North Dakota Topography

Having grown up in the flat-ness of North Dakota, and spending 20 winters or so there through the height of the Cold War, I just had to share the recent post from Pruned that outlined an amazing landscape-art/homeland security from an anti-ballistic missile complex. The project stems from an installation for the Safeguard Program - a short-lived program from the 1960's to protect ICBM silos throughout the plains. Located in Nekoma, ND (near Langdon, like that helps) the facility photos come to Pruned via "... the HABS/HAER collections in the Library of Congress comes these gorgeous photographic documentations..."






: images via Pruned

A little more digging found an interesting article from Lone Prairie Art Works, entitled Nixon's Folly. The name comes from the origins in the Nixon administration. Some more on the form: "Nekoma's pyramid rises from the plains like a prairie iceberg. Most of it's cyclopic structure is buried below ground, leaving only the tip to poke through and be seen. According to our tour guide, one of the few men still taking care of the abandoned site, the interior of the structure has been stripped bare, but is so huge and cavernous that many of the hallways and passages deep inside have their own atmosphere. He told of how, on certain days, some hallways have fog rolling about inside. There is also much water, particularly since the water table in the region has been high since about 1993."

The site is still visible and visitable (or at least seems to be) from these pictures...






:: images via Lone Prairie Art Works

The beauty of these structures is the striking form - accentuated by the utter flatness of topography in North Dakota - an endless horizon that is both mind-numbing and amazing. My memories were always sort of a hypnosis as field after field of wheat, soybeans, or sunflowers rolled by, along with the persistent and level-thin horizon. This is something I never really truly appreciated until living in Oregon, where stunning mountains, forests and hillsides offers wonderful views - but rarely this thin line as far as the eye can see.

:: image via DKimages

I admit I've never seen the structures at Nekoma - and it's kind of disappointing (although I'm planning a trip in the fall - so maybe a side trip is in order). It's fascinating that this structure may be one of the most significant structures in the state - in terms of height and mass. With a low mountain range as the highest points of topography - maxing out at around 3,300 feet in elevation as a major feature, and a stunning valley topography as the other significant topography, the glacial scouring that flattened most of the state 10,000+ years ago definitely makes a statement. In fact the high point in the state is a mere 3,506 ft - White Butte and it's distinctive shark fin make for a very horizontal state.


:: image via Wikipedia

The terrain made larger structures very visible - but the most insidious cargo hid underground, in the architectural equivalent of a brown paper bag. The interesting part of the landscape of North Dakota is that it is both possible and impossible to hide missile silos - and any traveler of a back road will see the familiar site alongside - thin gravel road, rectangular chain link, small buff colored out-building, a couple of antennae, and a Letter-Number designation. See below for a typical entry shot, (a protest), and aerial photo showing the innocuous looking sites amidst plowed fields.


:: image via Picassa (Judy)


:: image via ABC News


:: image via Minot AFB Minuteman Missile Site Coordinates

Overall it's interesting to see how ubiquitous these landscape elements were - even in their stealthy locations in a sometimes featureless landscape. The last time I visited North Dakota - it was the week of 9/11 - and a trip from Minot to Teddy Roosevelt National Park showed no traffic - save for armed humvee's with machine gunner at the ready on top. It was as close to some form of apocalypse I've felt. It was not nice.

It's telling how much we can see, and accept in our landscape. Whether this is nuclear missiles, toxic waste, strip mines, clear cuts - and any scar we inflict or poison we hold. It's something that we pass by and accept (sometimes willingly, other times oblivious) - perhaps more in the open landscape than in our cities. A final word from Lone Prairie Art Works, Julie R. Neidlinger, about the removal of her family's nearby missle silo:

"I had to relearn the horizon without those lights being there. They'd been there my entire life. Now I, along with many other people here including my father, wonder what the plans for the buildings on this much smaller site are, and if we'll get a crack at them since it was on our land. I know of more than a few farmers who have inquired about the metal quonset-like structure. The realization is, unfortunately, that by the time the military gets around to the issue, the buildings will be fit for the bulldozer and not much else. They've been empty for about ten years.But I still miss the lights. Texas has their Friday Night Lights and football. We had our nuclear missiles.Nostalgia. It can even make you miss nukes."

Eikongraphia's MoPo 2008

In this day and age of exit polls and populartity projections - time for one related to the top architecture blogs out there. A L+U favorite is Eikongraphia, has a great, semi-scientific method for determining the popularity of focused blogs out therer. It's not mistake that certain blogs have extremely high readership and popularity is by being inclusive of a number of topics. And one with perhaps the broadest range is BLDGBLOG.


:: image via BLDGBLOG

The list of MoPo 2008
1. BLDGBLOG
2. City of Sound
3. Archidose
4. Pruned
5. Interactive Architecture
6. Architecture.mnp
7. Subtopia
8. Life Without Buildings
9. Tropolism
10. Mirage Studio 7
11. Strange Harvest
12. Architechnophilia
13. The Where Blog
14. The Arch
15. Super Colossal
16. Sit down man, you’re a bloody tragedy
17. Brand Avenue
18. Architecture Chicago Plus
19. Hugh Pearman
20. Varnelis
21. Lebbeus Woods
22. Part IV
23. Eye Candy
24. Architectural Videos
25. Kosmograd

There are definitely some I don't read often - and it's a great opportunity to add and augment my reading - based on my recent dissatisfaction with a number of the blogs that are more tangential than these. A few had dropped off my reading, such as Part IV and Subtopia, for lack of relevant content. Others I just don't really connect with what the directive is, such as Lebbeus Woods (love the drawings), Architectural Videos (not a fan of videos), and sit down man, you're a bloody tragedy (great band name though).

