Pittsburgh Weekend Art Events: 7/15-17/11.

c. David Grim (taken 6/21/11)

The seasonal Downtown Art Crawl has come around again, and I don't see any rain in the forecast. That gives me reason to believe it's going to be crowded.

Friday

Robert Raczka is "guest-curating" Drawn in a Day at Space Gallery. For this, Raczka has chosen 12 artists (or teams of same) to create works directly on the walls, right through the opening reception. With the crowds that these crawls attract, this has the potential to get a bit chaotic.

Garfield staple Jason Sauer is poised to roll out new work at 929 Liberty Avenue. The promotional notice I've read says that instead of demolition car parts, Jason has used bicycles to make this latest batch of mixed media works. It's being put together by the Moxie Dada folks, and it's good to see them active once again in the local scene.

Meanwhile the August Wilson Center for African American Culture has print works by dead local hero Romare Bearden and Wood Street Galleries has a collection of work by Icelandic artists. Stephanie Armbruster's paintings are at the 709 Penn Gallery. Plus you can still catch the journalistic work of one-time Pittsburgh Press photographer Alan F. Reiland (1927-96) at the Shaw Galleries (805 Liberty Ave.).

In Lawrenceville at Wildcard (4209 Butler St.), you can visit the opening reception for Insert Coin To Play: Pinball Life (6-9pm). A new neighborhood-themed pinball machine created by Andy Scott will anchor the display of a collection of pinball-themed art. There's supposed to be some kind of tournament too. Proceeds (improbably) benefit Bike Pittsburgh.

Y'now, last time they came around I missed the Pretty Things Peep Show at the Rex Theater. My general aversion to all things South Side kicked in, and I couldn't bring myself to make the trip on a Friday evening... when things in that part of town get as close to unbearable as seems possible. Still this tempts me, especially when I look at these... Anyway, it starts at 9PM and costs $15 to attend. And if you make the effort to brave Carson Street, stop in at the Brew House (2100 Mary Street) too for the opening (7PM) of a show by Jorge Luis Santana.

Or if you love birds (which I don't), go to the Mattress Factory for the "Stray Birds Sunset Full Moon Performance", with "bird musician" Michael Pestel and Butoh dancer Taketeru Kudo. It's almost guaranteed to be better and less silly than it sounds. Or it could be gruelingly pretentious. That would be a shame. I don't know when it starts because the listing I saw omitted that crucial info.

And then, of course, there's always Braddock... with its shabby-chic art offerings. A collective called BrokenDayton Art Machine appears at Unsmoke Systems. Nicholaus Arnold, Ian Breidenbach and Ashley Jonas are included, and the group plans to bury a time capsule at the closing, to be held on July 22... and if you go, you're supposed to bring something to put in there. The Opening Reception is this Friday from 6-10PM.

Saturday

Stop by at Lili Cafe in Polish Hill (3138 Dobson Street) for a rare late night (6-8PM) at the shop, and a reception for "Low Key", featuring the works of a talented pair of local artists, Victoria Cessna and Laura Jean McLaughlin.

Sunday

The Polish Hill Arts festival begins at NOON. There will be authentic Polish food, kids activities, artist tables, and bands... this year they include Timbeleeza (Brazillian samba drumming), The Panther Hollow String Band (old-timey country), Bridgette Perdue (singer-songwriter), Lungs Face Feet (Cumbrian-influenced brass band), FOOD (rock), and Moldies and Monsters (oldies covers).

And if you have the time, you should stop by at Morose & Macabre's House of Oddities and Miss Hush Present: The Return Of Subculture Vulture Counterculture Flea Market (Whew!). This event runs from 2-10PM at 4013 Butler Street. Its organizers are advertising "New & Used clothing and wares, art, crafts, and food from the underground". Plus there will be DJ's.

I Am Immortal Opens Tomorrow Night 6-10 @ Unsmoke Systems

OK, by now you likely know there is a big downtown Pittsburgh Gallery Crawl. If you get the chance this group show involving, "video, performance, sculpture, prints and clay" in Braddock looks worth the trip.

