rogueHAA is pleased to announce the next event in its 2011-2012 panel discussion series: Provocations: Challenging Detroit’s Design Discourse
PANEL DISCUSSION 05: “archiCRITICAL: Evolving Detroit’s Architectural Criticism”
January 26, 2012 – Panel Discussion: 6pm-8pm, Reception to follow: 8pm-9pm
Tech Two (formerly known as Dalgleish Cadillac)
6160 Cass Ave, Detroit
Architectural criticism is a productive and creative literary practice, challenging the architectural profession to consciously examine itself while simultaneously guiding its evolution. Bound in a mutually constructive association, architecture and architectural criticism contribute to each other in reactive and proactive ways.
But what is the function of architectural criticism (and architecture) for societies consumed with economic, social, and environmental crises, which may or may not be directly related to the built environment? Should architecture (and architectural criticism) focus solely on the built environment, or more actively engage the societies that inhabit and/or fund them? How does architectural criticism react to a practice (and public) shifting from a desire for superstarchitecture towards socially conscious, equitable design? Can this symbiotic relationship be more productive towards this end goal?
archiCRITICAL brings together six distinguished architectural critics to expound upon these difficult questions.
Following the panel discussion we will post a video and written summary of the event. We will also provide an open comment board for others to share their thoughts on the dialogue. As always, this event is open and free to the public.
rogueHAA would like to formally thank TechTown for their contributions towards this event. More imformation on TechTown can be found on their website, http://techtownwsu.org/.
December 29 2011 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
This new MONU issue on the topic of Post-Ideological Urbanism probably touches on one of the most fascinating and biggest issues of our time and in our culture, or what is left of it: the non-ideological – or better post-ideological – conditions of our society when it comes to cities. Today, ideology ap…pears to have become, and to have been reduced to, something merely aesthetic, something you can buy yourself into as Wouter Vanstiphout explains in an interview with us entitled “Acrobatic Narratives”. In that sense cities have become suspicious territories where hypocrisy and fakery prevail when it comes to urban ideologies…and a new sincerity is obviously needed in a world consisting of a multiplicity of choices and urban outcomes without a single consistent urban ideology as Melissa Dittmer, Jamie Witherspoon, and Noah Resnick point out in their piece “Choose Your Own Urbanism Presents: The Case of the Missing Ideal”.
The following text is an excerpt from an article entitled “CHOOSE YOUR OWN URBANISM PRESENTS: The Case of the Missing Ideal” that has been recently published in the latest MONU magazine:
It’s a hot, dry and dusty afternoon… But, then again, all the afternoons are hot, dry and dusty in Sin City. You’re in your shoebox of an office with the top three buttons of your white cotton shirt undone, a damp towel on the back of your neck, and the sound of a rickety two-dollar fan blowing in your face. The A.C. is on the fritz again, and you’re just about to phone up that good-for-nothing building super to complain, when you hear three soft taps on the glass pane of your office door – the one that reads: Calvin Lynch, Private Detective.
You ask her to have a seat in the worn leather armchair and offer her a cigarette and a glass of flat ginger ale. She accepts neither and says she prefers to stand.
“I’m searching for something,” she finally says, after standing in front of the window, staring out through the half-closed blinds. “They say what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, but this thing didn’t stay. Or, maybe it never existed to begin with. Either way, I need your help.”
rogueHAA is pleased to announce the next event in its 2011-2012 panel discussion series: Provocations: Challenging Detroit’s Design Discourse
PANEL DISCUSSION 04: “INCENTIVES – Funding Advocacy”
November 15, 2011 – Panel Discussion: 6pm-8pm, reception to follow Cass City Cinema at The Burton Theatre
3420 Cass Avenue
Detroit’s deep history of commercial innovation and industrial production has created innumerable stories of prosperity and devastation. From this spectrum of aspiration and consequence has emerged a fertile environment that gives root to new creativity and opportunity, while establishing a remarkable legacy of philanthropic and institutional support. This environment has created a sophisticated network of resources, where large scale national foundations, anchor institutions, and influential local leaders work alongside small scale arts groups, community development coalitions, entrepreneurs, and development advocates to cultivate locally focused programs.
In the space of this network, numerous projects are underway, and many more are yet to come. Our discussion will catalogue these efforts, discuss their impact, and outline new and innovative strategies for grants, incentives and other programs in the future.
Following the panel discussion we will post a video and written summary of the event. We will also provide an open comment board for others to share their thoughts on the dialogue. As always, this event is open and free to the public. Read More
October 28 2011 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
As part of the Detroit Design Festival presented by the Detroit Creative Corridor Center,rogueHAA has installed “Dich2otomy” an architectural installation inside Lafayette GreensUrban Garden. It will be open during the remainder of the Detroit Design Festival. Read More
September 26 2011 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
Artist X. As part of this blog’s ongoing mission to raise the level of design discourse, rogueHAA has created a new series of posts entitled, “Artist X”. This series will highlight local artists, showcasing unique and innovative projects found within the city. By presenting multiple creative disciplines, we hope to build community relationships, spark Detroit specific design dialogue, encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration, and ultimately, strengthen the existing Detroit creative class.
Noah Stephens – In April 2010, Noah saw a Dateline NBC program that implied conditions in Detroit were so dire that wild raccoon meat had become a staple food. That month, He started The People of Detroit photodocumentary as a counterbalance to sensationalized media portrayals of Detroit. Eight months after starting the project (and only 2 years after buying his first camera), a creative director in Shanghai saw the photo project and hired him to shoot an ad campaign for McDonald’s China. Noah has been doing photography and writing full-time ever since. Read More
September 16 2011 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
As part of the Detroit Design Festival presented by the Detroit Creative Corridor Center,rogueHAA is pleased to announce, DICH{2}OTOMY, an interactive architectural installation set in the dynamic context of Detroit’s Lafayette Garden. The piece is composed of an interactive field of clear columns filled with liquid which simultaneously reflect, frame, and distort one’s view of the surrounding environment. These ‘illuminated shadows’ multiply, overlap, and converge creating a vibrant and dynamic experience through which to re-imagine the city. While the opening reception will be held on Friday, September 23rd, the installation will remain in the Lafayette Garden until Wednesday, September 28th.
September 16 2011 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
As part of the Detroit Design Festival presented by the Detroit Creative Corridor Center,rogueHAA is pleased to announce the third event in its 2011/2012 series:PROVOCATIONS: Challenging Detroit’s Design Discourse. This bi-monthly lecture series began in June and will continue through the end of 2012. Each panel discussion will invite local, regional, and national figures to discuss what makes Detroit provocative. Set in a variety of under-utilized, contested, and historically charged spaces throughout our city, each event seeks to challenge the participants through candid discourse and direct engagement of the built environment. It is the aim of each panel discussion to explore new urban strategies that promote social equity and advocacy. We believe good design (and good design discourse) is a proactive and critical act, toeing the line between conflict and resolution. While each event exists for only a moment, the entire series will provide a lasting catalogue of constructive dialogue, informing Detroit’s shared creative consciousness.
Event 03 DEFIANCE : Disobedient Design.
“My agenda is a dislocation of architecture from the narrow confines of professionalism and its development within an expanded cultural field.” – Jonathon Hill’s essay An Other Architect
In Jonathon Hill’s essay, An Other Architect, he outlines a program for supporting the development of illegal architects: creatives that question and subvert the precedents, codes, and laws of professional architecture. An illegal architect may very well be licensed, but deliberately operates in the “luminal space” at the edge of traditional architectural activity, an interstitial creative practice where architecture can be made of anything, anywhere, anyhow, and by anyone. Read More
September 15 2011 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
This Friday, rogueHAA will join hundreds from around the world to celebrate Park(ing) Day, a one day event that highlights the need for more livable and vibrant public spaces in our cities.
During last year’s installtion, pavers and sod where placed on a parking spot at the corner of Gratiot and Woodward. Soon, there was a green patch of space, an unusual site especially when one is accustomed to see a car in its place inste…ad. Onlookers were curious. Drivers paused. Parking enforcement stopped, then questioned, and questioned some more, but finally drove off.
This was the idea — to get people to notice, ask questions, and interact. For those that stopped by, they got the message and left with a smile on their faces.
This year’s theme is Urban Beach. Our Woodward beach will be located between Gratio + Grand River. Take off your shoes, dip your toes in the water, and just relax for a moment.
lecturesHAA is pleased to announce the second event in its 2011/2012 series:PROVOCATIONS: Challenging Detroit’s Design Discourse. This bi-monthly lecture series began in June and will continue through the end of 2012. Each panel discussion will invite local, regional, and national figures to discuss what makes Detroit provocative. Set in a variety of under-utilized, contested, and historically charged spaces throughout our city, each event seeks to challenge the participants through candid discourse and direct engagement of the built environment. It is the aim of each panel discussion to explore new urban strategies that promote social equity and advocacy. We believe good design (and good design discourse) is a proactive and critical act, toeing the line between conflict and resolution. While each event exists for only a moment, the entire series will provide a lasting catalogue of constructive dialogue, informing Detroit’s shared creative consciousness.
Event 02 MOTIVATIONS: Design Instigators. In today’s trying economic and political climate it is often difficult to continuously produce thoughtful, provocative, and engaging design. Particularly in Detroit, which can be an equally frustrating and rewarding design environment, it is easy to question one’s creative motives. Yet as challenges mount, we have an opportunity to redefine our personal and civic means and methods, to refocus on why these creative initiatives have an even more important role to play.
For this discussion we ask our panelists to give us their motives, their reasons, and their hidden agendas as a way to foreground what inspires them to do what they do. We will focus on process over product, looking at the ways design can incite change through multiple trajectories. These are individuals who have, in one way or another, become catalysts for productive change in their communities and their City. Ultimately, we hope to uncover what their collective motives say about Detroit, its unique challenges, and how the City serves as a critical motivator for substantive dialogue within the City and beyond. Read More
July 25 2011 | Posted by James Witherspoon | Comments Off
Cass Park Spit & Shine. Join us for a morning of site improvements to Cass Park, including weeding, pruning, general maintenance, and furniture assemblage. Learn about the history of Cass Park. Stay for a special surprise appearance at the end of the work day. Following the morning’s activities, lunch will be served to all volunteers. If you are able to volunteer, please RSVP on the facebook event page or email cassparkdetroit@gmail.com.