To classify a blog as 'Architectural' has it's own range of perils - as a hundred other topics are woven throughout the content of all of these - with perhaps the common thread as buildings. Ideas such as urbanism, sustainability, landscape, planning, design, materials, and on and on... For instance, Pruned is not a blog about architecture in any form, but is also not purely about landscape - which is part of the appeal. The Where is less about architecture than planning and urbanism - with forays into the realms of architecture where necessary. City of Sound for the most part is a lot of information from a very wide net, and the random bits I glean are gold, amidst clutter. Ditto for a number of the remainder of the list of 25 - the range of info is broad - which is indicative of the blurring of lines between all of these varied disciplines.

Honestly, for all of my joy of some of these blogs, the are always hit or miss. BLDGBLOG for instance, is either so far into some abstraction that it's not relevant (to me) - and I skip it often. The next post blows me away with something amazing. So we keep reading. Additionally, there's a taste-factor. Writing styles, pretty pictures, heady dialogue, witty critique. We're all looking for that something that not only draws us in but keeps us coming back.

It's always one of those 'how do I rate?' sort of reactions... but for the life of me I can't parse the system in a degree to be able to tell what is apples to apples. Either way, I'm happy with a Technorati rating of almost 50, and readership in the range of 300+ a day. And in the short time I've been posting and tracking, I've recently hit milestones of 20,000 visits and 50,000 page views, both of which blow me away.

Anyway, I'm glad to see these lists, if purely for the opening up of some more resources for keeping this blog as well rounded - and well read, as possible. If Mr. van Raaij is willing to see how I rate, I'd love to see - but alas, I'm pretty happy with the three months of exponential growth - and the great feedback, commentary, and criticism. As always, any of the above is much welcome.

Local Aquaculture

The decentralization of agriculture offers a range of potential options for food production, but usually we think of this. City Farmer featured a home-scaled aquaculture as a means to produce high amounts of food, in this case 2000 lbs in a year (38 lbs per week).


:: image via City Farmer

Tilapia is a common fish used in aquaculture, due to it's large size, rapid growth, and palatability. Further explanations gives more creedence to their use, via Wikipedia: "This is due to their omnivorous diet, mode of reproduction (the fry do not pass through a planktonic phase), tolerance of high stocking density, and rapid growth. In some regions the fish can be put out in the rice fields when rice is planted, and will have grown to edible size (12–15 cm, 5–6 inches) when the rice is ready for harvest."


:: image via Wikipedia

The potential for this fish is amazing - and differs from some of the more popular 'farmed' fish: Again via Wikipedia: "One recent estimate for the FAO puts annual production of tilapia at about 1.5 million tonnes, a quantity comparable to the annual production of farmed salmon and trout. Unlike salmon, which rely on high-protein feeds based on fish or meat, commercially important tilapiine species eat a vegetable or cereal based diet. Tilapias raised in inland tanks or channels are considered safe for the environment, since their waste and disease should be contained and not spread to the wild."

:: image via Tilapia Vita Farms

Some additional info can be gleaned from Edgar F. Sanchez of Orlando, Florida, proprietor of the Tilapia Vita Farms who has a website outlining his personal home-scale aquaculture program.




:: images via Tilapia Vita Farms

Another pair of small-scale examples are found via Treehugger - the first a 2007 summary of aquaponics (the hybrid of aquaculture and hydroponics). From the site: "Basically, the process involves fish, plants and bacteria. The cycle consists of fish by-products (or to the less delicate … ‘poo’) being pumped into grow beds filled with gravel. Bacteria convert the ammonia from the ‘fish poo’ into nitrites and then other good bacteria convert the nitrites in nitrates, which are used by the plants as nutrients. The beauty of the system is that a balance occurs in the eco-system whereby the water is sufficiently filtered by the plants who inturn obtain all the necessary nutrients from the fish."


:: Aquaponics - image via Treehugger

A more recent post via Treehugger, of which the "...Urban Aquaculture Center (UAC) in Milwaukee. The UAC intends to combine a 150,000-sq ft indoor aquaculture/agriculture facility with educational facilities, sustainable farming exhibits, a restaurant and fish market."


:: image via Treehugger

Some additional technical info, from the UAC website: "The Great Lakes WATER Institute and Growing Power are conducting tests on the ability of plants, worms and bacteria to remediate water in a perch grow-out system. The results thus far are encouraging. Adult perch have done well in a greenhouse environment with only a pump to move water to gravel beds containing plants and beneficial nitrifying bacteria. This system, which closely mimics nature, shows promise."


:: image via UAC

While the 'home' scale label of the above is debatable when you consider the land-print required for this endeavor, some more pictures of Mathieu Lehanneur’s Local River (previously on L+U here). I dismissed the concept a bit in the previous post - and definitely double this resistance with incorporation of sea-snakes in the tanks. There's snakes in the house!!! Someone get Sam Jackson.




:: images via Dezeen

Finally, acknowledgement of one of the pioneers of aquaculture (and many things sustainability, before it had a name) is John Todd. A posting in Inhabitat featured Todd and his receipt of the Buckminster Fuller Challenge award. His winning proposal is entitled: "Comprehensive Design for a Carbon Neutral World: The Challenge of Appalachia, which lays out a strategy for transforming one and a half million acres of strip-mined lands in Appalachia into a harmonious self-sustaining community."


:: images via Inhabitat

Arguably, we wouldn't be having these conversations with the inspiration of Todd and his group of innovators from the 1970's. The idea of Todd's 'eco-machines' which are synonymous, sans trademark, to living machines - offer a glimpse of the ideas of the moder aquacultural movement. It will be interesting to see how these are adapted to increase production, reclaim wastes, adapt to climates, and also start becoming incorporated into more urban and dense areas. Sushi anyone?