This seems to be by a group of very young artist's in college who have formed an art collective, non of whom have an obvious connection to Pittsburgh called, The Brokendayton Machine.

I Am Immortal

"Ohio-based artists Nicholaus Arnold, Ian Briedenbach, Ren Cummings, Phillip Evans, Ashley Jonas, and Frank Travers will present work in different mediums exploring the resurgence of art and culture in Braddock, PA.

A highlight of the show will be a time capsule available for public participation. Guests are invited to bring items from their lives for inclusion in the piece, which will be buried on site during the closing reception on July 22nd"

One obvious thing off the bat is that Braddock doesn't seem to have a lot of trouble attracting artists from all over who want to show there. Sadly, Pittsburgh itself has few spaces where both local and non local artists can show and interact.

I Am Immortal
July 15-22nd
UnSmoke Art Space
1137 Braddock Ave
Braddock, PA 15104

Pittsburgh Performance Group, Squonk Opera Competes Tonight On America's Got Talent

This unique troupe, is one of only ten acts that skipped the early round and arrived in the quarter finals based upon their first audition alone.

Two judges, Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel, loved them while the third, Piers Morgan seemed to think they were just weird. "What does it mean?"

The progressive-rockers-turned-performance-artists feel they're representing Pittsburgh artists and musicians and would like to contribute to invalidating the national belief that Pittsburgh serves as a second-rate scene for the arts. The troupe gladly wears its black-and-gold roots on its sleeves.

"We're very proud to say we're from Pittsburgh," Mr. O'Hearn said. "I think one of the reasons our art is so different is that we make our shows in Pittsburgh, which is inherently different from making them in New York or Los Angeles because we have a freedom and self-reliance that doesn't come with those cities."

For a group who's performances lean so heavily on carefully planned display and technology, the pressure is really on to pull something off-with less than two minutes of set up time.

The PG article also strongly implies that the show is counting on The Burgh's now famously rabid support of hometown heroes to boost ratings.

America's Got Talent, tonight at nine on NBC.

Premier Of "25 Hill" Lifts Hopes For Akron's Soap Box Derby

The movie, largely shot in the Akron area about The Soap Box Derby is finally out, opening to a big crowd.

OK, I am gonna have to say it looks like they laid it on thick. Kid, who's dad was killed in Afghanistan hooks up with bitter old man who's son died in the World Trade Center--and after a long.....barf. I guess, I just can't quite buy that this is a great movie.

Still, I can't help feeling that The Derby itself, is a great event which taps into a very deep American love of fun, invention and can do spirit. The film is also the product of lots of local North East Ohio backers who believed in the project and it's potential to draw more support and attention to a struggling Akron tradition.

IMHO, this is still a greatly under leveraged brand which fits so closely with the recent revival of Do It Yourself culture.

New Pop Up Gallery, The College Inn Project, Open All Summer In Shadyside

Paintings by Brian Brown

A really cool city is often about the unexpected stuff that bubbles to the surface, but I didn't expect a lot of that to happen in the established, expensive real estate of Shadyside.

Don't ask me exactly how this is possible, but this pseudo trendy shopping street has a prime, large empty corner storefront that has sat totally empty for 18 years. Partly, this may date to the time when the area was more depressed-but something is goin on, involving the owner, an estate, back taxes-who knows?

So-I got a shock when Jean told me there was some kind of art opening there on Saturday Night! Seems like someone got the owner to donate or rent the raw space for a Pop Up Gallery, called The College Inn.

We talked to a few of the people helping out and they said there would it would be home to exhibits, screenings and other events all summer.

The College Inn
5851 Ellsworth Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA
15232

collegeinnproject.com

On Facebook
On Twitter

Debut Novelist Reads in Lawrenceville Tonight

A reminder that tonight Jesus Angel Garcia comes to town on his 32-city book tour with his debut novel, Bad bad bad. His readings are multi-media and lean toward performance, so come out and enjoy the show, which opens with three local writers from Cyberpunk Apocalypse.

