Since I came back to Richmond for the holidays, I have noticed a lot of weird things:
A Chili's / Starbucks on the corner of Belvidere and Cary, which, as the delineation of the beginning of downtown / shockoe, is odd. In the same vein, a Panera / Chipotle on the corner of Grace and Shafer (I can't quite remember, but it is around there). Both of these additions to the city associated or in response to the VCU campus, which makes me appreciate MICA's situation even more. It is really weird to go from Baltimore back to Richmond, and see how much better off it is, but also how it's getting to a certain gentrification tipping point that I can't quite figure out yet.
I had to take a new road to get to my house, which was weird.
I noticed that one of the many many (but older than most of the many) apartment and condo complexes near my neighborhood was offering a Free Wii upon move in.
I noticed a lot of parks or information about parks that I hadn't before, which was exciting, especially because in Baltimore so many of the greenspaces aren't sanctioned by the city.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
STEW
Stew Baltimore
A few weeks ago, I mentioned Design Coalition hosted a dinner.
I just found out today, while working at the Men's Center, that these "Stews" are going to be happening once a month to help fund social justice projects. Not only is it awesome food, but it's local, cheap, and accompanied by learning about important work that's being done in the City.
A few weeks ago, I mentioned Design Coalition hosted a dinner.
I just found out today, while working at the Men's Center, that these "Stews" are going to be happening once a month to help fund social justice projects. Not only is it awesome food, but it's local, cheap, and accompanied by learning about important work that's being done in the City.
Suburban General Store
Today in Open City class, we learned about a bunch of awesome projects, one of which was the Suburban General Store, conceived by DUB studios in New York.
The basic idea is to take the only public (or non-residentially zoned) space in suburban neighborhoods, and turn it into something that would create more of a social dialogue in the area. Their idea was to use pool houses, which are common in fairly modern developments, and venues that would not break any zoning laws.
The design is awesome, and though the project is a little utopian for me, I really like the ideas behind it, and would be interested to see how people adapt suburbs to pedestrian traffic. Especially since where I grew up, there weren't sidewalks in my neighborhood. Retro-fitting these kinds of spaces to increase the sense of street life is a really awesome idea.
The basic idea is to take the only public (or non-residentially zoned) space in suburban neighborhoods, and turn it into something that would create more of a social dialogue in the area. Their idea was to use pool houses, which are common in fairly modern developments, and venues that would not break any zoning laws.
The design is awesome, and though the project is a little utopian for me, I really like the ideas behind it, and would be interested to see how people adapt suburbs to pedestrian traffic. Especially since where I grew up, there weren't sidewalks in my neighborhood. Retro-fitting these kinds of spaces to increase the sense of street life is a really awesome idea.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Design Coalition Dinner
Two Saturdays ago, Design Coalition hosted a dinner for a few members of the East Baltimore community and some other Baltimore contacts that we wanted to build upon.
It was an odd way to approach a graphic design class, but the event was really exciting and successful, and we did gather a lot of good ideas from the evening.
One of the guests was Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson, who writes for Metropolis and Urbanite, among other publications. She recently blogged about one of the ideas we came up with, which was a night of teaching the younger generation old-school remedies. I love her blog and read it religiously, so it was exciting to read that the night really stuck with her. Okay, here is that link.
It was an odd way to approach a graphic design class, but the event was really exciting and successful, and we did gather a lot of good ideas from the evening.
One of the guests was Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson, who writes for Metropolis and Urbanite, among other publications. She recently blogged about one of the ideas we came up with, which was a night of teaching the younger generation old-school remedies. I love her blog and read it religiously, so it was exciting to read that the night really stuck with her. Okay, here is that link.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
