Alexandra Kelley, Carla Munoz, Debra norris, and Juan Negrete of Internum

Yesterday evening, Cite celebrated the release of its new issue at Internum, a recently-opened high-end furniture store. The clean lines of the furniture and the crisp white walls made everyone look sharp. No one made speeches or declaimed poetry. It was an evening of good conversation and taking joy in beauty.

Guest editors Steven Lewis and Thomas Colbert

Graphic designer Joe Ross

Ben Koush and Anna Mod

Joe and Jessica Ross

Scott Cartwright & Jenny Lynn Weitz-Amaré Cartwright

Nicole Zaza

Matthew Johnson and Harbeer Sandhu

Amanda and Everett Valentine with Miah Arnold

Allyn West

Chris Charles and Nadia Hussain

Raj Mankad, Brian Hammer, Mary Swift, and Cathy Bauer

Fernando Brave and Serge Ambrose

Michelangelo Sabatino and Christof Spieler

Debra Norris, Juan Negrete, and Alexandra Kelley

Wang Shu’s drawing for the Xiangshan Campus, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, all images courtesy Wang Shu

In the Fall of 2011, the Rice Design Alliance (RDA) brought three architects from China to lecture in Houston at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. One of the speakers, Wang Shu, was just announced as the next winner of the Pritzker Prize. RDA has once again shown its knack for bringing master architects to Houston before they emerge as Pritzker Prize winners. Past lecturers have included Richard Meier, Aldo Rossi, Robert Venturi, Rafael Moneo, Renzo Piano, and Glenn Murcutt.

Bringing great architects from China to Houston is no small effort and does not happen very often. Cite followed up on the great opportunity. The morning after each lecture, Julia Mandell, a designer and writer, interviewed each of the visitors at the Hotel Zaza over breakfast. I had the privilege of sitting in and recording the conversations. Wang Shu had a strikingly calm intensity about him. He was focused and aware of his tight schedule for the day but decidedly not in a rush. He did not plug a laptop into the wall. He did not answer his mobile phone or send texts.

Sticks used for measurement in vernacular Chinese construction.

Some architects tell me, ‘I really enjoy your work; I want to do something like you,’ but I tell them it is not easy because it is not just about design. First, it is about your way of working. If you don’t change your way of working, you can’t do something like this. You just draw on the computer.

Second, you have to change your way of life. Some people just want to change their ideas. No, changing an idea is not enough. You need practical experience—experience influences you more than your thinking. I say, ‘Your hand controls your brain; it’s not your brain that controls your hand.’

Simply drawing by hand, however, is not enough, according to Shu. He added:

The life most now have is one of speed. Just 100 years ago, Chinese were the slowest people in the world, the ones who most knew how to enjoy a relaxed way of life. Now you can’t imagine the Chinese like this. Now the Chinese are the fastest people in all the world.

To slow down means that on your way to your office, you go to a small courtyard, to a garden, then through your neighborhood, along a small street, and finally to an office building. Now life is very fast. You have an apartment unit, you take an elevator down, you take a train directly to an office building, then you take the elevator and go up.

To read the full interview of this extraordinary architect and principal of Amateur Architecture Studio, subscribe to Cite or join the Rice Design Alliance. The special issue on China will be out at the end of March.

Wang Shu with a head craftsman.

by Raj Mankad

Poet and Inprint Executive Director Rich Levy and novelist Farnoosh Moshiri

Yesterday evening, English + Associates Architects hosted the release party for Cite 87 at their offices in the Sixth Ward. Kathleen English gave a short talk on how she adapted the 120-year-old church building at 1919 Decatur. From the lowest floor, we could see clear through a hole cut in the floor to the beautifully exposed bow trusses. Gwendolyn Zepeda read from her article about growing up in the neighborhood, which she knew as Del Sesto. Her wonderful style is a form of social criticism through humor, keen observation, and generosity. The party seemed to fortify and refresh the spirits of the scholars, designers, novelists, poets, musicians, and artists there before the arctic blast welcomed us back into the purple night.

Linda Sylvan introduces Kathleen English.

Gwendolyn Zepeda reads from her contribution.