HOUSE NO. 1 : I step out of my car and glance at the address listed on my clip board. I then compare that number to the faded house number adjacent to the front door. It’s a match. My partner and I glance at the neighborhood and quickly assess our surroundings. We traverse the short front walk, step up the slightly deteriorating stoop, and ring the doorbell. It doesn’t work. I tap my clipboard hard against the locked storm door. I stand square with the front door, my Detroit Housing Commission badge daggling from my shirt pocket. Like standing before a metal detector at the airport, I allow a stranger to scrutinize my intensions. I give ample time for them to complete their security check through the peephole. As I stand there, my mind wanders. What will I find on the other side of the door?
REHABILITATING DETROIT. In 2009, the federal government passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It was enacted as an economic stimulus package and immediately pumped $12.7 billion towards the modernization of the nation’s public housing. New leadership at the Detroit Housing Commission (DHC) has earmarked $8 million toward breathing new life into a scattered sites housing program that has proven national success. Through this capital outlay, the DHC is continuing its mission to provide quality housing for all Detroiters. Hamilton Anderson Associates is one of four teams of architects asked to take this journey of rehabilitation with the DHC. Our specific task is to assess the physical condition of 80 homes, but as our work continues, we realize our assessments are also about restoring the human condition.
HOUSE NO. 14 : The door opens and I walk in. Countless clipboards have already ‘surveyed’ their living conditions only to leave and never to be seen again. A woman in a hospital bed lies on her back, head propped up by a pillow so that she can listen and watch the small television on the opposite side of the room. The gurney is squeezed in amongst living room furniture. Her eyes follow me as I survey the room.
lecturesHAA is dedicated to creating a broader creative discourse through open and collaborative dialogue. The program includes lectures and discussions throughout the year that will consider important contemporary design issues associated with the urban environment.
The initial program for 2009 will be “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” This program will provide an important platform for consideration of innovative, multidisciplinary strategies designed to help the city not only create reinvestment and redevelopment, but also begin to regenerate the social, economic and environmental attributes that define it. Now, more than ever, we need to come together to understand how we can effectively participate in the thoughtful, creative regeneration of Detroit.
The public is encouraged to attend these free events. Please return to rogueHAA for future dates and topics. Read More
November 18 2009 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
chinaHAA. A few weeks ago, two of our employees trekked 24 travel hours across the globe to Hefei, China. Upon arrival, HAA commenced an innovative cross-cultural, cross-professional exchange. For the next four months, these employees will be working directly for the Hefei University of Technology within their architecture/design department. During this time, they will be posting illustrative photos that speak to Design, China, and all of the discovered Details. Read More
November 23 2009 | Posted by Christina Hansen | Comments Off
PRO BONO PUBLICO : For the public good or well being, and more commonly understood in the world of professional services as ‘free’.
DEFINING PRO BONO. We all understand disparities in wealth and access to professional services. To some, these disparities compel a moral imperative to provide professional services to under-served communities. Many architects regularly perform pro bono services for a variety of ends. While certain firms focus on needs of the international community, such as Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and his disaster relief housing for Japan, Turkey, and India, others focus on issues specific to the United States. Auburn University’s Rural Studio has been designing and building housing and civic buildings in rural Alabama since 1993, while Yale University has an even longer tradition of volunteering their design/build services to their local community. While globalization has increased the reach and scope of the architect, it has also brought to the forefront the major issues that plague our societies. A great need exists globally and locally, and architects are more capable than ever to affect change.
FOR-PROFIT ENGAGEMENT. Even as a number of non-profit firms work diligently across the country, almost exclusively for other non-profit organizations, the for-profit environment has yet to wholly embrace the social and moral side of architecture. Public Architecture, an organization founded in 2002, has initiated a 1% commitment for all for-profit architecture firms. They strive to commit the resources available within the field of architecture to act as advocates for social justice, thereby improving communities locally and globally. “The 1% program of Public Architecture connects nonprofit organizations in need of design assistance with architecture and design firms willing to donate their time on a pro bono basis.” Public Architecture speculates, “If every architecture professional in the U.S. committed 1% of their time to pro bono service, it would add up to 5,000,000 hours annually – the equivalent of a 2,500-person firm, working full-time for the public good.” Read More
November 25 2009 | Posted by Aaron Taylor | Comments Off
During the summer of 2009, rouse[D] hosted a design competition that challenged its participants to “come up with designs that will rouse the city of Detroit and encourage an evolution of our understanding of its unique urban environment.” This international, open ideas competition further required design solutions to be “specific to the one-of-a kind condition Detroit presents.” While the proposed design interventions were allowed to creatively fluctuate, all solutions had to be grounded in a site specific to Detroit.
Working independently from HAA, my competition submission focused on the recent closings of Detroit Public Schools throughout the city. During Detroit’s more populated past, many of the city’s neighborhoods had elementary schools as their community anchor. Following the city’s population decline of the past five decades, these same neighborhoods have struggled to populate the very schools that once provided community stability. Most recently, the Detroit Public Schools announced closure of 23 schools as the city grapples with mounting budget problems. (For a more detailed of Detroit’s current depopulation conditions, refer to previous post titled HAA RESEARCH : Consolidating Detroit). My submission sought to address the reuse of one of these vacant elementary schools. Read More
December 03 2009 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
chinaHAA. A month ago, two of our employees trekked 24 travel hours across the globe to Hefei, China. Upon arrival, HAA commenced an innovative cross-cultural, cross-professional exchange. For the next three months, these employees will be working directly for the Hefei University of Technology within their architecture/design department. During this time, they will be posting illustrative photos that speak to Design, China, and all of the discovered Details. Read More
December 08 2009 | Posted by Christina Hansen | Comments Off
BACK TO THE FUTURE. Last month the Taubman School of Architecture hosted the ambitiously titled Future of Design Conference, bringing together a prestigious group of design professionals to present their thoughts and work on the conference topic. Based on the Pecha Kucha format, each individual was given fifteen minutes to present a rapid-fire succession of projects, speculations, and research, and diatribe. While certain thematic similarities surfaced throughout the course of the presentations, by and large the variety of presented topics reflected the current diversity of the design field. One consistent topic, however, centered on the ways technology is changing the means and methods of architectural production. To contextualize this theme, it is interesting to trace the evolution of technology as it relates to avant-garde architecture and design practices.
Historically, “visionary architecture” has existed as work which is often highly polemic and rarely built. In his book Visionary Architecture: Blueprints of the Modern Imagination, Neil Spiller writes that “this history is linked to the metaphorphosis of the ‘machine’ and the technologies that embody it. Whether ‘machines’ are the conceptual ones of Marcel Duchamp, the mechanized armatures of cranes on a building site, the virtual machines within computers or the cabbalistic machines of Daniel Libeskind, they have all influenced the course of architectural vision.” Works such as, Constant’s New Babylon (1950), Archigram’s Walking City (1964), Superstudio’s Continuous Monument (1971), or even Buckminster Fuller’s proposed Dome for Manhattan (1960), functioned not as serious proposals for built work, but as devices for questioning certain social, political, and technological issues. Read More
December 14 2009 | Posted by James Witherspoon | Comments Off
Grand Treatment: Presently on display at Grand Circus Park, a Tinkertoy-inspired steel scaffolding system props up the facade of the old Fine Arts Building. Built in 1905, this building once housed the lobby of the famous Adams Theater. For many years, the building sat in a state of dormancy, waiting for the return of Detroit. Recently, the building’s owner funded an architectural study to determine the structural state of the building, only the façade was deemed salvageable. With surgical precision, construction crews recently separated the façade from the deteriorating structure, and then reinforced the masonry elevation with massive steel supports. As there are no published plans for the redevelopment of this site, the façade stands alone, stoically guarding Grand Circus Park. In its current state, the façade sparks creative curiosity. How does one reprogram a single façade? In a city that favors demolition, the preservation of this little slice of history is a small urban victory. Read More
December 21 2009 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
lecturesHAA is dedicated to creating a broader creative discourse through open and collaborative dialogue. The program includes lectures and discussions throughout the year that will consider important contemporary design issues associated with the urban environment.
The initial program for 2010 will be “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” This program will provide an important platform for consideration of innovative, multidisciplinary strategies designed to help the city not only create reinvestment and redevelopment, but also begin to regenerate the social, economic and environmental attributes that define it. Now, more than ever, we need to come together to understand how we can effectively participate in the thoughtful, creative regeneration of Detroit.
The public is encouraged to attend these free events. Please return to rogueHAA for future dates and topics.
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture – it’s a really stupid thing to want to do.”
-Elvis Costello
lecturesHAA : Event 4. With the tempo of a beatnik and a black turtleneck sweater to match, Craig Wilkins free-formed one December evening before an intimate crowd at the Johanson Charles Gallery. Neither traditional presentation nor musical jam session, his lecture entitled “Dancing about Architecture…Part 3”, ebbed and flowed in accordance with the accompanying music. Miles Davis. Nelly. John Coltrane. Lil’ Kim. Brazilian Salsa. Public Enemy. Each musical style provided a unique lens in which to view an architect’s design process and their resulting built form. Brazilian Salsa directly influenced Gaudi’s Parc Guelle. Josephine Baker provided inspiration for both Adolf Loos’ Villa Baker and Le Corbusier’sCity of Algiers. James Brown infiltrated South America, thereby evolving the favelas of Brazil. Hip Hop music prompts Rural Studio and the dramatic sampling of found materials. Read More
January 08 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | 1 Comment »
On Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 6 pm, the University of Detroit Mercy’s Master of Community Development Program is proudly co-sponsoring the Design Center Panel and Lecture, Cleveland + Detroit: “Design Centers as Operative Change” to be held in the Genevieve Fisk Loranger Architecture Center at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture. Read More
January 12 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Located in Detroit’s Midtown District, the Detroit School of Arts (DSA) is a progressive high school of choice, offering a dual-focus curriculum in the fine / performing arts and broadcast/media arts. The DSA brings an innovative educational approach to the Detroit Public School district, blending college prep within a dynamic and interactive learning environment.
