Au Revoir, FEMA Trailer
Patty’s FEMA Trailer is gone, finally freeing up the corner of her lot. I’ve never seen the property without it and it makes a big difference. Check it out. More images:
Tax Day
It’s been quite a few days. The weekend was great — beautiful weather; haircut, bike shopping, Mockingbird Cafe and Rock Band in Bay St. Louis on Saturday; brunch at Jessie’s, football on the beach, and bad movie fest with Will and Jesse on Sunday. (Ninja Condors 13, Yor, the Hunter from the Future, and Fantasy Mission Force, if you’re curious). Now it’s cold – down to 48 tonight – and work is getting pretty intense as we prepare for the second Oak Street community meeting tonight. It should be a pretty good session as we get down and dirty with …
Boston & Structures for Inclusion Part 2
This is mostly a picture post – click below for more! I also wanted to quickly elaborate on some of the themes that came out of the conference: Top-down vs. bottom-up: There was a lot of discussion about top-down (centralized) versus bottom-up (grassroots) approaches to planning and architecture. One strong point of view held that bottom-up work best engages the community and produces the most useful results. However, I think a large number of people also realized that architects and planners are uniquely able to mediate between top-down and bottom-up approaches. This theme came out in Teddy Cruz’s talk as …
Boston & Structures for Inclusion
Structures for Inclusion was AMAZING. The conference was eye-opening for a lot of people. It was certainly the first conference of its kind to take place at Harvard, and the students at the GSD put a lot of effort into setting it up and making it run smoothly. We had a great representation from Biloxi: nine from the GCCDS, three from Architecture for Humanity, five Mississippi State students, one Minnesota student, and one Hands On volunteer. I finally met the other Design Corps Fellows: Betsy Ramaccia, Megan Clark, Eric Goldman, Jared Hueter, and Ella Scheuer. We more or less got …
Going to Boston!
I’m very excited about going to Boston tonight for the Structures for Inclusion conference this weekend. Biloxi is sending a large contingent — 9 from our studio, 3 from Architecture for Humanity, and 6 students. I’ll report back — and I may even have a new camera, as my old one is broken.
Hoxie Street Update 2
http://www.gccds.org/buildings/lendell/lendell.html Yay first new house built!
Hoxie Street Update
It has been a week or two since I last walked around the inside of Lendell’s house, and a lot has changed. It looks like an actual house now! Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia has been doing great work, and it looks like they’re doing subcontractor trim-outs, bringing in furniture, and getting ready to finish up. Everything seems to be working out well. I particularly like the kitchen clerestory window space (above).
Rosetti – landscape
An update on the landscaping at Patty’s house for Sergio & students and anyone else interested. We roughly distributed several tons of fill dirt and gravel and created a front walk leading up to the concrete stair landing. There is some gravel left for the parking space (to the right, out of the frame) which we will spread out after Mississippi Power digs the trench for the power line.
Structures for Inclusion 8
SFI 8: SYSTEMS FOR INCLUSION April 4-6, 2008 | Cambridge, MA Design Corps, in association with Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, announces the eighth offering of the annual Structures for Inclusion (SFI) conference series. Entitled “Systems for Inclusion,” SFI8 explores the interface of design and systemic social action: Can design(ers) challenge globally networked systems of exclusivity and inequality? What are the relationships between design and political power, economic and ecological sustainability, justice and community? Targeted at students and young professionals who want to move beyond a purely aesthetic discussion–who see landscape/architecture and urban planning/design as an integrative and interconnected …
Patty’s Dedication in Pictures
I promised pictures, and here they are: The completed stair, in-progress handrail, finished floors and cabinets, and of course the dedication Friday. We — Jason, Brian, Brandon, Richard, Mike, and I, as well as some great volunteers — put in a focused effort to get as much done as possible. With the help of Hands On friends — Emily, Ian, and Brian — we worked Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to disassemble the upper stair, build the lower stair, and begin the railing. Additionally, an energetic group from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro shoveled and raked several tons of …