Implausible Futures for Unpopular Places

In 2010 Rob Walker co-founded the Hypothetical Development Organization, which works with artists to create fanciful drawings of imaginary developments for vacant city sites — and in the process prompts questions about all those optimistic renderings that purport to show actual real-world urban developments but which are in fact, says Walker, a form of fiction. Here Walker describes the H.D.O., and locates it in a tradition of visual story-telling, of "architecture fiction," starting with Archigram in the 1960s.
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BOBBY C. ROGERS

Paper Anniversary

Our driveway bends around an ancient pin oak — you tell me / it is a willow oak, Quercus phellos, but I will keep calling it / what I have always heard it called. This is how names work: / they come about somehow and stay if they stay. ...
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JUSTIN PARTYKA

The Place That Roger Built

The English environmentalist Roger Deakin lived for almost 40 years at Walnut Tree Farm. There the Elizabethan-era house, which he rebuilt, and the surrounding fields, which he worked, served as inspiration and grounding for his writings on the natural world. Soon after Deakin's death, photographer Justin Partyka documented the place in a series of images, part of an effort to understand "the deep and mutual relationship of a man and the land, intimately shaping each other."
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FROM OUR SPONSORS

Almost one billion people on the planet don't have safe and clean drinking water. Mohawk has partnered with charity: water to help bring clean water to developing nations. You can help contribute by visiting our Drop in the Bucket campaign.
Mohawk & charity: water >>
Drop in the Bucket >>
Mohawk Fine Papers >>

Learn to be a design critic through SVA's D-Crit program. Design as subject matter, criticism as a literary genre and the range of tools with which to practice design criticism.
Watch videos of presentations by the Class of 2011 >>
The D-Crit Program >>
SVA Website >>

ALEX SCHAFRAN

Scenes from Surrendered Homes

Lately the California photographer Douglas Smith has been focusing on foreclosed homes in the San Joaquin Valley — one of the epicenters of the subprime crisis, a region hit hard by the Great Recession. Urban historian Alex Schafran looks closely Smith's photographs — at the images of bare rooms and empty backyards, of piles of abandoned toys, shoeboxes crammed with sports trophies, algae-clogged swimming pools. Smith's work, says Schafran, "attests to the influence of Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans, whose photographs documented the domestic toll of the Great Depression. His work, like theirs, straddles the line between art and photojournalism, beauty and realism."
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DAVID T. HANSON

Colstrip, Montana

In the 1980s David Hanson was part of a generation of photographers who took to the skies to gain a new perspective on mines, dams, power plants and pipelines: the industrial earthworks of North America. His photographs of the massive coal mine and power plant at Colstrip, Montana, were made in the early 1980s, exhibited at MoMA in 1986, and finally published in 2010. Much has changed since Hanson took his photos, yet the economic forces that shaped Colstrip persist. The automobiles and color palette of the images date to the Reagan era. But how much have the politics of coal changed in the age of Obama?
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Don't miss the chance to pivot this fall.
Pivot: AIGA Design Conference 2011 >>

Almost one billion people don't have safe and clean drinking water
Mohawk & charity: water. Helping to bring clean water to developing nations >>

D-Crit: Design as subject matter.
Criticism as literary genre.
Learn at SVA >>

PLACES ARCHIVE: WINTER 2006

The State of City Planning Today

A veteran city planner and educator analyzes the anemia of U.S. planning, and detects signs of life in neighborhood activism.
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PARTNER SCHOOL

University of Miami, School of Architecture
The School of Architecture's mission is founded in the faculty commitment to community and its focus on the city as a work of art and architecture. The school is a forum for the work of New Urbanism, an international movement with a charter of 27 principles addressing issues ranging from the scale of a region to individual buildings. Those principles form a vision which guides the programs of the UMSA.