Garcia’s novel kind of blew me away, and I wrote a review of it on my small press blog:

Badbadbad draws on styles and themes from familiar stories and older literatures. The novel sustains the straight-talk trashiness of 20th Century pulp, the sex-romp identity games of Kathy Acker, and the dark inevitability of Giovanni's Room. But it considers an absolutely current societal malaise: the twin-headed hydra of selective isolation and social media addiction. In the process, badbadbad reveals a new brand of lust for life and a new kind of lost generation.
Read more: http://karenslibraryblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/book-review-bad-bad-bad-by-jesus-angel.html

Event Details:

Cyberpunk Apocalypse Presents:
JESUS ANGEL GARCIA
Monday, July 11th
Belvedere's Ultra Dive Bar
4016 Butler Street near 40th
7:00pm-10:00pm
$1-$5 suggested donation
with Cyberpunk Apocalypse readers:
*Art Noose, amazing zine maker, letterpress whiz, & storyteller
*Nate McDonough, comics king & GRIXLY publisher
*Gunner, exquisitely offbeat fiction writer & absurdist performer

Holy Crap! Cleveland Takes Homegrown Neighborhood Fireworks To a New Level

Rust Wire has some amazing photos taken this year by Frank Lanza, showing some pretty serious informal fireworks on Cleveland's West Side.

On the one hand, it really looks like they shouldn't be doing this and on the other it looks like the most awesome kind of all American good time possible.

New "Wild Style" Graffiti Murals in Braddock

I was unable to see a live painting event last month in Braddock. The mayor, who had been afraid of more conventional graffiti which might contribute to "vandalism" or gang activity-finally relented and allowed an old department store in town to become a canvas for old school spray paint.

In a town in which mostly white, and sometimes famous "street artists" had been celebrated for doing public art-rejecting the expression of many local artists must have created some resentment.

The building now has is a pretty awesome compilation of work by what looks like a solid crew of people--from both Pittsburgh and many other places. Many details, thank and compliment the mayor for allowing this to happen.

I remember this poem by the legendary graffiti artist, Lee Quiñones.

There was once a time

When the Lexington was a beautiful line

When children of the ghetto expressed with art, not with crime.

But then as evolution passed,

The Transit’s buffing did its blast.

Now the trains look like rusted trash.

Now we wonder if graffiti will ever last.

Long live a new Braddock in which the potential creative talents of everybody are used.

Monday July 11th,Reading with Jesus Angel Garcia & Cyberpunk Apocalypse Writers Collective

I wish I wasn't going to miss this.

Monday, July 11 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Belvederes Ultra-Dive
4016 Bulter Street
Pittsburgh, PA

San Francisco author Jesus Angel Garcia comes to Pittsburgh on tour with his new transmedia novel, "Bad bad bad." Cyberpunk Apocalypse writers Art Noose, Nate McDonough, & Gunner will join him for this group reading. Karen Lillis will MC.

Garcia is on a cross-country tour (32 cities) and you can read his tour blog here;
http://electricliterature.​com/blog/2011/06/27/riding​-with-jesus-part-ii-a-badb​adbad-tour-blog

Yale Art Gallery Buys Major Henry Koerner Painting

My extensive trip around NY art galleries last month showed that a staggering number of them, even those dedicated to contemporary art were giving prime place to historic shows of often non living artists.

One positive result is that there's a new interest in talents long forgotten or under recognised. (A big reason is that most of the super famous work is in public collections no longer available for sale)

The 1940's and early 50's was the birthplace of the important, New York School-Pollack, de Kooning, Kline, Rothko -which for many years cast a blaze so large that many forgot or ignored the huge array of artists more closely tied to figuration in all it's forms.

Lately, the art market has taken a serious turn back to recognise this work with the last major London auctions dominated by works by Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Peter Doig, Ron Mueck, Andy Warhol and other non abstract artists.

