So, it's pretty cold here. In fact, it's about 70 degrees colder here with the windchill. Anyhow, during my time back, I'm planning on presenting my semester plan as well as meet up with Renee Cheng, our Head of Architecture and shore up stuff for the graduate journal. Real updates may be more sparse, but I'm going to supplement it with stuff from my thesis research document to keep the public informed. Also, I am closing in on the record for wins in a coaching career in NCAA Football 2004. I'll keep y'all informed.
As it stands: 327 Career Wins
Needed: 337, 10 wins left
**EXCERPT**
"Without the container, there would be no globalization".
The Economist, March 18, 2006
The building block for the conceptual basis of the thesis, it has been called many things in the history since its inception. At its most basic, it is 20’ or 40’ x 8.5’ x 8’ and comprised of aluminum or steel usually containing a wooden decking. At its most detailed it is the single most responsible reason for the global economy as we know it today.
The question that this thesis will continue to pose is “what else can it be”? This includes the re-engineering of the shipping container to include a possible second life of housing or infrastructure. The next question that gets asked is “why a shipping container”? Perhaps a better question is “why not a shipping container?” but I wanted to investigate why someone would view something of a more traditional character in a more positive light.
What can you do with a pre-manufactured house that you can’t do with a shipping container?
I got up this morning with a couple things in mind that I needed to get done before my flight out at 1:55pm. Fortunately, I got all but one of them completed. Saturdays are somewhat free-for-alls around Hands-On as well as the studio guys and gals.
Today most were going to be working on St. Louis, but Matt decided that he would be a swell guy and help me out by driving me around to do some photo documentation and then drop me in Gulfport at the airport.
Stop 1: The Frank Gehry designed George Orr Museum (or what is left of it)
We totally lucked out when we drove by the new museum which was under construction when Katrina hit. Consisting of a number of buildings, the Orr/O'Keefe Museum's gates were open so Matt and I took that as an invitation to go and explore. It was amazing to see what happened to the project and a sort of strange, living building (sans inhabitants). During the storm, moors broke free from one of the casino barges and actually ran aground, slid across the beach, four lanes of Hwy.90 and into the building closest to the shore. The funny thing with Gehry is that I'm not sure the exoskeleton would have looked that much different if not for the debris littering the site. We joked about it for a while as we climbed around inside of the buildings and checked out some of the detailing and what not strewn around the grounds. We had a scare when a local came out of his house on his phone, but all was good as we ended up shooting him a wave on our way out. No word on when or if the museum is going to be restarted.
Stop 2: Goodbyes at St.Louis
This was the one I didn't really want to make, but it was good to know that people were excited to have me back as soon as possible. I also drove by a couple of interesting things. One was a house which had the porch supports knocked out and fell down which had been fixed up and and the porch roof jacked back up.
The second is a building right next to the site for an AFH house which will be going up in the near future. It's this little old car repair shop with two stalls, a small backyard and a space inside with two huge windows facing Division Street. It made me think of Alchemy Architects digs back in the Twin Cities. The best part is, it's for sale. I think I'd like to inquire, if only for fun to see what something like that would go for.
We also drove by Al and Ruby's to check on the ramp. They weren't home, but I'll drop by and shoot the shit with Al next time I'm in town. Their house looks like it's in really good shape, so I hope they're close to moving in.
Stop 3: Bay St. Louis and the Laundry Shed
I hadn't had a chance to get back to Bay St. Louis in the day yet, so we ventured back out there and drove along the coast which was DEPRESSING. We went for minutes without seeing something besides a FEMA trailer or blown out supports for beach houses. We got a chance to drive around some of the interior neighborhoods and I must say those looked really good, but the coast is still really messed up in the smaller towns that got hit along the coast.
We also tried finding the Laundry Shed that David Vilkama and Mark Lescher designed and built for Miss Kathy until we realized that while her mailbox was still there, the shed and her FEMA trailer were not... weird. I'll have to ask Cameron or Kate about that one.
Stop 4: Lunch
Matty and I grabbed some lunch at this great place in Bay St. Louis on the way back towards the airport called Los Tres Amigos. Needless to say, it was Mexican food and great Mexican food at that. After that I was ready to roll to the airport and we had to step on it.
