allynwest
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Posts posted by allynwest
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I started a petition in support of the new Houston Bike Plan.
Here's the link: https://www.change.org/p/sylvester-turner-put-the-houston-bike-plan-into-action
Please sign and share!
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As Houstonians gather weekly at farmers markets and community gardens and urban farms sprout everywhere from corner lots to utility corridors to former industrial sites, the city seems host to a renewed passion for a habit of dwelling that feeds the spirit and the body. This spring, the Rice Design Alliance invites you to “Nourish,” a tour of six contemporary houses with edible gardens, created by architects, landscape architects, and designers. “If our kitchen is the heart of our house,” says tour chair and landscape architect Flora Yeh of Mirador Group, “our edible garden would be a nurturing extension. The homes on this tour share an integral theme, a way of life.”“Nourish: An Architecture Tour of Houses and Edible Gardens,” RDA’s 41st annual architecture tour, takes place from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 9, and Sunday, April 10. It features the following houses:4523 TeasNatalye Appel + Associates Architects, 2015Landscape: RH Factor3312 UniversityStrasser Design, 20162709 Albans1941; English + Associates Architects, 20101514 BanksLantz Full Circle, 20121603 Cherryhurst1922; GSMA, formerly Glassman Shoemake Maldonado Architects, Inc., 2009, 2013Landscape: Grove Hill Farm748 ArlingtonJay Baker Architects, 2003, 2012Landscape: Fischer Schalles
You can see more info at our website and buy tickets online.
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At a time when Houston has begun to reposition its bayous as an amenity, transforming them from the utility of drainage ditches into the beauty of hundreds of miles of connected linear parks with Bayou Greenways, and when the impending reconfiguration of the Pierce Elevated around Downtown presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to improve the city, the Rice School of Architecture and the Rice Design Alliance present Projective Infrastructures. Curated by Christopher Hight, Associate Professor of the Rice School of Architecture, this series will bring three internationally recognized landscape architects to help Houstonians continue to consider how the spaces between our buildings — our infrastructures — might be where the future health of our cities, and our citizens, will be found.Wednesday, January 27Chris ReedFounding Principal, STOSSAssociate Professor in Practice, Harvard Graduate School of DesignAmong many other projects, Reed’s firm STOSS designed a vision for the Trinity Riverfront, which combines commercial, residential, recreational, ecological, and environmental interventions to bring the river closer to the city, and the city closer to the river. He is also co-editor of a recent book of essays and drawings, Projective Ecologies.Wednesday, February 10Christophe GirotDirector, Atelier GirotProfessor and Chair of Landscape Architecture, ETH ZurichGirot designed Invaliden Park, Berlin, one of the first open public spaces between East and West Berlin, which was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in 2005.Wednesday, February 17Diana Balmori, FASLAPrincipal, Balmori AssociatesBalmori Associates has won a competition for a Cool Gardens that was installed in Winnipeg and has also launched a floating experimental vegetable garden in the Gowanus Canal, a Superfund site, in Brooklyn. Presently, the firm is a finalist in a competition to reprogram the space underneath a Downtown Cleveland elevated freeway.All lectures will be held at 7 p.m. in the Brown Auditorium in the Caroline Wiess Law Building at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. A pre-lecture reception will begin at 6 p.m. The MFA,H, is located at 1001 Bissonnet. No guaranteed seating for ticket holders after 6:50 p.m. Additional parking at the museum is available until 7p.m. for $6 in the museum garage located at the corner of Binz and Fannin Streets.Series Tickets:$20 – RDA, MFAH members$15 – Senior citizens 65 years and older$10 – Students with identification$35 – OthersSingle Tickets (upon availability, sold 30 minutes prior to the lecture)$7 – RDA, MFAH membersSenior citizens 65 years and olderStudents with identification$15 – OthersRDA will make special accommodations for anyone needing assistance to attend a lecture. A minimum of two weeks is appreciated. Call Mary Beth Woiccak, Assistant Director, Programs, at (713) 348-5583.
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The site visit for the charrette is this Saturday, July 25, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. We'll meet at 1003 Washington, where the new Big Brothers Big Sisters building will be. It's next to the Houston Permitting Center. The site's scraped right now.
Here's a link to the details and registration form: http://www.ricedesignalliance.org/2015/2015-design-charrette-11-a-plaza-for-the-new-big-brothers-big-sisters-hq/
Please send a PM if you have questions or want to participate!
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RDA's annual design charrette, 1:1: A Plaza for the New Big Brothers Big Sisters HQ, is scheduled for Saturday, August 1, at Hanszen College at Rice University.