"Works by Francis Bacon, Peter Doig and Lucian Freud helped Christie’s International raise 78.8 million pounds ($126 million) at an auction in London last night. It was the company’s highest total for a sale of contemporary works in the U.K. capital since June 2008."

One artist who lived and worked in Pittsburgh gaining recent appreciation is Henry Koerner with a major purchase by the Yale University Art Gallery.

"Since his 1991 death at age 75 in a bicycle accident in Vienna, public interest in Koerner's paintings has escalated. His works in photo realism style, known as Magic Realism, sell for six figures. Koerner's "Post War" sold at auction in 2006 for $329,000; in June, "Under the Overpass" sold in California for $252,000.

"He's an important artist. I'm glad he's getting his due," said Gail Stavitsky, curator at Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey and author of a book about Koerner.

Yale's acquisition -- its first Koerner painting -- will become part of the university's permanent collection, said Robin Jaffe Frank, associate curator of American painting and sculpture."

Eric Shiner Named Director Of The Warhol Museum

I'm somewhat conflicted about the news that Eric Shiner, the tireless whirlwind of energy who has had such a big impact on Pittsburgh since he was named The Warhol's Milton Fine Curator of Art, several years ago will now take on the permanent job as head of museum.

From Pop City.

"Hardly one to shirk, since assuming his duties Shiner has mounted some 10 shows, including takes on Playboy bunnies, The End: Analyzing Art in Troubled Times (30 artists looking at the financial collapse), and including model and photographer Bunny Yeager. "We tracked her down," he says, referring to Emily Hetzel of Caliban Books who helped. "It's her first museum show ever."

Speaking of firsts, he also tries to mount first museum shows for young artists, or at least include them in the mix. "That's been quite fun to do as well," he says."

On the one hand, this places a "true believer", with a deep knowledge of the city's emerging artists as head of one of our key institutions. On the other, one worries about his ability to continue playing so active a role in putting together shows here. The city still sorely lacks curators who combine a strong grounding and connection to the wider art world with a serious respect and interest in local artists.

We can only hope, a good replacement curator is found and that they make a great team since Eric is sure keep his hand in the mix.

Paddy Johnson Asks If Google + Is Good for Artists On Hyperallergic

Well, I'm still not on Facebook but now Google is out with the latest data mine to dump your entire social life into.

How is it different from Facebook, and what are the new features that may make it good or bad for artists to use?

Check her thoughts.

Have you checked it out and if so what are your thoughts?

Steve Lambert's Make Capitalism Work For Me: Electronic Sign Project On Kickstarter

Yet an other "is that art?" piece blurring the line between technology, conceptual art and activism will be debuting in Cleveland, in association with Spaces Gallery.

The artist, Steve Lambert is planning to erect a huge sign asking the yes or no question, "does capitalism work for me?", and display real time results.

He's trying to help his planned tour of the sign around the country and pay for some of the other associated costs through Kickstarter.


See the Kickstarter video.

The plan to ask a very simplistic and loaded question and then tour the work around a series of "art world" type locations, where the "answer", is likely to come out the same seems childish and self serving. However, putting the work outside and various other opportunities for deeper engagement like a planned book-make this pretty interesting.

Who knows where all this will lead? That's what I like.

From the artist's website.

"Lambert made international news after the 2008 US election with The New York Times “Special Edition,” a replica of the “paper of record” announcing the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other good news. He has collaborated with groups from the Yes Men to the Graffiti Research Lab and Greenpeace. He is also the founder of the Center for Artistic Activism, the Anti-Advertising Agency, and Add-Art (a Firefox add-on that replaces online advertising with art) and SelfControl (which blocks grownups from distracting websites so they can get work done).

