As we spend another day cooped up inside, waiting out what has lovingly been dubbed 'Arctic Blast' - the most massive of winter storms - seriously. In a place of the country that has an occasional ice storm, but doesn't typically have snow stick around for more than a day or two at most - any significant and long-lasting accumulation of snow and cold is both mind-numbing (watching the news) and paralyzing (due to really minimal storm infrastructure). Growing up in North Dakota, which doesn't know the term 'snow day', it's always interesting to see what reactions For some reference... here's what it's like right now...
:: conditions on I-5 at 6:33pm - image via TripCheck
Here's the typical reactions... 1) OMG, we are ALL GOING TO DIE...! 2) weeee, snow... 3) wow, now I can try out those snow chains I got in 1997... and 4) zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... After a weekend of some of all of these (even blogging gets old sometimes), it was time to venture out and get supplies, test out the road handling capabilities of the Honda Element, and see what all the fuss was about.
:: images via NWCN
My reaction continues to be one of a mixture of disgust (at people who don't know how to drive in snow) [video is from Seattle, but same diff], amazement (that this has been on the news non-stop for days...), shock (people burning houses and dying from CO2 from bringing stove indoors) and sheer unadulterated joy (i heart snow). But I digress. My point is to take a quick peek at the preparation - even that which perhaps cannot (or due to it's infrequency should not) be prepared for.
From the Portland Office of Emergency Management, some quick facts... "Winter Storms are deceptive killers since most of thedeaths that occur are indirectly related to the actual storm...
• People die in traffic accidents on icy roads
• People die of heart attacks while shoveling snow
• People die of hypothermia from prolonged exposure to the cold"
I would add 'People die from boredom... or perhaps stupidity' but enough beer and movies stocked up can mitigate the first half of this - and staying away from roadways is the way to avoid the second part. It's one of those unseen aspects of urban life that the icy/snowy/wintry conditions offer perhaps a different animal in the city versus outlying areas. It's also interesting to see a major metropolitan area paralyzed by weather - whereas many others would keep on rolling along without skipping a beat.
One is that transportation is such a key. In Portland for instance, even with our multi-modal transporation - including MAX light rail, buses, walking, biking, and x-country skiing to no name a few there are still a litany of problems. But to focus on roads for a second... what is done here to solve said problems with the over 4000 miles of roadways in the Portland area (via Portland Office of Transportation):
a. Anti- Icing: To commence, at the discretion of the Incident Commander, whenever the early application of anti icing agents may effectively improve street conditions, or add to the effectiveness of sanding or plowing operations.
b. Sanding: Sufficient to provide traction without waste of materials.
c. Plowing: To commence, at the discretion of the Incident Commander, whenever plowing effectively improves the street condition, or when sanding operations are no longer effective.
d. Snow Removal in Selected Areas: To commence at the discretion of the Incident Commander, when the size of the snow storage area restricts the use of the cleared traffic lane, or when accumulations create danger of drainage hazards."
:: images via Portland Office of Transportation
The issue is not approach but it's not as much a question of quantity. As mentioned on the site, the snowfall is not predictable, there is topographic change, and their is variability of local microclimates - making it easier to pinpoint trouble spots but near impossible to cover the entire City with this collection (via PDOT):
Trucks fitted with snowplows and sanders: 55
Liquid anti-icer trucks: 4
Service trucks: 10
Big-wheel loaders: 5
Backhoes: 2
Road graders: 2
Emergency trucks: 2
Street closure trucks: 2
Fuel truck: 1
That's for the whole city... wonder why nothing is plowed? One aspect that some people were pretty adamant about was that we should be using 'salt' to clean roads... Why not? From ODOT's TripCheck website: " ODOT doesn’t use salt because it has detrimental effects to vehicles, structures and the environment. Salt, rock salt, or road salt are the common terms for sodium chloride, a product traditionally used in the eastern United States. While road salt is an effective tool for melting snow and ice, it also causes severe rust damage to vehicles, degrades the road surface, corrodes bridges, and may harm roadside vegetation."
Oregon (and Portland), amongst many other cities, use Magnesium chloride - a deicing liquid that has an internal corrosion inhibitor... a relatively safe and non-corrosive alternative. In fact, the naturally derived material is used in the production of tofu and soy milk, as well as used transdermally to increase magnesium levels. Tofu... deicer... I guess it all comes down to what works for your city... to keep it running.
:: Tofu - image via Wing Yip Store
Monday, December 22, 2008
The Paralytic City
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Got Maintenance?
