Smooth Sailing...

I feel like the best way for me to address this particular blog prompt is by outlining how I would live my life if money, school constraints and time (or age rather) were no issue. I must say, however, even if schooling were not required to gain a high level career I would still go to school. I enjoy learning and I think I would at least need a mentor or internship of some kind. I would, however, address school differently. I would love to simultaneously combine field work and taking on information. I would take myself out of the classroom and do studies.
I recently looked into doing a UROP project with Ann Ziebarth of the Housing Studies department. When I met with her she explained the projects she had been working on and was hoping to be able to work on further. Obviously, they addressed housing issues, most in and around the Twin Cities, though one was comparing senior citizen livability in St. Paul to that of Vancouver. The one that interested me most was a survey study she wanted to conduct on the Hispanic migrant working population in South Minneapolis. They need housing and designing adequate, cheap, sensible housing for their population has proved quite the project. Here is a link to an article that interviewed a typical migrant family in the canning industry in south Minneapolis: http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/node/6066. This and other projects she explained would be things that I would work on were I “released.� It would essentially be UROP expanded.
I have a growing interest in difference in cultures and styles. I went to the Cultural Celebration put on by an academic fraternity in the Great Hall this past Friday night. I’m not going to lie, we mostly went for the free food, but we found out that there were going to be cultural dances and music on stage. We stayed and it was VERY cool. I really enjoyed myself. So, on top of doing studies here, I would travel EVERYWHERE (remember I made money issues disappear). I would love to focus on African development and Spanish historical architecture. I would volunteer my time. I would participate in rebuild projects such as the one in Biloxi as well. Side note- this weekend I met a senior in the BS of Architecture program who went to Biloxi and I am incredibly jealous. Also he didn’t seem very stressed at the time, which is good. I always figured that later on in my architecture education I would loose the privilege of relaxation.
While I travel, I would take deep interest in the country’s style of architecture, but not only that, I would study their culture, their city design and layout, their history, their lifestyles and their countryside. I would stay with locals, do what they do, eat what they eat (to a point…), and listen to what they have to say. I would go backpacking in places like Chile, Russia, Brazil, Spain and many more. I would spend the moajority of my time in rural areas to gain knowledge of culture and the true lifestyles of the area. (also I love nature, see picture at bottom) Basically I would spend my time gathering information, comparing cultures and coming up with project ideas, which I would then execute. If a small town had a need for a building I would work under more experienced architects to construct them. I would learn from them, then I would eventually be able to build my own. I would do volunteer work for my whole life if I could. The best job satisfaction comes from volunteer work.
I would also like to find a way meet all the greats. I would study them, visit their best buildings and try to meet with them personally. As Leslie VanDuzer said last semester, I will get in “by any means necessary.� Yikes… but really, I would. Greats like Louis Kahn, �lvaro Siza Vieira, Peter Zumthor, Sol LeWitt (though he died last year, I would find a way to learn from him), Bruce Mau, etc, I would seek them all out. I would just sit and listen, if they allowed. (I was going to say that Ozayr looked like Siza to get the "blog of the week" but I thought he might get mad.)
In short, if I were allowed to leave the constraints of architecture school behind, I would spend all my time learning… not a big stretch I guess. Really the only constraint prohibiting me from doing this is money. Always... The only way I can think of to design a place to enable all that I want to do would be to encapsulate the world? Not really possible I guess.
(Also I would probably toss a quick sail around the world in there, just for good measure. I want to be this guy: http://growabrain.typepad.com/growabrain/2004/04/_sailing_around.html)

Posted by Allison Prange at 9:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Let me start by saying that placing these goals in a personal order was REALLY hard, and kind of made me feel bad about being able to place some of the things at the end. It was very difficult.

