Jacqueline Douglas is Director of LivableStreets Alliance. A longtime advocate for developing urban transportation solutions that make Boston a connected, livable city, Douglas challenges people to think about and demand a city that balances transit, walking and biking with automobiles.

Find out more about the Urban Revolutions and SENSEable City Lab here.

What if we could walk from Boston to East Boston?  A question we have asked ourselves for as long as we’ve been living in this city.  We propose a Harbor Walk bridge to make such a connection.  By linking both sides of the harbor it is our hope that disused urban fragments such as the abandoned East Boston ferry terminal and Sargent’s wharf in the North End will be given new urban dynamism.  The injection of new functions such as urban market space and dedicated bike commuting paths along with the restructuring of public space along the waterfront allows the harbor bridge to play the roll of destination and not just means to get from A to B. By bridging the waterfronts we help further move the urban infrastructure of Boston away from car-centric travel and toward a true walking city.

Members of O Z I I O made the not so long trip to the event this past week to bring back some thoughts on the festivities, as well as some very inspiring photos.  The German house won the event with it’s minimalist design and high efficiency output.  The attention to craft was well apparent inside and out, combining L.E.D. technology, solar array, and renewable materials.

Houses we liked were the Arizona House for it’s fusion of contemporary design (the ceiling becomes the wall becomes the floor), its use of new sustainable methods of building such as resin impregnated wood pulp to make counters and modular wall panels, and its method of trapping solar heat in water pockets that lined their south facing windows (genius).

In summary, the event was amazingly attended which might be an indicator that sustainable home building will not just be a fad, but possibly something here to stay.

Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, VISUAL ACOUSTICS celebrates the life and career of Julius Shulman, the world’s greatest architectural photographer, whose images brought modern architecture to the American mainstream. Shulman, who passed away this year, captured the work of nearly every modern and progressive architect since the 1930s including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Frank Gehry. His images epitomized the singular beauty of Southern California’s modernist movement and brought its iconic structures to the attention of the general public. This unique film is both a testament to the evolution of modern architecture and a joyful portrait of the magnetic, whip-smart gentleman who chronicled it with his unforgettable images.

VISUAL ACOUSTICS won the Mercedes-Benz Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Austin Film Festival, the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Lone Star International Film Festival and Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking at the Newport Beach Film Festival.

Photographer of architecture, naturalist, educator, and commentator on urban form. One of the leading architectural photographers of the 20th century, Shulman developed close association with the modernist architects, principally those active in Southern California such as Gregory Ain, John Lautner, Richard Neutra, and R.M. Schindler. Shulman’s images played a major role in crafting the image of the Los Angeles and “Southern California lifestyle” to the rest of the nation and world during the 1950s and 1960s. A prolific author, consultant, lecturer, exhibitor, and editor of his own vast archive, Shulman remained active up until his passing away in July of 2009.

via James Oliver

Our Dear Friend Julian Guzman (AKA Skript) is one of Boston’s finest emerging artists. His work brings elements that quite ordinarily would seem to clash or better yet, deemed “not acceptable” in this town. The combination of his love of architecture and the ‘line’ seems to be at ease with the wild and challenging nature of spray paint and graffiti. His ability to control his medium is as sharp as the x-acto blades he uses to cut his stencils. Perhaps it’s his background in Architecture that defines his technique, but While Artists today use technology to aid them in the process traditional art, Skript uses technology in the same way an architect would use it to design. I’m not going to spoil the surprise (as you need to see it in person), but there was a laser cutter used in the process of some of his recent work. That said, here is what the man himself had to say about this show:

“This series of work deals with the daunting task of deciphering the future and revealing what it holds. Each piece starts as a blank surface awaiting its fate of ink line-work. The line-work is a spontaneous act of fluidity. One line is laid down and another is added to it like a city grid growing streets as a means of necessity… Color and stenciled imagery are organically infused to these streets the give character to each city. Each piece acts as its own borough conveying different commentary on our very own complex futures.”

And While I would never say this to his face, “Artist” is a loose title for him. Skript is in many ways a Designer of Visual Landscapes and Urban Typologies. Somehow I’m pretty sure he’d be ok with that description.

So If you are in the Boston Area, please visit the Chorus Gallery curated every month by Open Bicycle.