RECENT BOOKS RECEIVED

American Glamour
Alice T. Friedman

Reading the American Landscape: An Index of Books and Images
Lex ter Braak, David Hamers, Anne Hoogewoning, Erik de Jong, Frank van der Salm, Dirk Sijmons and Hanneke Schreiber

Boomtown 2050: Scenarios for a Rapidly Growing City
Richard Weller


WEEKLY EMAIL: JULY 27, 2011
FEATURED THIS WEEK : ROB WALKER Implausible Futures for Unpopular Places In 2010 Rob Walker co-founded the Hypothetical Development Organization, which works with artists to create fanciful drawings of imaginary developments for vacant city sites — and in the process prompts questions about all those optimistic renderings that purport to show actual real-world urban developments but which are in fact, says Walker, a form of fiction. Here Walker describes the H.D.O., and locates it in a tradition of visual story-telling, of "architecture fiction," starting with Archigram in the 1960s. READ MORE
BOBBY C. ROGERS Paper Anniversary Our driveway bends around an ancient pin oak — you tell me / it is a willow oak, Quercus phellos, but I will keep calling it / what I have always heard it called. This is how names work: / they come about somehow and stay if they stay. ... READ MORE JUSTIN PARTYKA The Place That Roger Built The English environmentalist Roger Deakin lived for almost 40 years at Walnut Tree Farm. There the Elizabethan-era house, which he rebuilt, and the surrounding fields, which he worked, served as inspiration and grounding for his writings on the natural world. Soon after Deakin's death, photographer Justin Partyka documented the place in a series of images, part of an effort to understand "the deep and mutual relationship of a man and the land, intimately shaping each other." READ MORE FROM OUR SPONSORS Almost one billion people on the planet don't have safe and clean drinking water. Mohawk has partnered with charity: water to help bring clean water to developing nations. You can help contribute by visiting our Drop in the Bucket campaign. Mohawk & charity: water >> Drop in the Bucket >> Mohawk Fine Papers >> Learn to be a design critic through SVA's D-Crit program. Design as subject matter, criticism as a literary genre and the range of tools with which to practice design criticism. Watch videos of presentations by the Class of 2011 >> The D-Crit Program >> SVA Website >> ALEX SCHAFRAN Scenes from Surrendered Homes Lately the California photographer Douglas Smith has been focusing on foreclosed homes in the San Joaquin Valley — one of the epicenters of the subprime crisis, a region hit hard by the Great Recession. Urban historian Alex Schafran looks closely Smith's photographs — at the images of bare rooms and empty backyards, of piles of abandoned toys, shoeboxes crammed with sports trophies, algae-clogged swimming pools. Smith's work, says Schafran, "attests to the influence of Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans, whose photographs documented the domestic toll of the Great Depression. His work, like theirs, straddles the line between art and photojournalism, beauty and realism." READ MORE DAVID T. HANSON Colstrip, Montana In the 1980s David Hanson was part of a generation of photographers who took to the skies to gain a new perspective on mines, dams, power plants and pipelines: the industrial earthworks of North America. His photographs of the massive coal mine and power plant at Colstrip, Montana, were made in the early 1980s, exhibited at MoMA in 1986, and finally published in 2010. Much has changed since Hanson took his photos, yet the economic forces that shaped Colstrip persist. The automobiles and color palette of the images date to the Reagan era. But how much have the politics of coal changed in the age of Obama? READ MORE		BECOME A FAN ON FACEBOOK \| FOLLOW US ON TWITTER The latest and most trusted information regarding sustainability in our industry. Ideas that Matter >> Don't miss the chance to pivot this fall. Pivot: AIGA Design Conference 2011 >> Almost one billion people don't have safe and clean drinking water Mohawk & charity: water. Helping to bring clean water to developing nations >> D-Crit: Design as subject matter. Criticism as literary genre. Learn at SVA >> PLACES ARCHIVE: WINTER 2006 The State of City Planning Today A veteran city planner and educator analyzes the anemia of U.S. planning, and detects signs of life in neighborhood activism. READ MORE PARTNER SCHOOL University of Miami, School of Architecture The School of Architecture's mission is founded in the faculty commitment to community and its focus on the city as a work of art and architecture. The school is a forum for the work of New Urbanism, an international movement with a charter of 27 principles addressing issues ranging from the scale of a region to individual buildings. Those principles form a vision which guides the programs of the UMSA. RECENT BOOKS RECEIVED American Glamour Alice T. Friedman Reading the American Landscape: An Index of Books and Images Lex ter Braak, David Hamers, Anne Hoogewoning, Erik de Jong, Frank van der Salm, Dirk Sijmons and Hanneke Schreiber Boomtown 2050: Scenarios for a Rapidly Growing City Richard Weller
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