The City of New York Official Flag

The City of New York Official Flag

A number of months ago, I stumbled across an image of the “prince’s flag,” the predecessor to the flag of the Netherlands. This flag had uncanny similarities to the New York City flag which made me wonder about the history of the design of the flag. Just this past week, for reasons that I will not go into, I needed to find the RGB, CKMY, or Pantone numbers for the colors of the New York City flag. It put me on a quest, which gave me a better understanding of the meaning behind the city flag.

Description:

According to the City Administrative Code,

§ 2-103 Official city flag.
a. The following design is hereby adopted as the design of the official flag of the city:
1. A flag combining the colors orange, white and blue arranged in perpendicular bars of equal dimensions (the blue being nearest to the flagstaff) with the standard design of the seal of the city in blue upon the middle, or white bar, omitting the legend "Sigillum Civitatis Novi Eboraci," which colors shall be the same as those of the flag of the United Netherlands in use in the year sixteen hundred twenty-five.


The Seal of City

The seal is made up of six predominate features: Shield, two supports, crest, date, legend, and laurel wreath.

At the center of the seal is a shield with saltire-wise (drawn in the direction of the bend of the shield and crossing in the center) sails of a windmill. Between the sails on the top and base are two beavers. Both beavers are in profile. The design of the beavers is the same design of the seal of the New Netherlands. Between the sails on each flank are flour barrels.

Popular belief is that the windmills represent New York’s Dutch history. According to a John Pine's book, “Seal and Flag of the City of New York”, windmills were not exclusively used in Holland, but were widely used in England as well. In addition, in New Amsterdam, and then in New York, the principle source of mechanical power prior to the common use of steam was wind and water. Mr. Pine suggests that sails may have been suggested by one of the leading citizens of New Amsterdam and New York, Mr. Van Courtlandt. Saltire-wise sails of a windmill are exhibited in the Van Courtland family coat of arms. The beavers and the flour barrels represent the cities’ earliest trade goods.

Holding the shield is a Lenape tribesman forming the sinister (left) supporter, and a Dutch sailor forming the dexter (right) supporter. The Native American is holding a self-bow and the sailor is holding a plummet (lead-line) and to his right is a cross-staff both used for water navigation. Both supports are standing on a horizontal laurel.

The crest located above the shield is the American eagle with wings displayed, upon a hemisphere. The crest was added after the revolutionary war to indicate New York City’s succession to the United States. (Some references indicated that the eagle represents New York State). Prior to the change the crest was an imperial crown.

The date, 1625 is located beneath the horizontal laurel. It indicates the official date New Amsterdam was founded by the Dutch. The date has been changed a number of times during the history of the seal. It’s last change happened in 1977, prior to this change it read 1664, signifying the English takeover and renaming New Amsterdam to New York.

The legend in Latin, ‘Sigillum Civitatis Novi Eboraci’, ‘the Seal of the City of New York,’ is removed from the flag’s seal.

Finally, a laurel wreath encapsulates the ensemble.

Origin of the Field.

In 1579, the northern half of the seventeen Dutch provinces under the control of Charles V, King of Spain, decalred their independence which began an 80-year war ending in 1648. (1) One of the most influential of the rebels was Prince William I of Orange, Court of Nassau. (2) The livery colors of William I were Orange, White and Blue (the prince’s coat of arms). These colors were worn as Armbands by his soldiers at the siege of Leiden in 1574 (3), and when the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (aka Dutch Republic or United Provinces) was born in 1581 they used the horizontal tricolor for the ensign and the flag used on the land. (4) The flag is commonly referred to as the Prince’s Flag.

Republic of the Seven United Netherlands

In 1609, the ship Halve Maen (Half moon) under the command of Henry Hudson was commissioned by the Dutch East Indian Company to find a Northeast ‘New Netherland’ all-water passage to Asia. The Ship possibly flew four ensigns (flags), the South Holland Province, the United Provinces of Holland, the City of Amsterdam and the Dutch East India Company Amsterdam Chamber. (5)

Dutch East Indian Company

Dutch East India Company Amsterdam Chamber

The Dutch fur trading company founded the settlement in 1613 eventually naming it New Amsterdam. Company flags are an important part of vexillogy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries because companies, rather than governments, were in many cases responsible for the actual exploration, settlement and administration of colonial territories. (6) This was the case in New Amsterdam. The first settlements would have flown the Dutch East Indian Company’s flag. The company’s flag used the national stripes of orange (top), white and blue. It contained three letters, VOC, for Vereenigte Oost-Indische Compagnie, the name of the company in Dutch. (7)

The light blue of the prince’s flag by the time of the settlement of New Amsterdam would have been darker. The “De Nederlandsche Vlag” by C. De Waard, published at Groninge in 1900, establishes the fact that prior to 1630 all flags of the Dutch were orange, white and blue and the same authority indicates that a dark blue, rather than the light blue, was the shade in use. (8) The orange and white have not been contested and it is suggested that the orange has not changed from the time of the original settlement.