Organized by rdAGENTS, this year’s charrette challenges participants to conceptualize a highly visible part of the new three-story headquarters, designed by Agency-Agency and now under construction on Washington Avenue, of Greater Houston Big Brothers Big Sisters. The leadership of BBBS has discussed with rdAGENTS the intention to continue working with the winning team to realize their design and incorporate it into the building.
Charrette participants will receive the full program detailing the challenge and presenting specific considerations when they arrive the morning of August 1. The competition will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Architects, designers, planners, developers, artists, and individuals in teams of up to five people are invited to participate. Fees range from $25 for RDA members and $35 for non-members and will cover the cost of breakfast, lunch, and refreshments throughout the day. Download the registration form here.
A site visit on Saturday, July 25, will precede the charrette. Participants will be able to tour the location and take photographs. The time and meeting place for the site visit will be announced at a later date. Results of the charrette will be on display and jurors will announce awards in Anderson Hall at a reception on Monday, August 3, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public.
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RDA's Spring 2015 Architecture Tour, afterWARDS: An Architecture Tour of Houston’s Wards and Beyond, features houses that both stand out from and speak back to the original character of the six wards. Chaired by Joe Meppelink and Brett Zamore, afterWARDS will take place Saturday, April 11, and Sunday, April 12, 2015, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.The tour features the following houses.
- 734 Tulane Street, Shade Development, 2008
- 2102 Francis Street, Brett Zamore Design, 2014
- 1217 Robin Street, Rodrigo Tovar, 2014
- 1515 Woodhead Street, pb elemental design, 2013
- 1507 Chestnut Street, kinneymorrow architecture, 2015
- 714/716 Sabine Street, Gottleib Eisele, 1872 and Murphy Mears, 2014
- 205 North St. Charles Street, CONTENT, 2014
RDA has organized tours every year since 1975 to help Houstonians experience firsthand the most interesting works of architecture and landscape and interior design in the city. Tours are open only to RDA members, but RDA membership is open to the public. RDA memberships begin at $45 and can be purchased during the tour at designated ticket-buying locations or in advance online and in person at the RDA office at Rice University. Memberships purchased March 1 through April 12 at the Student or Individual level include one complimentary tour ticket; memberships at the Household level and above include two complimentary tour tickets. Ticket prices for current members and their guests are $25, and there is a discounted $15 ticket for Student and Senior RDA members. Once you're a member, you can buy tickets online.
Presented in conjunction with the tour, RDA is hosting a free civic forum on the history of the wards, inWARDS: Reflections on Houston’s Wards. It will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on Tuesday, March 24. Moderated by architect Florence Tang, it will include presentations by the following panelists:
- Pat Jasper, Director of Folklife + Traditional Arts, Houston Arts Alliance
- Jim Parsons, Director, Special Projects, Preservation Houston
- Assata Richards, Ph.D., Director, Sankofa Research Institute; Community Liaison, Project Row Houses
- Gwendolyn Zepeda, writer, Houston Poet Laureate
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The Rice Design Alliance will accept applications from January 12 through April 6 to the 16th annual Initiatives for Houston grants program for students and faculty of the Rice School of Architecture, the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, the School of Architecture at Prairie View A&M University, and the Department of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University.RDA will make separate awards of up to $5,000 each to a student winner(s) and a faculty winner(s).
RDA's Initiatives for Houston program focuses on Houston’s built environment, its history, present condition, and future development. A variety of regional projects are considered, including historic research, speculative studies, problem-solving and planning projects, and documentary studies of the conditions of the city and its architecture. Proposals are evaluated for their potential to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the city and/or the region.Projects must describe a dissemination component, which can be in the form of a paper or manuscript, exhibit, video, or other presentation. In addition, the results of the project could be presented by the grantees in a public lecture or published in Cite: The Architecture + Design Review of Houston. Awards of up to $5,000 are available for projects to be completed in one year. More than one proposal in each category, student or faculty, can be funded. Past award-winning proposals are available for review in the architecture libraries of the participating schools.Our guest jurors this year: Leanna Gatlin, Senior Associate, Ziegler Cooper Architects; W. Mark Gunderson, AIA; Principal of W. Mark Gunderson, Architect, Fort Worth; John Hawkins, AIA, Partner, Porter Hedges LLP; Sheryl Kolasinski, Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer, Menil Collection; Susanne Theis, Programming Director, Discovery Green Conservancy.The total application must include:- Completed application
- A written proposal for the project (one to three pages), describing goals, expected outcomes, work plan, and schedule for the project, and a discussion of its significance. Applicants also should describe past work in the area of the proposed research
- Resume for each participant
- Students will need a faculty advisor and a letter of support
- A project budget (equipment such as computers, digital cameras, etc. may not be included)
Mail application and supporting materials to:Rice UniversityRice Design AllianceMS-51 P.O. Box 1892Houston, Texas 77251-1892The deadline for applications is April 6, 2015. Awards will be announced on May 4, 2015.
