PARK(ing) Day!

Almost two months ago- I was advised by a reader to look up PARK(ing) Day…I followed the trail through various websites until I was led to Matthew Shaffer, Associate Director of Marketing for the Trust for Public Land (TPL).  Matt was nice enough to chat with me for a while and told me about how PARK(ing) Day, which originated in San Fransisco in 2005 via the art collective REBAR group has transformed into a one-day global event. Local volunteers gather to temporarily transform metered parking spots into ‘PARK(ing)’ spaces, or temporary public parks (I checked out photos- and this is ART, folks). This year, PARK(ing) day falls on Friday, September 19.

 

For more info (and to set up your own temporary PARK/art installation), check out the PARK(ing) day website: http://www.parkingday.org/.

 

Or check out the Trust for Public Land’s website: http://www.tpl.org/tier3_cd.cfm?content_item_id=22093&folder_id=3428.

 

The aim of the whole thing now is to promote the need for parks in cities. Research has found that more than half of the kids in any given city don’t have access to a local safe place to play. Part of the goal is to help communities realize the importance of parks and to then assist communities towards creating new parks where they are needed.

 

Back in 2005, REBAR found out that you can lease a parking spot for any ‘safe and legal’ purpose. So what did they do?! They decided to create a park. Spunky creativity is always awesome. From that initial experiment- the reaction by passer-bys inspired them to keep at it.

 

In 2007, PARK(ing) day was held in SF, Cleveland, NYC and London…hopefully this year more folks get at it. Matt said that last year someone did create a PARK(ing) spot in DC. However, this year, a guy named Brandon Schmidtling (you can Facebook him) is organizing it- so I can’t wait to see pictures of a nasty DC parking spot transformed into a mini park. Unfortunately, I am not in DC at the moment (more on that and the long blogging absence in a bit), but maybe one of my friends will read this and be inspired enough to get involved!? For the SLR folks, this would be an amazing photo opportunity…and it’s for a great cause!

 

-greenDCgirl (From Corvallis, OR)

 

a foggy morning

 

 

It’s All In The Details: Hearing the Whos

For her birthday, my friend Annie organized a D.C.-wide scavenger hunt and just the weekend prior I participated in a pub crawl/scavenger hunt; the difference being that in the pub scavenger hunt all the items to be located were solely to be found within the pubs. What was amazing about these scavenger hunts was that it drew out our attention to detail to the environment that we witness daily. I realized that that most of us run around without actually absorbing the amazing amount of details and minutia that surround us: the red brick, golden-domed Starbucks next to the Archives Navy Memorial metro stop; the Chinese calendar zodiac symbols that adorn the sidewalks of China Town; the colorful bear that greets us in front of Ben’s Chili Bowl; or the fact that the Canadians thought that trees were significant enough to their national identity to include them in the architecture of their new embassy.

It made me think about a friend of mine who recently brainstormed out loud about starting a blog that would note all the instances of ‘true’ nature she found amongst the sidewalks of D.C. She noted how during a romp with her dog, she’d run into some English ivy (hedera helix) and how happy it had made her because it reminded her of the forests back home – except, as she trailed on, she noted that the particular ivy she had run across was actually a non-native invasive species and that even back home it had ‘escaped’ into the woodland areas from people’s gardens and was now displacing native flora. I don’t know why, but this type of information just really interests me: the details. Another group of friends recently discussed all the bird songs they had started to hear in the mornings from the returning migrants.

A recent New Yorker article tracked a couple from Italy and how they started their version of Slow Food– but for living…slow living. One of the funnier anecdotes from their traverses included handing out ‘speeding’ tickets to pedestrians in NYC that they deemed were living/moving too fast. I loved the idea and really identified with the philosophy; coming from the south to attend college on the east coast – I thought initially that the pace of life was greatly speeded up and also noticed that everyone walked too quickly. Yet now, I’ve become an easterner myself and when I head south, the slow pace drives me crazy. There is definitely a difference between being inefficient and lazy versus simply taking the time to notice the everyday beauty that surrounds us. Traditionally, art has been the medium that helps us notice the beauty in the everyday objects surrounding us – but what happens when the natural world becomes a blur?