The six-story building features many unique academic, performance and production spaces, including the 800-seat Ford Theater, a 20-seat recital hall, a black box theater, arts studios and galleries, as well as a vocal and instrumental music rehearsal rooms. The Communications Production Center (CPC) houses two state of the art television production studios, WRCJ-FM Radio, and digital media editing suites. The top-floor media center and dining hall spaces afford students expansive views of the city’s downtown skyline. The innovative design was conceived and refined through close collaboration with specialty consultants, user groups and Detroit Public Schools. Throughout the design process, all aspects of the site, building and the related systems and materials were considered and developed with a commitment to sustainability and integrated design. As a result, the Detroit School of Arts was the first LEED certified building in the City of Detroit. Read More
January 14 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
[Part two in a series chronicling our experiences assisting the Detroit Housing Commission (DHC). For further description, refer to our first housing narrative post.]
House No. 3: My car’s wipers intermittently clear our line of sight. My colleague and I drive past two vacant homes, a vacant school, three vacant lots, and a vacant business. Finally, we turn onto a block where most of the houses seem to be intact. The rain is pouring down and we are unprepared. Holding clip boards over our heads, we make a dash to the home’s covered porch.
We ring the doorbell. “Who is it?” an elderly woman yells through a door that remains locked. I answer that we are doing a survey for the Detroit Housing Commission. “I don’t know anything about a survey” she answers. I offer that she can call someone with the Housing Commission and she can confirm our presence with them. The door cracks open. She asks for ID. I offer her a photoless ID as I also start to call my contact at the Housing Commission. Handing the phone to her, she speaks to the person. After a brief conversation, she re-opens the door and only allows me inside. My colleague is left to stand in the rain. I begin the survey. The elderly woman silently follows me into every room.
Aging in Place. The statistics are striking. 89% of 50+ year old Americans intend to remain in their own homes as long as they possibly can. Experts define this as “aging in place.” According to a 2003 National Transportation Availability and Use Survey, 3.5 million Americans never leave their homes, and more than half of the homebound are people with disabilities.
As designers, we must address these striking statistics. With 13.5% of Detroit’s population at or over the age of 60, designers must help the City attract and retain its senior population. As concluded by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), we must create, “…communities that design for livability, empower their residents to remain independent and engaged, and offer a better quality of life.” Read More
January 19 2010 | Posted by Rob Saxon | Comments Off
This past Wednesday, Matthew Barney gave a lecture at the DIA. When asked why he had chosen Detroit as the next stages of his artistic endeavors, Barney replied that Detroit is like an archeological dig. Through decades of devastation, the city has exposed itself and all of its previous layers of associated history. Fully exposed, the city is open, vulnerable, and supportive of his current work.
Matthew Barney is a multi-media, experiential artist. In his current work, he is continuing his Cremaster Series with an interpretation of Norman Mailer’s “Ancient Evenings.” The saga begins with the transformation of the Series’ central character from a 1964 Chrysler Newport into a Pontiac Trans Am. The automobile returns to its birth site (Detroit) and plunges into the Detroit River off of the Belle Isle Bridge.
For Barney, Detroit offers itself like a handshake, complimenting his ongoing artistic vision. Read More
January 22 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
chinaHAA. Two months ago, two of our employees trekked 24 travel hours across the globe to Hefei, China. Upon arrival, HAA commenced an innovative cross-cultural, cross-professional exchange. For the next few weeks, these employees will be working directly for the Hefei University of Technology within their architecture/design department. During this time, they will be posting illustrative photos that speak to Design, China, and all of the discovered Details.
These photos share a singular commonality: possession of the streets. Residents, businesses, and transportation all possessively claim the shared infrastructure for personal gain.
NAIAS. This past week, Detroit hosted the 2010 North American International Auto Show. While automobiles were obviously the main attraction, the individual booths and exhibitions also provided design appeal. While certain companies focused on style and beauty by incorporating fashion models into their displays, others used architectural elements to define space and evoke a sense of innovation and technology. More importantly, each display was very specifically creative, resulting in a physical manifestation of each car company’s identity. Read More
January 26 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
February 4, 2010 05:10 PM
The Michigan Theater
603 E. Liberty Street
Ann Arbor, MI
Bjarke Ingels is a Danish architect. He is heading the architectural practice Bjarke Ingels Group which he founded in 2006. In his designs, Bjarke Ingels often try to balance a playful and a practical approach to architecture.
Bjarke Ingels studied architecture at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen and the Technica Superior de Arquitectura in Barcelona, receiving his diploma in 1998. As a 3rd year student he set up his first practice and won his first competition. From 1998-2001 he worked for Office of Metropolitan Architecture and Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam. Read More
January 28 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Recently ending its run on January 17th, the DIA presented a beautiful collection of Richard Avedon Fashion photography, spanning his career from 1944-2000. This exhibit welcomed the viewers into one of the many avenues of his career, fashion photography, allowing us to passively experience an extravagant, elegant lifestyle uncommon to the average person. These pieces also paid tribute to the impact Avedon created within the fashion and photography industries. His vision and creativity invented a photographic style many emulate today, but few achieve.
DISASTER RELIEF HOUSING. The president of Haiti, Rene Preval, is living in a tent. Or rather, he will be shortly, once they pitch it. He is doing this in part out of necessity and partly as a show of solidarity while he makes an international appeal for 200,000 tents. Potentially, these 200,000 tents will house as many as a million Haitian earthquake survivors.
As the Haitian relief efforts transition from rescue, food, and medical aide, to longer term reconstruction efforts like transitional and permanent housing, the world of architecture will likely revisit the design typologies of disaster relief housing. While much of the architectural and design community is uninvolved with disaster relief housing, some architects and entrepreneurs have produced effective prototypes that serve the global community in times of need. There are a number of considerations for the design and implementation of disaster relief housing strategies, not the least of which address sustainability, duration of use, vernacular architecture, climate, cost, and the lives of refugees impacted by the disaster. Most importantly, many in the scientific community predict that the global climate is becoming increasingly violent and the destructive power of natural disasters will be experienced all over the globe. It is imperative that we develop holistic methodologies for disaster relief housing, as their necessity will become more urgent. Read More
February 03 2010 | Posted by Aaron Taylor | Comments Off
On Wednesday, February 10th, Evan Webber from HOK Toronto will be lecturing at the University of Detroit. Beginning at 6pm, the lecture is entitled, “Transposed Experience, the necessity of autobiography?” and will take place in the Genevieve Fisk Loranger Architecture Center in the School of Architecture. Click here for more information. Read More
February 03 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 13; 7pm-11pm Exhibition Date: February 13 – March 27, 2010
Adam Shirley’s first solo exhibit in Detroit, presents the artist’s latest investigations into the relationships that exist between two and three dimensional objects, material and scale. In a departure from the small wearable sculptures and jewelry for which he is commonly known, Shirley explores form and volume in model-sized flat pieces that leave the interpretation of scale and function open to the viewer. Read More
February 08 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
chinaHAA. Two months ago, two of our employees trekked 24 travel hours across the globe to Hefei, China. Upon arrival, HAA commenced an innovative cross-cultural, cross-professional exchange. For the next two weeks, these employees will be working directly for the Hefei University of Technology within their architecture/design department. During this time, they will be posting illustrative photos that speak to Design, China, and all of the discovered Details. Read More
February 16 2010 | Posted by Christina Hansen | Comments Off
Due to unforeseen conditions we are changing the location of tonight’s lecture event. We apologize for the late notice. The new location will be Shed 3 at Eastern Market. This is approximately 250′ east of the original location, the Johanson Charles Gallery, at 1345 Division Street. The newly renovated Shed 3 will provide a unique and compelling new venue for our event tonight. Shed 3 is heated with ample seating (restrooms are also available).
Thanks for your understanding.
We’ll see you tonight at 6pm.
Sincerely,
HAA
February 16 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
“It only took seconds to destroy so many bright hopes and dreams in Haiti. The 280 city PechaKucha network is joining with Architecture for Humanity to help rebuild Haiti 20 seconds at a time. Join us around the world on 20th February for Global PechaKucha Day for Haiti.”
20 seconds, 20 images, 200 cities, 2000 presentations, 200,000 people – with the aim to raise $1,000,000 for rebuilding Haiti. Read More
February 18 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
“Waiting for the City” – A Stream of Effective Consciousness
On Tuesday, February 16th over 70 people gathered in Eastern Market’s Shed 3 to participate in the first lecturesHAA event of 2010. With a quiet and unassuming demeanor, Phillip Cooley, co-owner and creator of Slows Bar BQ in Corktown, began his lecture, “Waiting for the City.” Through a cursory review of his life experiences, he discussed the events that ultimately led him to Detroit and his evolution as an entrepreneur, advocate, designer and contractor.
By tracing the lines of a discursive career – highlighting activities prior to his arrival in Detroit, as well as those that occurred once there – Cooley illustrated the foundations for his personal urban perspective and the motivations for a body of work that ranges from ephemeral gestures to long-term strategic planning. Within a broad stream of information came an image of a person whose commitment, advocacy and direct engagement with the city, provides a powerful example of one individual making a difference in Detroit. Read More
February 26 2010 | Posted by Dan Kinkead | Comments Off
Designed Theatricality. Jane Jacobs called everyday city animation the “ballet of sidewalk life”, strangers dancing in synchronicity. In Detroit’s Lafayette Park, the residents are not strangers. Rather, each day the residents perform a synchronized animation, live performances through the lens of modern architecture. For, to live in Lafayette Park is to live in a constant state of theatricality, the pre-designed and very deliberate exhibition of both resident and visitor. The masterplan, architecture, and landscaping strategically combine to create a multitude of voyeuristic portals, viewing frames that project the lives of every resident to one another. Designed within a multiplicity of physical and temporal scales, these portals produce meaningful relationships between the residents and their community, resulting in the fundamental success of LaFayette Park. Read More
March 04 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
University of Michigan’s Taubman College is hosting the Future of Urbanism conference, March 19-20, 2010. Over twenty designers, critics and provocative thinkers will address some of the most critical issues facing our cities and their environs in six sessions, comprised of 15-minute segments and a panel discussion. The presentations are free and open to the public, but registration is required. All segments will be available on YouTube in April.
Field observation. Amidst the cold and snow typical to our Detroit winters, the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority (DWCPA) is steadily progressing through construction. Located at the intersection of Bates and Atwater in Downtown Detroit, the DWCPA Public Dock and Terminal “is designed to not only harbor and attract cruise ships, but also any other transient vessels visiting Detroit.” Once completed, this HAA designed facility will accommodate visiting domestic and international vessels and further energize Detroit’s already successful pedestrian Riverwalk.
The expected public opening for cruise operations is tentatively scheduled for summer 2011.
CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART [SPRING] EDITION LECTURE SERIES. In its inaugural year, the Academy’s Edition Lecture Series presents a program that reflects the current variety of contemporary thought and creative practice through the eyes of artist, critics and scholars. All lectures begin at 6:00 pm in Cranbrook Institute of Science Auditorium and are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Parking is available in the structure to the south of the entrance.
Thursday, March 4 @ 6PM
Peter Gluck presents “Fear of Architecture: Re-crafting a Broken Process”Read More
March 04 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night? – Jack Kerouac
Detroit is ironically the most and least likely place to discuss mass transit. Once the home of one of the nation’s most extensive streetcar systems (link to map), Detroit has become synonymous with decentralization, suburban expansion, and the dominance of the automobile. Where human mobility was once limited by the location of rail lines, canals, and the limited travel range of other non-motorized forms of transportation, the car provided a universal form of personal transportation which could be used at virtually any geographic scale. Unfortunately, the success of the car came at the expense of all other modes of transportation, eventually leading Detroit and other cities toward an inefficient and unsustainable transit monoculture.
Recently, infrastructural failures in this country have gained national and international attention. With increasing national imperative, as well as efforts at the regional and local level, it appears mass transit is finally becoming a reality. High-speed rail development in Florida between Tampa, Orlando and Miami, and in California linking Sacramento, San Francisco and L.A., has been covered extensively throughout the media. Portland Oregon’s streetcar system has become a benchmark for urban transit in this country. And the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has allocated substantial funds to the development of public transit systems, indicating a shift in support and investment toward sustainable car alternatives. As this transition occurs, however, it is important to consider not only the new forms of transportation infrastructure and technology that will be necessary, but also the relationship between these and existing development patterns. Read More
March 10 2010 | Posted by James Witherspoon | Comments Off
On April 8th, HAA’s Mike Ford will be lecturing on “Cultural Innovation – Hip Hop Inspired Architecture and Design” @ The University of Michigan. This 8:00 pm event is being hosted by The University of Michigan’s “Hip Hop Congress” chapter. Click here for a previous posting on Hip Hop Architecture. Read More
March 29 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
lecturesHAA is dedicated to creating a broader creative discourse through open and collaborative dialogue. The program includes lectures and discussions throughout the year that will consider important contemporary design issues associated with the urban environment.
The initial program for 2010 will be “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” This program will provide an important platform for consideration of innovative, multidisciplinary strategies designed to help the city not only create reinvestment and redevelopment, but also begin to regenerate the social, economic and environmental attributes that define it. Now, more than ever, we need to come together to understand how we can effectively participate in the thoughtful, creative regeneration of Detroit.
The public is encouraged to attend these free events. Please return to rogueHAA for future dates and topics.
EVENT 06: Lecture
DETROIT: The Grotesque (and other projects)
Christian Unverzagt, Principal Design Director @ M1/DTW
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 17; 7pm – 11pm Exhibition Date: April 17 – May 29, 2010
Kate Silvio‘s solo exhibit at Re:View, titled expect.expecting.expected., features the artist’s latest investigations of our relationship with nature’s intrinsic forces of change and progression. click here for more informationRead More
April 08 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
Artist X. As part of this blog’s ongoing mission to raise the level of design discourse, rogueHAA has created a new series of posts entitled, “Artist X”. This series will highlight local artists, showcasing unique and innovative projects found within the city. By presenting multiple creative disciplines, we hope to build community relationships, spark Detroit specific design dialogue, encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration, and ultimately, strengthen the existing Detroit creative class. Read More
April 09 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
The American Dream has run out of gas. The car has stopped. It no longer supplies the world with its images, its dreams, its fantasies.-J.G. Ballard
Tall Tales. The story of the American transportation infrastructure system is one of heroic planning, but also of equally heroic rhetoric. At each stage in its evolution – be it the canals and waterways of the Gallatin Plan, the Intercontinental Railways, or the Interstate Highway system – the connection between the pragmatic realities of steel and concrete and the cultural myths which support them has been tenuous at best. Yet each is inextricably linked to the other, and in many cases essential to its success. As we embark on the next national transit planning initiatives, these myths will inevitably become wrapped around a new set of objectives; providing meaning and purpose to the practical endeavors of transit planning. Read More
April 11 2010 | Posted by James Witherspoon | Comments Off
Artist X. As part of this blog’s ongoing mission to raise the level of design discourse, rogueHAA has created a new series of posts entitled, “Artist X”. This series will highlight local artists, showcasing unique and innovative projects found within the city. By presenting multiple creative disciplines, we hope to build community relationships, spark Detroit specific design dialogue, encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration, and ultimately, strengthen the existing Detroit creative class.
Noah Resnick currently teaches and practices in the city of Detroit, Michigan. He is a full-time professor of architecture at the University of Detroit Mercy, and a principal of uRbanDetail, a small research based architecture and urban design studio that operates under the interrelated concepts of the architectonics of multiple scales; the architect as urban collaborator; and the architect as community builder.
Noah grew up in Miami, Florida, where he attended the Design and Architecture Senior High magnet school (D.A.S.H.). He earned his BArch from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and completed his Masters of Science in Architecture Studies (SMarchS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Architecture + Urbanism stream. In addition to Detroit, Noah has lived and practiced in Chicago, Boston, and New York, as well as Berlin, Germany where he worked in the studio of Daniel Libeskind.
His professional experience in architecture and urban design ranges from the conceptual and design development of a two hundred thousand sq ft mall/ spa complex in Switzerland, to in depth urban design studies and proposals for very high profile Central Artery sites above the ‘Big Dig’ in Downtown Boston, to the full service design and construction administration of a high-end townhouse building in New York City, to the landscape design of the City Hall Plaza and nearby park in Downtown Brockton, Massachusetts. Most recently, Noah has been a founding member of the design team working to transform Roosevelt Park in Detroit through the design and implementation of a new master plan. uRbanDetail is also currently designing the 2nd location of Slows Barbecue, in Midtown. Read More
April 29 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
On April 13th, local designer and University of Michigan professor, Christian Unverzagt, gave a compelling lecture summarizing his Detroit design work. Divided directly down the middle, Christian inadvertently described his work using a split personality analogy, first illustrating his architectural pedagogy through multiple student projects and then following with his professional work through M1/dtw. Read More
May 14 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
HYBRID URBANISM.
Landscape Urbanism advocates a purposeful discourse between ecological systems, human activities, and the post-industrial landscape, ultimately manifesting in the deliberate celebration of the urban void. This celebration glorifies the interstitial, so that the void is inevitably romanticized by, and is necessary to, the burgeoning Landscape Urbanism profession. Reliance on the void introduces a basic set of dilemmas: In order to focus on the space between buildings, there must be buildings; planning creative programming between infrastructural systems requires existing infrastructure; implementing a proposed hybrid ecology between urban eco-systems and human eco-systems requires human eco-systems. All of these very specific examples result in a single common statement: In order to have an urban void, there first needs to be an urban, or rather a recognizable urban density.
What if the relationship between building density and void are reversed and the void is now the primary urban component? What does it mean to reclaim a contaminated post-industrial site within a post urban city, a city whose built fabric has devolved into vast stretches of rural landscape? Operating within the current design process parameters, Landscape Urbanism succeeds primarily in high-density urban fabrics such as New York City, Boston, and Chicago. In these cities, individual brownfield sites are easily identifiable as precious, rare interstitial spaces. These voids are ultimately reclaimed, remediated, and creatively stitched back into the dense urban fabric to be utilized by their host city. In post-industrial cities such as Detroit however, the urban condition (building density) has dissolved as the metropolis has decentralized. Neither the city nor the suburbs sustain the density required to find the contaminated land valuable, and thus lack a desire to stitch these abandoned outposts into their community. Combine all of these individual outposts together and the metropolitan region is scarred by larger swaths of contaminated land, further compartmentalizing dissipated downtowns from their thriving suburban counterparts. On the national scale, we can recognize a larger post-industrial megalopolis landscape: shrinking cities left to die back into a growing contaminated terrain. For the City of Detroit, the void is now the majority on a multiplicity of scales. This presents the fundamental challenge of practicing a type of Landscape Urbanism appropriate to Detroit’s post urban condition.
With the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge Gateway, Hamilton Anderson Associates (HAA), seeks to broaden the Landscape Urbanism discourse by implementing a strategic, multi-scalar design process that reexamines urban and redefines the void. Read More
May 04 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
The United States Green Building Council has initiated a nationwide design competition for a LEED platinum, single family home for the Broadmoor district of New Orleans, LA. This competition, entitled USGBC’s 2010 Natural Talent Design Competition, targets innovative design solutions from students and emerging professionals, while challenging designers to create an inexpensive (under $100K construction budget) contextually sensitive home.
A small group of HAA designers have challenged themselves to create the new archetypal home in New Orleans – a home that engages the existing neighborhood and city infrastructure from the elevated platformof post-Katrina housing. Four winning designs will be constructed by the Salvation Army, measured and verified during a designated sustainable testing phase, and then only afterwards will a final winner be selected. Read More
May 13 2010 | Posted by Aaron Taylor | Comments Off
lecturesHAA is dedicated to creating a broader creative discourse through open and collaborative dialogue. The program includes lectures and discussions throughout the year that will consider important contemporary design issues associated with the urban environment.
The 2010 program for is titled, “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” This program provides an important platform for consideration of innovative, multidisciplinary strategies designed to help the city not only create reinvestment and redevelopment, but also begin to regenerate the social, economic and environmental attributes that define it. Now, more than ever, we need to come together to understand how we can effectively participate in the thoughtful, creative regeneration of Detroit. Read More
May 14 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Artist X. As part of this blog’s ongoing mission to raise the level of design discourse, rogueHAA has created a new series of posts entitled, “Artist X”. This series will highlight local artists, showcasing unique and innovative projects found within the city. By presenting multiple creative disciplines, we hope to build community relationships, spark Detroit specific design dialogue, encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration, and ultimately, strengthen the existing Detroit creative class.
Brian DuBois is currently the owner of 2:37am studios, a multi-disciplinary studio that he started in 1999. His shop focuses on design/build/models that range in small to medium scaled projects. His belief within his shop is that you should understand the materials, details, and production techniques before you design, which in the end will help the design process and overall construction budget.