- Completed application
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In software design, a plug-in adds a specific feature to enhance or expand an existing application. The Rice School of Architecture/Rice Design Alliance Spring 2015 Lecture Series presents four speakers who strategically install a different cultural plug-in — material, social, economic, tectonic — to refresh our attitudes about architecture’s capabilities.
Curated by RSA Visiting Wortham Lecturer Tei Carpenter, Plug-Ins will feature the following four lecturers:
January 21
Markus Bader, Co-Founder, raumlabor
Reception sponsored by D.E. Harvey Builders
January 28
James Casebere, Artist
Reception sponsored by Berger Iron Works, LLC; Chamberlin Roofing & Waterproofing; and Marek Companies
February 11
Hilary Sample, Co-Founder, MOS Architects
Reception courtesy RDA
February 25
Keller Easterling, Professor, Yale School of Architecture
Reception sponsored by GenslerYou can purchase series tickets here.
All lectures are held at 7 p.m. in the Brown Auditorium at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, at 1001 Bissonnet Street. A wine reception, sponsored by local architecture, design, and engineering firms, will precede each lecture at 6 p.m. Tickets are available for purchase online or by mail.
Series Tickets:
$20 – RDA, MFA,H members
$15 – Senior citizens 65 years and older
$10 – Students with ID
$35 – Others
Single Tickets (as available, sold 30 minutes before the lecture)
$7 – RDA, MFA,H members
Senior citizens 65 years older
Students with ID
$15 – Others
These lectures are made possible by Pickard Chilton, Brochsteins, Cardno Haynes Whaley, D.E. Harvey Builders, Hines, Hines Southwest Region, Kendall/Heaton Associates, Planning Design Research Corporation, Satterfield & Pontikes Construction Inc., Walter P Moore, The Woodlands Development Company/The Howard Hughes Corporation, and the Corporate Members of the Rice Design Alliance. Sponsor support comes from Balfour Beatty Construction, Bury, HOK, McCarthy, TheOFIS Companies, Telios, Trammell Crow Company, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, and the Texas Commission on the Arts. -
@Subdude: Yep. It'll be curated, right there on the spot, shaped by the wit and cunning of our moderator. :-)
Basically, we wanted to put the artists/architects in a conversation on stage and see what would happen. It also changes the feel: audience members won't have to sit there and look at slides.
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Does anyone have any insight/info about whether the developers know about plans to raze the Pierce Elevated? Seems odd to squeeze a midrise building into such an armpit --- and a noisy one at that. But if the Pierce Elevated becomes a boulevard, as I've heard, then that changes things for this site.
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Our fall lecture series starts tomorrow night. There'll be a mix of architects, historians, artists, photographers; their creative work is speculative and tries to imagine what our cities and buildings will look like in the next 10, 15, 20 years.
This lecture series will have a different format from others. On Wednesday, October 1, Jean-Louis Cohen, an architectural historian and critic, will introduce the series and explore its themes.The next two weeks will feature a curated discussion between two artists. On Wednesday, October 8, Belgian photographer Filip Dujardin will be in dialogue with Oscar-nominated production designer K.K. Barrett (best known for his work with director Spike Jonze on such films as Her and Being John Malkovich).Finally, on Wednesday, October 15, British architect and curator Liam Young and Polish visual artist Agnieszka Kurant will continue the discussion.All lectures are held at 7 p.m. in the Brown Auditorium at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, at 1001 Bissonnet Street. A wine reception, sponsored by local architecture, design, and engineering firms, will precede each lecture at 6 p.m.You can purchase tickets for the series here. Or you can purchase single tickets the night of. They're $15 for the general public and $7 for RDA/MFAH members, students with ID, and seniors. -
The sixth annual SPOTLIGHT: The RDA Prize will be awarded at the Museum of Fine Arts on Tuesday, September 9, to Canadian firm 5468796, founded by Johanna Hurme and Sasa Radulovic.Please come! It's free and open to the public. There will be a wine reception in the museum foyer at 6 p.m.; the lecture will follow in the Brown Auditorium at 7 p.m.SPOTLIGHT, which comes with a cash prize and an invitation to lecture at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, recognizes architects and designers in the early years of their careers. “RDA truly believes 5468796 to be one of the most talented young design firms worldwide,” says Lonnie Hoogeboom, RDA Past President and Director of Planning and Design for the Houston Downtown Management District. “5468796 has been on our radar for a few years, and in that time their work and the recognition of their work has skyrocketed — and deservedly so.”The Winnipeg-based firm, founded in 2007, takes its name from its Canadian business registration number. The wit embodied in that choice is just one of the qualities recognized by Hoogeboom and the Spotlight Prize committee, comprising Rice School of Architecture professors John Casbarian and Carlos Jiménez and University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture professor Rafael Longoria: “We are mightily impressed with the caliber of architecture produced in just seven years,” says Hoogeboom. “[We] admire the breadth of design investigation, the elegance with which each element is rendered manually, digitally, or physically, and the broadening range of project types, from early-year single-family residences to complex multifamily assemblies to ‘jewel boxes’ in the urban landscape. Hurme and Radulovic are clearly building their young firm into an architectural practice of prominence and distinction.”Here are some photos of their work:
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A good first post. I'm looking forward to reading more.