It was suggested in the book Seal and Flag of the City of New York, that the blue would have been indigo. Whether imported from India or Egypt or extracted from the plant known as “Woad,” which was cultivated throughout Europe, Indigo was the only fast dye of blue color that was known in 1626 when New Amsterdam was founded. (9)

Image above, NYC flag does not include legend in seal. Rendering of NYC flag at top of page does include legend this rendering is incorrect.

Theoretical Time line of the primary flag flown in New Amsterdam and New York.

1613-1647: Dutch East Indian Company flag then the United New Netherlands Company and after 1621 the Chartered West India Company

1647-1652: National Flag of the Netherlands (the orange was changed to red and the light blue to dark blue around 1630)

1653-1783: Kingdom of England Flag

1783-1915: White field bearing the seal of New York in dark blue.

1915 -1977: Official flag and seal (actually the original British seal) commemorating the 250th anniversary of the assumption of municipal controlled by the English. The Design by Paul Manship. (10)

1977-Present: Official flag with change of seal


And if you are curious:
According to the New York City Arts Commission who graciously provided me with the calibration colors of the present New York City Flag.

Blue = PMS 072
Orange = PMS Orange 021
(However, depending on the printer this is may be too red so use 137)


Footnotes:
(1) Dutch Republic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Republic)
(2) William the Silent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_I_of_Orange)
(3) Smith, Whittney. The Flag Book of the U.S.. New York: William Morrow & Co. 1970
(4) ibid
(5) Site about the Half Moon replica (http://www.hudsonriver.com)
(6) Smith, Whittney. The Flag Book of the U.S.. New York: William Morrow & Co. 1970
(7) ibid
(8) Pine, John B. Seal and Flag of the City of New York. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
(9) ibid
(10) the Times Square Enterprises Corporation - 2002 http://nyctimeline.com/data7.HTM

Bibliography:
Report by the Committee of the Art Commission Associates for submission of the city of New York. On the Adoption of an Official Flag By the City of New York and the Restoration of the Ancient Corporate Seal. Jan 1915

The City Flag (New York City) by John Erskine

The City Flag

Flag of our hope, out of our heritage woven,
Flag for a storied city, forever new,
What shall you mean to the myriads you wave over?
What master-loves shall be lifted up to you?
Strangely will you greet the endless dream the city harbors,
Greet the astonished eyes the ships bring to the city shore,
Greet the adventurous hearts with surprise of familiar welcome,
Weird as a face remembered, yet never seen before.

Here where the rivers divide, where the eastern bridges
Carry their ant-like streams, where crag upon crag
The walls of Aladdin gleam with sunlit windows,
Here, looking up, they shall look on you, bright flag.
No banner of ancient traffic, realm of the Netherlands, rule of England,
Ghost of adventures long ago, nor names gone down with the past;
Flag of a nobler faring, flag of the port of vision,
They shall look up – and behold! their mirage come true at last!

Here in their hearts’ horizon they find heaven,
Dawns that lured them hither, here they find;
Here is the threshing-floor of the tireless spirit,
Here on new bread feeds the eternal mind-
Infinite purpose, infinite reach, infinite life and aspiration,
Desire of the star like beauty bound in the common knot of things,
Beauty changing the restless street with faery glamour,
And lifting the city towers light as a song with wings.

Flag of our fathers, out of our heritage woven,
Flag for a city of hope, forever young,
Fling to the winds of earth our ageless challenge,
Skyward in you man’s faith once more is flung-
Still may the ships come riding home, thronged with alien faces;
That yearn with light disguised, that grow with unsuspected powers;
Till our fortune eyes, grow old, look up and see you waving
Welcome to younger days and newer dreams than ours.

-John Erskine, 1915

NYC Statues that should be in the works

Thursday's New York Sun had an article regarding the proposal of a new statue honoring the literary and public figure George Plimpton.

I certainly believe that Mr. Plimpton deserves a statue in one of New York City's Parks. I also believe many other important New York figures deserve a statue recognizing their contribution to New York City.
According to the New York City Parks Department, there are approximately 1,200 monuments located in the five boroughs and 300 of those monuments are sculptures. The Parks Department touts on its website that it is “the greatest outdoor public art museum in the United States”.

Following is my list of additions. All these individuals were fundamental in shaping the City of New York. These urban and social critics are not currently honored in a monument form in the city.