Steve’s projects and art works have won awards from Prix Ars Electronica, Rhizome/The New Museum, the Creative Work Fund, Adbusters Media Foundation, the California Arts Council, and others. His work has been shown at galleries, art spaces, and museums nationally and internationally, and in the collections of The Sheldon Museum, the Progressive Insurance Company, and The United States Library of Congress. Lambert has discussed his work live on NPR, the BBC, and CNN, and been reported on internationally in outlets including Associated Press, the New York Times, the Guardian, Harper’s Magazine, The Believer, Good, Dwell, ARTnews, Punk Planet, and Newsweek."

Latest "Art Project", To Gain National Buzz: The Milk Truck

Jill Miller

Many doubt these "projects", often created by artists connected to CMU, which combine aspects of performance, propaganda and open ended invitations for interaction are "art" at all.

First there was the Waffle Shop, part eatery, part broadcasting facility and talk show, recently called one of the world's weirdest restaurants.

Soon, came Conflict Kitchen a take out place which only served food from countries America was in some type of political or social conflict.

Now comes an idea to create a funny, on call food-(or feeding truck) intended to help nursing mothers who feel embarased or socially harassed in public places that discourage or ban breast feeding.

From Ivillage

"Enter the Milk Truck. The “mobile breastfeeding unit” is artist and mom Jill Miller’s idea for really raising the profile of nursing mothers’ right to breastfeed in public. If you think a nursing mama catches some attention, wait til a giant, nipple-topped van cruises your ’hood. There’s not a nursing cover in town big enough to hide a boob like that!"

The Milk truck will debut outside the Warhol as part of The Pittsburgh Biennial.

The Milk Truck's Kickstarter

On CNET

On Boing Boing

On CBS News

Rust Wire Looks At Highway Socialism's Tragic Impact On Youngstown

Youngstown, Ohio, is a city in many ways struggling with success to revive it's beautiful downtown and create a financially sustainable path for livable urbanism. Residents have overwhelmingly supported a program to more rationally use the city's smaller resource base by shrinking streets and rightsizing neighborhoods--in a region in which not only the city but the surrounding area have lost 6% of their population in the last decade alone.

Meanwhile, the city competes with a county and state bent on socialising wasteful roads which bleed the city's tax base for ever spreading suburban sprawl.

From Rust Wire

"State Route 224 in Boardman is not the type of road that planners or sustainability advocates would delight in seeing replicated. Traffic slogs down this commercial corridor at a snail’s pace most times of day. The local paper, The Vindicator, described driving on the street as everything from “exasperating and near impossible to unbelievable and scary.” (It just underwent widening.)

The entire six-mile commercial stretch of SR 244 lacks a foot of sidewalk space. So as much as a headache as it is to drive on, it’s far worse for pedestrians. Furthermore, stormwater runoff from the acres of parking lots along this route have contributed to a persistent and costly flooding problem in Boardman Township."

People in these often Republican suburbs need to understand the process and ethics behind this for what it is-Socialism.

So how did Western Reserve rocket up the infrastructure priority list in the Youngstown area? Well, again, that’s a matter of public policy in a state that continues to favor growth. Because Boardman and Canfield Townships are unincorporated, they won’t have to pay a dime to widen Western Reserve. It’s a county road — that means the county picks up the bill. Many suburbs, including Boardman Township (population 37,000) benefit from remaining unincorporated, allowing them to foist many of their infrastructure costs onto the county.

The injustice of this whole arrangement is that the costs of widening the road will be shared by all residents of the county — including the people who live in Youngstown. Youngstown’s roads will go unmaintained, and the county will continue to draw money from central city residents and redistribute it into the suburbs and exurbs.

To a large extent this story could have been with a few revisions been about the insane, ugly and destructive sprawl around Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Akron, Detroit or an endless number of cities.

A piece by Chuck Banas, titled, "The Sprawl Bubble" might the best succinct description of the problem.

All of this is stupefyingly expensive. These indirect costs constitute the majority of the expense, yet remain invisible to most people—spread-out in the form of local, state, and federal taxes, or camouflaged as municipal bond debt or various other forms of government debt. So in addition to being redundant, this means that suburbia is a doubly expensive living arrangement.