Gwendolyn Zepeda

Jim Blain and Jane Creighton

Roger Wood

Laura Tait, John Earles, and Jennifer Blanco of Product Superior

Ben Koush and Mark Kusey

Raj Mankad, Kathyrn Fosdick, and Katie Plocheck

Rose Kuo and Carrie Schneider

Carrie Schneider and Harbeer Sandhu

Marilyn Jones and Miah Arnold

Cover photo by Jack Thompson.

The Fall 2011 issue of Cite (87) was mailed and is arriving at the Brazos Bookstore, CAMH, MFAH, Issues, Domy, River Oaks Bookstore, and other stores. Below is a letter from the editor about this issue, followed by the Table of Contents.

The cover of this issue shows Dan Havel and Dean Ruck’s latest work, Fifth Ward Jam. Fashioned out of an old house, it looks like Houston’s culture—heterogeneous, exploded, twisted, improvised, and strangely beautiful. The editorial team was drawn to Fifth Ward Jam because of the way the splintered wood seems to focus a terrifying energy, like a plane crashed into the house and left a stage in the crater.

This issue of Cite features two ostensibly separate and unrelated sections. Guest editors Terrence Doody and Rich Levy challenged Cite and our readers to reflect on the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks well after the flurry of television coverage has passed. The second section emerged from an effort led by Jane Creighton, Pat Jasper, and Carl Lindahl to commission writers who have insider stories about Houston places. No connection, right?

Texas Johnny Brown performs at Fifth Ward Jam. Photo by Vicky Pink, courtesy HAA.

The afternoon of October 1, Fifth Ward Jam officially opened with a little music festival. Prince Jabo and Texas Johnny Brown played in the zydeco and blues styles that developed right there on Lyons Avenue. The crowd was a wondrous mix of ethnicities. I knew about two dozen of the artists and writers. As for the locals from the Fifth Ward, I did not know a soul. Class and race differences are persistent and real, but the structure of Fifth Ward Jam suggests that communication is still possible. There is a potential “we” to Houston.

During the artists’ talk, Dean Ruck emphasized that Fifth Ward Jam now belongs to the Fifth Ward and that he hoped the community would take ownership of it. Rappers, zydeco bands, political debaters jam onward and forward. However, no Discovery Green-style public/private partnership will subsidize and schedule regular activity. Will Fifth Ward residents come to love and use an art work that resembles the abandoned houses next door?

In his contribution, Carl Lindahl, a scholar of Louisiana folk culture, considers the vernacular architecture of Frenchtown, a locale close by Fifth Ward Jam. The resilience of Frenchtown families and their commitment to their architecture is a powerful reminder that placemaking often emerges without big funders or institutions through bottom-up, creative engagement with tradition and history.

In their contributions, Terrence Doody and Rich Levy note a post-9/11 search not just for answers, but also for a way to frame the right questions. Levy takes solace in his son “tuning in to Al Jazeera” on his phone. Indeed, in less time than it took us to put together this issue, multiple Arab revolutions have inspired the leaderless Occupy Wall Street movement, arguably capturing the nation’s attention more than the excrutiatingly masterplanned rebuilding of Ground Zero down the street.

As far-flung and ununified an issue as this one is, a theme of bottom- up resilience runs through it all. The writing was so strong throughout that we leave the reader to imagine the scenes with only a gentle and skillful nudge from illustrator John Earles. Enjoy and let us know what you think.

Table of Contents

Citings

News: Spring Lecture Series, San Antonio Tour, Brazil Tour, The Concrete Whisperer, Pablo Ferro Packs the House
Calendar
Architecture: The Menil Café COMMUNITY: Rice Centennial House

Features

“What am I Looking at, Jack? What am I Looking at?” An Introduction to the Special Section on 9/11
By Terrence Doody

The Pictures I Could Not Take: We Have to be Able to Imagine What We Know
By Sally Gall

The Pictures I Had to Take: Because I Knew Words Would Fail Me
By Jack Stevens

Three Novels of 9/11: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Good Life, and Let the Great World Spin
By Terrence Doody

9/11, Houston, and Salman Rushdie: On the Other Side of Fury
By Rich Levy

Placemaking from the Bottom Up: An Introduction to Writing & C/Siting Houston
By Jane Creighton and Carl Lindahl