My First Goal Choice:
Ensure Environmental Sustainability

I am a self-proclaimed tree hugger. The environment is my thing, my obsession. This blog assignment is really exciting for me because I love searching for new, and old, inspirational songs, pictures, videos etc. To jump right in I am going to start with my list of songs that inspire my passion for this particular issue. (in no particular order)

1) “Because� The Beatles- Though this song makes no clear statement of environmental meaning, it always makes me want to go lay in a field and become one with nature. It’s rendition in the recent flick “Across the Universe� played to my love of this song, as it was sung by the characters while laying a field. Perfection. (plus I love The Beatles)
2) “Clear Blue Skies� Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young- This group of fine gentlemen is a love of my mother’s and their music has been played in my home since birth. The lyrics of this particular song fit perfectly with an environmental theme. For example, “Clear blue skies, not too much to ask for, they were here before we came, will they be here when we're gone?� It forces us to focus on the future. Those hippies know what they’re talking about. This song was written 20 years ago and still very little has changed for the better.
3) “The Golden Age� Beck- Though, again, not an in-your-face message to save the environment it just makes me think of the powers of nature, how special it is, and its importance. It’s a great song.
4) “The 3 R’s� Jack Johnson- Pretty clear I think. Here are some lyrics if you aren’t familiar with the song: “And if you've got to make some trash, don't throw it out, recycle, we've got to learn to recycle, we've got to learn to reduce, reuse, recycle.�
5) “Big Yellow Taxi� Joni Mitchell (and yes it is a Joni Mitchell original, not Bob Dylan, as my friend claimed)- I’ve always loved the familiarity of this song to many people. Most people have lived in, or at least near, areas that have been subject to unwanted development that is insensitive to the area. This song really works for cessation of over-development. Save the trees!

President Bush's views on the environment?
"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

Okay images…
I love political cartoons, here is a good’n...

I borrowed "An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore (the book form) to check out some of the information and images in the book. I bookmarked a few interesting, though disturbing, pages as I was flipping through. Here are some of the images I gathered...

This image shows the United States' contribution to Global Warming, while all of Europe combined contributes 27.7% and Africa only contributes 2.5%.

This is an image of the diminishing appearance of Lake Chad. 40 years ago it was the size of Lake Erie, but now it has shrunk to about one twentieth of its original size creating a desperate situation in areas like Darfur.

This image depicts the melting of the Larson-B Ice Shelf. This transformation occurred within less than a year.

One of the more interesting facts I found in the book was this: "Flooding in Asia has increased dramatically. IN July 2005, Mumbai, India, received 37 inches of rain in 24 hours... Water levels reached 7 feet. The death toll in western India reached 1000." This and many more facts about crazy weather incidences, such as there being so many hurricanes in 2005 that they had to use the Greek alphabet for the naming of them for the first time ever, that the often rejected theory of Global Warming seems to have to be fact.

I just found this video on youtube and thought it showed the huge focus of our generation on environmental issues.

On a more serious note, I think this video is very well done, and presents some valid points.

In closing, I have an interesting quote from "An Inconvenient Truth":
"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences." -Winston Churchill, 1936

My Second Goal Choice:
Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

In high school I was a member of “Arrowhead Against Extreme Poverty� (Arrowhead was my high school). I helped put on events to raise money for local hunger fighting organizations. The posters we put together to influence people were very moving and since then I have always had a passion for the fight.

Influential Songs:
1) “Richard Cory� Simon & Garfunkel- This is a story that illustrates the organization of many working lives. I love the oldies, and this one is great.
2) “If There’s a God in Heaven (What’s He Waiting For)� Elton John- A great description of the painful events that happen to those living in poverty every day.

3) “God Save Us All� Lenny Kravitz- This is a rather desperate cry for help, though very well done. With lyrics like “There’s too much poverty, sickness, There’s pain and strife, why aren’t we trying to improve this thing called life?�

When I went to youtube to look for videos on extreme hunger, I knew there would be a plethora. The most prevalent were from the One foundation to end extreme poverty. The videos are highly viewed and appear on television regularly. Here is an example:

Images of extreme poverty and hunger are always disturbing and moving. There has been no one single image that has affected my feelings towards extreme poverty and hunger, but rather the accumulation of all the images we see over time. They should be forever engraved in our minds.