He was born and raised in River Rouge, Michigan (a small factory town near southwest Detroit) and received his 5-year B.A. Arch. from the University of Detroit Mercy. Currently, he is working towards his M.F.A. from Cranbrook Academy of Arts, focusing on furniture/product design. He has worked in a variety of trades that range from carpentry, electrical, roofing, managing the architecture woodshop at UDM, and auto show/retail exhibition designs.
In 2006, Brian ventured beyond the typical architectural products by creating his :2:37am: clothing line. With his clothing line, he showcases the industrial aspects of the Detroit metropolitan region while collaborating with local and international talent.
SUMMER IN THE CITY. This Friday evening, the non-profit volunteer organization, Summer in the City (SITC), will be hosting an open house from 7pm until 10pm at the Burton School on Cass Avenue. This family friendly affair (I’ve been told there will be decorative painting and drawing on their classroom walls) will celebrate the following:
The Object Show. Summer in the City has teamed up with the American Society of Media Photographers to host The Object Show. Dozens of Detroit artists have donated their work for a silent auction. All proceeds go towards SITC volunteer efforts.
Summer Season Kick-Off. Meet the 2010 SITC Crew and find out about their upcoming volunteer season.
Housewarming. SITC has their first official headquarters – an old classroom in the recently reprogrammed Burton School.
This non-profit organization has been working around the city of Detroit for the past nine summers and will be showcased during the next lecturesHAA event on June 15th, “VOLUNTEERISM IN DETROIT: A (Re)Generation Strategy”.
Flippin’ (or to Flip) is the process of manipulating and fashioning a sound into a beat. Sometimes this sample is manipulated so much that you can’t even tell where it came from. Still, there are other cases where a sample can be flipped, even while it contains its original identity. Flippin’ can also be the reinterpretation or reconceptualization of an established style, sound, practice, and/or theme.
Recent research initiatives at HAA revealed the necessity for a new approach, one that can more successfully address some of Detroit’s most notable challenges. This new approach should not only acknowledge our existing circumstances, but seek to leverage and then “flip” them into figurative and literal assets. Since past conventional practices have contributed to our current situation, should we rely on these same practices to resolve our current conditions? Further aggravating the perceived confusion, many in the national media still focus on perpetuating negative perceptions. As designers, we have an immediate opportunity to shift these perceptions toward a more positive frame of mind, utilizing innovative design strategies that (re)present negative attributes as previously unrecognized positive opportunities.
Put simply, a negative perception can truly become positive. Previously negative language implications can be transformed into provocative drivers for positive socioeconomic outcomes. When applied on multiple fronts, these “flipped” perspectives can emerge into a clearly unified view of Detroit. Read More
May 21 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
DETROIT IN ‘D MINOR’. British singer/songwriter Imogen Heap gave an inspired performance at the Fillmore Theatre on May 22nd. Best known for her use of manipulated electronic sounds, personal lyrics, and funky style, Heap is using her current tour to endorse multiple charitable causes.
While promoting her new Album, Ellipse, Imogen has decided to try and raise $54,000 for local charities on her North American tour. Each night she will perform a completely improvised piece of music, unique to that city. The audience gets to choose the tempo, key, and time signature for the song. The Detroit audience requested a song in D minor, with a ¾ time, and a medium tempo; hence ‘Detroit in D Minor’. Following the performance, each city’s song will be made available for purchase through her website. Making the charitable cause even more specific to each city, the audience also suggests the charitable organization to receive any and all proceeds. Based on Detroit fan suggestions, Imogen selected the Detroit Metro organization, Urban Farming, to receive all charitable donations collected through the purchasing of “Detroit in D Minor”.
Not yet posted on her site, Detroit will soon have another original song to call its own.
TAP Gallery will occupy one residential garage in the alley and 2 vacant residential lots located across the alley. In the lots, there will be space with a variety of surfaces spread throughout for youth to create and display their artwork. The project will also include a walkable 10-garage display of high-quality, multi-color aerosol murals. Through a participatory design process with professional architects, youth and local residents will guide the design and creation of the entire TAP Gallery grounds.
A new reality series, “School Pride”, is debuting this fall on NBC at 8:00pm on Fridays. This reality based television series has chosen Detroit’s Communication and Media Arts High School (CMA) to receive a makeover. The television show intentionally utilizes local businesses, skilled local labor, and the community to renovate classrooms, public spaces, athletic facilities, art rooms, and music halls. Built in 1959, CMA was most recently slated for closure until the school became a finalist in the NBC competition. Read More
June 23 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
In his first solo exhibition in Detroit, language. power. difference., artist Joe Namy explores the issues born out of the space between languages, the codes that are used to translate, and the loss of context and meaning that occurs within translations, both internal and external.
June 17 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
INSIDE/OUT ART SHOW. Featuring local artists, INSIDE/OUT is an artistic exploration of the relationship between Space & Self and Environment & Personality. The opening will include work from almost 30 artists (amateurs, students, professionals). Artwork will include paintings, photography, sculpture, songs, papercraft and performance art. Following the opening, only a handful of select works will be chosen to remain in the conservatory until Friday, July 2.
An army of volunteers. In Detroit, volunteerism is a catalyst for change. We accomplish change by performing change, and the unique legibility of these efforts is striking within Detroit’s urbanscape. Established throughout Detroit, various non-profit volunteer organizations and their dedicated, creative volunteers have successfully regenerated many facets of our City. This legion of volunteers has provided the impetus for positive marketing campaigns, entrepreneurial endeavors, and formal urban redevelopments.
These positive interventions inspire and motivate others to contribute to our City. And so, we ask ourselves…
How can we facilitate regeneration?
How can we become the vehicle for Detroit’s transformation?
On June 15th, lecturesHAA celebrated its one-year anniversary by hosting an event aimed at answering these questions. Entitled “VOLUNTEERISM IN DETROIT: A (Re)generation Strategy”, this event provided a venue for six local non-profit volunteer organizations
to present and discuss their origins, inspirations, and bodies of work within the City of Detroit. Initially, the organizations demonstrated themselves as unique, outlining their specific programs, and then documenting their commendable efforts on a common base map of our City. Between these six local organizations over 10,000 volunteers are utilized each year within the City of Detroit. En masse, their projects influence 60 square miles of the city. The collective scope, breadth and impact of these projects are striking. Click here to view the Volunteerism Areas of Influence Mapping.Read More
July 13 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
The online publication, Places, is currently featuring several articles that highlight Detroit’s Urban Landscape. Dan Pitera, Director of the Detroit Collaborative Design Center at the University of Detroit Mercy, comments on several local renegade projects that have been inserted into various urban backdrops around the city. While Jerry Herron, Professor of English and American Studies at Wayne State University, develops a three part running dialogue focusing on “Borderland/Borderama/Detroit.”
July 15 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
In 1928, publicists marketed Detroit as the “Paris of the Midwest.” Almost a century later, the corner of Grand River and Centre St in Harmonie Park was transformed to mimic this analogy. The Parisian streetscape was constructed for the upcoming film, “The Double”, set in the streets of 1988 Paris. Existing building storefronts were slathered with Parisian “make-up” in order to resemble the most stereo-typical Parisian cafes, restaurants, boutiques, and a Hotel. Baguettes, awnings, street plantings, beaux art lighting, and quaint European bicycles were strategically placed throughout the area. For two full days, these props, actors, and filmmakers energized the streets. For two full days, the employees working in Harmonie Park realized the full urban potential of the area. Read More
July 16 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | 1 Comment »
Artist X. As part of this blog’s ongoing mission to raise the level of design discourse, rogueHAA has created a new series of posts entitled, “Artist X”. This series will highlight local artists, showcasing unique and innovative projects found within the city. By presenting multiple creative disciplines, we hope to build community relationships, spark Detroit specific design dialogue, encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration, and ultimately, strengthen the existing Detroit creative class.
Ryan Schirmang lives in Lafayette Park in Detroit. Currently, he works at Team Detroit and M1/DTW part-time. Originally from Chicago, Ryan earned his Master’s of Architecture from U of M.
Describe your work in three sentences.
I work as a Creative Project Manager for Team Detroit, one of the region’s largest ad agencies. My job is to figure out how to make interesting projects happen- projects that will make the city better – or highlight some of our cultural assets. I also learn how to put buildings together one day a week at my part-time job at M1/DTW.
These two jobs seem a bit unrelated, but they work well for me– I’m admittedly not the best designer– so I get to learn at M1/DTW, while simultaneously using my writing & communication skills at Team Detroit. I was an English major in college. Jumping between these two jobs helps keep things fresh and gives me plenty of problems to solve. I like that. Read More
July 20 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Located approximately eight hours west of Shanghai, the city of Lu’an is relatively small by Chinese standards. With roughly 400,000 residents, it sits along the banks of the Pi River in the Anhui Province. Recently, the Pi River waterfront was the focal point for an extensive redevelopment effort outlined by the City’s 2030 Masterplan. This masterplan anticipates exponential growth, transforming Lu’an from a city of 400,000 residents to one with over 4 million people. The 2030 Masterplan goal is to create an attractive urban waterfront that accommodates this growth model, addresses environmental challenges, and protects the rich cultural heritage of existing neighborhoods and sites.
Following the City’s release of the 2030 Masterplan, the City organized the Lu’an City Pi River Urban Design Plan as an international design competition. Shortlisted as one of four competitors, HAA crafted an overall masterplan for all future development within the city of Lu’an. Integral to the overall design partii, the river becomes the city’s spirit. Humans and the environment engage the river’s edge, drawing strength from its history. This same strength is pulled outwards along projected greenways and a network of highly functional landscape systems. These greenway connections become the most important city infrastructure, stitching together all future developments along a varied, multi-functional recreational system. Read More
July 23 2010 | Posted by Brandon List | Comments Off
lecturesHAA is dedicated to creating a broader creative discourse through open and collaborative dialogue. The program includes lectures and discussions throughout the year that will consider important contemporary design issues associated with the urban environment.
The 2010 program for is titled, “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” This program provides an important platform for consideration of innovative, multidisciplinary strategies designed to help the city not only create reinvestment and redevelopment, but also begin to regenerate the social, economic and environmental attributes that define it. Now, more than ever, we need to come together to understand how we can effectively participate in the thoughtful, creative regeneration of Detroit.
