http://www.makershed.com/product_p/mkshl1.htm

PS: Project Neon continues apace, though I imagine things will slow down over the next couple of months, so you may see more of me around here.

One of the many issues with POPs is that they very often do not live up to the promises (and renderings) of charming, welcoming, vegetated vest-pocket parks sprinkled throughout the city’s high-rise office districts to offer respite for weary workers from the endless concrete. Instead, they’re often open limited hours, closed entirely, or designed to be utterly inhospitable.

Of course this isn’t true of all such spaces — there are some truly lovely examples from atria to waterfall parklettes that function beautifully as publicly accessible spaces well maintained by owners of office buildings and condo towers. Still, though, with little or no enforcement, too many land owners get away with too much.

The first step toward enforcement is documentation, and WNYC & The New York World have started a crowd-sourced project to document the state of New York’s POPs. I highly recommend New Yorkers adopt a space or two, investigate, and report back. The map interface is a little wonky, but it’s a short, simple survey to fill out for each space.  I’ll be stopping by the unvisited spaces near my work during my lunch break over the next week. Maybe I’ll see you there?

Here’s the map and survey:
http://www.thenewyorkworld.com/2011/10/19/publicspace/

Just the map of POPs:
http://bit.ly/privatePublic

More information about POPs from the City of New York here:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/priv/priv.shtml

The deadline for the project is November 9th.

The new Gehry Technologies advisory board. Yes, a couple of people aren’t pictured, but still, what the hell? Especially since these people are going to “save architecture” according to the Architect’s Newspaper article. Unbelievable.

Scandybars: sections of candy bars scanned to reveal the delicious innards

Cigar Feet: slices through cigars to reveal the subtle distinctions in wrapping and contents

Cutting Open Toothpaste: the secret of striped toothpaste revealed!

Plus all the great books featuring urban cross-sections like kate Ascher’s Anatomy of A City and David Macaulay’s Underground, among many others.

They are amazing combinations of x-ray specs, dissection, and architectural sections. What other objects can we slice open and look inside?

http://www.archdaily.com/168451/design-studio-top-10-things-you-should-know/

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PS: the Project Neon iPhone app was submitted to Apple! Here’s hoping for a swift and positive review from Cupertino…

These building vignettes made of found object by Toronto photographer David Trautrimas are pretty rad. Take a look over on the great Junk Culture blog.

I’m heading out tonight to visit the until recently missing 3rd Candela Structure, way up in the Adirondacks. There will be so much driving this weekend, but I’m really excited to see number three out in the woods, a long way from Flushing.

It’s been a crazy week with Project Neon app testing, starting to get ready for the Project Neon show on Friday September 23rd, 7-10p (will you be at the opening?) at the City Reliquary (yeah, hopefully they’ll add it to their website soon!) and more. Oy, September is always a busy month. I guess catch up on sleep in October!

Though wood has been the default material for homes in North America and elsewhere (though some places with a dearth of wood have traditionally preferred stone or other materials), it’s difficult to build a wooden house in a big city, as fire codes make it nearly impossible, which is too bad as wood has many things to recommend it: it’s easy to modify and repair, it’s a good insulator, and it has a fantastic range of texture and color.

Despite the dearth of contemporary wooden homes here, examples survive, and have a wonderful warmth and idiosyncrasy against the backdrop of the city of bricks & steel. Here is a blog is documenting New York’s surviving examples, with wonderful comparisons to historic photos:

http://woodenhouseproject.com/

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Man, I wish I had known about this site during architecture school:
http://www.thistothat.com/
But now I know! I’m off to glue things…

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I haven’t yet seen an alternative to incandescent bulbs that knocked my socks off (I’d rather retreat to candles & kerosene than use most of them), largely for one reason: quality of light. Until I see a compact fluorescent or LED that does, I’ll minimize their use in my own home. I tried a “full spectrum” CFL, and it gave off a terrible, sickly cold light. Yuck. If the quality of their light doesn’t bother you so much, here are some nicely designed ones:

A brain bulb!:
http://www.solovyovdesign.by/en/portfolio/node-1290168462/?group_id=163

The famous (and lovely) Plumen bulb:
http://www.plumenshopus.com/products/plumen-001

A solar-chargable LED light designed for people who use kerosene:
http://www.nokero.com

I really hate the look of this bulb (too steampunk for my taste), but I know a lot of people like it:
http://cooperhewitt.org/blog/2011/08/24/how-design-thinking-led-beautiful-led-lamp

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A cool printer that prints onto anything, not just paper:

http://www.petapixel.com/2011/06/06/a-digital-camera-that-magically-prints-onto-any-flat-surface/

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A tiny garden for the yardless:

http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/another_tiny_garden_by_another_studio_for_design_19688.asp

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An interesting project from one of my favorite architects, Peter Zumthor, for a secular retreat:

http://www.architizer.com/en_us/blog/dyn/23253/zumthors-secular-retreat/

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“Your Rainbow Panorama,” a joyful architecture project from artist Olafur Eliasson:

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/14812/olafur-eliasson-your-rainbow-panorama-now-complete.html

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A round-up of fictional—some very fictional—New York apartments from TV and the movies:

http://gothamist.com/2011/05/10/nyc_as_seen_on_tv_top_5_worst.php

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OK, that’s enough for now. I’m going to get back to finishing up Project Neon work now. Enjoy your weekend!

Sometimes, though, the desire is held in check not by pecuniary considerations, but by design flaws. The thing itself is great, fulfills a real need, has an elegant design… except for a small proverbial fly (or a few flies) in the proverbial ointment. If it’s a gross, giant, hairy fly, I will probably just pass on by, but a couple of tiny fruit flies? Surely that can be overcome.

As a prime example, witness the Pocket SmartString (as seen on TV!), a genius product from the minds of Pocket Workmate, LLC. Consumer laser tape measures are not accurate or reliable enough to be as useful yet, and they can’t measure circles, curves, or other complicated shapes. The Pocket SmartString can! (And yes, you can buy it through Amazon, among other places.)

Alas, though, the PSS suffers from several serious design flaws, particularly when viewed from the point of view (potential market!) of architectural measurers (before any architectural design work starts, a completely accurate measurement of the existing space must be completed—you have no idea how hard it is to get precise measurements of a room until you’ve done it, and tried to draft it up from your own measurements). First of all, from an architectural standpoint, the string needs to be considerably longer than a mere 50″. Saying you can add together multiple measurements is just asking for inaccuracies—the string itself needs to be much longer. I imagine a longer string will bring other problems with it, but you’re going to have to make it work, Pocket people.

Next, I’m a bit dubious about the end ring & plastic doo-dad. Will this interfere with accurate corner measurements? Will it wear out if you continually bend it into corners? The usefulness of that end bit, I’m pretty sure, could be improved, but the questions of durability for the entire gizmo are difficult to answer just by looking at the thing online. More research is needed!

Finally, the aesthetics of the thing are pretty dreadful. It looks like a cross between a badly designed business card and an HP scientific calculator (elegant in its own right, though dated). With a level thrown in, and some weird colors. Plus the string. The whole is, well, less than the sum of its parts. Now it’s impressive that there’s a calculator built in, which can do things like calculate the diameter of a circle that you’ve measured or convert effortlessly from inches to millimeters, but calculators can be pretty, too.  And I suspect this one could be a bit smaller without making it more difficult to use. The logo needs to be smaller and better integrated (and maybe redesigned), the colors need to be better coordinated, and the shape and proportions need to be more elegant.

If all of that happened—or even if most of it happened—I suspect that Pocket SmartStrings would start flying off the shelves. I know I’d buy one. For now, though, it’s likely to languish in my wish list.