Walt Whitman – (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892)
Long Island native; New York City’s poet and humanist Walt Whitman captured the spirit and life of New Your City and its citizens in his poems and writings.

Lewis Mumford - (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990)
Influential urban philosopher and social critic in New York City.
Writer of the acclaimed book History of the City.
“New York is the perfect model of a city, not the model of a perfect city.”-Lewis Mumford

Allen Ginsburg - (June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997)
New York City Beat poet, social activist and the author of the poem Howl.

William H. Whyte - (1917- January 12, 1999)
Journalist and Urban sociologist observing city dynamics, ‘Holly’ Whyte is the creator of the book (and a film of the same name) The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces.

George McAneny - (1869-1953) and Edward Bassett (1863-1948)
The fathers of New York City Zoning

Jacob August Riis - (May 3, 1849 - May 26, 1914)
Photojournalist and social reformer. Through photographs, he revealed to society the slums of New York City in the essay "How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York (1890)".


Statue in the Works for a Literary Man of Action, by Gary Shapiro
http://www.nysun.com/article/51425

NYC Parks Department of Parks and Recreation – monument list
http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/monuments/monuments_search.php

Obituaries - I lived I loved and I was

Every week as I browse through the local papers - I always stop and read the obituaries section. Call it morbid, I find I the most interesting of the news fit to print.

The world is made up of so many interesting “ordinary” people. The obituary is a condensed peek into the life of one specific individual. It highlights those achievements that the person presumably wanted to be remembered for. Sheldon K. Friedlander, a smog scientist who discovered a system of analyzing the chemical make up of smog so that other scientists can trace pollutants in the air. Evelyn Smith Munro, an activist who fought for sharecroppers' rights in one of the first racially integrated labor unions and Aubrey “Tex” Bouck the French Horn player who played for the greats like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.

Obviously, the unfortunate part is that these people are dead and many of their stories and achievements have died with them. The obituary is their last statement, which says "I lived, I loved, and I was" - I was part of the human experience and I was a tread in this rich tapestry called existence.

I sometimes walk home rather than take the train (+/- 65 blocks). I pass thousands of people each of those individuals have interesting lives, wonderful stories and fascinating experiences – A treasure trove of humanity only to be unlocked and shared with those close to them or acquaintances when required.

A couple of years ago, my wife spent a month back at home with her family. She took a minidisk recorder and interviewed her 73 year old grandmother. For four days the CD’s burned countless stories all while her grandmother cooked. The result is a priceless library of the history of ones life, intertwined with a narrative of all of the family recipes. These moments are now captured and can be shared with generations to come.

It is taking a moment to know the living – I would encourage anyone to do this.

Condominiums What are we buying?

What are they selling and what are we buying?

888 Vegas

It seems that just a few years ago advertisement for condominium and cooperative residential real estate was straight forward: A floor plan accompanied by the image of the building. If the building was not built, a simple architectural ink-wash rendering was provided.

Today, extravagant marketing campaigns appear to sell something other than real estate. Looking at a full page condominium advertisement in the dailies, wandering through the condominium promotional website, visiting a “condo sales boutique” (previously referred to as a sales office), or thumbing through the promotion package – I wonder if the product being sold is an apartment or a lifestyle.

Sheffield 57

Sultry images of men and women overlooking a skyline - no image of the building, no drawings of a floor plan, no real direct tie to a piece of property. At first glance I look for a logo of a women’s shoe co., or dress designer icon, or a perfume bottle. Only a few stylized letters of a stylized address and a small disclaimer text on the bottom. It must be an advertisement for Viagra.

Can one actually buy lifestyle, and for that matter, can one buy a life. If you can - let me know. I have been told to ‘buy a life’ since I was six on the playground wearing Garanimal clothing.

William Beaver House

Of course, consumers are not that naïve to think that they are buying new chique friends instead of property. A close buddy of mine lives in a building on the lower East side. He shares the floor with Victoria Secret Model Alessandra Ambrosia. If the building had a glossy sales brochure, it would actually live up to the images of beautiful barely clothed models walking around the halls. Although he has informed me that she typically wears sweatpants, rarely says hello to her neighbors and has not once invited him to a party. The point is, my friend did not buy his apartment based on a slick ad campaign and although he is an attractive guy, I do not think that he would have made it in the brochure.

With all that said; there does not appear to be any stopping of the condo marketing machine and as my professor told us in advertisement 101 “sex sells”. So sit back, relax and open the Sunday New York Times real estate section. You may see more skin then in Playboy.

Platinum

Architectural Family Tree Project

By popular demand - here is my architectural ancestral family tree.