Shapes of Tradition: Accessing Insider Vision to Understand Architecture
By Carl Lindahl

Exile and Live Oaks: Stories Whispered from the Trees
By Farnoosh Moshiri

The Old Sixth Ward Historic District: Or As We Used to Call it, Del Sesto
By Gwendolyn Zepeda

Insider Visions Photo Well
By Jack Thompson, Rose Kuo, and Lawrence Lander

Keeping the Ghosts Happy: William B. Travis Elementary School
BY Robin Reagler

America Varshe America Kande: Hinduism, Ornament, and the Suburban Box
By Raj Mankad

East Side Ruins: Delighting in Unscripted Spaces Along Buffalo Bayou
By David Theis

Que Huong Supermarket: Rewinding 2600 Travis Street
By Long Chu

Sugarhill Recording Studios: The Story of a House
By Roger Wood

Readings

Art and Activism: Projects of John and Dominique de Menil
Reviewed by John Pluecker

MFAH Selects: New Books on Architecture and Design
By Bernard Bonnet

Hindcite

Ano Demo-Ni: The Death of Central Presbyterian Church
By Ben Koush

Cite 86 cover photograph by Paul Hester.

The Summer 2011 issue of Cite (86) was mailed and is at the Brazos Bookstore, CAMH, MFAH, Issues, Domy, River Oaks Bookstore, and other stores. Below is a letter from guest editors Katherine Howe and Rafael Longoria about this issue, followed by the Table of Contents.

Houston is not only the largest American city without zoning, it is also the only sizable American city without a comprehensive plan. This does not mean that there are no planning efforts going on in Houston. There are plenty of well-intentioned master plans for different parts of town, but these tend to be limited to relatively small areas, or focused on specific functions, such as traffic or public art. For years, local governments have been eager to delegate planning functions to any private group willing to pick up the bill – a practice that puts less affluent neighborhoods at a clear disadvantage.

Articles in this issue of Cite explore different aspects of Houston-style planning. Starting with an architectural review of the venerable Rice University campus written, upon the occasion of the university’s centennial, by Mark Cottle and Sabir Khan, two Rice architecture alumni who now live in Atlanta. They trace the history of the campus from the coastal plains, which defined Rice’s site a hundred years ago, to the remarkable master plan by Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson, and its evolution in the hands of a roster of architects who have shaped its spaces and buildings to this day. Cottle and Khan attempt to explain how the most successful buildings on campus are those that understand the conceptual and spatial lessons of the original plan, rather than rely on superficial stylistic mimicry.

In a counterpoint to Rice’s grand scheme, Susan Rogers evaluates the plans to “update” Airline Drive, a deteriorating two-lane commercial street at the heart of the city’s bustling wholesale produce district. She challenges the City of Houston to reconsider its traffic-centric approach to planning and replace aging thoroughfares throughout the city with more community-appropriate plans to make Houston a better place to work and live.

Raj Mankad evaluates the nearly completed widening of Sims Bayou and considers the role a coalition of residents played in improving the design.

Houston’s Civic Art program—fusing public art, architecture, and urbanism—runs counter to the city’s tendency to avoid centralized coordination. Matt Johnson evaluates the program’s success after fifteen years of existence.

We thank you for supporting Cite with your attention and welcome your comments to the editor at mankad at rice dot edu.

Cite 86 Table of Contents

Citings

News: RDA Visits Dallas, Long Dawns in Helsinki, High Schoolers Float Past Professionals, China is Big
Letters
Calendar
Architecture: WORKac’s New Angles on the Blaffer
Food: The Agile Food Truck
Musings: Why It Never Gets Dark in Houston
Community: Workshop Houston’s Beat Shop
Economy: Haus Coop Fosters Alternative
Sustainability: An Interview with Bina Agarwal

Features

One Hundred Years of Rice: Contemporary Responses to Tradition
By Mark Cottle and Sabir Khan

Buried Concrete: Is the Re-sculpting of Sims Bayou a Cause for Celebration?
By Raf Mankad

Street of Dreams: Is a Bigger Airline a Better Airline?
By Susan Rogers

Public Art in Four Acts: Houston Arts Alliance Negotiates a Babel of Critics and Patrons
By Matt Johnson

Readings

Review: Architecture as Revolution: Episodes in the History of Modern Mexico by Luis E. Carranza
By Monica Savino

MFAH Selects

New Books on Architecture and Design

Hindcite

Houston Aleph
By Harbeer Sandhu

Reginald Hatter, Co-Director of Workshop Houston, at PH Design.

