth birthday party there and Phil, who’s last name is lost to history, was trying to look like a golfharvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1124460399275509862005-08-19T10:05:00.000-04:002005-08-19T10:06:39.283-04:00Urban Field TripThe latest New York Spirit article is up. Check it out.harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1121783348686377202005-07-19T10:07:00.001-04:002005-07-19T10:29:08.696-04:00LinguisticsWhen I was in college trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life professionally, I tried to navigate a course that would touch on my major interests: architecture, politics, religion, writing, and, strangely, linguistics. I'm not sure how I ended up being so interested in linguistics, especially since I never even took a course on it. Undoubtedly it's related to being a harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1120764566385046382005-07-07T15:27:00.000-04:002005-07-07T15:29:26.390-04:00On BroadwayThe latest installment of the New York Urbanism series is up on the New York Spirit website. Check it out.harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1119968208296145272005-06-28T10:01:00.000-04:002005-06-28T10:16:48.310-04:00Robert Moses, the Middle-American Traditional FatherFrom no posts to a glut of posts, I know. It must be something in the water.Reading the Times' article on the vanquishing of the light-industrial/arts uses from Williamsburg & Greenpoint in the face of the oncoming redevelopment plan, the following sentence caught my eye:The last thing someone living in a luxury loft wants to hear is harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1119964136422314692005-06-28T08:52:00.000-04:002005-06-28T09:08:56.443-04:00What's Your Name Again?It happens to me more often than I'd like. I'm standing there making smalltalk with someone at a wedding or a cocktail party and it occurs to me: I haven't the slightest idea what this person's name is. And then, while they're talking to me, I start to do the math. I start to think, "how long have I been standing here talking to this person and am I past the point when I harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1113925413560515272005-04-19T11:38:00.000-04:002005-04-19T11:43:33.560-04:00The Stranger's Opinion Hanging out in the park yesterday with my friend, we were talking about the value of raising children in the city as opposed to pitching tent in the 'burbs. Planner types like myself get all up in arms about the evils of the suburbs: the cars, the lack of community, the lack of diversity, and so on and so forth. But I do notice that the planners that rail against the harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1113924484496816032005-04-19T11:26:00.000-04:002005-04-19T11:37:28.773-04:00And Now for Something Completely DifferentWell, it doesn't have much to do with urban culture, but I wrote it and I'm proud of it so I'm posting the link to it. What is it? It's an essay explaining Jewish Weddings that my brother asked me to write for his upcoming wedding.harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1113226039329579642005-04-11T09:24:00.000-04:002005-04-11T09:27:19.330-04:00The Second Alternative The second installment of the "Alternate Side of the Street" column for The New York Spirit is up online. It's already been posted on this blog, but now you know I wasn't lying - the magazine really exists.harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1112926715901132142005-04-07T22:02:00.003-04:002005-04-11T09:49:50.340-04:00The ThresholdFor a long time, I have maintained that the threshold of good design is that it makes people ask questions. Pretty, not pretty - it's too subjective. Best not to wade into that minefield. Better yet to start somewhere else with my own criteria. And so I did. I said to hell with whether you think it's pretty or not - does it make you look at the world in a new way? Does it make you harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1111548313288133012005-03-22T22:17:00.000-05:002005-03-22T22:25:13.290-05:00Fresh Fish The New York Times has a fantastic article on the impending move of the Fulton Fish Market. There are some people who can't wait for the market to move and others who think it's a tragedy. Me? I'm new to town so I keep my mouth shut. But this article does a wonderful job straddling the line between reminiscing about old times and highlighting how the fishmongers themselves are pretty harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1111308635795398552005-03-20T03:46:00.000-05:002005-03-20T13:53:44.086-05:00Sonny'sIn improvisational comedy they teach you a basic principle. It is called yes-and. Or, to put it more accurately, it is called “yes, and…”It teaches this: when you are on stage with very little guidelines and you have a brilliant idea for how the scene should unfold - say you want to be a pirate, and your partner should be the parrot who only speaks French and a galleon full of angry harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1110490365473349182005-03-10T16:23:00.000-05:002005-03-10T16:32:45.733-05:00Sneak Preview!Or something like that, anyway. I'm feeling the need to post something today, so here' s a near-final version of next month's column for The New York Spirit. The column, titled "Alternative Side of the Street: A Series on New York Urbanism" will also appear in its final version on their website.By now, The Gates are gone, and in its own way that is part of their beauty. They came, harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1110220738240732292005-03-07T13:34:00.000-05:002005-03-07T13:38:58.243-05:00Relative WarmthI have not been outside yet, but my computer tells me that it is 59 degrees. Fifty-nine degrees. That is deliciously, absurdly warm. It conjurs images of deep summer. Is that the icecream man's truck I hear, or is my mind playing tricks? It will be 59 that feels like 85. There will be people out on the streets wearing shorts, undoubtedly, and pretending that it is a balmy summer harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1109797462214683362005-03-02T16:00:00.000-05:002005-03-02T16:05:11.936-05:00The New York SpiritMy first column in the New