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I posted this on Friday; it has photographs of the boards:
http://ricedesignalliance.org/2014/team-from-page-awarded-top-honors-at-2014-design-charrette/
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@Little Frau, this is the site where Hines is building that 25-story apartment tower.
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Thanks for posting that link! I thought the whole property would be scraped.
Selfishly, I'd love it if that anchor becomes one of the new-format HEBs (like the Montrose Market). That would not only make my life easier, but it would spell the doom for that Kroger on Cullen, which really needs to go.
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@Specwriter, I've seen those same coaches parked there in the mornings on my commute in. Last I knew, Frank Liu bought that property and is planning to build a bunch of townhouses. (The Finger building would be torn down, naturally.)
A private student dorm might be built across Cullen from that site.
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I thought the Warehouse District referred to those few blocks where Last Concert Cafe and Oxheart are. There are some galleries and studio spaces and lofts over there — and gaudy townhouses, too. But it's not fully developed; that huge Houston Studios building is mostly empty.
The warehouses in East Downtown are much more, um, plentiful. A few interesting things opened up there, like the TX/RX Labs hackerspace. It'd be good to cultivate more things like that. It seems our developers are struggling (or aren't trying) to think of uses for buildings other than flipping them into low-concept restaurants or leasing them to CrossFit gyms.
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RDA is having a couple of events this week for the charrette. On Thursday, we're meeting at 6 p.m. for a happy hour at Punk's Simple Southern Food in the new Hanover apartment building in Rice Village.
And on Saturday at 9 a.m. we'll have a site visit and walk around the Village.
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RDA's annual civic forum will address walkabilty in Houston.
“WALK HOUSTON” will be a two-part forum with short presentations and moderated discussions among panelists followed by a question-and-answer session with audience members. The forums will take place at 6:30 p.m. on consecutive Wednesdays, August 20 and 27, at the Brown Auditorium at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Admission is free and open to the public.The panelists come from an array of governmental, commercial, academic, and nonprofit organizations:WHY WALKWednesday, August 20- Clark Martinson, General Manager of the Energy Corridor District
- Bakeyah Nelson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Exercise and Health Sciences, Department of Clinical Health and Applied Sciences, UH-Clear Lake
- Susan Rogers, Assistant Professor and Director, Community Design Resource Center, Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture at the University of Houston
HOW TO WALKWednesday, August 27- Kinder Baumgardner, President, SWA Group
- Raj Mankad, Editor of Cite: The Architecture + Design Review of Houston, Rice Design Alliance
- Carra Moroni, Program Manager, Community Transformation Initiative, Houston Department of Health and Human Services
- Rob Tullis, Vice President, Director of Design, GID Urban Development Group
You can see more here: http://ricedesignalliance.org/2014/2014-civic-forum-addresses-walkability-in-houston/ -
@Luminare: Well, RDA is different things for different people, but the overall mission is to help to put as many people as possible in a position to do or say something about the built environment in Houston. We're a nonprofit, so most of what we do means to be educational and experiential — like this design charrette.
And we also curate an architecture tour every spring, put together civic forums, work with the Rice School of Architecture faculty to organize lecture series in the fall and spring, and publish Cite and OffCite.
And of course there are the membership parties and galas and things like that so people can network, etc.
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Or: "Have At It, Suckers; See If We Care." I like a little bit of a sneer in my slogans.
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That's a good point. As much as the new Hanover buildings bring to the Village, they are somewhat monolithic. As is the Village Arcade. At the same time, I wouldn't mind a "unified vision" when it comes to the sidewalks and streetscapes. You know: It might be a good thing if the intersections matched. And ramps led to ramps, say, not steep step-up curbs or storm drains. Or sidewalks were continuous.
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@Subdude, there'll be a reception on Monday, August 2, if you want to take a look at the boards and drawings (and drink some wine).
Petition in Support of Houston Bike Plan
in Community Announcements
Posted
Thanks, everyone!
@Sunstar: I didn't add that donation button, and I'm certainly not soliciting donations, just signatures and shares. I assume that the donations go to change.org.
@skwatra: You're right. As with the petition for Sunday Streets, if we get to 1,000 signatures, the Mayor has to, at least, pretend to look at it. I'm after that 1,000-signature threshold, baby!