The Cite 86 launch party was held last night at the new Rice Village location of PH Design Shop, a purveyor of gifts, stationary, and custom invitations. (The firm also does the graphic design for Cite.) It was a perfect evening, cool outside and in. PH mixed a summery cocktail and served up mini-cupcakes from Crave. The shop is a soothing place painted a deep purple. Hundreds of identical envelopes hung from the ceiling shivered ever so slightly.

Venerable scholars, emerging designers, and fidgety writers fit comfortably between the display tables. Fires raged and the economy tittered, but last night was relaxed and lovely.

Paul Hester, photographer, and Rafael Longoria, co-guest editor

Kathryn Fosdick and Raquel Puccio

Linda Sylvan and Danny Samuels

Jessica and Joe Ross

Douglas Oliver and Chris Promecene

Jorge Galvan and John Pluecker

Helen Fosdick and Stephen Fox

Scott Cartwright and Jenny Lynn Weitz-Amaré Cartwright

Ben Koush and Melanie Herz Promecene

Melanie Herz Promecene

Vishwa Vahana

Robbie Valentine, Chris Charles, and Jessica Ross

Pliny Fisk III and Joe Mashburn

Robbie Valentine

Edwin Friedrichs and Christof Spieler

Shenzhen Central Business District, photo from Wikipedia

Mind-blowing statistics about China’s urban growth abound. Here’s one. Shenzhen grew from a small town of about 300,000 to over 14 million in just 30 years, making its sister city, Houston, look like a stone on the side of the highway. How can we make sense of numbers like that? Several great books, including Thomas Campanella’s The Concrete Dragon, have brought in-depth analysis to the destruction of China’s classical and vernacular architectures, and the resistance that destruction engendered. In glossy design magazines, we see skyscrapers and highways jammed with traffic, evoking both contempt and envy. China is outdoing the United States at our own excesses.

More recently, the Chinese government and firms working there have argued that new projects engage traditional styles and preservation in innovative ways, and that pedestrian-friendly place-making take precedence. Most publications, however, only provide a cursory look at China from above. Reviews focus on the most expensive, highest profile, star-architect-designed projects. What is happening beyond the frame of the Bird’s Nest beauty shots?

Cite and OffCite are sending Christof Spieler, one of Houston’s brightest minds, to China to report on the ground. Spieler is an award-winning engineer, Rice School of Architecture lecturer, and METRO Board Member. Over the next two weeks, Spieler will be traveling from Beijing to Hong Kong, riding the world’s fastest high-speed rail along the way. Stay tuned to OffCite for a series of posts by Spieler as records his thoughts.

This series of blog posts is the start of Rice Design Alliance’s special focus on Chinese Architecture. Spieler will contribute an article to a special issue of Cite focusing on China. Furthermore, the RDA Fall lecture series will feature a U.S. scholar and three successful Chinese architects who have reacted to China’s growth in three of its most important cities: Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou. RDA members and the public are invited to hear the following speakers during the series:

Wednesday, September 28
Thomas Campanella
Associate Professor of Urban Planning, University of North Carolina
http://planning.unc.edu/people/faculty/thomascampanella

Wednesday, October 5
Pei Zhu
Studio Pei Zhu, Beijing
http://www.studiopeizhu.com/

Wednesday, October 12
Wang Shu
Amateur Architecture Studio, Hangzhou
http://www.chinese-architects.com/amateur/

Wednesday, October 19
Qingyun Ma
Dean, University of California School of Architecture
Principal, MADA s.p.a.m., Shanghai
http://www.usc.edu/about/administration/deans/ma.html

All lectures will be held at 7:00 p.m. in Brown Auditorium in the Caroline Wiess Law Building, each with a pre-lecture reception at 6:00 p.m. in the museum lobby. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is located at 1001 Bissonnet (enter via the Main Street door.) No guaranteed seating for ticket holders after 7:00 p.m. Additional parking at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is available until 7:00 p.m. for $3 in the museum garage located at the corner of Binz and Fannin Streets. As the lecture dates draw closer, tickets may be purchased in advance on our website.

