seattle waterfront

On May 19, design project lead, James Corner, will present first design directions for the future waterfront.

The event starts at 6:30, but be sure to come early for music, great views and sample tempting treats from some of Seattle's popular mobile food vendors - Maximus/Minimus, Where ya at Matt, and Street Treats will be selling food from 5:00 - 6:30PM!

5:00 pm to 6:30 pm Mobile Food Vendors and Live Music

6:30 pm to 8:30 pm Presentation, Q & A, and Activity Stations

Bell Harbor Conference Center
2211 Alaskan Way
Seattle, WA 98101

rsvp@waterfrontseattle.org

spacesuit

Nicholas de Monchaux is an architect, urbanist, writer, and Assistant Professor of Architecture & Urban Design at UC Berkeley. I love learning about people like him because they vary the landscape of what a designer is supposed to be.

The topic of his latest book, Spacesuit: Fashioning Appolo, is especially interesting since I grew up in Cape Canaveral. I saw the Challenger explode in my my front yard.



An in-depth interview is on BLDGBLOG. All images were snagged from there.

the swing blade desktop sharpener

Free Time's swing blade desktop pencil sharpener was accepted into the "use me" competition hosted by the american design club. It was posted on mocoloco today, so we thought we should post some background information.

The American Design Club (AmDC) was seeking unapologetically functional design for its sixth show, set to coincide with the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) 2011. Submitted designs had to exhibit a strong sense of purpose, intelligent use of materials and the ability to do one thing extremely well.



The competition prompted us to look at a sharpener inherited from my great-great-grandfather; grade school teacher, Fredrick Clay. Because of the superior lead points created by the precision of the swinging blade, this unique tool has been handed down for generations.

We worked to reverse engineer the sharpener by examining the design decisions made by its originator. After striping down the tool to its basic architecture, we were able to combine elements and reduce unnecessary visual complexity. The stabilizing feet, the guide angle, and the collection bowl were integrated into one simple element. The resulting form factor is canted, providing the perfect angle for smooth stable sharpening.


renderings of our design.


original 1904 sharpener


sketches

light memory install

a few images from the install last night for suzanne's show.
come to the opening of "light memory" on may 5th at {far4} 6-8 pm:
1020 First Ave | Seattle | WA | 98104

the high line in national geographic

photography by diane cook and len jenshel.

field operation's high line was in the national geographic.

i am working on a story about field operation's seattle waterfront project, and find it especially exciting to see their work portrayed in a magazine with the manifesto: "inspiring people to care about the planet since 1888".

make sure to see the next presentation by field operations for the seattle waterfront may 19th at bell harbor conference center. rsvp@waterfrontseattle.org

the ny times agrees

apparently my new moss hobby is right on. a day after my post about moss, the new york times posted this article.

what is most interesting is that i have seen the raccoons that they refer to going at it for hours ... i chose not to blog about that however.

nordic memories

just had a nice skype session with my older sister emily today and it got me thinking of an amazing hike we went on june 2009. the place is called preikestolen. she is there sitting on the edge in the second photo.
she lives in london so i don't get to see her very often :(