Story Bound Beginning:
Architectural Family Tree Project.
As years and years go by, the architects on the World Wide Web sent their architectural family trees to this blog site and one after the other they were linked up until diagrammatically all the architects of the world were connected. The tree became so dense it was impossible to read until it thinned out at its origin where it inscribed one name, the first known by name, Imhotep.

Architecture Pedigree

When we think of pedigree we may think of the Tripple Crown, or the American Kennel Club’s Best in Show. While reading ‘The Guilded Life of Stanford White', I pondered if there is a pedigree in architecture. Stanford White, before the fame of McKim, Mead & White worked as a draftsman for Henry Hobson Richardson. John Mervin Carrère, of Carrère & Hastings, was a draftsman in the office of McKim, Mead & White.
The linage’: H.H. Richardson to Stanford White to John Carrère

I started noticing a pattern that suggested that legendary architects worked for renowned architects

Inherently, every architect works under another architect in order to gain the experience needed to be accepted into the industry. Today, in the United States, aspiring architects are required by the state to work under an architect (or other applicable professions) in order to earn the necessary Intern Development Program (IDP) points and become a licensed architect. An architectural ancestry or family tree is therefore established for every architect, yet I will argue it does not establish a pedigree.

Famous architects do not grow from simple ancestry.
As the following examples illustrate, famous architects breed famous architects.

H.H. Richardson to Charles Follen McKim to Cass Gilbert
Eliel Saarinen (Gesellius, Lindgren, Saarinen) to Eero Saarinen to Robert Venturi
William Le Baron Jenney to Louis Sullivan to Frank Lloyd Wright to E. Fay Jones
Jack Pritchard (Isokon Co.) to Marcel Breuer to Richard Meier to Robert A.M. Stern
Cope & Stewardson to John Molitor to Louis I. Kahn to Moshe Safdie
Peter Behrens to Victor Gruen to Frank Gehry
Peter Behrens to Mies Van Der Rohe
Renwick Aspinwall & Russel to Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue to Raymond Hood
Auguste Perret to Le Corbusier to Jose Oubrerie
William LeBaron Jenney to Daniel Burnham to Ernest R. Graham

I know that there are a few exceptions to the rule and I am sure if one tries hard enough one can destroy my hypotheses with facts – yet it makes for a good blog entry and an interesting conversation piece (maybe only at AIA functions).

* One major exception is two of the ‘New York Five,’ Eisenman and Graves. Some can argue that these two have a linage from their mentor and promoter, Philip Johnson. However, Philip Johnson has no Architectural Lineage; he just had a lot of money.

KNOW OF OTHER ARCHITECTURAL LINIAGES, PLEASE COMMENT

Moratorium on Capital Punishment

Has the global society grown spiritually enough that it can place a moratorium on capital punishment?
The Italian government believes so.

This past week the Italian Prime Minster, Romano Prodi, announced that Italy will push for a universal moratorium on executions. Italy has taken one of the ten non-permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council and has requested that the Security Council re-examine their proposal for a moratorium on the death penalty submitted last month.

This is not a new appeal to the United Nations. According to the BBC, Italy in 1994 and again in 1995 presented proposals for a moratorium on the death penalty.

Italy urges global execution ban – BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6226687.stm

Since 2003, member countries of the European Union have ended the use of the death penalty in Europe by signing the European Convention on Human Rights Protocol No. 6 and No. 13. According to the European Union website, "The European Union campaigns towards the universal abolition of the death penalty. This stance is rooted in the belief in the inherent dignity of all human beings and the inviolability of the human person, regardless of the crime committed."

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/external_relations/human_rights/adp/index.htm

EU Policy On The Death Penalty http://www.eurunion.org/legislat/DeathPenalty/EurHRConvProt13Decl.htm


In the United States only twelve of the fifty states have ended the death penalty. In addition to those states, The District of Columbia has abolished capital punishment.

According to Amnesty International - Since 1973, 123 individules have been found innocent who were sentenced to death in the United States. The looming question is how many innocent people have we put to death by means of our capital punishment program in the name of public safety?

There are many arguments for why capital punishment should be abolished - from the financial aspect of an execution to the physiological understanding that a death penalty is not a deterrent. For me, there is only one line of reasoning – who gives you or me the right to extinguish life?

The late philologist, author, and philosopher, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, said it so elegantly through his character Gandalf the Grey in The Fellowship of the Ring. “Many that live deserve death and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”

Amnesty International
http://web.amnesty.org/pages/deathpenalty-index-eng

The Innocence Project
http://www.innocenceproject.org/

The Death Penalty Information Center
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/

New York State of Mind

New York City

Recently I was in Nebraska visiting family. The Continental commuter jet (ERJ-135) landed at Eppley airfield in Omaha, and in no time I was at baggage claim and then off to get my reserved rental car. At the rental desk I am asked for my driver’s license and like clockwork ‘the question’ is asked: “You’re from New York City, do you like living there?” I respond “yes”. The usual question followed, “how can you live there, it’s so large” – or – “I could never live in a city so big.”