When I first moved to D.C. and was working a balancing act of interning for free, working part-time as a consultant and catering on the side, I went a couple weeks without actually looking up at the sky. I mean, of course you know that the sky is always above you – but I was so stressed and concerned about the details of my work and personal life that I simply forgot to lift my head. When I finally remembered to, I realized that stress should have been one of the main reasons that I absolutely should have glanced upwards. The details that the natural world provides, even in our urban setting –especially in our urban setting, should not be taken for granted. So especially in this time of celebrating the blooming cherry blossoms – I hope everyone takes note of the random details that only the natural environment can provide us with. Whether it’s the contrast of pinks, whites and greens against the cement grey federal buildings populating our city streets or the thrashing and whistlings of birds in bushes along Pennsylvania Avenue. Perhaps all of us will soon be lucky enoug to hear the Whos.

See below for pictures of the details I’ve noticed recently around the District.

 

A Single Sheet

Some archi friends of mine brought this cool Danish artist to my attention – great because he is amazingly creative with few resources- namely, a single piece of paper is his canvas.

Check out Peter Callesen.

There was a great deal of blogosphere chatter about the Hirshhorn Museum holding some contest where the artists were only allowed to use a single sheet of paper- but it turns out that info was incorrect and all the art works in the email chain were in fact created by Peter Callesen.

If any of you know where in D.C. I can see this artists’ work – please let me know.

However not all of his works use the medium of paper; Callesen’s works on water are also especially beautiful. The Palace of Dreams is my favorite.

-greenDCgirl

 

green living at thomas circle

i’ve always wished that i had somehow been blessed with the artistic and necessary cognitive skills required to become a successful architect – instead i resigned myself to becoming an admirer of architects and the built environments they erect for us. in particular, green architecture both excited and angered me. i was angered b/c i soon realized that there has been a great deal of research and technological development over the past decades to provide us with buildings that can be completely self-sustaining – while even giving back to their local environments (such as 4 Time Square in NYC that pumps cleaner air than it takes in back into mid-town Manhattan).

while i pursued my MA in london, i got to witness firsthand some of these amazing green buildings that are being erected around the world and had a number of architect friends who were kind enough to explain some of the concepts to me. a few of them also invited me to exhibitions where i learned about architects such as ken yeang of malaysia who has been playing with conceptual designs where buildings facades were draped with soybeans or some other type of vegetation.

the architecture of d.c. is definitely tame compared to the cities of europe and places such as hong kong – but i was super excited to hear about some green housing options that are available here in the district. my friends catherine and damien were kind enough to let me bug them after brunch this past sunday and i’ve posted some of the pictures here.

located at 1133 14th Street, NW – it’s smack dab between logan circle and mcpherson square. there’s a whole foods down the street, a cvs directly opposite the building, the circulator bus at the corner, the metro two blocks away and tons of cafe’s and restaurant’s littering the area. basically- it’s super cool – and super convenient.

it’s a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified building with stuff like energy star appliances, low-flush toilets, florescent lighting and low volatile organic compounds (voc) in the paints, carpets and adhesives. my friends live in a one bedroom unit on the third floor with a nice view of thomas circle and the place had a modern & efficient feel to it- but it felt warm. some people might think it looks messy, but i really liked the way many of the cement columns had this rough shuttering (a process done to concrete to make it sort of look like wood) with some of the air bubbles in sight…

some of the ventilation pipes were exposed for a slight industrial look and there was a giant floor to ceiling window, yet even in mid-january, my barefeet felt fine on the tile floor. i also really liked the hologram doors 🙂

catherine & damien took me up to the roof to take a look at the greenery and i have to admit i was a little surprised at how small the green roof was. i think most of the roof is still concrete, but there were about 6-8 small square patches. i think it was set up like that because there are two penthouses up there that had to be cordoned off to give the owners their privacy – but it was cool anyways. and i need to find out what’s going on with the pipes connecting the pieces of green roof to the large mechanical structure at the top. if anyone reading this knows, please share! something geothermalish? there was also a two-level space adjacent to the green roof at the top that residents can reserve for parties- catherine & damien…party-time baby. i also noticed that the flooring in that space looked something akin to a japanese tatami mat. it could be bamboo but i really liked the texture – see here:

what else? the alta also had a nice second floor space that people can reserve for events… sort of a large living room with a remote controlled fire place and a sleek kitchen with lots of asian-inspired vases.

when i went today, there were two guys waiting outside to meet the realtor and from what i overhead, i believe there are only two apartments left…if i had enough money saved – i would totally move in here…but hopefully, by the time i’m ready to purchase my own space- there are lots of green leed certified buildings in the district 🙂

here’s a link if you want to learn more about this space: the alta – also see pnhoffman.

-greenDCgirl