The Museum of Craft and Design re-located to a large space in the Dogpatch area of San Francisco to a grand opening this past weekend on April 6th. No one was disappointed.

The mission of the museum is more than to display works of art. With after school art classes for youth as well as classes for adults, the museum expresses its hope that people of all backgrounds and ages can be exposed to art, design, and the craft of the art as written in their mission statement:

“…to encourage greater awareness and appreciation of the international scope of craft and design to audiences of all ages through innovative exhibitions and related educational programming.”

Please enjoy some photos from the opening of exhibits by Michael Cooper, Arline Fisch, and Rebecca Hutchinson.

Last weekend my family and I enjoyed the holiday and the change of seasons at Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge in Southern California. Though the cloudy skies and rain might not have suggested its spring in California, it was still a perfect day out together amongst the flowers and gardens in full bloom.

Of the various gardens, my favorite was the Japanese Garden; simple, beautiful, and full of flowering Plum and Cherry Trees.

When in college in Southern California, the botanical garden our class visited the most was the Huntington Botanical Gardens, and rarely Descanso. Its fair to say that Descanso has a great deal to offer. Please enjoy the photos below.

This is a unique project that joins the landscape with that of architecture “amidst the clouds.” The project of the railway station in Sevastopol, Ukraine, created by Arthur Kupreychuk, consists of a passenger terminal building underneath a hanging air cloud-canopy above it. Certainly a creative concept.

The supporting structure of the canopy is similar to the structure of an airship. The canopy strives upward by buoyant forces, if its average density is less than the density of the atmosphere. As the structure rises, guy lines hold the structure in the place. An aluminum frame consisting of longitudinal and transverse trusses makes the external form hard, with fiberglass uniform panels to form the shell. The passenger terminal building provides the simplest and shortest routes from the station square to the platform.

Please enjoy the concept images and boards that illustrate the concept of the Railway Station Under the Cloud.

SOCIALIGHT / The 2013 edition of the CLU Foundation’s competition invites participants to consider the role of lighting in the urban areas of tomorrow. Think of the future. Imagine urban neighborhoods where there are, for example, no cars, that the territory belongs to the people and that we put value in community, natural, recreational and social environments. Whether it be a citizen, resident or end-user, how can lighting be conceived around this individual with needs, emotions and desires. Professionals in landscape architecture, architecture or urban planning recognize that neighborhoods need to reinvent themselves. We must put aside our paradigms and open ourselves to new ideas.

For more informations about the competition, please visit the competition’s website at Lumec.

SF Presidio

Whether its sub-conscious or physical, we are all designers. Almost everything we come in contact with in our lives has been designed, analyzed, and designed again. Objectified portrays design as a constant necessity in an ever changing world, and that couldn’t be more true. In the film they spoke with Dieter Rams who’s designs I had the pleasure of seeing at the SFMOMA, and can be seen on an earlier post.

The closing statement I like a great deal: “The objects that you own reflect the story of you, the only audience that matters.”

Check the trailer here

Originally located near the Financial District of the city, the San Francisco Jazz Center is now located in the neighborhood of Hayes Valley. Concerts starting on MLK Jr. Day, January 21st, kick-off the new season and the opening of the new jazz center.

The building was constructed and designed with jazz in mind. It is a jazz-specific music hall. Please find more information here regarding the jazz center and the music’s place in the context of culture, education, and community.

In a world of constant uncertainty, there are positives to take note of forming in the great urban cores of the world, our cities. The urban landscape has forever changed from the days we once knew before the automobile. “Urbanized“, a documentary by Gary Hustwit, looks beyond that and provides examples of the changing urban landscape in cities and towns and how they are becoming more livable, social, diverse, and sustainable.

The documentary sits down with seminal leaders in architecture, landscapes architecture, urban design, and organizations all making a difference. Below are a few key points picked up during the film. Recommend seeing the documentary, well worth your time.

• Cities are physical manifestations of the socio-economics, political landscape,
• Urban design language of a city, everything has been designed, every aspect
• Multi-disciplinary process in urban design
• Urban design runs the gamut from temporary landscapes to massive undertakings like the Big Dig or 911 Memorial
• Urbanization of immigrants will happen in forms of slums if immigration isn’t looked after in years time by 2050
• City Beautiful encourages civic pride
• Garden City Movement, stems from City Beautiful – green belts, park connectors, etc.
• Restricting car use by restrictions on parking, look to London’s congestion charge
• Urban life is about connections through people and physical elements in the landscape like bike paths, etc.
• Must promote bicycle use – Copenhagen has created a unique culture and connection through its city
• Look at who has stopped in a city to see what is going on
• Seating in urban design is essential in space development
• 100m by 100m, extent in which humans can command a space visually…thats why we see first urban spaces to be about this size
• High Line as a connector changed the urban landscape forever
• Communal sensibility created at High Line
• Robert Moses
• Jane Jacobs
• Civic identity is being lost as we move outward to suburbs…pattern of development has changed
• Technology has provided forward progress in cities
• VPUU Violence Provention by Urban Upgrading
• www.iwishthiswas.com
• Project 21 Stuttgart
• City is an expression of microcosms found in public spaces and urban landscapes, neighborhoods, communities

This link here can provide further information on the documentary, but why do that if its available on Netflix Instant!