Short tangent:
I was born, grew-up, came of age and went to college in Columbus, Nebraska. My parents moved there the year before my birth as the result of work. Both my mother and my father were from the West Coast.

Tangent on a tangent:
It was in the early seventies and when companies moved an employee they typically gave him/her (1970’s actually just him) a decent moving expenditure. My dad took the money allotted for flying a family of seven and purchased a station wagon and a travel trailer. Mom and dad trekked across the country to their new home; in what I am sure was a very “homestead” experience.
Long story short, I believe my mother felt that moving to Nebraska was a demotion, even thought my father’s job was not. Every summer she packed up the travel trailer and the kids and we were on the road. Sometimes she was so eager she wouldn’t wait until school was out and we would miss the last few weeks of class. More power to my mom and dad, they wanted to make sure that all six (I was born) experienced a world outside of our community. Because of the need to show their children a world outside the Midwest, I sometimes refer to the fact that “I breathed there, but I did not inhale”.

Back to the question, why do I like New York City?
My response is probably more than the car rental employee wants to hear, yet I’d like to dismiss the myth that New York City is so large that there is no community. There is, and I will even go as far as to say that there is more community than that of the suburb that I grew up in.

New York City shares the same social activities and assemblies (houses of worship, clubs, schools, and sports) which create friends and extended family. New York City differs in the fact that it is so condensed. Even within the suburbs of Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island the distances between houses or apartments are inches not feet. In Manhattan almost within every block or two there is a deli (bodega) a dinner, a laundromat, dry cleaner, convenient store, drug store, and grocery store, a few restaurants, and clothing stores. One becomes attached to the convenience of locality and rarely ventures out to the other dry cleaner three blocks away. This proximity creates meetings of acquaintances – one starts to recognize and becomes acquainted to people within their block. I might not know the gentlemen in the local bodega and vise versa, yet I know him as the owner of the corner convenient store and he knows me as the guy who buys the Sunday New York Times, or the one who comes in at midnight for a 1/2 quart of Ben and Jerry’s Chubby Hubby ice cream. I know him so well enough that I don’t mind leaving a set of keys with him to give to a friend who will be using our apartment over the weekend when we are out of town. It is this trust and mutual connection that makes New York more personal that one might think. The late Jane Jacobs wrote about this phenomenon in her book “the life and death of great American cities”. In her example she left her child with a local merchant while she was running errands.

Additionally, the convenience of so many things so close, who needs a car? When living in the suburb of Columbus, Nebraska, if you were craving ice cream or ran out of milk or was missing that certain spice for supper, you had to get in the car, drive a few miles and 30 minutes later you had what you needed. Within a commercial break I can have anything that I need. So convenient that I do not need or want a car.

The second part of my answer, to the question of why I like New York, is more tangible and more believable for those that have not lived in the city. You never know what to expect. I enjoy the new, I like being amazed and taken off guard and this happens in New York all the time. I call this my “New York Experiences”.

My first of these “experiences” was when I was coming home from work late one evening and on the subway platform there were two musicians that I have seen before (separately) playing their instruments at different stations. This evening they were playing together – John Lennon’s Imagine. Imagine – the bagpiper wearing his Scottish highland formal outfit and a Rastafarian with thick deadlocks playing a tarbuka like drum. I was stunned, I had never heard the sound of a bagpipe and a tribal drum playing Imagine, or any other similar song before. The juxtaposition of cultures, complete with every stereotype, together as one. It was wonderful. I stood and listened to the two even though I am not a huge fan of the sound of a bagpipe. At that moment, in that spot, it was harmoniums and every time I hear a bagpipe (In New York it is frequent) I always remember this moment.

These experiences happen every day, it is the homeless man lending a quarter to a woman at a payphone, and it is walking down Wall Street at 5:00 PM and the smell of “alfalfa” filling the street. It is going to a lecture and seeing the Archi-gram group, or shopping at Duane Reade and noticing Peter Eisenman in the same aisle.

New York City is the on-going experiment of the United States; it is truly a melting pot of cultures where tolerance and understanding is the golden rule so we may all live and work together to achieve our own separate goals. This is why I like New York – Don't care if it's Chinatown or on Riverside…. I am in a New York State of Mind.