York Spirit (an every-other-month magazine that focuses on spiritual living) is out. It may seem like a stretch to be writing a column on urban culture in a new agey magazine, but it actually meshes relatively well. The piece didn't make the online edition, so I thought I'd post it here. Enjoy.New York is not the first place that comes to mind as a harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1109609710378532852005-02-28T11:35:00.000-05:002005-02-28T11:55:10.386-05:00The Connection SpectrumMy friend Christine and I were walking around town a few weeks ago mulling things over. She had just come back from a long warm weather vacation and was feeling a little bitter about her return. It was cold. We had to walk to stay warm. That had not been an issue for her in Costa Rica.She told me about the ex-pat community down there that she had stayed with, how they all harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1109443609723447802005-02-26T13:44:00.000-05:002005-02-26T13:46:49.726-05:00I'm Famous!Er, my apartment is, anyway. A friend of mine who writes for ApartmentTherapy.com did a piece reviewing the artists' loft I live in in Williamsburg. Enjoy.harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1108138976678353972005-02-11T11:04:00.000-05:002005-02-11T11:22:56.680-05:00I went to the Cooper Hewitt Museum a few weeks ago during the blizzard. We trudged across Central Park in white out conditions and into the opulent Museum, exhausted before we even began looking around. We were happy to find a small greenhouse with palm trees and padded benches on the east side of the building, allowing us to lie down comfortably amid the tropical plants and look up at the harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1106628452555675062005-01-24T23:40:00.000-05:002005-01-24T23:47:32.556-05:00Short Century
It snowed this weekend. A lot. I walked across an empty Central Park in the blizzard and trudged through snowbanks up to my thigh. I loved it. I loved the quiet of the city muffled by the snow, stomping my boots when I came inside for a coffee. I missed winter.
My mom called me from San Francisco to ask me what it was like. "I'm listening to NPR right now and they're calling it the harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1106339209779673702005-01-21T15:24:00.000-05:002005-01-21T15:26:49.780-05:00An Old Rant
Organizing files on my computer today, I found this essay that I wrote last spring. I couldn't post it then because it referred to my then-employer. But now I am gone from there and while it could use some tightening up, I like it.
I came remarkably close to finishing my childhood tonight. I had found it after a brief search on ebay, of course, and spent moments of my free time harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1106072707630603962005-01-18T13:01:00.000-05:002005-01-18T13:26:49.886-05:00Good? Bad? It Don't Matter.
I was reading through the National Arts Journalism Program's 2001 Survey of Newspaper Architecture Critics this morning (I know, I'm four years late and reading obscure things, but someone loaned it to me and I was curious), and I was struck by something that Paul Goldberger wrote. Answering the question, "how much does architectural critcism matter?" he writes:
It's aharvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1105585568260038662005-01-12T21:49:00.000-05:002005-01-12T22:06:08.260-05:00Earth, Wind, & Fire
I stumbled across a glass blowing studio tonight on my walk home from Bedford Avenue. I'd had no idea that it existed. It was cold and misty outside; the skyline had been smothered by fog. It was the kind of weather where I bury my chin in my collar to avoid the damp and keep my eyes straight ahead. You know, moving them side to side might let some heat escape my body.
And harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1104426181812745732004-12-30T11:47:00.000-05:002004-12-30T12:06:23.813-05:00The Obvious Solution
My housemate Simone was frantic last night. She had lost her car keys. She suspected that she may have left them in the shoe shop down on Bedford Avenue, but it was long closed for the night and would not be open until 8 the next morning. This was a big problem: not only was she due to depart for the holiday weekend today, ferrying her friends up to a cabin in the mountains, harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1104347063496372902004-12-29T13:31:00.000-05:002004-12-29T20:52:11.863-05:00Forcefields
I wandered around the Flatiron District today, having arrived early for an interview in the neighborhood. It is my friend Tal's favorite neighborhood, the area most quintessentially old New York, he claims, and full of office buildings from the 1910s and 20s with ornate street-facing facades of brick, masonry, and terra cotta. And then there are the gaps between the buildings, filled harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1103831081943989492004-12-23T14:41:00.000-05:002004-12-23T14:53:06.660-05:00Overheard Snippets
I regret not having come up with this website myself. It's hysterical. And vulgar, so if that isn't your favorite you might not like it. It reminds me of a game I used to play with my friends in high school called "impossible conversation." We used to pass people on the street and make up a bizarre piece of conversation for their amusement. An example would be:
"...and it's so harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1103825037520009112004-12-23T13:01:00.000-05:002004-12-23T13:22:52.823-05:00Dye Job
An entertainingly kitschy way to solve the problem of ugly electrical boxes along the street. These are a little hokey for my taste, but it could be a nice way to give artists some free publicity.
harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1103664996948842542004-12-21T16:31:00.000-05:002004-12-21T16:37:59.720-05:00Fish Highways
My friend Jon just showed me the website fishighway.com, which has pictures of something I used to think about all the time as a kid: fishtanks connected to each other by tubes that allow the fish to follow people around the building or travel from tank to tank on their own. What? This outs me as a superdork and has nothing to do with urban living?
harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1103556683023582262004-12-20T10:26:00.000-05:002004-12-20T19:56:51.300-05:00Winter
Today is the first cold day of the year. It is not chilly, it is not brisk, it is not even nippy. It is downright freezing. Weather.com told me that it felt like -3F outside and they weren't lying. And like yesterday when I laughed at myself for getting all happy with memories while driving through ugly Connecticut, this morning I had two responses to the cold. First I was giddy. There washarvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1103515473565940762004-12-19T22:53:00.000-05:002004-12-19T23:04:33.566-05:00Mundane Journeys
A few weeks ago, my brother gave me a book as a gift. It's a little thing, this book, and it's called Mundane Journeys. Assembled and created by Kate Pocrass and Patrick J. Kavanaugh, it's a well-designed, two-toned booklet with maps and sketches of various destinations around San Francisco (this is my brother's way of reminding me of all the great things that I'm missing back inharvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1103504832150002242004-12-19T20:00:00.000-05:002004-12-20T19:58:03.650-05:00Reheating the Pizza
I took a road trip today for old times' sake. Three college friends and I drove up to New Haven to make the long-neglected pilgrimmage to Frank Pepe's Pizzeria on Wooster Street. We used to go to school in Middletown and make the drive down I-91 to New Haven a few times a year to have their delicious pies. The pizza was just about as fantastic as I'd remembered, which was a harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1103504398703046202004-12-19T19:57:00.000-05:002004-12-19T19:59:58.703-05:00Stress Tests
Passing through the Union Square subway station this evening, I walked quickly past the Scientologists giving their free stress tests when I heard this delicious exchange:
Man: Excuse me, ma'am, would you like to take a free stress test?
Woman: Hell no. I don't need no freaky to tell me I'm stressed. I already know that.
harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1102909707287659542004-12-12T22:38:00.000-05:002004-12-12T22:50:05.896-05:00A Brief Vacation in the Land of Straight Wheels
I was in California this weekend on family business - the second time I've been on the West Coast in the last month. And both times, I've walked around, enjoyed the weather, and thought to myself, "what the hell am I doing in NY when I could be living in California near my family? It's like a vacation here." But then I stop and reassess and rememberharvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1101936392886835622004-12-01T15:51:00.000-05:002004-12-02T17:20:43.560-05:00'Members Only
I'm supposedly working on a design submission with some friends for the Flight 93 Memorial. You remember Flight 93. That's the 9/11 flight that crashed into the woods in rural Pennsylvania instead of hitting the White House. It was wrestled away from the terrorists by courageous passengers. [I wrote "tourists" instead of "terrorists" the first time. You have to love that.] I say I'mharvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1101315852257553122004-11-24T11:53:00.000-05:002004-11-24T12:04:12.256-05:00U2
A funny thing happened on Monday. I took the subway up to Columbia to sit in on my friend's lecture there, and when I exited the 1-9 at 116th Street & Broadway, there was a flatbed truck with a band on it playing across the street. They were playing quietly and there were only about 25 people watching them. I could only see their backs.
"What's with the band?" I asked a woman at the bus stop.
harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1100830424199288032004-11-18T20:55:00.000-05:002004-11-18T21:13:44.200-05:00The River
I had intended to get a place in Manhattan. The logic was solid: I came to New York from San Francisco seeking to place myself in the thick of things, where the energy level was the highest. All boroughs are redeemable (or so I'm told - I have yet to visit Staten Island), but Manhattan is irrefutably the energy spike. And so I looked in Manhattan only. My Brooklyn-based friends gave me harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1100793042484490182004-11-18T10:38:00.001-05:002004-11-18T20:55:26.266-05:00The Computer Returns: Episode XVII
So, in celebration of the fact that I finally have my computer back, I will actually post something!
The Subway. I have made my share of mistakes on the subway, and I intend to get them all out of the way as early as possible into my chapter of New York life. I have intended to take the E out to Brooklyn and realized too late that it dead ends on its own spur harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1097938382528438342004-10-16T10:51:00.000-04:002004-10-16T10:53:02.526-04:00The Pace of Life and Italy Notes
I knew this was coming, but this is ridiculous. New York moves fast. I feel like I’ve stepped on a moving sidewalk that’s being operated by a meth freak. It’s like the Loony Toons: as soon as my feet touch the moving walkway, they zip forward. My body streeeeeetches out in an attempt to keep my body together, and my head, complete with momentary quizzical harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1096731901682999552004-10-02T11:07:00.000-04:002004-10-02T15:25:57.096-04:00Travel Notes I: Roma
Riding the train from Rome's Fiumicino Airport into Rome, I watched the little towns zip by, high density satellite communities with five-story, pastel colored apartment blocks hunkering down in the arid countryside. To me it looked like a cross between Stockholm (for the density) and Jerusalem (for the aridity and pervasiveness of age). Then it occurred to me that those wereharvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1096729665784581552004-10-02T11:05:00.000-04:002004-10-02T11:07:45.783-04:00Back(b)log
I have been absent for awhile, off sniffing the skunk in Italy. Over the next few weeks, I'll try and catch up and post on the trip, as well as what it's been like to go on vacation and return home to a city I've never lived in before.
harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1094916259641309852004-09-11T11:19:00.000-04:002004-09-11T11:24:19.640-04:00Invasion of the Booty Snatchers
It was my first night out in New York as a resident. I was tired, but realized I had to get out, walk around my temporary neighborhood and get some food. So I called my friend Danielle and we sat down at a reasonable outdoor Italian restaurant near Lincoln Center. I wolfed down my food and drank my wine happily. I was in New York, talking art theory with Danielle, harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1094915968127901372004-09-11T11:11:00.000-04:002004-09-11T11:19:28.126-04:00Empty Reasoning
I have explained the reasons for this move to New York to so many people so many times that the words have been drained of their meaning. I just say them because I'm used to saying them, because it's polite. I know that at one point I thought they were true, and that they probably still are, but I might as well be blowing bubbles. It's like the time my older sister, infinitely harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1094165916612348042004-09-02T18:34:00.000-04:002004-09-02T18:58:36.613-04:00Tourism Review Committee
I was talking to a friend about my impending move to New York today, discussing how I intend to engage in a bunch of tourist activities when I arrive (the Circle Tour, museums, etc.) and we came to the realization that there are really two separate categories of tourist attractions. On the one side, there are those that are attractions merely because they are beautiful harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1094060771241696472004-09-01T13:20:00.000-04:002004-09-01T13:59:33.770-04:00A Desperate Attempt to Post Something
I'm moving to New York a week from Friday, and my life is predictably chaotic - hence my lack of posting. But here is a meager attempt to post something interesting:
I bought the book Subway Land by Randy Kennedy. He's the author of the retired New York Times Column "Tunnel Vision," a focus on subway life in New York. The book isn't terribly profound, and harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1092938955191624322004-08-19T13:39:00.000-04:002004-08-19T14:09:15.190-04:00Nodeland
I found an interesting, if somewhat geeky article on nature.com today. It describes a Swedish information-science project that studied the navigability of different cities. The researchers mapped every street in a given city as a node and each intersection as a link between the nodes. This created an image that resembles those airline maps in the back of inflight magazines. By measuring harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1092854154142983842004-08-18T14:23:00.000-04:002004-08-18T14:35:54.143-04:00Follow Your Nose
My brother-in-law told me the other day that when he used to live in New York City, he would occasionally remark, "this place smells like my ass." And now, living in a beautiful house up in Marin with my sister and two adorable little daughters, a view of Mount Tam, and a slower pace of life, he finds himself looking back fondly on the rush of New York and wistfully saying, "I harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1092692240180973942004-08-16T17:28:00.000-04:002004-08-16T17:37:20.180-04:00From a Distance
In the comment box for the post "Middle East Peace? Urban Design? Feh. Same thing," my friend Skydiver makes an interesting comment. He wants to look at the travel patterns of different lifestyles, a housewife, a CEO, an urban yuppie, and place them on a single map.
I started to picture what they might look like, and I don't think you can fit the daily travels of a housewife on harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1092682124413591602004-08-16T14:13:00.000-04:002004-08-16T14:49:39.326-04:00Middle East Peace Process? Urban Design? Feh. Same Thing.
One of my side projects that I've been neglecting recently reared it's head this morning in an unexpected place. I was reading the Sunday Times Magazine article on Ariel Sharon and I saw this quote: When both sides can sustain their finest illusions about each other, as the
Israelis and the Palestinians could for a while under Oslo, harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1092171938467097002004-08-10T16:59:00.000-04:002004-08-16T14:50:15.326-04:00Painting the Town Red, Part 3
Today's New York Times' science section has an article that, at first glance, has nothing to do with urban design. But it does. The article is about a raging debate among psychotherapists about whether the field should be regulated by scientific principles or be guided more intuitively. Read the article and substitute "urban design" for "psychotherapy," and you end harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1092171570532884152004-08-10T16:27:00.000-04:002004-08-16T14:50:35.003-04:00Midwestern Ruminations
I was in Chicago this last weekend on a quick trip, but I had a little time to get out and explore. From my hotel near Navy Piers, I walked south along Michigan Avenue to the newly minted Millennium Park. Funny, you would think that engineers would know better than to name a park after a particular date. This is not a good strategy for avoiding public scorn for overdue harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1091810784104761182004-08-06T12:19:00.000-04:002004-08-06T12:46:24.106-04:00Painting the Town Red, Part 2
I was talking to my dad last night about my post on art critique ("Painting the Town Red?"), wherein I repeat my favorite point that urban design is a hybrid between art and engineering. We talked about how urban design aims to satisfy both the practical goals of engineering and the emotional/intellectual (spiritual?) goals of art and how that poses a major hurdle harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1091646015969672132004-08-04T14:53:00.000-04:002004-08-16T14:50:53.533-04:00Duffy Square: Aisle Five
While I was in NY, I met with a friend of a friend who works at the Times Square Alliance, a non-profit that aims to improve the area. She explained to me that over the last 20 or so years, they have cleaned up Times Square and made it more tourist friendly, but now they are embarking on an attempt to make it more pedestrian friendly. I can attest to its harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1091645607578373602004-08-04T14:02:00.000-04:002004-08-04T18:51:29.646-04:00Painting the Town Red?