A grant from the National Endowment for the Arts is supporting this unprecedented exchange of designers and scholars.

The entrance to Poison Girl would be easy to miss except that it is fuchsia.

The Cite 85 launch party was held last night at Poison Girl, a bar on Westheimer that is often home to literary readings. Kelly Moore read from her contribution to the issue, “Sidewalks, Steps, and Labyrinths: Navigating Houston in a Wheelchair.” The audience sat in rapt attention under a clear sky and the gaze of the giant Cool Aid man sculpture. Hank Hancock read a piece by legendary columnist Sig Byrd from the collection Literary Houston. He brought Byrd’s beat-style 1950s Houston vernacular back to life.

Scott Repass, Poison Girl Owner

Kelly Moore reads from her contribution to Cite.

Hank Hancock reintroduces "lagoon" into the Houston lexicon.

Danny Marc Samuels and Katie Plocheck

Tracy Jo Barnwell

Tom Colbert and Danny Marc Samuels

Bernard Bonnet and Ronnie Self

Guest editor Julia Mandell, Editor Raj Mankad and his son Vishwa

Jenny Lynn Weitz Amaré-Cartwright

This issue of Cite features articles on a broad range of topics. In all the pieces, the unpredictable development patterns of Houston play a role. The lack of planning and zoning here, or the “ad hoc” form of zoning as John Mixon describes it in his contribution, leads to innumerable challenges for individuals, communities, and designers. The vagaries of Houston’s growth at times feels like a game, fun and entertaining, grueling and shameless, rewarding some and relegating others to deprivation. Guest editors; Julia Mandell and Susan Rogers sought to highlight proactive responses and efforts to take a stand.

Kelly Moore navigates Houston in a wheelchair. She explores gaps and back alleys on her wheels that are “large, curvy hips that sometimes shimmy and sometimes coast, always whirring beneath [her] circling arms.” Her beautifully written essay goes well beyond documenting the obstacles she faces, such as steps and broken sidewalks. She does more than consider the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) twenty years after its passage. Moore’s insider-outsider perspective gives all of us a chance to see our culture, our bodies, and our city anew.

The anchor article in the issue is a survey of new downtown buildings. The vast stretches of surface parking lots seem to be filling in, though the process is halting— a two steps forward one step back dance that can be hard to keep faith in. Is the center of the city beginning to come back to life? Cite has a special role, as the only consistent forum on architecture in Houston, to provide an independent look. Writer and artist Kelly Klaasmeyer takes on that challenge.

A house designed by Ronnie Self for himself and his partner is a pleasure to consider. Though the house is perched on the edge of the canyon-like interchange of highways 59 and 288 and offers sweeping views of the city, reviewer Joe Self (of no relation to Ronnie) does not allow himself to be swept away by the context. He keeps his sights on the rigorous plan.

Susan Rogers and Maria Oran present a data-rich analysis of the distribution of grocery stores in Houston, revealing food deserts and gluts. The information juxtaposes protests against new stores in affluent areas with the complete lack of access to fresh foods in other neighborhoods. The question of food, community, and justice returns in the final piece, an excerpt of a rousing speech given by Laura Spanjian.

The aim of Cite is to raise the level of debate and standards of Houston by bringing sustained attention to the challenges we face. We do not imagine all readers will agree with the positions taken by the writers. Rather, we hope this issue will serve as a starting point for discussion and action.

Cite 85 Table of Contents

Citings

Gala: RDA Honors Art Storey
Photo Essay: The New Natural
News: Home Tour, Sally Walsh Lecture, Spotlight Prize, Anything That Floats
Letters
Calendar
Disaster: What Lessons Learned
Community: Talking Fashion Design

Features

Sidewalks, Steps, and Labyrinths: Navigating Houston in a Wheelchair
By Kelly Moore

An Honest Look at Downtown: The Center of Houston Has Come A Long Way
By Kelly Klaasmeyer

Glass House on a Concrete Canyon: Highway 288 Serves as an Unlikely Front Yard
by Joe Self

Zone-ing Around: Our City’s Ad System of Zoning is No Game
by John Mixon

Food for Thought: Mapping Houston Neighborhoods Reveals a Great Divide
by Susan Rogers

Readings

Hill Contry Deco: Modernistic Architecture of Central Texas by David Bush and Jim Parsons
by Anna Mod

MFAH Selects
Books on architecture and design for all types

Readings

Literary Houston by David Theis (ed.)
by hank hancock

HindCite

Taking Houston to the Cutting Edge of the Local Food Movement
by Laura Spanjian

Cite 84 cover photograph by Jack Thompson.