New York State Of Mind
-Billy Joel

Some folks like to get awayTake a holiday from the neighborhoodHop a flight to Miami BeachOr to HollywoodBut I'm taking a GreyhoundOn the Hudson River LineI'm in a New York state of mind I've seen all the movie starsIn their fancy cars and their limousinesBeen high in the Rockies under the evergreensBut I know what I'm needingAnd I don't want to waste more timeI'm in a New York state of mind It was so easy living day by dayOut of touch with the rhythm and bluesBut now I need a little give and takeThe New York Times, The Daily News It comes down to realityAnd it's fine with me 'cause I've let it slideDon't care if it's Chinatown or on RiversideI don't have any reasonsI've left them all behindI'm in a New York state of mind It was so easy living day by dayOut of touch with the rhythm and bluesBut now I need a little give and takeThe New York Times, The Daily News It comes down to realityAnd it's fine with me 'cause I've let it slideDon't care if it's Chinatown or on RiversideI don't have any reasonsI've left them all behindI'm in a New York state of mind I'm just taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River Line'Cause I'm in a New York state of mind.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays:
One of the most wonderful things about urban life is
'moments of the absurd' - They catch you off guard and put a smile on your face.

These photos were taken in the 14th Street subway station. A cleaver promotion by Amstel light marketing.

The Bottle symphony is backed up by a small chamber orchestra.

The Importance of Travel:

December marks the one month anniversary of the blog. It also marks the shift in the content of the web log to more personal accounts and thoughts - A step closer to the mission of this blog.
‘A Diary of the Mundane -An Opinion on Architecture and Urban Design -One Voice’





The importance of travel:
Within the academic world of architecture there is a phenomenon referred to as “studio life”. This is the life of a student associated with the studio component or design classes taught at architecture schools across the country. These courses differ slightly based on the curriculum of the associated school, yet one thing remains the same – students are encouraged to spend vast amounts of time in design studios. This is understandable because most studio courses are in the 5 credit range. Approximately 10 hours a week to be dedicated to study not including the actual courses time. (2 hours study outside of class for every 1 credit.)

The studio has taken on a much greater persona.
The studio is a ‘home away from home – or dorm, or fraternity / sorority or apartment’ it is located in the school of architecture which is typically situated on campus. The studio is a private study hall and a social place to hang out. When I was at the University of Nebraska, I for argument sake completely moved into the college of architecture – I studied (worked) there, I ate there, I slept there, and in fact I even took dates there. (This is as far as I will take this example.) What this routine produces is the 24-hour-work-day where there is no separation between design (work) time and personal time. This lifestyle helps solidify the future architect’s addiction for constantly working on design. (The incapability to stop designing on a project is a catastrophic flaw of architects, as noted by many accounting departments in design firms). This habit also contributes to poor time management and procrastination, inevitably spiraling into a myth and aspiration of the architecture student to burn the midnight oil, in the name of design.

Yet, in my mind, these are not the most problematic of the issues of a poorly run studio course. (Poorly run – I will address this negative connotation in the next paragraph) The most problematic is the inbreeding of ones own perceptions of architecture.

The studio professor cultivates these activities. The professor sets in motion the idea that students should take up residence in the space called ‘studio’ and share life experiences with their classmates. It is understandable - what professor wouldn’t want their student to work 24 hours a day on their assignment?
Any undergraduate who has taken an architecture studio course has a story - midnight professor/student crits, the “cool” professor having food delivered to the studio after-hours with a note “its almost over”, or projects being due in the evening (8:00pm). My favorite story is from a friend who graduated from Syracuse University. He was working toward a deadline during his second year when around 2:00am his professor came into the room after a night on the town. The professor looked around and then started taking the empty chairs of the students not currently working in the studio and placing them on their drafting boards in a somewhat forceful action. The students that were in studio all got the hint and the students that came the next day were fearful of any outcomes, particularly when it came time for grades.

Not all professors are like that; my third year architecture studio professor at the University of Nebraska was different. Although, Dr. Ted Wright did want us to work in the studio and advised us to participate in the “studio life”, he also instilled time management skills – in his words “necessary for success”. He pushed us to eat healthy and to “work hard, play hard and get eight hours of sleep”. Somehow he also managed to eliminate any sense of cut-throat competition between students. For me, this studio became the most open and interactive, sharing ideas and deep thoughts about architecture and the projects that we were all working on.

The most problematic is the inbreeding of ones own perceptions of architecture:
I recently participated in a student crit where the design challenge was combining programs: Laundromat and a sports bar; a hair salon and a gentlemen’s social club (didn’t John Allan do this?); most interesting, opera house and a discothèque. When discussing the latter project, I asked the student if she had been to the opera – she had not. I asked the other students, have you been to a gentlemen’s social club? – “no”, have you been to a Laundromat? – “I visited”.

