Last Reading Assignment

Change by Design pg 228-242
As the book Change by Design by Tim Brown comes to an end, he leaves us with a few things to keep in mind when working with or for an organization.

- Tackle the right problems and commit to seeing them through to a logical conclusion
- When thinking in a design way its important to bridge the " knowing-doing" gap
- Widen your impact by broadening your horizon and thinking unconventionally
- Asking the right kind of questions when working with a client is a key step to your success
- Start your research with human interaction, humans create the information one the web so why not go    straight to the raw source. Humans can help generate breakthrough ideas and help find a receptive market.
- Make sure you get out into the world and get your hands dirty.
- Encourage prototypes when working on a project, it will help you recognize mistakes before its too late. identify your audiences response.
- Look outside your organization for hep from experts. Experts know more then you do about there expertise so why not utilize them!
-Trust and inspire those you are collaborating with
- As an organization you should have a diverse portfolio. Stick to many different types of small projects to show range rather then becoming enveloped in one big project
- Record your ideas and observations visually, its how designers think!
- Demand options- brainstorming and mind maps are great to help you get started with this, first ideas aren't always the best
- Build on the ideas of others, 2 is better then 1.. sometimes someone else can see what your missing

* The biggest Design project you'll ever have is designing your life

Visible Signs pg 131-179
Everyday Symbols, Signs and Expressions


Today's culture is not focused on classical "fine art" but more media based styles of art making everyday life be flooded with cultural symbology.
 Hyperinstitutionalisation- a situation where formal features become the guarantee of an aesthetics ratehr then a relevance to real-life concerns

Assignment 1

Change By Design pg. 39-55
Converting need into demand, or putting people first

"We need to return human beings back to the center of the story"
This section explains the use of insight, observation and empathy in order to create a successful design program

INSIGHT: learning from the lives of others

• starting point- observing actual expirences - behaviors can provide a designer with clues about a clients unmet needs
• design paradigm- solution is often locked away; waiting to be discovered within creativity
• finding specific exaples to help fuel the creative process

OBSERVATION: watching what people don't do, listening to what they don't say

• getting to know your client by  observing where the live, work, and play
• observations based on quality not quantity

EMPATHY: standing in the shoes of others

• distinction between acedemic and design thinking- translate observations into insights and insights into products that improve
• we use empathy to communicate and understand clients

Visible Design pg. 8-26

What is theory- theory is a speculation on something rather then the practice of it

theories applied to graphic design come from a general science of signs called semiology


even though our language may be different symbols become a universal language

Queen Anne wrap porch
Georgian panel door
Romantic square doric collumns
georgian modillions
Folk Victorian two story side gabeled roof
Colonial Gabeled dormers

tudor style half-timbering
gothic style butresses
richardsonian rough faced stone walls

New York

New Ground Zero Plans

On a recent visit to New York City I was able to visit the site, which is now named Ground Zero were the two twin towers ( The World Trade Center) fell. Architect David M. Childs is the lead designer in the plans for the site, which include 7 towers, a memorial museum, and two granite slabs marking the original location of the fallen towers. the new plans suggest a much bigger complex then the previous to towers as well as no real connection as far as the designs of the building go with the original towers. While the building (as seen in the first picture) are really beautiful and very interestingly designed they mimic other surround buildings in the New York skyline with the repititous mirror facade and over whelming size. Overall the 7 towers don't seem like a logical solution for what where once the tallest and most recognizable building of new york. 

With that being said, besides the towers i think the memorial museum and what will be a water fall leading into the underground garages surrounding the memorial slabs, is really beautiful. The juxtapositon of man-madeness and the natural feel of the waterfall with a forest of trees reminds me a lot of Frank Loyd Wrights style of architecture especially in relationship to his most famous house "Falling Waters". The feeling with the partial glass facade on the museum gives the illusion of being outside while inside.  In a lot of Frank Loyd Wrights work he try's to create around the space he is creating in which is reflected in the way Child's in creating around the two original slabs where the towers stood.

Frank Gehry

"I think the blurring of lines between arts and architecture has got to happen"
- Frank Gehry

His works are known as some of the most important in the history of contemporary architecture as noted in the 2010 Worlds Architecture Survey
Vanity Fair has labeled him the "most important architect of our age"

Organ inside the concert HallFacade of which was also design by Frank Gehry with organ sound and consultant Manuel Rosales. He wanted something unconventional but had trouble creating something that would also sound right. After lots of bad designs the two came up with a design that reminded Frank of curved wooden logs.

Walt Disney Concert HallDesigned by Frank Gehry with acoustics designed and engineered by  Yasuhisa Toyota, Concert hall opened on October 23, 2003.  It was estimated to cost over $274 million including a $110 million parking garage underneath the concert hall. The exterior of the curved panels of the Hall are made from stainless steel except for a portion that was at one point so shiny and mirror like that it caused rooms in neighboring condos to get unbearable hot and parts of the side walk to reach 140 0f. Using computer technology the found which spots were cause the most trouble on the part of the building and sanded them down.

Rasin Building (aka "the dancing house") Originally named the Fred (Astaire) and Ginger (Rogers) House
A design collaboration of Czech architect Vlado Milunic and Frank Gehry it was started in 1992 and finished in 1996. It is located on a vacant riverfront in Prague. It houses several multi-national firms as wells as a french restaurant at the top of it. The house resembles a pair of dancers and while it s overall color scheme blends with the landscape around it it obviously because of its unconventional shape and juxtaposition stand out. The tower to the left almost looks like it could fall at any second because it seems as if it is leaning on the rest of the building. The building is an example of the DE constructivist style.

Downtown Walking Tour 2

Mies Van Der Rohe sky scraper

Morris Mechanic Theatre

Dubai Night Club

City Hall

Downtown Walking tour

Old St. Paul's Church
This church was built in 1876 and is Romanesque. It has a large portico with arch ways with an emphasis on the lintel with Doric columns that have brownstone bases.  It has  its original Tiffany stain glass window above the main doorway. The whole facade of the church is red brick with two towers ( on each side, different sizes). The small tower is probably a stairwell of some sort. The stacking walls of the building mean that the main aisle of the church is in the center.

Walters Art Gallery

This a Renaissance revival style building. It has a 2 string course with rectangular niches  with bracketed lintels, and ten  fluted Corinthian style pilasters adorning its facade. It has a vaulted front door opening. The roof has copper shingles with skylights in it.

Baltimore Museum of Art

This building is a neo-classsical Greek revival style structure. It has a large staircase leading to a portico surrounded by ionic style columns. The portico is covered by a pediment roof with a relief sculpture adorning it. The portico has coffer ceilings, a demi lune fan light window above bronze doors with relief column pilasters. The building is symmetrical and has two adjacent niches on either side of its portico .

BMA Spring House

This building, used originally as dry storage for goods, is neo classical romantic style structure that has a pediment roof, wooden ionic columns and a stucco surface. on the boarders of the pediment roof there is a wave molding detail that imitates its name " spring house". The pediment roof also has dental molding and pillistered corners under it. The small building makes a big statement with its 1 story tall facade. Along the side of the building are small casement windows with shutters inside.

Johns Hopkins Campus Building

This building is located on the Johns Hopkins campus and is a neo-classical building. It is a very symmetrical and orderly building that has an original marble staircase with wooden folk fluted ( composite) columns. The doorway is a fan light trimmed with a large lentil with two rounded to perspective pilaster on each side of the porch. The building is adorned with 6 double hung light windows and two demi lune paladin windows on the side. The building is one string course and has a standing seem roof.