Michael Garman's "TBL," all photographs courtesy Michael Garman
Well over a year has passed since designer Michael Garman’s “BNCH” was recognized as the “Best Prototype” at Toronto’s 2009 International Design Fair, as chronicled in Cite 80, and although he steadfastly continues to work in his Woodlands studio and his chosen medium of plywood, his design concept continues to evolve. Plywood, a weeklong exhibition ending on Saturday, April 30 at Canal Street Gallery, features Garman’s familiar repertoire of ONE3CREATIVE designs, such as the angular “ZZZZ” bed and “BLOK” stool, but the majority of work on display indicates an artist unwilling to rest on his laurels.
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Keith Koski’s fingers tighten around the steering wheel of the white F-250. “That is the enemy,” he says pulling off the road. An unsorted pile from a demolished building near Wheeler and Main waits for landfill-bound trucks.
At the other end of Main—the actual end of street at its northern most point past Tidwell—Koski pulls into the City of Houston Building Materials Reuse Warehouse where he serves as Project Manager. Part of the Department of Solid
Waste, the warehouse opened one year ago today with the goal of channeling 200 tons of material out of the waste stream to the city’s non-profits. Dozens of building contractors, architects, city employees, churches, and community development corporations have pitched in. A scrappy meter keeps track of the progress. The needle hit 200 with three weeks to spare when Bryan Blackburn and Tom Flynn from Junk Goes Green made a drop off, and were rewarded with a pie from the Flying Saucer Pie Company.
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In 1982, the Rice Design Alliance published the first issue of Cite, in which Stephen Fox reviewed the proposed Menil building, worrying it could “turn out to be overwhelmingly non-monumental.” That issue, plus 75 more, and counting, can be found on-line, at no cost, and in searchable pdf format at citemag.org. (The most recent issues are only available in print.)
I picked out five of my favorite articles.
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David Brown, photographer, and Chuck Jackson, English professor at UHD. All photographs by Eric Hester.
Rice Design Alliance members and staff, local advertisers, Cite contributors, and friends gathered on April 8th at 13 Celsius wine bar to celebrate the launch of Cite magazine’s 81st issue. The cover article focuses on Brad Pitt’s foundation “Make It Right,” which seeks to rebuild the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. The launch of the issue, however, was not the only reason to celebrate: Citemag.org recently went live with 28 years of searchable issues online.
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Aerial view of Lower 9th Ward, New Orleans showing Make It Right projects.
Flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans and Brad Pitt’s foundation, Make It Right, asked many of the world’s most creative architects to help. The cover story in the current issue of Cite (81), written by Rafael Longoria, takes a critical look at that effort. I spoke with Tim Duggan, a Landscape Architect currently developing the Sustainable Landscapes program for the Make it Right Foundation, to get his responses. He will also be speaking this week at the Gulf Coast Green conference.
RM: Rafael Longoria wrote that the houses built by Make It Right so far “are hardly reproducible models outside the confines of a charismatic charity. In order to be truly sustainable, affordable housing must work within the realities of the market without relying on donated design, materials, or labor.” How can we evaluate sustainability and apply lessons learned to other affordable housing efforts without knowing actual construction costs for the houses?
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Mayor Annise Parker and Christof Spieler from April 8, 2010 Houston Chronicle.
Wednesday, Mayor Annise Parker gave Christof Spieler, Chair of the Cite editorial committee, a big hug after swearing him in as a Metro board member. A picture of their embrace landed on page B3 of Thursday’s Houston Chronicle. It was a landmark moment for the Rice Design Alliance and Cite. Spieler joined the Cite team 11 years ago while still a graduate student at Rice, wrote numerous articles on Houston’s transit, and guest edited several issues. In the current issue of Cite (81), he contributed “Are We Setting Up Commuter Rail to Fail?” Written months before Spieler knew he would be appointed a Metro board member, it went to press before the announcement of his nomination by Mayor Parker but is now reaching mailboxes after his confirmation. This rare bird of an article is one last critical and independent analysis by Spieler, who because of his new position inside the system cannot speak without representing the city government and Metro.
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Douglas Milburn’s The Last American City: An Intrepid Walker’s Guide to the City of Houston (Texas Chapbook Press 1979) is available to anyone who really wants to find it on eBay, Amazon, or in the Local/Texana sections of used bookstores across the city. However, in an ideal world, free copies would be distributed at every coffee shop lining Westheimer Road and Montrose Boulevard, if only for the purpose of inspiring someone else to write an equivalent for today’s Houston. Never before or since has our city been given such a unique and fitting book-long treatment.
Its voice is wildly eccentric. It is in equal parts Venturi, Gonzo, Huxtable, urban myth, and Fodor’s. Here’s his take on the newly built downtown Hyatt Regency:
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This post was originally published May 17, 2009, but we’re bringing it back in revised form for Gulf Coast Green 2010. If you are a member of the Rice Design Alliance, you receive a discounted rate. (You can join RDA now.) Online registration for Gulf Coast Green ends April 7, so hurry.
Sustainability has become a sound byte. While many of us have embraced the principles of living and designing less wastefully, seeing the term “green” applied superficially everywhere from the supermarket to the evening news can become exhausting. The 2010 Gulf Coast Green (GCG) Symposium and Expo, April 15-16, however, is a chance to renew your sense of possibility. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of attending in the past, here are five reasons why you should participate in this conference:
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