The most moving quotes regarding hunger and poverty, for me, come from the mouths of those personally suffering from poverty. It is not the commercials begging you to send money and save the lives of the kids they have standing in the background, who are probably only crying because a scary man shoved his huge camera into their face. It is the personal interviews with these people that really get me.

I joined "One: The Campaign to Make Poverty History" and you can too. Invite your friends. Here is the letter you can send out:

Subject: Join me in fighting poverty!

Hi,

I've just signed the ONE Declaration committing myself to help fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty.

I'm asking you to make that commitment, too, by adding your voice.

I think your name belongs on that declaration, too. You can put it there by visiting:

http://www.one.org/declare/

ONE is a new effort by Americans to rally Americans - one by one. So far, over two million have signed the declaration in support of a historic pact for compassion and justice to help the poorest people of the world.

Together as ONE we can make a difference!

Thanks!

My Third Goal Choice, though not required, it is very important to me:
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

My song choices for this Goal are quite different than the others, rather than the songs being on my side, I chose songs that are the distinct opposite of empowering women. For example:
1) “Livin’ it Up� Ja Rule- I could NOT believe what I was reading when I saw the lyrics to this song, I don’t feel it is kosher to put the lyrics on this blog. Look it up yourself if you feel the need. It is terrible.
2) “Fuck Dat Bitch� 50 Cent- Or any other song by Mr. Fiddy. I’m not a fan.
There are many other examples, and by no means are these two artists the only guilty ones. I realize that this part of culture now, but really? Women fought so long for equality and I feel it slipping away, even in this our “great country.�

More serious issues of the inequality of women occurs outside of the United States, however. I recently went to see the “Vagina Monologues� put on by MPIRG on campus where all the proceeds went to aid women escaping prostitution. They also addressed the issue of Female Genital Mutilation which occurs in many traditions to preserve the virginity of women before marriage. The castration occurs around the age of 5 on all girls in the community. Should they refuse it, their family will be shamed forever.

Very powerful…
Similarly, tradition stands in the way of the progression of women in Iraq, Afghanistan and many other countries. When looking into Iraqi women’s issues I found out about a woman who is one of the six women in an Iraqi governmental position. She and her family had to go into hiding and her children haven’t left their new compound in five months for fear of what might happen to them. She said “It’s not very happy what we have seen in the last two years, hundreds of women kidnapped, trafficked and the rest of the millions are being oppressed and pushed back into the houses…� She was photographed burning her veil and is now on the top of the hit lists for many Islamic groups. They want to stop her radical views.
Again, in Afghanistan similar issues arrive. Afghani women struggle to get education, where it is viewed that if they are educated they will lose interest in keeping a proper household. I was looking for images and came across RAWA.org, which stands for “Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.� The photos on this sight are beyond disturbing and I had a hard time choosing any that I felt comfortable posting on my blog. Here are a few:

References:
Gore, Al. An Inconvenient Truth. Emmaus: Rodale, 2006.

"Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)." RAWA. 17 Feb. 2008. 17 Feb. 2008 .

"The Campaign to Make Poverty History." One. 17 Feb. 2008. 17 Feb. 2008 .

Youtube. 17 Feb. 2007. 17 Feb. 2008 .

Posted by Allison Prange at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So I have been looking into the UROP project opportunities and today I met with Professor Ann Ziebarth who works in the Housing Studies Department on the St. Paul Campus. I saw that she was working on some housing projects and so I emailed her asking if I might be able to be an undergrad researcher for her. I went to her office hours and she began to talk about her projects, past present and future. One is involving the livability of communities with regards to the "walkability" and accessibility of neighborhood necessities. They would collect data by way of personal impressions as well as surveys of current residents. The twist is that they will then compare their findings in St. Paul to the findings of another research group in Vancouver and maybe even swap researchers for a while. Differences should be found due to the nature of the laws in the two areas. In Vancouver the laws are mandatory, whereas in St. Paul they are less strictly enforced.

