Art and Design
I’m a huge fan of car sharing. You join the car share service and that gives you access to cars all over the city. You just book one of the cars on the web site — even just a few minutes before you need it — and then you can pick it up, using a card key to unlock it. You pay by the hour (or by the day) and gas and insurance are both included.
For city dwellers like me car sharing saves a ton of money and aggravation (it’s awesome not owning a car!), we have access to a car when we need one and using a car becomes a fixed and predictable expense.
The large commercial car sharing company in cities across the US is Zipcar; an architecture company has created a design for what they call a “Zipcar dispenser.” It’s basically a giant Pez dispenser-like rack system that allows car share cars to be stored vertically in dense urban areas and popped out like pieces of candy when they’re needed.
Check out the picture here, and the Moskow Linn Architects site for more pictures and information.
Image: Moskow Linns Architects
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I’m fortunate to live where I do for many reasons. It can become strangely easy to take for granted all of the things that are nearby living in a famous neighborhood in a famous city. I’m a block from cable cars, I’m near Union Square shopping, theater and restaurants, there are world-class postcard-perfect views just steps away and I’m blocks from Huntington Park and the big cathedral there.
I’m going somewhere with this…
The last place I mentioned, the cathedral, is famous for not one but two labyrinths! And labyrinths are what’s on my mind today after exploring another one in San Francisco last night, way on the outskirts of the city.
The labyrinths at the cathedral on Nob Hill are located inside the building, just inside the main entryway, and outside, just off to the right of the main steps. They’re both the same “medieval labyrinth” design (based on the labyrinth of Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres in Chartres, France). They’re built permanently into the church floor and courtyard pavement, respectively.
The labyrinth inside is dark and quiet, available when the cathedral is open to the public. The one outside is in the open air and is surrounded by the noise of the city, available anytime day or night. Yes, I’ve come up here in the wee hours of the night to clear my head and meditate by slowly walking the path in to the center and the retracing my steps back out.
Last night I went for a hike with V to what we call the “cliffside labyrinth.” It’s located way out at Land’s End, below Fort Miley on a point above the ocean. This one is homemade, rocks stacked to form the pathway. Not as large, elaborate or even designed as the ones at Grace, but it’s a different place of meditation, with a view straight across the Golden Gate to the Bridge to the East, and out toward the vastness of the Pacific Ocean to the West.
We walked the cliffside labyrinth, looked at the views, took pictures and did a little maintenance, stacking some of the stones that had fallen out of place, trying to leave it in good shape for the next round of visitors. Then back up the trail, through the quiet trees as the sounds of crashing waves receded and the sounds of the city came back into focus.
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I was at Starbucks today (I know, but they’re everywhere, thus basically impossible to avoid) and mentioned that I figured out why I think they look so “corporate” and “McDonalds-ish” — the tile flooring.
“You’re, like, obsessed with flooring,” my companion replied. I don’t know about that, but I think mom ‘n’ pop coffee shops with funky old wood floors and big shaggy area rugs are a lot more homey and comfortable than the chain stores with “industrial strength” tile floors. I realize tile’s easier to clean, but I want to feel like I’m in my living room at the coffee shop — if my living room had strangers walking through and demanding coffee drinks while I surfed on my laptop on the wifi connection, of course. That would be pretty cool.
Anyway, I do like flooring, especially wood flooring. I think the floors in my apartment are oak; they’re old and a little scuffed up — I tell myself that adds character — and look pretty good. When I went looking for my apartment wood floors were a must; to me they really set a nice tone for the whole space.
If I were going to install new wood floors, I’d choose bamboo. Yeah, bamboo! It seems to be getting more popular these days since it looks great, is durable and has environmental benefits. Bamboo can grow three to four feet day, so it’s really easy to harvest and renew. It’s amazingly strong with a tensile strength similar to steel. I’m not sure how that translates to flooring strength, but it seems like a good start (my flooring reviews are very scientific, eh?).
Of course my bathroom floor is a whole other story… it desperately needs some good tile to replace the tacky vinyl there now. There’s a place for everything, right? That’s a project on my “in the future” list.
Thanks for enjoying this random rambling about coffee shops and flooring and my living room. Yeah.
Image: Wikipedia/Pbroks1
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If you’ve talked to me in person for more than a couple hours, you’ve probably heard me say something like, “if every building had a windmill and some solar panels, think how much clean energy we’d have.” Seriously, it seems like a no-brainer. If we expect every building to have it’s own systems to use energy (water heaters, furnaces, air conditioners), why don’t we expect every building to have systems to obtain energy?
That’s not to say every building would be getting all the power it needs all the time, but if every building could harness wind and sun when it’s available at its location the aggregate amount of incoming clean and free energy could be substantial.
Miyoko Ohtake has posted an article on Dwell Blog outlining the basics of getting a residential wind turbine up and running in San Francisco, including testing your location’s wind strength, obtaining a permit, choosing and installing the turbine and connecting it to the grid in order to receive energy credit when your turbine is producing more power than you’re using.
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“To love one”™s city and have a part in its advancement and improvement is the highest privilege and duty of a citizen.” -Daniel Burnham
And who was Daniel Burnham? Some snippets from Wikipedia:
Daniel Hudson Burnham, FAIA (September 4, 1846 ““ June 1, 1912) was an American architect and urban planner. He was the Director of Works for the World”™s Columbian Exposition and designed several famous buildings, including the Flatiron Building in New York City and Union Station in Washington D.C.
Beginning in 1906 and published in 1909, Burnham and assistant Edward H. Bennett prepared The Plan of Chicago, which laid out plans for the future of the city. It was the first comprehensive plan for the controlled growth of an American city; an outgrowth of the City Beautiful movement. The plan included ambitious proposals for the lakefront and river and declared that every citizen should be within walking distance of a park. Sponsored by the Commercial Club of Chicago, Burnham donated his services in hopes of furthering his own cause.
Burnham helped shape cities such as Cleveland (the Group Plan), San Francisco, Washington, DC (the McMillan Plan), and Manila and Baguio in the Philippines”¦
Almost as a tribute to his urban planning ethos, Burnham”™s final resting spot is given special attention, being located on the only island in the park-like Graceland Cemetery, situated in Chicago”™s Uptown neighborhood. Burnham”™s personal and professional papers are held in the Ryerson and Burnham Archives at the Art Institute of Chicago. Because he was the planner and architect of Baguio City in the Philippines, the city”™s Burnham Park was named after him. In his honor, the American Planning Association named a major annual prize the Daniel Burnham Award for a Comprehensive Plan.
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