Stop 5: Airport
I got there in plenty of time, but without any cash or a bag for my pomade, I had to throw that away. They are rebuilding/adding on to their modest airport in Gulfport and it's actually quite a nice little design with huge glass arcs that form a sort of light hangar aesthetic. I dug it. Anyhoo, the jump to Atlanta is around an hour and then a 3.5 hour skip back across the time-line to Minneapolis where my folks picked me up at the Humphrey Terminal which I prefer a good deal over Lindbergh. Anyhow, we grabbed some chow and here I am, back in the frozen north... one week later, 50 degrees colder. More tomorrow.
Well, I lost this entry because of some date changing issues, but I'll try and get it back in working order...
Tonight we went out to S & B's Seafood shack in Waveland, which is 20 miles west of Biloxi or so. Cameron brought our crew from Minnesota when we came last March so I was eager to dig into some more crawfish...the only problem? Crawfish aren't in season for another month.
Instead we settled for a whole mess of shrimp among other delicious dishes such including catfish, corn nuggets, and roast beef cheese fries (oh yeah, baby!).
Our two servers Jessica and Raquel were awesome and we all had a great time. I think we were the only people in the place except for a family of four and a couple of dudes watching basketball at the bar.
Anyhow, between Derek's explanation of the game "Big Booty" another game called the Moose Game, and general hijinx we all had a great laugh.
Also, mad props to Shana for her shrimp carcass structure. It made me cry it was so beautiful. :)
Who would want to leave a place like this? Not me.
Today we got a tour and "intro" to Biloxi and the surrounding coast from David Perkes following the introduction to Construction Methodology class. We started off near the site of one of the oldest buildings on the coast which was nestled in right among the live oaks which are supposedly over 400 years old. Needless to say, it didn't last through Katrina, but it was a great bit of siting. The way the site wrapped the structures into its little enclave is fantastic, such a feeling of safety. Also, the idea that the trees existed and we built around them essentially creating the tree-lined street organically despite the fact that many developments are now planned with that in mind. Fantastic.
There was a little sign that survived the hurricane that said "form line here for next tour". It is amazing what survives.
After rolling around Biloxi, we headed to DeLisle, another one of the towns that is not pronounced in the south as it would be up north (Kiln being the other of note, being pronounced: "kill"...don't ask me). Anyhow, in DeLisle which is about 15 miles west along the coast from Biloxi there is this amazing community center designed by Shop Architects as well as a secondary building housing a laundromat and a public help center for getting rebuilding funds laid out in a dogtrot style designed and (partially) built by students at the Parsons School of Design.
We had lunch in the Shop building which sports an amazing porch fronting a small cafe, a book store, and a couple of other small shops. I split a shrimp po-boy and a bowl of seafood gumbo with Chandler and they were both amazing. I also had my first opportunity to get some sweet tea and took advantage of that with gusto.
For the rest of the afternoon we drove around in Pass Christian (pronouced chris-chee-anne, not christ-ian) and saw the work that Home Again is doing with pre-fab housing. It is strange to see homes which do not belong ten to twelve feet in the air ten to twelve feet in the air. It is especially strange when you see houses that still use materials that are compressive in nature which appear in a way that contradicts their nature (pictured below).
Today we woke up to a bit of fog and the charge of finishing up some 'rocking, plywood, and framing in the two back doors in the East Biloxi Coordination Center where the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio will soon be calling home. Chandler, Sam, and I worked on the framing of the doors. Nothing too exciting here. We got them almost all the way framed in and then closed up shop for the evening.
Thursday night is talent night at Hands-On with many people performing. I'm not sure what we're going to do, but we all decided that we should do something on a regular basis. Tonight, as far as I saw (before we headed out to the pub for some darts) was Falcon singing, and this other guy, who I believe was named Mike reading this really great story about his experience as part of a support group called "Living in the 21st Century". Some of that hits home, it's a strange and wonderful time to be alive.