Chorus Gallery Presents: SKRIPT

285 Washington Street #18
Somerville, MA 02143
tel: +1.617.666.6736

http://www.skriptboston.com/

http://www.chorusgallery.com/

http://openbicycle.com

This summer O Z I I O had an opportunity to check out the newly opened Highline Park on New York City’s East Side.  The Highline is an elevated urban park on the ruins of the old freight line that serviced the meat packing district of New York City.  City official halted the dismantling of the elevated track in favor of turning it into a linear park which stretches all the way to Hell’s Kitchen (over 7 miles when fully completed).  As it stands only the first 2 mile section is open to the public, though it is still very impressive.

It features an integrated landscape, designed by landscape architects James Corner Field Operations, with architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro.  When we toured the park back in July there was a 3 block line to get in.  Amazingly volume is controlled by park service employees and volunteers from 7AM to 10PM.

What we saw was much like the renderings found on the designers website; naturally growing urban ‘weeds’ in a purple and orange color scheme very well maintained all emanating from a rough concrete system of ‘tracks’ that forked away to reveal the natural landscape.  The foliage chosen was based on what had already been growing on the Highline with no maintenance, making it a fully natural and sustainable environment.

Not so interestingly enough, this project has sparked development along the track, and famous architects are all getting signature buildings to design along this path.  Consequently the development has brought in high end restaurants and galleries totally transforming the area from its warehouse meat packing origins.  Which is funny since the beginning to the park is still a fully functioning meat packing district.  Regardless of how you feel about the connection between design and commerce, we can’t deny it has some pretty striking results.

Check out the images below to get the full picture.

The first exhibition dedicated to renown architect Frank O. Gehry made its opening yesterday at the Triennale Di Milano Design Museum. Recognized as one of the worlds most influential architects, the Canadian master is most recognized for his creation of the titanium-covered Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. “Since 1997″ showcases a wide arrangement of models, drawings and photographs from the iconic creative. The exhibition runs through January 10th, 2010 for those interested in attending.

Triennale Di Milano
Viale Emilio Alemagna, 6
20121 Milano (Lombardia), Italy
39.02.724341

Found via: L.A. Ruano, Spetember 28, 2009

This piece was created by Alex Roman, which isn’t his real name, he was born Jorge Seva, but Alex Roman is his creative name. He was born in Spain in 1979, trained to be a classical painter but after college ended up at a visual effects company. The market in Spain wasn’t exactly booming for computer graphics artists so he took a year long sabbatical and started a project of his own, which he’s called The Third and The Seventh.

Architecture has been for some years oversaturated with photorealistic renderings, which in many ways look somehow very unrealistic. there is something magical about this work, not because it shows the improvements of Computer animation, but because in some ways, it is the poetry of the architecture that gets highlighted.

Found through Kitsune Noir

Odyssey Two, runs throughout Art Forum Berlin and highlights 20 years of work by urban art pioneer FUTURA 2000.

The show focuses on the dual themes of memory and the past, and the influence these have on an individual’s imagined world. Futura’s obsessions with space and hyper-industrial landscapes grew from his adolescence: a time when man first landed on the moon, and when the New York skyline soared with a mass of fresh skyscrapers. But the world in his pieces is entirely unique – a place that has developed in his mind over time, where remnants of earlier memories co-exist with imagined, abstract landscapes. Futura’s latest pieces show an artist comfortable in the world he has created, making accomplished works that use occasional, frenetic bursts of outline to perfectly convey mood, atmosphere and situation, as well as his trademark and iconic touches. Collectors will be able to buy an accessible selection of key pieces from Futura’s unique, imagined world: study pieces provide entry level works; there will be a trademark Pointman series and a limited edition print run. There will also be a small number of recent abstract canvases.

Some years ago we had the pleasure of working with him on a painting commissioned by Concepts Cambridge and the first video is in reality a good representation of his work process. Well…It’s better to see it happen in person, but this is pretty good too. (The man holding the camera is Stash…another legend of New York City’s original graffiti scene)

The ArtsUnion Beacon aims to create a symbol for Union Square that celebrates its multicultural and artistic richness while creating a landmark for Somerville and the city. The concept developed out of the analogy of a cultural quilt stitched together by different local culture’s ornamental patterns. We found this idea to represent the qualities that make this community a desired place by artist and immigrant alike.

O Z I I O is also interested in creating not just a representative beacon, but a way finding device that relates and enhances the urban context, as our interest and passion for design rest in improving the urban experience. For this reason our proposal includes a system for lighting the beacon from the inside making its patterns visible at night, and acting as a lantern for Union Square. Another reason we proposed interior lighting stems from concern about energy use and potential lighting contamination.  The essential idea is to be able to exhibit the beacon and its design as a landmark that also helps orient pedestrians night and day.