Another project she has been involved in does research among a Mexican migrant worker population in South Minneapolis. They need affordable housing for varying amounts of time. The original architect (though nothing was built because funding fell through) went in thinking he was going to be very culturally sensitive and wanted to build housing according to their culture and style. Howevre, it turns out they just wanted their housing to fit in to the area they were living and not stick out like a sore thumb. They have been trying to develop housing in a subdivision, affordably, with possible apartment spaces that could be subleased if they had a 4-6 month job obligation. Many who are migrant workers go some months without work, so that must come into consideration and yet it must also flow with the area and be welcoming to both the Mexican style and possible other cultures who would take the places once the jobs were over. Very interesting.

Other project ideas she had included analyzing the effects zoning has on the growing issue of affordability and encouraging people to move to new locations. She was also interested in analyzing the environmental footprint of particular buildings and dealing with the sustainability issue, though she admitted she may not be the person to talk to on this issue.

However, after chatting with her about her very interesting projects she had going on, she questioned my interest in architecture asking literally, "Are you sure you want to be an architect?" I was a bit shaken... what if I don't? She suggested to me a housing studies major, which I had never heard of. It seems very interesting and I was quite confused when I left her office. I thought I was so sure about architecture. I talked it out with an ex-architecture student friend of mine and decided that architecture really is what I want to do. However, I find that my current, and recently declared, art minor is not at all what I am most interested in. Yes, I LOVE art, and yes I love to make art, but I can continue that anywhere really. I want a really really good education, to say the least. So I am now planning on switching my art minor to either a housing studies minor or an urban studies minor, along with my current spanish minor. Confused? Me too....

Allison Prange = Architecture major (BA) + Urban Studies Minor + Spanish Minor

I think, though I am going to let this settle for a while before jumping into it. I am interested in the cultural and environmental aspect of architecture and I think this would be an awesome way to accommodate my interests. So there you have it... I almost had a panic attack today though. Still not sure about UROP... we'll see. Maybe next semester? I think working with Ozayr would be awesome... but again, we'll see.

Posted by Allison Prange at 7:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Let me preface this by saying that I love the Twin Cities, Minneapolis in particular and I would never ever wish harm on them… but I do have some issues. Ok so here’s the dish that I have with Minneapolis: Would it really be that difficult to have the streets running North, South, East and West? Really? Every time I go into Minneapolis I get completely thrown off, and honestly, ask anybody I have traveled with, I have a damn good sense of direction. It takes a lot to throw me off. I am a sailor (in case you didn’t catch that from the blog title) and I have been in the middle of some pretty big, unfamiliar, lakes with little indication on the distant shorelines of placement in the water and I have gotten back without an issue every time. So for real, I’m awesome when it comes to direction. So somebody messed up.

I just looked up the history of Minneapolis and though the Dakota Sioux were its original inhabitants, the French arrived sometime around 1680. I bet they set up the original street system, that would explain a lot. I even looked up the invention date of the first compass, technically around 1300 but it has prehistoric linkage, so that is no excuse. I understand that the streets run along the river, but no river in the world runs perfectly N-S at all points. My solution? Check out my drawing. See, I am even open to having a street that runs along the river, in fact, it might be a nice addition to the city. Kind of glamorizes the river. I might even be open to having a diagonal road or two to add some spice to it, you know? Radical huh? But honestly, it would make a lot of people’s lives a lot easier.

Along with the topsy turvy streets comes the problem of street naming, you can’t do the whole North 4th St. thing when you have totally skewed how north and south work. Don’t lie, and don’t cheat, especially when it makes my life more difficult. If you (I am speaking to Minneapolis of course) want to have streets without a clear sense of direction you’re going to have to face the consequences. Then again, putting “south-east-ish� onto a street sign may not be entirely professional. The funny thing is more than half of the city has got the north south thing down. The actual “downtown� part of the city, though, is totally askew! The overall nomenclature of the city is really weird. For instance, Uptown is actually very close the being straight west of downtown. Who wouldn’t assume it was north?