Finally, a big shout out to my Mom who has her birthday today. Hey Mom :)
Today was pretty low key. Since the classes really kick off in a more official capacity next week, the studio had a work day today on the space that the Gulf Coast Community Design Center is moving into soon. I stayed around base camp and finished the final re-write of my article for my graduate school's student-run design journal and did some other various jobs for that before updating the blog with pictures and then heading out back to clean up and out the second army tent in order to put down a bunch of shipping palettes as a sub-floor. As it turns out a couple people came back early to do that since I had planned to borrow a car and go take some pictures today but I forgot to ask Derek for his keys. As it turns out they were sitting right on his pillow. *sigh* Anyhow, I hope to get back out with the crew tomorrow and then enjoy a tour of Biloxi and the surrounding cities on the gulf on Friday. I'll have some more pictures of Hands-On and the palettes up later tonight...
Total Pancakes eaten: 17 (it was a big day)
Current Pancake King: Me
Today was the first day of real "class" if you will for the studio and I am going to be tagging along with them when I am in town. We met over at the Gulf Coast Community Design Center's current digs and met their small staff then made the long trip 5 blocks down Division Street in East Biloxi to the space which they are in the process of moving into.
We did a little insulating in the new space during the afternoon to help out before heading over to the Mississippi State Coastal Research Facility to talk about the semester's schedule and the allocation of class and non-classtime. I also got a chance to check out the shipping container situation a bit and got up close and personal with one over on Lee Street near where we eat lunch.
Gulf Coast Community Design Center Staff:
David Perkes, Director, Professor at Mississippi State
Christine Gaspar, Professor, MIT Alumni
Lucille, case worker
Jesse, Auburn
Kristin, Americorps, Penn State
Jody, University of Minnesota Alumni
Brandon, Boston Architectural Center
Gulf Coast Community Design Studio Roster:
University of Minnesota:
Sam Carlsen
Della Hansmann
Omar Hakeem
Shana Payne
Peter "Petey Pablo" Pelto
Matt Huntress
Derek Petersen
Mississippi State:
Connor
Scott
Chandler
Auburn:
Nadine
Boston Architectural Center:
Brandon
After dinner I got some work done and then we played the game Boulderdash with the boys from MS. Good Times. Oh yeah, pancakes for breakfast today... who's the king? I'm the King.
Total Pancakes Eaten: 11 (there were a couple left over from Della's house that I ate previous to this morning)
Current Pancake King: Me
Today was a day to set up our stuff and get oriented, or re-oriented in my case. We helped Hands-On, our hosts while we do our semester down here, consolidate some of their possessions and put down some shipping pallets underneath a really nice army tent and then set up our own two-person tents inside the larger tent forming our own cozy little dormitory.
After we did that and picked up Shana from the airport we had an opportunity to explore. Biloxi is still suffering from Katrina and it outrages me that we are not only throwing away money and lives in Iraq, but that the budget for Mississippi for rebuilding after Katrina is... about 7 Billion. I think I read a figure that said that's what we spend in Iraq... every ONE TO TWO WEEKS. This is plainly unacceptable. Anyhow, I'll try not to get on the soap box too often, but that figure is too staggering. I'll try to illustrate the state of things with some pictures over the next couple of days.
On a positive note, today was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Biloxi plays home to the second largest parade aside from Atlanta, GA in the nation. There were three college bands and a high school band who also played in a "Battle of the Bands" at the end of the parade route. One band played "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley... awesome. It was amazing to see everyone from the community as well as tons of people from the surrounding area participating and enjoying the parade. Hands-On: Biloxi had a float and some of the volunteers walked in the parade.
We decided to go out that night once Omar, the last of the studio crew got into town to the pub down street a block called... wait for it... The Pub! Anyhow, a couple of brews with the locals and had a pretty good time. We dropped by the night before and it was Kaye, the bartendress' birthday so we had some cake and hob-nobbed with the three guys in the studio from Mississippi State. They kicked our butts in darts, but are great and funny guys (Chandler, Scott, and Connor) and are all in their 4th of 5 years in Undergrad at Mississippi State.
We got into Biloxi yesterday. Saturday we drove from Minneapolis, MN to Madison, WI to join up with the last member of our road trip entourage and grab a little breakfast. We arrived at Della's parents house and were treated to some amazing pancakes, eggs, and all sorts of other good stuff. We loaded up, I grabbed my stuff from Sam and Matt's car, hopped in Della's new car: Fred, and continued down to Memphis, TN.