How can an architect design an opera house if he/she has never been to an opera? They cannot. Some argue that designers can use the Ramsey and Sleeper’s Architecture Graphic Standards, but I disagree. I contend that this promotes stagnant ‘Encyclopedia Style Design’ simply inbreeding thoughts without an induction system to stir any true understanding of a space. Which brings me to the title of this post, ‘The Importance of Travel’ - The importance of experience, the importance of understanding through ones senses?

I participated in a charrette for a master plan and design of an entertainment retail development and new gateway to a city center on the East Coast. We were working out the issue of getting people from the parking structures located behind the retail buildings, through the retail zone to the street. I had just returned from London and mentioned the scale and charm of London’s shopping arcades – It became a major design element in the project.

During the same charrette we were struggling with a site/planning condition that created an awkward void enclosed by retail on the North, South and South-West, a parking structure on the West side and the main street on the East. The program did not require additional retail and the early sketches filled the space with parking. After reviewing the parking numbers and realizing that we could rearrange to leave this area void – I proceeded to mention the nice surprise that I got when turning a corner in cities of Italy and finding a piazza. These urban open spaces were created many times by the void of buildings and conversion of paths rather than any major master-plan. When I was in Otranto, Italy the piazzas were places to meet up, play street ball or park your Vespa. Many of my fondest memories were sitting at a café on the corner of a piazza drinking a cappuccino, eating a ginger biscuit and watching the locals. (Needless to say) We left the space open.
Later that day, a colleague came up to me and jokingly mentioned that I needed to stop traveling.

This day is my best example and argument for the need of one to travel in order to fully understand the environment that we are designing. Of course I could get all of these ideas from a book and I am sure that I learned about them in my 9:00am Architectural History class where for two hours (with the lights off) a teacher showed slides and all the students got their required shut-eye. Yet, to really understand the scale, the proportions and the social themes, one has to see it physically, one has to experience it.

When it is time for me to teach a studio course, I have a choice – I can be the studio professor that I had as a student who requested that the undergraduate buy these three important books that will cost $70.00 or to be a studio instructor that gives the students a choice to either buy the important books –or- take that $70.00 and go to the opera, go see a show / concert, become a member of a museum (I recommend the Frick Collection), or just go to the ‘hole in the wall’ coffee house that has the greatest jazz or poetry readings in the area. Do your laundry at the laundromat, buy food at the farmer’s open air market and/or not defer your jury duty for the third time …
-To be there and engaged is the only way one can capture the real meaning of a space.-

_______________________

On a Tangent:
Can someone understand and “design” a successful and advanced foreign policy if they have limited foreign travel and have not bare witness to the complexity of traditions, customs, philosophies and opinions?

"George W. Bush had only visited Mexico, Israel and China before
becoming president…”
A quote from CNN's Walter Rodgers:
CNN Student News: Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics
http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0312/17/ip.00.html

“It is ludicrous to simplify civilizations to black and white, right and wrong, good and bad, 0’s and 1’s. We are all humans, with traditions, and customs, philosophies and opinions. The more one learns about others, the more we will learn about ourselves. Understanding leads to open-mindedness that leads to acceptance.”
A quote from J. Steven Lovci
http://jstevenlovci.blogspot.com/2006/11/new-hope.html

“The most enjoyable accounts is when I have the opportunity to sit down at a ‘salon de tea’ or café, or coffee bar - take off all my filters and just observe - soaking in with my senses everything that one moment in time has to give to me.”
A quote from J. Steven Lovci
http://jstevenlovci.blogspot.com/2006/11/moment.html

Rambling of a Madman – Sketchbook 1996

Reading, Writing, Arithmetic
Common Humanity
Stress, Values, Ethics
Enlarged Vocational

We are prepared for a(n) academia, not a job
We are prepared for a career, not a job
Education to us that is not successful is useless
What has your architectural education done for you?
What have we learned here?

'10 year' sleepy professors
He who dares nothing but '10 year' of past risk
Wallows in the mediocrity of the power of one
Don’t be consumed by…fancy images and empty thoughts

Question, Observe, Critical
Alice in Wonderland
Lost, Confused, Etcetera
Meets the Euphoric Cat
Lookup Comment

'10 year' proactive professors
She who dares design is a vision of how the world should be
'10 year' + '10 Year' + '10 Year'…. n Years
Be prepared for the unknown future
Jam-packed, filled-up, chock-full possibilities happen

Self motivation for continuing education
Look around-look around nothing is new it is just renewed
Rethought, Repackaged, Redone
It is the History of the Future of the History of the Past

WAKE UP GOOD DESIGN IS A GOOD INVESTMENT.


The year was 1996 (10 years ago) I was in my 4th year of Architecture School. The poem / compilation of thoughts is from my sketchbook of that semester.