The public is encouraged to attend these free events. Please visit our facebook page or return to rogueHAA for post lecture discussions, future topics, and dates.Read More
August 10 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
The World Expo 2010 is currently underway in the city of Shanghai, China. Staged along both banks of the Huangpu River, more than 190 countries and 50 international organizations from around the globe have come together to share pavilions and exhibitions. The theme of the exposition is Better City – Better Life, and is an opportunity for countries from around the world to showcase their artistic, cultural, and architectural talents. With an estimated 70 million visitors, the event is said to be the most expensive and also largest World’s fair site – 5.28 square km – in history.
The tradition of World Expositions stretches back to the Great Exhibition at Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace in London. At that time, the Exposition provided a unique opportunity for the convening of cultures which otherwise would remain largely separate. Today, even in an era when globalization drives this cultural fusion, the Expo continues to hold an important position both as a cultural venue, political platform, and an opportunity for Shanghai to demonstrate its international significance both to its citizens and the world. Read More
July 30 2010 | Posted by James Witherspoon | Comments Off
The United States Green Building Council 2010 Natural Talent Design Competition challenged young designers to envision a LEED platinum home in the Broadmoor neighborhood of New Orleans. Due to recent stipulations which require new homes to be raised above flood levels, the brief asked that entries find creative ways of addressing this prerequisite, while also maintaining strong ties to the neighborhood context, and designing under a $100,000 construction budget.
HAA’s design approach focused on the stoop as a critical physical and social space. By emphasizing this literal and conceptual middle ground between the public street and private home, the design attempted to mitigate contextual issues brought on by lifting homes above Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters. The resulting design directly opens traditionally public functions to the front of the home and the stoop, reinforcing the connection of the home to the community. Read More
August 06 2010 | Posted by Aaron Taylor | Comments Off
Last weekend, the greater Detroit design and culinary communities coalesced in a three day event to benefit the Michigan AIDS Coalition. The Dining by Design tour, which has been visiting six cities a year for the past 13 years, made its debut in Detroit at the Benson and Edith Ford Conference Center at the College for Creative Studies in the recently renovated Argonaut building.
Organized by Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA), the event offers an opportunity for local designers to turn a 150-200 square foot dining area into a work of art. Each installation becomes a unique interpretation of the dining experience limited only by the design team’s creativity. Works ran the gamut from luxurious to theatrical to rustic. One could find a tranquil garden set adjacent to a vibrant typographic environment. One installation was built entirely from cardboard.
The event culminated Saturday night in a dinner for the designers, sponsors, and donors to enjoy a meal, completing the artistic visions. The other cities in this year’s line-up include: Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, Columbus, Atlanta and Kansas City, where the event began.
August 20 2010 | Posted by James Witherspoon | Comments Off
It’s impossible to avoid the deterioration and vacancy abundant within any post-industrial City. Optimistically, these voids and vacancies are also the City’s possibilities for the future. In fact, our City and the Great Lakes industrial region have persisted in this state of duality for many years. While many see the bad and the ugly, others see the good, the beauty, and most importantly, the potential.
Hope is found on multiple scales. In the photo, we find it at a small scale, bursting forth from the most unexpected place…
August 27 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
DesCours is a week-long, contemporary architecture and art event that looks towards the future in showcasing experimental, cutting-edge new media and interactive installations while embracing New Orleans rich cultural heritage. During DesCours, internationally recognized architects, designers and artists transform unique, hidden spaces within the French Quarter and Central Business District into destination places for visitors and locals alike.
Following an international design competition, a total of 11 artists and architects (individuals and teams) will be selected through invitation and proposal process to participate by creating installations for French Quarter courtyards, downtown building lobbies, rooftops, walkways and other ‘hidden’ New Orleans spaces. Overall, the AIA New Orleans is seeking installations that react and respond both to the historic nature of the sites, and to the public audience that views them. Read More
August 27 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
While the City of Detroit begins to take steps to define its future, existing community assets remain as important as ever to our shared quality of life. City parks, when well-maintained, have the potential to not only provide space for recreation, but also a venue for community engagement and interaction. Now, as the city works to keep parks open in the face of extremely limited resources, several community groups and other volunteer organizations have begun to form partnerships to ensure some parks move beyond survival, and begin to thrive once more.
In 2005, ReBar, a San Francisco art and design studio, converted a single 2 hour metered parking space in downtown San Francisco into a temporary public park. The goal was to provoke an examination of the values that generate public urban space by briefly transforming territory typically reserved for vehicles. The intervention aimed to address a broader range of public needs by providing a public green space.
Today, Park(ing) Day has evolved into an annual worldwide event that empowers the community to enact urban change by creatively altering parking spots for the betterment of the public. This year, Park(ing) Day will be on Friday, September 17th. HAA will be participating in this unique project, and is in the process of selecting a location and designing the Park(ing) spot. Please check back for updates.
If you would like to create your own Park(ing) space or would like more information, please click here: http://parkingday.org/
Last week, over 150 people gathered at Recycle Here! for the most recent installment in the lecturesHAA series. The event brought together representatives from Architectural Salvage Warehouse, C3LL3C, Recycle Here!, University of Detroit Mercy, and Design Evolution Workshop to discuss Deconstruction as an approach to managing Detroit’s many vacant and abandoned buildings. Each panelist began with a brief presentation framing his specific role in and approach to the deconstruction process. The presentations were followed by a panel discussion which both affirmed the position of Deconstruction within Detroit, as well as exposed the challenges facing the industry here and elsewhere.
The conversation ranged from the techniques and tactics involved in dismantling structures, to its economic feasibility and related public policy. The dialogue exposed the negative ecological impact of traditional demolition practices and demonstrated how Deconstruction and recycling techniques offer a sustainable alternative. Yet it also exposed the obstacles facing the Deconstruction industry as it competes with demolition. Because it is a labor intensive process, Deconstruction generally takes longer and is therefore more costly than traditional practices. And so it was with both optimism toward deconstruction’s possibilities and a realistic understanding of its difficulties that the evening unfolded. Though it was clear it will be some time before Deconstruction becomes a mainstream alternative to demolition, the passion and enthusiasm of the panelists and audience alike were testament to a collective belief in the value of this burgeoning industry. Read More
September 03 2010 | Posted by James Witherspoon | Comments Off
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 11, 7 pm – 11 pm
In Accepting Accidents, Detroit-based artist Cedric Tai’s solo exhibit at Re:View Contemporary, Tai explores the unintentional and how we adapt, react, adjust, and create in response to accidental and unexpected circumstances.
September 07 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | 1 Comment »
“DALLY IN THE ALLEY” – SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 11th. (Rain date September 12th)
This Saturday, the North Cass Community Union (NCCU) is proud to sponsor Detroit’s “Dally in the Alley” street fair. An annual festival since 1982, proceeds from the Dally™ events are used to support North Cass projects which improve the quality of life for people who live and work there. Festival activities include the following:
KIDS PARADE. The Dally is a festival for all ages! There is a kids section for activities and the Kids Parade begins at 4pm.
THE GREENEST FESTIVAL IN DETROIT. The North Cass Community Union is working with Recycle Here and the manpower of the Young Detroit Builders and Summer in the City to make the Dally in the Alley the greenest festival in Detroit. The collaboration’s goal is to divert 85% of the waste stream by collecting: Plastic #1-7, aluminum cans, paper, and cardboard. Recycle Here will take the initiative to make the Dally in the Alley 2010 the “cleanest festival in the city.” This project will require over 100+ volunteers and will need the cooperation of the community in order to be successful. There will be recycling stations set up throughout the festival and volunteers working to keep the festival grounds clean.
Artist X. As part of this blog’s ongoing mission to raise the level of design discourse, rogueHAA has created a new series of posts entitled, “Artist X”. This series will highlight local artists, showcasing unique and innovative projects found within the city. By presenting multiple creative disciplines, we hope to build community relationships, spark Detroit specific design dialogue, encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration, and ultimately, strengthen the existing Detroit creative class.
I.T.U. was started by Danielle Aubert and Lana Cavar in Detroit and Zagreb, Croatia. We met as MFA graphic design students at Yale School of Art and collaborated officially for the first time together in 2008. In 2009, we started thinking of ourselves as I.T.U. Danielle is an assistant professor of graphic design at Wayne State University in Detroit. Lana is a practicing graphic designer who works in Zagreb, New York and Detroit. Read More
September 10 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
lecturesHAA is dedicated to creating a broader creative discourse through open and collaborative dialogue. The program includes lectures and discussions throughout the year that will consider important contemporary design issues associated with the urban environment.
The 2010 program for is titled, “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” This program provides an important platform for consideration of innovative, multidisciplinary strategies designed to help the city not only create reinvestment and redevelopment, but also begin to regenerate the social, economic and environmental attributes that define it. Now, more than ever, we need to come together to understand how we can effectively participate in the thoughtful, creative regeneration of Detroit.
The public is encouraged to attend these free events. Please visit our facebook page or return to rogueHAA for post lecture discussions, future topics, and dates.
EVENT 09: Panel Discussion “THE URBAN ARTSCAPE : A (Re)generation strategy”
Detroit’s Urban Artscape has recently received an assortment of national media attention. This event aims to expand current dialogue on this topic, moving beyond the most recent media publications that skim over the true multi-dimensional, catalytic power of artistic interventions within a struggling urbanscape. The panel will be asked to consider how certain social, economic and geographic factors impact their work, including the ways in which the scale and scope of artistic interventions are informed or modulated by the city. Lastly, the panel will evaluate the short and long-term effectiveness of such interventions as devices for urban regeneration. Whether describing a single urban intervention, an academic analysis of Detroit’s urban artscape, the public aspect of urban art, or the implementation of a larger, ephemeral artistic festival…how effective are these interventions when viewed from an ever-widening perspective? Read More
September 17 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Last Friday, HAA joined hundreds from around the world to celebrate Park(ing) Day, a one day event that highlights the need for more livable and vibrant public spaces in our cities. With some help from Unilock and Landscape Forms, pavers and sod where placed on a parking spot at the corner of Gratiot and Woodward. Soon, there was a green patch of space, an unusual site especially when one is accustomed to see a car in its place instead. Onlookers were curious. Drivers paused. Parking enforcement stopped, then questioned, and questioned some more, but finally drove off. This was the idea—to get people to notice, ask questions, and interact. For those that stopped by, they got the message and left with a smile on their faces.