I had a great conversation in NY yesterday with my friend Lilly Manwise-Dice, who is going to be a famous painter someday, about art critique. She pointed out that when artists sit around and critique each other's work, an interesting thing happens: If they are all looking at a piece and end up discussing why it is that, for example, the square just doesn't look right next harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1091212709480126652004-07-30T14:25:00.000-04:002004-07-30T14:38:29.480-04:00A Response to Father Loinjogs
My officemate, Father Loinjogs, pointed out to me this morning that my previous post that promised to write about urban design's ability to teach was a spinoff of a conversation we had on the busride home a few weeks back. At the time, when I said I thought that urban design had to aim for a higher goal of educating, he looked at me as if I naive. He asked for an harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1091206288592378442004-07-30T12:38:00.000-04:002004-07-30T14:24:51.266-04:00Who Cares if it's Pretty? Part 2
(I wanted this next bit to flow seemlessly from the previous post, but I couldn't figure out a way to make it work. Pretend like I created a pithy connection between the two, because it's the same train of thought)
Reading the text of a speech delivered by my boss, Peter Calthorpe, he writes that he doesn't care if the buildings are attractive so long as they harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1091205478441490362004-07-30T12:18:00.000-04:002004-07-30T12:53:02.143-04:00Who Cares if it's Pretty? Part 1
Reading this week's New Yorker last night, I caught this line in Paul Goldberger's review of the new skyscrapers shooting up in Jersey City: "In a great or even a good city, the whole is usually more than the sum of its parts. In Jersey City, the parts and the whole are essentially the same thing..." Which is to say, the buildings manage to add up to, well, their harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1091151445826398402004-07-29T21:35:00.000-04:002004-07-30T18:14:08.540-04:00I am Wicked Famous
The lovely readers of the San Francisco Bay Guardian have voted me the "Best Local Blog" of 2004. You have to scroll down a bit on the link to view my lovely bit of fame, but it's there. Props to the voters.
harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1091037926028492112004-07-28T14:03:00.000-04:002004-07-28T14:06:04.896-04:00Kansas Livin'
An NPR story on Kansas' attempt to improve their tourist industry included the quote, "Kansas, it's a massive small place." I like the way it sounds. I also think it's the antithesis of how you could describe urban life: dense and immense.
harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1091037776102747632004-07-28T13:36:00.000-04:002004-07-28T14:06:27.870-04:00Tour of Duty
Our office went on a tour of East Bay projects this week, some of which we had worked on, others we wanted to learn from. We started in West Oakland at Chestnut Court, an affordable housing development along Grand Avenue. It utilized the standard housing color pallete - mostly taupe with some light blues and whites, and glowed like a beacon of newness in relation to the downtrodden harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1090861567265759282004-07-26T12:56:00.000-04:002004-07-27T14:06:53.173-04:00What You See is What You Get?
I have neglected my blog now for a few weeks due to general craziness. My first order of business is to post something meaningful, so here is a link to pictures of a new public toilet in Switzerland. It's made of one-way glass; nobody can see in, but you can see out. This is deliciously strange in so many ways it gives me a pleasant headache.
Now that I've harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1089657871078272512004-07-12T14:21:00.000-04:002004-07-12T14:44:31.076-04:00Travel Notes (Boston)
I walked 6 miles in and around Boston in flip flops. Along with my friend Jake, I walked from the west end of Newbury Street through the Public Gardens and the Commons, up State Street to City Hall, through Quincy Market, across the now gone Central Artery, around the waters' edge of the North End (it took considerable effort not to call it North Beach), back past the Fleet harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1088793465208029152004-07-02T13:37:00.000-04:002004-07-02T14:37:45.210-04:00Note
I'm going on vacation and will be back the 12th of July. Postings will be rare, if ever, while I'm on the road.harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1088612508277552192004-06-30T12:11:00.000-04:002004-07-01T13:35:43.040-04:00People Watching
The following people were seen on a 20 minute walk from 16th and Valencia to Haight and Fillmore:
1. An older, white woman in her 50s. Silver hair, nice smile. Sitting in a bus shelter on Church just north of Market and waiting for the inbound J-Church. An interesting woman because she was totally normal looking except for the fact that she was covered - covered - in stuffed harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1088546821606816812004-06-29T17:37:00.000-04:002004-06-29T18:07:01.606-04:00Long Arms
Almost exactly a year ago I was in a nasty accident that featured my bicycle losing a quick skirmish to a reversing minivan in San Francisco. I got to ride in the ambulance, experience SF General's famed ER, and spend a few nights in the hospital, during the first two of which the doctors believed I had a broken sacrum. In the end it was just a badly broken hip.