Along the way, Della and I were chatting as we rolled down I-90 towards Chicago and totally missed the cutoff towards Memphis for I-39. In our defense, we both tried to remind one another not to forget to turn off since we frequently drive to Chicago that way, but oh well. Along with a unusually long stop from Matt and Sam for dinner we battled back into the lead position heading towards Memphis.
Luckily we missed most of the bad weather and only had to contend with a bit of rain Saturday night and a bit of Sunday. After passing by the King's house and seeing his jet, the Lisa Marie in the front yard while listening to 'Graceland' by Paul Simon, we truly felt like we had hit the south.
Total Miles Traveled Saturday: 933 (probably around 900 without the detour!)
SUNDAY
We all bunked in together in a Colonial Inn & Suites just off of I-55 which was, judging from the scattered Motel 8 paraphernalia, formerly a Motel 8. Anyhow, we got a good night of sleep, hit the showers and then rolled over to the local International House of Pancakes (IHOP) where we found out that they had All-You-Can-Eat Pancakes, Eggs, and your choice of Bacon or Sausage for 4.99. Jackpot. It was here we decided that we are going to keep track of the pancakes we eat this semester and have a competition. The leader will be referred to as the Pancake King. Ahh, Memphis. Matt Huntress got my by one, so he is the inaugural Pancake King. Very Nice. Back to I-55, our Sunday was on its way.
Total Pancake Count: 5
Pancake King: Matt
We rolled into Biloxi in the late afternoon around 4:30 and unpacked and set up for the night. There are a bunch of people down here over their winter breaks and a couple of other groups so we are in tents for the first couple of weeks. In Minnesota it would be a problem, in Biloxi it is 65 degrees. Camp Out at Hands On!
Are you able to keep the enthusiasm about the shipping container for another whole year?
That is the question that was asked of me last spring and over the next couple of months, I thought long and hard about it. I honestly wasn’t sure. I had just finished a semester long investigation of exploring the shipping container’s feasibility in producing ecologically-minded affordable housing prototypes. While I had not explored every possibility, I had completed a fairly exhaustive investigation and I think I was ready to move forward. After all, that’s what we do as designers. We work on a project, and then another, and another, and we take from each a little piece of knowledge that we add to our design bank to make the next design that much better.
So, I decided to think about my thesis in terms of my strengths. I know that I can speak well. I know that I can write well. Certainly, a nice theoretical piece such as “Architecture as Palimpsest” or “Linguistic Tectonics of Design” would be an appropriate choice.
It was at this point that a confluence of three things occurred. One quote, one conversation, and one shipping container convinced me that another year to explore the shipping container was exactly the opportunity I needed.
The first was a quote from Albert Camus,
“Those who lack courage will always find a philosophy with which to justify it.”
The second was a conversation with Cameron Sinclair of Architecture for Humanity. In it he said,
“The difference between a good designer and a great designer is that a good designer has great ideas, but a great designer implements them.”
The final piece was a shipping container that was converted by a family member after she finished her graduate degree in Architecture at MIT. It was simple, elegant, and nestled into the Texas prairie landscape in a way which reinvigorated my desire to work with the shipping container for my thesis and explore the connection that it could have to a given location.
I decided that I could use my design strengths to enhance my design weaknesses.
I am not a great designer yet, but I do wish to be one.
I went to Biloxi, Mississippi nearly 10 months ago and I haven't been able to get it out of my head or heart. Seeing the Gulf Coast and the devastation last march changed my life. That is no way an understatement or an exaggeration. I don't know anyone who has actually gone down to the area and not be changed, or changed the way they think. I find it to be completely astounding that we can spend billions of dollars in Iraq and yet we still haven't found a way to allot funds to help rebuild in the Gulf Coast region. It sickens me to even think about the situation and the lack of action that has happened a year and a half later.
I am about to head down to Biloxi on the first of a number of visits to help to coordinate my thesis which focuses on rebuilding in Biloxi and finding a way to get design students and professionals to engage with the local communities to help in the rebuilding efforts. I will continue to update my weblog with a series of small informational pieces from my fall semester's research and case studies as well as update with photos and thoughts.
On a final note, if you haven't seen "When the Levees Broke: A Requim in Four Acts" by Spike Lee do so immediately. It will not be a pleasant experience, but you need to see it.
The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.