Habeas Corpus

Background:

A number of months ago, I sent out a mass email regarding the elimination of Habeas Corpus in the United States of America on behalf of ‘National Security’.

Update:

Habeas Corpus - 'hA-bE-&s-'kor-p&s
From Medieval Latin, “you have the body” or “you should have the body”

Habeas Corpus is the right of a citizen to obtain a ‘writ of habeas corpus’ as a protection against illegal imprisonment. This writ allows a citizen to question before a judge whether his/her detention is legal.

Without Habeas Corpus, any American Citizen (you or I) can be arrested and detained in the United States indefinitely without having the opportunity to go before a court of law to determine if (you or I) are illegally imprisoned.

This week Senators Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) have introduced the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2006.

The bill would restore basic legal and human rights for 12 million lawful permanent residents in the United States that were rolled back as a result of the passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200612/120506.html

-------------------------------------------------------
Please contact your Senator and House of Representative to voice your support or non-support of this bill.

Senators of the 109th Congress
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

House of Representatives of the 109th Congress
http://www.house.gov/

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The Death of Habeas Corpus
By Keith Olbermann
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15220450/ [MSN Countdown]
Updated: 1:35 p.m. ET Oct 11, 2006


KILLING HABEAS CORPUS - Arlen Specter’s about-face.
by JEFFREY TOOBIN
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/061204fa_fact [New Yorker]
Posted 2006-11-27

Is it the salesman or the merchandise that makes the trade?

there’s a dream worth a –dreamin’
And you want to see that dream come true
There’ll be plenty people talkin’,
Say forget all about it
Say it isn’t worth all the trouble,
All the trouble that you’re goin’ through
Well, what can you do?

You can’t take no for an answer
You can’t take no for an answer
You can’t take no for an answer
No, no, no!

Whatcha gonna do when the times get tough,
And the world’s treatin’ you unkind?
You’ve got to hang on to your optimistic outlook
And keep possession of your positive state of mind.

-Dr. Teeth

Moloch

Moloch whose eyes are a thousand bind windows! Moloch whose skyscrapers stand in the long streets like endless Jehovahs! Moloch whose factories dream and creak in the fog! Moloch whose smokestacks and antennae crown the cities Moloch whose…
Howel, by Allen Ginsberg

I am aware that Mr. Ginsberg never wanted his poems reduced to sound bites, and forced publishers to publish his pomes in whole. But I am not Mr. Ginsberg and this is my favorite bite. In addition, wouldn’t it be in the spirit of Allen to go against what one of authority desires? This section of Howel bewitched me, perhaps it is its reference to the built environment, or perhaps it is just Mr. Ginsberg’s love of words and the imagery that they construct.

A New Hope

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.
The Fellowship of the Ring, by JRR Tolkien

It is ludicrous to simplify civilizations to black and white, right and wrong, good and bad, 0’s and 1’s. We are all humans, with traditions, and customs, philosophies and opinions. The more one learns about others, the more we will learn about ourselves. Understanding leads to open-mindedness that leads to acceptance.

The Dirham

How can you get very far,
If you don’t know Who You Are?
How can you do what you ought,
If you don’t know What You’ve Got?
And if you don’t know Which To Do
Of all the things in front of you,
Then what you’ll have when you are through
Is just a mess with out a clue
Of all the best that can come true
If you know What and Which and Who.
The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff p.58

Prospect

We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill...

Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding...
Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach

This image embodies the future of Morocco.
This is a group of young men that were playing football in the streets of Fez.

Uncharted

Sooner or later this happens to every dedicated tourist: he ventures beyond the guidebook itinerary and discovers that the workday surrounding world reminds him of the art-historical world of the gallery; he looks out of the train window and discovers to his surprise that the countryside shares many of the traits of the city – the parish church, the layout of the fields, the glare of the sun in a village street are recognizable variations on their city counterparts; city and country belong together in a unique landscape, and this newly discovered entity seems far older, far more venerable than the oldest monument.
The Necessity For Ruins and other Topics, by J.B. Jackson p. 9

The Traveler - Part 2

And after years the boy came back, both of them were old."I really cannot help you if you ask for another gift.""I’m nothing but an old stump now. I’m sorry but I’ve nothing more to give""I do not need very much now, just a quiet place to rest," The boy, he whispered, with a weary smile."Well", said the tree, "An old stump is still good for that.""Come, boy", he said, "Sit down, sit down and rest a while."And so he did and Oh, the trees was happy. Oh, the tree was glad.
The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein
(Transcript of Reading)

Correction: This gentleman is an inhabitant of Sefrou, Morocco.
“Yet I am sure he is dreaming of the port in Mogador (Essaouira)”
see ‘The Traveler’