Looking back on the harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1088460146063368952004-06-28T17:51:00.000-04:002004-06-28T18:02:26.063-04:00Tivers and Rides
I saw Rivers and Tides last night, the documentary about Andy Goldsworthy and his natural, temporary, and elegantly beautiful sculptures. It was a wonderful film. It made me want to quit my job and chase a dream of being an artist. He wakes up at his house in Penpont, Scotland and wanders the town and fields making art. What a dream of a life.
Mostly, though, I was struck by how harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1088183279090234432004-06-25T13:01:00.000-04:002004-06-25T13:15:46.853-04:00SlowTrak
How come eastbound, Bay Bridge-traveling cars equipped with FastTrak STILL have to wait for the metering lights? Doesn't it pretty thoroughly defeat the purpose of getting to zip through the tollbooths if you just have to wait in line with the rest of the peons? On days with heavy traffic, the line for FastTrak-only lanes is just as long, and sometimes longer, than the regular manned harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1088097618375722352004-06-24T13:11:00.000-04:002004-06-24T13:20:18.376-04:00The People Are Stupid
If there's one thing I've learned about politics while living in San Francisco the last five years, it's that the people are too stupid to govern themselves. We put everything to a referendum out here in SF and even though I try and do a dutiful job of reading the background reports on the issues, there's no way to get a firm grasp on a list of twenty issues without studyingharvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1088096645154219472004-06-24T12:54:00.000-04:002004-06-24T13:04:05.153-04:00A Real Band-Aid
So, after taking easy potshots at Baltimore in a recent posting, a friend of mine, who prefers to be described (fictionally) as "a 37-year employee of the Baltimore Streets and Highways Department just counting his days until retirement," had this real-world retort:
Okay Harvey, what should they do instead?
I’ve never visited Mr. Roles’ block, but I can picture it. He lives in harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1088017463999321782004-06-23T15:00:00.000-04:002004-06-23T15:04:24.000-04:00Blog Love
I just added a link to San Francisco CITYSCAPE: the online journal of bay area urban design to my links list. It's a well-informed rundown, review, and critique of current projects and political processes that effect the physical face of San Francisco. It fills a gaping hole created by the Chron's lack of serious urban design coverage.harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1088015655176230312004-06-23T14:17:00.000-04:002004-06-23T14:34:15.176-04:00The Aging of Modernism
Sometimes I love Modernism's clean angles and stark shapes, but I'm generally of the mind it doesn't age well, what with entropy not tending towards right angles and all. If a Modernist building could stay new looking while the vines and plants around it grew to a wild state, that would be a visually arresting juxtaposition. But that's not the way it happens. The buildings harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1087926845066307252004-06-22T13:44:00.000-04:002004-06-22T14:21:51.366-04:00Band-Aiding the Door Shut
This article is either cynically entertaining or downright depressing, depending on how seriously you tend to take things. It's from the Baltimore Sun and you have to register to read the article so I'll paraphrase for you.
Basically, Baltimore is overrun by abandoned homes. Until the city decides whether to tear them down or not, they've hired Charles W. "Bill" Coleman harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1087595349564638482004-06-18T17:08:00.000-04:002004-06-18T17:55:25.206-04:00Stale Bread
Oh man. Even though my brother-in-law recommended I read its review in the Times, I'm fairly certain I dislike everything about Dolores Hayden's new book, A Field Guide to Sprawl. The book is a dictionary defining new terms she has created to describe urban sprawl. It comes off as hokey and contrived in the review:
"There's a toad!" she exclaimed, referring not to a warty amphibian harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1087498807748130902004-06-17T14:36:00.000-04:002004-06-17T15:00:07.746-04:00Now Warming Up in the Forest, #43...
I went to Coors Field in Denver on Tuesday night, where the Colorado Rockies play baseball. It is a nice stadium. Really nice. Kiss of death nice. There is plenty of room, nice wide sidewalks and easy access, a view of the mountains, good sight lines. My cynicism is rooted in the fact that I have a lot of trouble liking any building or place that is sparkly harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1087240427275602852004-06-14T15:08:00.000-04:002004-06-14T15:13:47.276-04:00Definitive Problems
I spend a lot of time on the weekends in Dolores Park in the Mission. I people watch, I do crosswords, throw the frisbee. It's a good place. People bring their dogs there and I love to watch the way they do the meet and greet. Every once in a while I see a huge dog, a Bernese Mountain Dog, for example, trying to do the introductory dance with a little Jack Russel Terrier or harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1086887647415681792004-06-10T12:49:00.000-04:002004-06-10T13:14:07.416-04:00It's Like St. Patrick, Only Different
Someone once told me that rats were just sh*t with legs. And I've since heard that pigeons are called flying rats. I don't think it's necessary to complete the syllogism. We all know pigeons are not loved.