The Winter 2011 issue of Cite (84) was mailed and is at the Brazos Bookstore, CAMH, MFAH, Issues, Domy, River Oaks Bookstore, and other stores. Below is a letter by Raj Mankad about this special issue, followed by the Table of Contents.

The Houston region was named the nation’s number one job creator for the past five years in a ranking by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to Manufacturing News, Houston has the largest manufacturing workforce in the nation and is, in another measure, the home to the highest level of entrepreneurial activity out of the 15 largest cities.

Those are great numbers but what exactly do they mean at a granular level. Who are these people making things in a US city? What are they making? Why does industry thrive here at a time when many worry the United States has lost its way economically? Guest editor José Solís and I did not commission experts to find the answers. Instead, we sought out wildly curious people to explore.

We sent Kelly Klaasmeyer, an art critic, to half a dozen sites stretching from Katy to Telephone Road, and from Sugarland to Tomball. We sent fiction writers to Brochsteins and St. Joe Brick Works. We sent a poet to interview a young bicycle designer and fabricator. Jack Thompson, who made his name shooting Houston rappers (with a camera), took on the photography.

The result is—I’m not afraid to say it—inspiring. When you are done with this issue, you will want to jump off your couch and start making
stuff. The vitality of the firms and people profiled here is infectious. Professors from MIT, Rice, and the University of Houston do round out the explorations with their expertise. They challenge us to better take advantage of fabricators all around us, hidden in plain sight, to create a more beautiful, sustainable, and socially responsible future.

We tried to take on that challenge with this issue’s cover. The material was produced by Houston’s own Valéron Strength Films at their facility off Hempstead Road. The process starts with polyethylene resin pellets brought by railcars from a local petrochemical plant. The resin is blown into a tube three stories high by extruders that look like jet engines. The plastic cools into a film and collapses. The real ingenuity comes in the next two steps. The film is stretched to line up the polymer molecules in one direction. Then, using a spiral cut to unravel the tube, Valéron layers the material at 45-degree angles and laminates it all together. The result is an untearable material that can be found in flashing tapes in Singapore, cotton tags in Australia, and explosives packaging in Costa Rica.

We learned about Valéron with the help of New York-based Material ConneXion. How many other innovative fabricators exist right under our noses that could help us push our creativity? Special issues like this only scratch the surface. So please read and pass this especially sturdy issue around until we get a vibrant conversation going.

Cite 84 Table of Contents

Citings

News: New Orleans Five Years Later, Tour Dallas and Helsinki, RDA Gala
Letter
Calendar
Community: Pedro Portillo on the Chopper Shop
Sustainability: John Fernandez on Urban Metabolism

Features

Hidden fabrication: Navigating the Underground World of Houston’s Manufacturing Industry
By José Solís

Still Made in America: Houston is a High-Tech Hotbed for Industry and Fabrication
By Kelly Klaasmeyer

The Business of Craft: The Creative Hurdles and Triumphs of the Independent Fabricator
By Jose Solis

Timelessness is a Veneer: New Technologies and Management Transform Brochsteins
By Allyn West

St. Joe Brick: The Architectural Iconography of Houston Begins in a Louisiana Clay Pit
By Hank Hancock

Roundtable on Fabrication
By Cameron Alexander, Joe Meppelink, Andrew Vrana, Keith Jennings, José Solís, and Raj Mankad

Visualize-Simulate-Fabricate: A Look at Where Building Information Modeling Could Take Us
By Douglas Oliver and Christof Spieler

Readings

Review: TexStone Counters
By Allison Parrott

Hindcite

Boots and the Fabrication of Houston’s Identity
By Jose Solis