As regular visitors know, L+U comprehensively covers the broad range of vegetated architecture. While there are many technical issues at play, often the coverage skims the surface with some choice excerpts and some snappy graphics. This is not to imply that there is not a critical eye towards the functional side, and as a designer of veg.itecture, these all provide grist for the mill in producing work on a daily basis.
From the web-side, it is often near impossible to analyze these projects or vet them for critical flaws or mine them for amazing details. So we push them out, show them off, and file them as a potential visual option - that still leaves plenty of room for interpretation and analysis as they move from vision to reality to growing. While you can accurately model architecture to somewhat limit surprise and deliver an object that is representative in the built form, in landscape projects (most times) - a vision is a mere snapshot of a project at a particular moment.
A recent example of this idea is the competition winner from FARO architecten bv for a sustainable residential tower design. The project offers what is a common "The tower is designed to become a part of the park: it will allow the park to be growing on the public side of the tower in the form of green balconies. Residences with a view have to possibility to also have a private garden in one of the circles on the parking deck."
:: images via Arch Daily
More: "Additionally, the tower provides a high level of social sustainability: the residents will be involved with the park, the park is involved with the tower, and there is a number of elements that will promote a neighborhood feel in this vertical city."
:: images via Arch Daily
The question? Does it work, and how do you pull it off. How will the living walls along the facade be attached? What plantings? How does it evolve through the seasons? All things that as a design problem, must be grappled with. It's not to say the designers didn't think about it, but it's just not part of the presentation. So we speculate... it's what designers do. And, aside from the design-based issues, there is the longer term dilemma of that nasty reality: maintenance. In a recent post on the subject, Treehugger sort of references this with a necessary (yet simplistic) view in 'How Green was my Balcony' looks at a similar project to the above renderings, this proposal for Milano Santa Monica. 
:: image via Treehugger
Treehugger asks the question: "It seems to be all the rage these days: Every building proposal has lush green balconies. It is hard to tell how it is done; when you look closely at the renderings of this proposal... one really cannot tell if there are planters in front of the handrails or if it is just sorta stuck there like Christmas decorations. Nor do you know who maintains them, whether each owner is responsible, whether gardeners have rights of entry, or whether they rappel down the exterior of the building."
Definitely good points. Not sure what the motivation of the commentary is, as Treehugger definitely is one of the major purveyors of veg.itectural eye candy. The post continues by looking at the new Gwanggyo City Centre by MVRDV (termite mounds), Tournesols prefab planters, and Edouard Francois' Flower Tower - giving some analysis as well for last years Knafo Klimor competition entry for the Living Steel 2nd International Sustainable Housing Competition - one of the first vertical urban ag projects that floated out in 2007.
:: images via Treehugger
So drip irrigation is maybe the key... :) The bigger issue may be the very shallow hydroponics, and the sq ft. to growing area ratio - that I would guess makes for some major funding issues. But all of these things shown are technically plausible, visually stimulating, and with enough money, knowledge, and maintenance - can actually become a reality that at least refers to, if not becomes, the reality.
Treehugger is still on board - relegating the plausibility factor to locating greenery in common areas as the key then. "What is my point in all of this? Only that lovely renderings of buildings that show a consistent green envelope require a lot of technology and attention and do not often come out looking like the rendering. Designs where the green stuff is in common areas (like Daniel Libeskind's proposal for New York) are more likely to get proper care than those where it is on every balcony of every apartment. But it is a lovely trend."
Time will tell how these come together and grow. Maintenance is one of those hurdles we've yet to stride over, mostly due to lack of a critical mass of practical examples. The more built, the more we know. Period.
Veg.itecture #46
A double-dose this week, as there are a number of recent impressive projects, and the preponderance of press picking up the terminology on the sub-genre of Veg.itecture. Also, recently, Landscape, The First Specialised Landscape Magazine in the Middle East was kind enough to publish my article, The "Veg.itecture of Ken Yeang". Check out the online version of the magazine here... and jump to pages 60-61 before checking out the rest of the great resource (and thanks to the editor Nada Abdel Khalek for the great opportunity to contribute to the mag!)
:: See It Split, See It Change - image via Tropolism
The roof spaces take a variety of forms - from the typical/accessible flat, such as the Rio de Janeiro Residence by Tamabi Arquitetura in Rio - via Arch Daily.
:: images via Arch Daily
The curvy rooftops of the h2hotel in Healdsburg, California, via Jetson Green.
:: images via Jetson Green
And the middle-ground of the Bondy School by (via Arch Daily) by Atelier Phileas which has 'gabled' green roofs atop overhangs and wrapped around the perimeter of the building. 
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