I have a big heart. Really I do. And despite my mother's deep love for birds, I just can't get all riled up by this article in the New York Times. It harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1086720325871883082004-06-08T14:21:00.000-04:002004-06-08T14:45:25.870-04:00Remember the DMV
Reading a New Yorker article yesterday on the bus, I came across this quote: "Memory is fiction - an anecdotal version of some scene or past event we need to store away for present or future use." It got me to thinking, as I often do, about the function of the city as a memory repository, about how the city is just a physical manifestation of the collective memory and values of harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1085762783122730402004-05-28T12:23:00.000-04:002004-05-28T12:46:23.123-04:00Entomological Urban Design
I used to go on walking tours of San Francisco with one of my grad school professors, Peter Bosselmann. We would walk around neighborhoods and he would occasionally stop, point to a building, and ask, "How old do we think this building is, hm?" It was always the architecture students who would answer first, knowing which dates were associated with Edwardian or Victorianharvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1085685054264033302004-05-27T13:22:00.000-04:002004-05-27T18:05:37.596-04:00Rules of Thumb
I have an acquaintance with whom I disagree on virtually everything urban design related. I respect him and hear his opinion, but we are such different people that it seems we are always viewing new projects and coming to opposite conclusions. It is then that, in attempts to prove the validity of our opinions, we start wading into the lingo. "It's out of context. It turns its back harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1085591439617906602004-05-26T12:53:00.000-04:002004-05-26T13:10:39.616-04:00X-Ray Vision
The NY Times today reviews the proposed plans for the Fulton Street Subway Station, designed by the firm Grimshaw. Unlike most New York stations for underground trains, this one includes an above ground structure, a Crystal-Palace-esque, 110-foot high glass dome atop a 50-foot box.
The bit that grabs my eye is this quote:
From within, the center's design is intended to help harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1085159513448870262004-05-21T13:03:00.000-04:002004-05-21T13:11:53.446-04:00Crosswalk Etiquette, Lesson #1
This morning on the way from the Embarcadero BART station down Fremont Street to the Transbay Bus Terminal, I had trouble crossing Mission Street. The trouble can be traced almost solely to a wonderfully sweet looking couple. A loving couple enjoying their commute together. A loving couple spending quality time together by crossing the crosswalk holding hands and harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1085088831604814282004-05-20T17:29:00.000-04:002004-05-20T17:33:51.603-04:00Rotting Hulks
Juxtaposing today with history, rotting industrial relics, urbanity, yadda, yadda, yadda. Basically all the things I love are in this article from the Times.
Incidentally, this hereby sets the new standard for informal posting for me. I've been reading too much wonkette lately and it's contagious. Her site is totally unrelated to urban life and whatnot, but I'm addicted to it so I harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1085077811568637442004-05-20T14:25:00.000-04:002004-05-20T14:30:11.570-04:00Thinking and Driving: The Ultimate in Multitasking
Salon.com has a really interesting article (you have to view a one-minute visa advertisement in order to get a free one-day pass to salon.com) on a new transportation planning strategy that encourages thinking and analysis by drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians instead of the mindless herding that is the norm in America today. It's interesting. harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1084903693258131962004-05-18T14:04:00.000-04:002004-05-18T14:08:13.260-04:00Hidden Treasure
My friend Jon is moving this week and was recounting to me the insanity of his last move. He and his fiance were so pressed for time that on their last day as they were furiously packing, they realized they had too much stuff. They didn't want it, Salvation Army was closed, and they were too tired to deal with any other options.
In a fit of desperation, they carried the boxes up harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1084557084335850002004-05-14T13:17:00.000-04:002004-05-20T14:34:34.086-04:00Why Can't Urban Design be Funny?
I was thinking last night about one of favorite ideas which I've written about in the past: to go out to a rural subdivision or out on some backwater road and put up a streetsign that reads, "E 231st Street." It's the perfect doubletake. I like the idea because it reflects my personality. It's mischievous, funny, and it asks people to think twice about where they harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1084214688730610542004-05-10T14:43:00.000-04:002004-05-10T14:44:48.730-04:00Dead End Signs
Interesting piece in the New York Times today about street signs around the city for streets long gone. When do you get rid of them? harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1084214570407329612004-05-10T14:17:00.000-04:002004-05-14T14:07:02.120-04:00The Harmonious City Doesn't Exist
There's a wonderful article - an extended eulogy, really - in last weeks' New Yorker. Adam Gopnik writes a fascinating description of the worldview of Kirk Varnedoe, former chief curator of painting and scultpure at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. As an urban designer, I found his views on art startingly similar to my own views on urban design. This is a harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1083775184426815802004-05-05T12:39:00.000-04:002004-05-05T12:46:20.356-04:00The Suburban Big Brush
Talking to my friend Jason yesterday about the difference between urban design for cities and suburban urban design (there has got to be a better term for that), he wisely pointed out that in the 'burbs urban design is painted with a big brush and grand sweeping gestures while in the city it's the details that make or break the project. He couldn't be more right. People harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1083774891689385792004-05-05T12:34:00.000-04:002004-05-06T13:49:08.000-04:00Interactive Graffiti
There's a new piece of sidewalk graffiti out on the sidewalk of my block this week. In lime green block letters, it says, "WILL YOU GO WITH ME?" and then underneath, in smaller letters, it has the words, "YES" and "NO," as if I'm supposed to circle the appropriate response. I'm not sure where the artist is going, but I'm certainly leaning towards circling "YES."