HAA has received aMichigan ASLA Honor Awardfor the Lu’an City PiRiver Waterfront Urban Design Plan. Congratulations and thank you for the hard work: Christina Hansen, Shannon Mohr, Angela Hicks, Yukun Xu, Brandon List, Brett Davis, Burke Jenkins, Kent Anderson, Dan Kinkead, Jeff Mason, John Savitski, Lori Singleton, Sam Lovall, Yang Yi, Thang Tao, Nick Salowich, Carl Bolofer, and Russell Baltimore. This project demonstrated the unique collaboration between the Site and Architecture studios at HAA.
For a few days last week, the small urban triangle known as Capitol Park and the surrounding area were radically transformed for the filming of Transformers 3. Piles of rubble, explosions, robots, and a new streetscape were installed as part of director Michael Bay’s elaborate set. This sort of temporary urbanism is becoming more and more common as the Michigan film incentive draws site scouts to the area. In upcoming films, Detroit will be portraying Paris, the Soviet Union, Switzerland, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and many other U.S. cities. In recent months residents have witnessed rallies by the ‘Peoples’ Liberation Army’, dramatic life of a retired CIA operative, even stumbled upon a rogue NYC subway station at the Guardian Building. While it is exciting to experience the instant gratification of these fleeting installations, we should not to overlook the slow but lasting progress occurring in urban spaces like Capitol Park. Read More
October 13 2010 | Posted by James Witherspoon | Comments Off
In July, HAA submitted a design proposal for the DesCours design competition. The Dich (2) otomy design proposal was recently selected for installation in December.
DesCours is a week-long, contemporary architecture and art event that looks towards the future in showcasing experimental, cutting-edge new media and interactive installations while embracing New Orleans rich cultural heritage. During DesCours, internationally recognized architects, designers and artists transform unique, hidden spaces within the French Quarter and Central Business District into destination places for visitors and locals alike.
Following an international design competition, a total of 11 artists and architects (individuals and teams) have been selected through an invitation and proposal process to participate by creating installations for French Quarter courtyards, downtown building lobbies, rooftops, walkways and other ‘hidden’ New Orleans spaces. Overall, the AIA New Orleans was seeking installations that react and respond both to the historic nature of the sites, and to the public audience that views them.
Congratulations to the design team: Melissa Dittmer, Carl Bolofer, Jamie Witherspoon, and to all of those who helped influence the design submission. Over the next two months, rogueHAA will update the website with design developments, construction images, and final photos of the event. For further explanation of the design proposal, refer to previous post by clicking here.
October 05 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
The following text is an excerpt from an article entitled “EVALUATION CITY: Post Industrial’s Most Valuable Urbanism” that has been recently published in the latest MONU magazine.
To aid in the surplus of stressful societal situations that face the modern female, the 21st century woman can rely on a handful of helpful journals such as “Cosmopolitan” and “Glamour” to evaluate any relationship or affirm all major life decisions. These lifestylist magazines will argue that there is no unique set of conditions, no singular relationship, and no unusual characteristics that can’t be quantified. In support of these sweeping generalizations, many of the articles summarize their theories by incorporating a simplified quiz, a minimal test that helps the reader judge themselves, another human being, and the future success of their relationship. Within a few short minutes, the contemporary lady can create her own personal compass to help guide her through modern relationships: whether that relationship is with her current spouse, potential boyfriend, frustrating boss, or annoying mother-in-law.
“How compatible are you and your spouse in bed?”
“Is he going to marry you?“
“Should you leave your job?“
Ironically, these outrageously simple evaluation techniques are also commonly used to stereotype other modern conditions. As seen in a plethora of media outlets, the “most livable city” is a ranking system usually completed by an accounting or financial firm that evaluates international cities against a series of pre-set criteria. Each city is judged using their past year’s statistics, appraised, and then ranked against one another. Depending upon the media’s audience, intentions, and desired outcomes, these standards vary slightly, factoring unique priorities into an otherwise biased economically-based set of standards. In one example, Forbes combined income, crime statistics, unemployment, housing markets, and college graduate statistics with amicable weather AND professional sports team winnings to result in their list of “Top 10 Best Places to Live in the US.” Simultaneously, Forbes also published the “Top 10 Worst Places to Live in the US” using the same questionable data combinations. Read More
October 14 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 6
7 pm – 11 pm
inter:sectionpresents the latest works by artists Coley McLean and Simone DeSousa, co-founders of the Salt-Mine Studio in Detroit, a multidisciplinary studio including sculpture, painting, design, and fabrication. In this exhibit, McLean and DeSousa use their distinct approaches, McLean primarily in metal sculpture and functional art, and DeSousa in painting, to create unique works that reference their environment and the intersection of their individual works. click here for contact information
November 01 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
October 5th marked the last in the 2010 LecturesHAA series: “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” The ninth and final event for this year brought together a panel of distinguished artists from around the city to discuss art as a catalyst, strategy, intervention, and regenerative enterprise in Detroit. Hosted by Willy’s Overland Lofts, The event aimed to thicken the discourse surrounding urban art as well as establish greater understanding for the breadth of artistic possibilities specific to Detroit.
The presenters included Jim Boyle, Co-founder of Public Pool Artspace and Vice President of Integrated Marketing at Lovio George, Chazz Miller, Director of Public Art Workz, Dan Pitera, Executive Director of Detroit Collaborative Design Center, University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture, and Noah Resnick, Principal of uRbanDetail and Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture. From a panel diverse in both artistic background and expertise came a lively discussion which focused on the fact that Detroit offers a unique landscape for imaginative, daring, and wildly creative acts which would prove difficult, or even illegal, if attempted elsewhere. Read More
November 04 2010 | Posted by James Witherspoon | Comments Off
October’s panel discussion marked the end of the 2010 LecturesHAA program: Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism. Please stay tuned for the release of the upcoming 2011 series topic and event schedule. The LecturesHAA team would like to thank everyone who helped make this year such a great success and we look forward to continuing the dialogue next year.
November 05 2010 | Posted by James Witherspoon | Comments Off
Over the next two weeks, a group from HAA will be participating in Descours 2010 along with 14 other design groups from around the world. The event is hosted and coordinated by the AIA New Orleans and is free and open to the public. As a way of expanding the boundaries of the installation beyond 1000 St. Charles Ave, we have established a page to host video, photos, notes, thoughts, rants, and overall documentation of the work. We will be updating throughout the process, so please check back frequently as the project unfolds. And of course, if you find yourself in the area please spend an evening touring what will be an amazing series of installations.
“Two cities and two themes: voids and density. In one city, voids have been expressly created, in the other, the voids are the result of decline. In one, voids are defined by the surrounding density, in the other, the empty spaces neither define nor are defined. Milan and Detroit have very little in common. Indeed they seem opposites, like positive and negative images of the same picture.” -Maurizio Sabini
In the latest edition of the Italian design journal, THE PLAN, two editors compile an assortment of city specific urban design articles. Milan’s essays illustrate the extreme densification of their Italian city and the deliberate insertion of strategically programmed voids. While the Detroit contributors expand upon the current dynamic state of this city, urban creativity resulting from the many voids of Detroit, and the need to redefine the previously negative connotations of Detroit asvoid.
Hamilton Anderson expands upon Detroit’s descriptive relativism. As stated in their article, “MULTIPLICITY AS RESOURCE: A Combined Architectural Narrative”, Detroit provides a unique opportunity to study how the urban architect may engage the vast plurality of perceptions and beliefs that define a city, and how they can inform the future trajectory of its built environment. As the infamous case study of our current international economic and social condition, it is fashionable to expound on what should be done with, what will become of, what happened to, Detroit. As an object, Detroit is a land of multiple narratives, and in the vein of descriptive pluralism, all of these narratives are true. Read More
January 19 2011 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Submission deadline is January 31, 2011: Sponsored by the AIGA, Wish You Were Here is an image campaign in which Michigan residents can contribute pictures of their favorite place in the state. Whether it’s a Saturday morning at Eastern Market, a romantic get-away to Mackinac Island, or a big weekend at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival— anything that can be done or any place that can be visited in Michigan goes. The winning entries will be printed and mailed as postcards to AIGA chapters across the country to help spread the word that there are still countless postcard-worthy activities and places to enjoy here in Michigan.
Goals of Wish You Were Here:
Spread positive images of Michigan to people living outside of the state.
Provide a platform for Michigan residents to share their favorite places to visit with one another.
Ways Michigan residents can participate:
Submit a photo/design of their favorite place to visit in Michigan.
Submit Michigan photos to the Wish You Were Here Michigan Flickr group.
Tweet about your favorite Michigan activities as you experience them using the hashtag #wishyouwereheremi
Judging Process and Criteria: Postcard entries will be narrowed down by representatives of the AIGA Detroit board. Online voting will be open to the public and will begin after the AIGA Detroit representatives have screened all entries. All those who have submitted will be notified via email when this process begins. The top 25 designs selected from online voting will be printed. Notification of top 25 will be posted on this website.
Since March of 2009, HAA has been working with Michigan State University (MSU) to design a new language arts facility on its East Lansing campus. As lead designer, HAA has collaborated with executive architects and engineers, Integrated Design Solutions (IDS), to realize this $38m campus relocation project. Resulting from the necessary demolition of an historic facility in the university’s north campus, relocation efforts require multiple renovations, and ultimately a new facility for language arts faculty, graduate students, researchers, and advanced instruction.
This facility, commonly known as the Wells Hall Addition, will be the focus of a four post series that will chronicle the design, documentation and construction of the new 88,000 gross square foot building. Each post is intended to provide a candid glimpse into HAA’s design process. From understanding the externalities of program, site and client need, to confronting the inherent complexity of adding one building to another, each post will use the Wells Hall Addition to illustrate the demands on contemporary design practice, and the rigorous intellectual project that is required to address them. Read More
January 30 2011 | Posted by Dan Kinkead | Comments Off
RETHINKING THE POST INDUSTRIAL CITY: DETROIT<>LONDON. On Wednesday, February 9th, HAA participated in a London conference regarding Detroit, and the Post-Industrial City. The conference, sponsored by Buro Happold, and coordinated by the World Architecture News, convened over 20 urban designers, planners, governmental leaders and architects to discuss the status of Detroit, and how lessons learned in London’s recent redevelopment could provide some insight into how Detroit may navigate toward to a more sustainable, viable future.
HAA attended as a design representative from Detroit, along with Jess Zimbabwe of the Urban Land Institute, whose current work focuses on the redevelopment of the Livernois corridor, and Marja Winters, the Deputy Director of the City of Detroit Planning and Development Department. John Gallagher, writer for the Detroit Free Press, and author of Reimagining Detroit: Opportunities for Redefining the American City, also attended remotely, via videoconference.