And what would a problematic street system be without a problematic busing system? Admittedly, public transportation is awesome, coming from a small town it is something I could have never imagined. But for the sake of the inexperienced out of towners, could we make it a little easier to understand, and perhaps a bit more new/infrequent user friendly? Slightly more descriptive route explanations would be beneficial. The internet is a wonderful thing but it does not do one the courtesy of stating ALL the essential information. Sure it gives you the bus number and the street corner. Here’s the deal: every city corner has at least two bus stops on it. If not two, there are four! WHICH BUS STOP? And for that matter, which direction, which brings me back to the nomenclature. Uptown- not actually up. Downtown- not actually down. North Minneapolis- askew. Come on now….

This may not seem to be a social design issue, but it certainly is not welcoming to social activity. Okay, the city itself is very welcoming, and I love it. Perhaps the word I am searching for is conducive. It is not conducive to social activity. It took me ages to get even slightly comfortable with the tilted streets, and I am still not entirely knowledgeable about them. But, as my brother says, any flaw of any kind just give people and things character. Maybe the streets are this perfect city’s one flaw, and, therefore, its character.

Though I know this problem cannot be fixed without ripping down and tearing up every building and street in downtown Minneapolis, I think system could be developed to aid travelers. For instance, a periodic pole with arrows pointing to general areas in the city "Uptown ->" "North Minneapolis ->" Or even a compass rose every so often just to help people get their bearings. It could be designed nicely to be rather decorative. The signs could bring an old world feel to some ultra modern city corners. They could mirror the decorative signs already in place in places like Nicollet Mall and be a connecting "design string" through the city. I am not suggesting a huge project here Minneapolis, and yet it would make a HUGE difference. Think on it.

Posted by Allison Prange at 11:52 PM | Permalink

So this past Saturday I decided to go out to lunch with my future roommate and her mother as she had had a huge hand in searching for apartments over winter break, being that I was in Wisconsin, and I wanted to to thank her first hand. So we went to the classic Dinkytown favorite, Annie's. I ordered a scrumptious cheeseburger and a chocolate mint malt and we got to talking. She is a a school teacher and so I was describing to her the endeavor I would be having on Monday with my trip to Cityview. She asked where it was and I said it was in North Minneapolis. Well, she gave me quite the look! She went on to explain that she had worked at a high school in North Minneapolis for a few years and frequently came home crying. Great. So, of course, I went home very nervous. I know very little about the city, but I figured that considering Cityview is a school for younger children it couldn't be THAT bad... right? I'm pretty good at talking myself into being comfortable with new and different situations.

So Monday came rolling around and I planned out what to wear, no jeans at Cityview. I packed as little as possible in my backpack considering I would be going right from class and I was off. I met Julia Fillingame at the bus stop and I had the bus route all planned out, written down, and carefully studied (I have had one too many bad experiences with the Minneapolis busing system). We took the 16 to 4th St. and 4th Ave. We hopped on the 22C, all without incident and we arrived painlessly at Cityview (painless for me at least, Julia had heels on). We went in and were escorted to an office there where we were quickly labeled as the new volunteers. We signed in and went to the cafeteria were a group of about 40 rambunctious kids quickly arrived for snack time. I must say I was a bit overwhelmed at this point. While admiring the interactions of the kids, the ACES director for the school came up to our group of Architecture volunteers and asked who was feeling strong, not physically, but you know. Julia and I were most vocal so he chose us. He explained that David's group (I think his name was David) was kinda crazy and had some pretty outgoing kids. We were up for anything. Soon we were led from the cafeteria to a classroom. I felt like one of the kids when we were walking single file up to the room. There, the kids sat down and were instructed to get out there homework, and of course everyone denied having any. With a little coercion I convinced my table to get going. Within a short amount of time Travis, Je'Nee and Sophia were warming up to me. We did their reading homework first and quickly moved on to spelling. When Sophia asked me how to spell sentimental I spelled it correctly but got nervous and thought "c-e-n... no definitely s-e-n... man am I rusty." Travis and Je'Nee were getting competitive so I decided to have a competitive spelling test between the two. It was great to see their enthusiasm.