As a general harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1082753831079842402004-04-23T16:57:00.000-04:002004-04-23T17:00:11.670-04:00Contextual Design. It's the New Black.
I've been having an email discussion with an acquaintance of mine about the best way to steer the greater design community towards an increased emphasis on making buildings and places that are contextual, that talk to their surroundings. The general consensus is that design school, and architecture school in particular, forge haughty designers by encouragingharvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1081965410617947112004-04-14T13:56:00.000-04:002004-04-14T13:59:41.216-04:00Mmmm, Subway
This is the kind of article I love, about exploring the NYC subway for relics of the original line that stretched from City Hall up to Grand Central, across to the newly renamed Times Square, and on up the West Side to 145th Street. harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1081892767395766932004-04-13T17:46:00.000-04:002004-04-13T17:48:57.560-04:00Who Says Technology Doesn't Connect Us?
My friend Sam sent me this link that googles a random image filename - the type of gibberish filename that is produced by a digital camera - and produces a series of digital photos that have nothing in common except their nonsensical names. It's like getting everyone named Carl together and hearing their stories. It's like visiting every building with a harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1081891168370447902004-04-13T17:19:00.000-04:002004-04-13T17:22:18.686-04:00Raising our Children and Razing our Cities
Michael Chabon, author of Wonder Boys and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, writes a brilliant op-ed piece on the censorship of teenage art in the New York Times today. Spurred by the recent expulsion of a student from San Francisco's Academy of Art University for writing a graphically violent short story, Chabon writes that we are getting harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1081795369476154872004-04-12T14:42:00.000-04:002004-04-12T14:45:45.840-04:00Fore score and seven...
It's time again for guerilla urban minigolf. This time it's called the 4th Bi-Annual Emperor Norton North Beach Open, and the course has changed. Come one, come all.harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1081795125095330462004-04-12T14:38:00.000-04:002004-04-12T14:41:35.140-04:00Afraid of the Edge
Urban Design is not artsy enough. The Bay Area has at least 20 planning/urban design firms, and not one of them can be defined as even remotely edgy. Why? There are at least three reasons. One, which I touched on briefly in the post titled "The Language and/of Design," is that design, like language, serves a dual role of function as well as aesthetics. At a certain level, urbanharvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1081443181921657892004-04-08T12:53:00.000-04:002004-04-08T12:55:46.530-04:00Here's to a Sense of Place
Reading over someone's shoulder this morning on the commute, I noticed that there was an article in the Chron titled, "Readers Root for Giving Wine a Sense of Place."
I've mentioned before that "sense of place" is the catchword du jour in urban design, and it seems to mean all things to all people - it's the linguistic seal of approval for a project or design. It's a harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1081355920248287532004-04-07T12:38:00.000-04:002004-04-07T12:41:24.186-04:00Press Button for Cake
I have an idea for a piece of public performance art. Actually, lately it has occurred to me that many of my favorite urban design ideas could also be qualified as public art. Maybe I need to switch fields.
So this is what I'm thinking. At intersection crossings around here, there is often an engraved metal sign that reads, "Press Button For," and then has an icon of a harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1079723436824061352004-04-01T14:16:00.000-05:002004-04-01T15:05:53.653-05:00The Language and/of Design
I've always been interested in linguistics, but I always regarded it as a side interest, something unrelated to urban design. A series of articles in the New York Times over the past few weeks has made the connection between the two clearer to me. I'm starting to realize that language and design are both what I'll call functional arts. They're both primarily intended toharvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1080846773861865542004-04-01T14:12:00.000-05:002004-04-01T14:15:57.590-05:00Note
I've been neglecting my brain this past month and haven't posted. It's partially attributable to a glorious week spent in Mexico, but in reality I just flaked. I'll be better. I promise.harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1078179390445192202004-03-01T17:16:00.000-05:002004-03-01T17:18:37.746-05:00Holy Ground
I heard a great segment on NPR's Living on Earth on Saturday. The piece, titled "Green Burials," is about the increasingly popular trend of environmentally sensitive burial practices. Two cemeteries were reviewed, one in South Carolina and one in Virginia, and both were selling burial plots at market rate, but were much less formal than traditional cemeteries. Embalming was forbidden,harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1077217076698683302004-02-19T13:57:00.000-05:002004-02-19T14:00:34.903-05:00Refish
It's Thursday again, which means the Fishing Report is back in today's Chron. Read it. It's a tasty cross between a gossip column, a weather report, and poetry.harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784189.post-1077216958894562032004-02-19T13:55:00.000-05:002004-02-19T13:57:55.356-05:00Education v Entrenchment
My friend David posits (in response to my most recent post) that the cultural value of any technological innovation should be the the educational value of the product minus the entrenchment value (which he defines as the ability of the product to enable users to continue doing what they have always done). I agree. As I wrote back to him, the nature of the market is to harvey skunklovenoreply@blogger.com0