The event, entitled Rethinking the Post-Industrial City: Detroit<>London, was focused on four segments of analysis, dialogue and recommendation, including governance, ecology, development and society. This structure provided a platform to develop a series of potential strategies and considerations that may inform future efforts to engage the post-industrial landscape, and performance of Detroit. Read More
February 22 2011 | Posted by Dan Kinkead | Comments Off
Las Vegas – The Double Agent. Las Vegas has always been a city of conflicted identities. The Strip, faux-velvet pastiche was built on the dreams of images and illusion. The Desert, the extreme of a ‘natural’, harsh, untouched world exists as both silent background but also as an essential part of the Vegas experience – two conflicting constructed realities simultaneously superimposed on one another. Both identities of Las Vegas exist as totalizing worlds, literally and conceptually distinct from one another, yet occupying the same physical space. A bi-polar existence blatantly marketed to the world.
False Documents. Architects increasingly use the perspectival rendering as a way to convey experiential narrative and to portray a space ‘as it will be.’ These images are never about reality, but when used as tools to convey a certain idealized vision, they create a portal into a counterfeit world. In every design proposal, there are certain embedded cultural practices, biases, and stereotypes which inevitably influence how future inhabitants will understand and occupy these spaces. And regardless of the intentions, hyper-“realism” renderings dictate future interactions between people and their internal and external environments. Read More
March 07 2011 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 2, 7 p.m. – 10 p.m.
In Mapping the Terrain, sculptor and ceramicist Emily Duke focuses on architecture and systems of order to address her own relationship with the structures she occupies and their relationship to the climate of her surroundings. Duke references elements from construction sites, agricultural buildings, and manufacturing complexes to base her objects. She builds formal compositions coupling true right angles with shrunken scale and skewed perspective to present intimacy in structures that are ordinarily massive and complex in our common terrain. Read More
March 31 2011 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
As noted on their website, Van Alen Institute: Projects in Public Architecture announces Life at the Speed of Rail, an open call for design ideas that envision the cultural, environmental, and economic impact of a new rail network in the United States.
This multimedia competition seeks the visions of the architectural design community, planners, graphic designers, artists—anyone who wants to contribute to the discussion surrounding high-speed rail. In this Call for Design Ideas, entrants are asked to produce projects and narratives picturing the wide-ranging impacts that a new transportation network will have on the nation’s communities, whether urban or rural, rail-riding or car-centric, heartland or borderland. By collecting these ideas and images of a transformed America—be they specific, pragmatic, or speculative—we’ll better understand the hopes and fears of our current moment and be better equipped to decide whether and how we build this new infrastructure. Read More
April 12 2011 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Sunday was the last day of Art X Detroit: Kresge’s five-day multidisciplinary Arts Experience that presented newly commissioned works created by the 2008-2010 Kresge Eminent Artists and Artists Fellows. A five day artistic celebration that spanned from April 6-10, the program featured dance and musical performances, literary readings, workshops, panel discussions, public art, and special exhibitions. Located throughout Detroit’s Midtown Cultural Center, the entire event was free and open to the public. The images above represent only a small portion of the creative pieces seen within one afternoon’s stroll through Detroit art.
April 13 2011 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Last Sunday marked the opening of Hostel Detroit, the vision of Emily Doerr and the product of the hard work of over 100 volunteers over the last five months. Through a mix of active fundraising and generous donations, Doerr was able to transform the building in North Corktown into an engaging and playful space for travelers seeking an authentic and affordable Detroit experience. The Hostel offers a variety of accommodations, from bunk-beds which were built by hand utilizing reclaimed wood to full and queen size beds in private rooms. There is even an apartment available for month-to-month rental. The layout encourages the social atmosphere of the hostelling experience by providing a large common kitchen and seating area, as well as an internet nook and game room. The walls are adorned with murals designed by local artists and there is a rotating exhibit of local photography on display.
Hundreds turned out for the ribbon cutting Sunday, including State Senator Coleman Young II, Lt. Governor Brian Calley and the Detroit Party Marching Band. The Hostel is the first in Detroit in 15 years, and its supporters believe it will offer an essential alternative to traditional lodging and encourage a wider range of visitors to the city. At the time of the opening, Hostel Detroit was reserved to capacity with more reservations coming in for the upcoming months.
images by Dan Austin
April 24 2011 | Posted by James Witherspoon | Comments Off
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 14, 7 p.m. – 10 p.m.
In his second solo project at Re:View Contemporary Gallery, artist and designer Andy Kem presents Interlocker, an intimate exploration of the physical act of assembling and creating abstract connections in order to form complex functional pieces.
Kem’s ability to artistically manipulate natural and renewable resources such as Birch Plywood, cork and maple has made him synonymous with Detroit’s legacy as a city where people make things. Emerging at the intersection of art and design, technology, and materials, Kem’s unique aesthetic language is presented in its full expression in his latest exhibit. Read More
May 09 2011 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
Hamilton Anderson Associates (HAA) is a multi-disciplinary Detroit design firm dedicated to improving the built environment through creative, contemporary design. The counterpart to HAA’s architectural practice is rogueHAA, a design and research studio based in our Detroit office. While HAA focuses on the thoughtful design and construction of buildings and landscapes, rogueHAAoperates beyond the traditional practice boundaries to consider post-industrial strategies, branding, media, pop-culture, publishing, the facilitation of design discourse, and the promotion of urban advocacy.
Started in 2008 as an after-hours voluntary design forum, rogueHAA maintains one single goal: To raise the level of design discourse in Detroit by challenging the public to practice critical, creative thinking. As architectural advocates, we can provide more for our city’s design community by encouraging creative discourse than through the design and construction of any building type. We have implemented two complementary efforts that have begun to instigate change within the Detroit community: www.roguehaa.com, an urbanism blog,and lecturesHAA,a multi-topic speaker series. A third initiative, installationsHAA, is currently being explored by a multi-disciplinary collaborative team.
Our second initiative, lecturesHAA, is dedicated to creating broad, creative discourse through open and collaborative dialogue. Our inaugural lecture program (2009-2010) utilized a common theme: “CHALLENGING DETROIT: (Re)generating Urbanism” and resulted in nine bi-monthly lecture events. The first six events featured Detroit artists (Design99, Sweet Juniper, Phil Cooley, Craig Wilkens and others) sharing their personal regeneration strategies. As the events passed, we established quite a following; audiences grew from fifteen to two hundred. Transitioning to panel discussions, in lieu of single speakers, extended our audience diversity beyond the design community into the community-at-large. Each event was free, open to the public, and held within a different city space, raising awareness of forgotten sites, and those that illustrated adaptive reuse opportunities. A summary of these nine events can be found on rogueHAA.
lecturesHAA is pleased to announce its 2011/2012 program: “PROVOCATIONS: Challenging Detroit’s Design Discourse”. This bi-monthly lecture series will begin in June and continue through the end of 2012. Each panel discussion will invite local, regional, and national figures to discuss what makes Detroit provocative. Set in a variety of under-utilized, contested, and historically charged spaces throughout our city, each event seeks to challenge the participants through candid discourse and direct engagement of the built environment. It is the aim of each panel discussion to explore new urban strategies that promote social equity and advocacy. We believe good design (and good design discourse) is a proactive and critical act, toeing the line between conflict and resolution. While each event exists for only a moment, the entire series will provide a lasting catalogue of constructive dialogue, informing Detroit’s shared creative consciousness. Read More
June 08 2011 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Objecthood: Local Artists Respond to the Compuware Art Collection
Featuring artists Corrie Baldauf, Janet Hamrick, Stacey Malasky, Senghor Reid, and Alison Wong. Objecthood opens to the public starting June 9th inside Boutique: A Compuware Gallery, located at 99 Monroe Street, between Farmer and Randolph. The exhibition will be open every Friday until July 8 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Since as early as the 1960’s, there has been a narrow yet persistent thread of architectural design dedicated to inflatable structures. From Rehner Banham’s, Environment Bubble (1965) to the more recent Rem Koolhaas/Cecil Balmond collaboration at the Serpentine Gallery (2007) and Kengo Kuma’s Tea House at the Museum fur Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt (2008), these bulbous spaces have challenged traditional construction techniques and patterns of occupancy. Without traditional compression supports like walls or columns, the form of these buildings becomes a direct translation of the relationship between the material and air pressure.
At the Amococo installation, this relationship is articulated on a large and complex scale. Architects of Air, a UK based design firm, used translucent vinyl in a range of colors and geometric patterns to create a 10,000 square foot inflatable ‘luminarium’. The designers utilized only natural light through a series of occuli to illuminate the interior spaces. Music streamed throughout the installation, enhancing the sensory experience while mixing with the muted sounds of the world outside. This distinct contrast between the interior and exterior created a dramatic immersive environment which changed throughout the day.
The installation was on view at U of M’s Palmer Field from June 23 through June 26 as part of Ann Arbor’s Summer Festival. However, the installation is part of an international tour so check the designer’s website for their upcoming installations.
July 06 2011 | Posted by James Witherspoon | Comments Off
NOW DOCKING. Recognizing the potential influence of the cruise industry upon Detroit, the Detroit / Wayne County Port Authority commissioned HAA to design a new 22,000 square foot international ship passenger terminal. Officially opening next week at the foot of Bates Street, between Atwater Street and the Detroit River, The Port Authority Terminal is designed to function as both a domestic and international facility, including associated functions such as customs, border patrol, baggage handling, ticketing, and queuing. The building and dock will accommodate Great Lakes cruise ships, tall ships, and other large vessels, as well as the offices for the Port Authority.
The Port Authority anticipates this terminal will serve as a port of call for the many cruise vessels that sail the Great Lakes each summer, some providing accommodations for over 400 passengers. Mid-way through construction, the American Recovery and Reinvestment act provided additional funding for the construction of a wharf and an extension to the building, allowing even larger ships to dock at the facility.
These cruise lines, tall ships, and vessels will ideally make Detroit one of their premier urban ports, bringing tourists and their dollars directly into downtown Detroit. Detroit will offer a unique counterpoint to other ports of more rural locales. In this capacity, the terminal serves its most important function; a pristine gateway, welcoming visitors with a gleaming reception and ultimately providing direction to the region’s greatest assets. Read More
July 08 2011 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