Then came free time in the gym. We played with jump ropes, basketballs and just ran around. It was AWESOME. Though I only spent two hours with the kids, I really felt a connection to them, and I think they felt the same. It was an awesome experience and I can't wait to go back next week! All-in-all North Minneapolis has got a bad rep... or maybe I just wasn't in the right part.... how should I know?

Posted by Allison Prange at 9:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have been noticing an overwhelming trend in old pictures of architects, all male mind you, of the guy sitting thoughtfully with his legs crossed and a cigar in one hand... Some day very soon I am going to have a picture taken of me like this. Cigar and all.... For only then will I truly be an architect.

Posted by Allison Prange at 6:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Posted by Allison Prange at 8:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Upon looking into some of the statements Andy Goldsworthy has made, his obvious focus is always the social and interactive aspect of nature in its purity and simplicity. One of the most powerful statements, in regards to the architecture of buildings versus nature, is from an article in April of 2007 in Time Magazine. Goldsworthy stated, "...a building no matter how beautiful is a dead space compared to the outside, and it takes whereas ephemeral work gives." This statement describes a particular form of architecture which is contructed with complete awareness of its surroundings, which should include the community, the physical form of the land around it, and the overall effect the construction will have on the surrounding area. Though this extrapolation of Goldsworthy's quote may seem to be a stretch in order to serve my own point, the overall effect of it serves to Goldsworthy's point. It is not the contruction that makes a building or an environment, but the interaction it has with it's city. For exmaple, though the relatively new Minneapolis Public Library designed by Cesar Pelli is built breathtakingly inside, the imprint it leaves on the community is outside of the building along with its interactivity with the community. The cantilevering projects the buildings presence and yet it melds itself with the spectacular scene that is Nicollet Mall. Additionally, the traffic of the public around and into the building is what really makes it flow with the city. (see photo)

Goldsworthy also stresses his knkowledge of the history and of the energy given by the land. In his home town near Yorkshire, he feels the effect the farms have had on the environment. The "secondary woods" are signs of the previous fields that once covered the hillsides. When planning the future buildings and layouts the energy of an area is always evaluated. For instance "charm," as portrayed in the historic riverfront in Minneapolis, is achieved in maintaining a true, though admittedly cheesy, stance on the past use of the area, while power and intimidation is emitted from the skyscrapers of
the Minneapolis skyline.

Another form of energy to be considered in cities, towns, plazas, or any place with a special name that just means it has been developed on, is th literal use of energy in daily life. Now more than ever before our society is turning to environmentally friendly alternatives to our generally wasteful lifestyles. I went to see Barack Obama speak on Saturday at the Taret Center and one of the more loudly cheered for campaign plans was a focus on bettering our rapidly depleting natural resources and our plummeting environmental status. Obama challenged the next generation to donate their time to service in order to facilitate the improvement of our society and environment. Already, our generation has demonstrated a greater amount of community service and volunteer hours than most, if not all, past generations. Whether this increase in desire for service comes from the ridiculously skyrocketing standards of University Admissions offices, or an honest desire to help out and chip in doesn't matter. The point is we have a chance to change the world.

Now that I have completely deviated from the orignal question, I will return to address the final point Goldsworthy works toward in his pieces: Transformation. The basis of all Goldsworthy's pieces is to transform seemingly useless and mundane objects found throughout nature to create powerful, unexpected and original works of art. Similarly, architecture takes dilapidated buildings or even areas of cities and reconstructs them to invite new traffic and use. Architects can transform forgotten corners of cities into new attractions such as Bayshore Mall near Milwaukee which tranformed a rarely traveled to place into one of the more highly frequented locations in the area. One of the newest transformations occuring throughout the field of architecture along with many cities, especially those affected by the hurricane in the south, is an emphasis on creating buildings from reused resources inexpensively: a transformation in need of a green thumb.

In conclusion, I should say that I love Goldsworthy's work. Ever since we learned about him in my Freshman seminar, "Art in the Mix and Making," last semester he has really excited me and inspired me a lot. Also, I would just like to mention, I know the Obama picture isn't of great quality, but I took that picture myself. Yes I was there... jealous?

Posted by Allison Prange at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)