The other point that I’m trying to make is that the migration of wealth to the suburbs has not been a free-market phenomenon. Customer choice is only a small part of the equation, or this wouldn’t have happened in virtually every American city at the exact same time in the exact same way. Which, of course, is exactly how it did happen.

I assert that much of the economic crisis we’re seeing today is simply the end result of decades of bad decisions driven by bad economic, transportation, housing, and land-use policy.

Summer is HERE. Time for Farmer's Markets

Summer is here and there are Lots of Farmer's Markets!! Time to experience the pleasure of buying more than you need...then figuring out some absolutely delicious thing to do with all that produce! A selection:
Pittsburgh Citiparks Farmer's Markets. If you live in the city, there is one near you.This was one of my happiest discoveries when I moved to Pittsburgh over 20 years ago. I am happy to report that they are still going strong.For information see here
Garden Dreams is a small urban farm in Wilkinsburg. I have heard great things about it, and plan to go there soon. They have a farm, a nursery, and sell produce on saturday mornings. They have been certfied as organic. For information see here
OK, this is a year round market, but check out the summer wares in the strip at the Pittsburgh Public Market. For information see here
Oh, how I love summer in Pittsburgh.

A Few Spaces May Still Be Available For Kids This Summer @ The Pittsburgh Young Writers Institute

Acclaimed, local poet Stacey Waite was recently was in Upper Saint Clair with a message that great writing and poetry isn't just something dead people in the past did. She also gave some into the sometimes gritty, competitive and creative local live poetry reading scene.

From The Upper St. Clair Patch.

"Several years ago, Waite was introduced to Slam Poetry, a lively,
expressive art form that combines poetry and dramatic performance. She was soon recruited for Pittsburgh’s “Steel City Slam Team” and travels and competes with the group."

A few of the students liked that Waite and others created poems that were widely relevant and easy to understand. One said, "I would like to read more work like this."

"Waite is also the director of the Pittsburgh Young Writer’s Institute, which will take place this year at Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning from July 11-22 for students in grades 4-12. The program runs Monday through Friday during the above dates from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Students will have the opportunity to attend workshops on various writing styles or themes, as well as meet with visiting writers, participate in writing groups, and meet individually with adult writing mentors. There may be a few available slots remaining in their Oakland session.

Waite promises a variety of writers and experiences to participants: “If you hate my guts, there will be people there cooler than me,” she said. “If you’d rather cut your arm off than write a poem, this isn’t for you. But I hope you take away from my visit that poetry doesn’t have to boring, that there is something for everyone. Find something fun to read this summer.”

For more info on the Pittsburgh Young Writer’s Institute, contact the Western Pennsylvania Writer’s Project – Young Writer’s Institute at 412-624-6557 or email wpwp@pitt.edu.

Great Article: Regrets of a Former Arts Funder

This might be one of the best essays on the history of American arts funding and it's often deep failures to support viable institutions or more importantly, living creative communities. The author, John Killacky was former arts and culture program officer at the San Francisco Foundation.

There is a crisis here, as arts funding remains disproportionately skewed toward the classical behemoths. With organizations like Philadelphia Orchestra and New York City Opera imploding because of structural deficits, I worry that precious philanthropic resources will be further diverted to maintaining what was, instead of capitalizing a more representative future. By merely preserving the past, we fail as cultural stewards and act irresponsibly.

Finally, my last “philanthro-past” reflection: it is time to give up the false dichotomies and biases between professional/amateur, high/low, esoteric/popular, and contemporary/traditional. Instead, philanthropy should be investing in the cultural interests that allow people who live in our communities to lead more expressive lives.

This would truly be representative arts philanthropy.

Likely will be back with more thoughts.

John Morris @ D'Amelio Terras Gallery in NY

John Morris, Untitled (detail) 2002, ink, acrylic and gel on paper, ink, acrylic and gel on paper


From ArtCat.

Well, my last show for likely a long while at a "big time", NY gallery is up. It's a small show of some old drawings the gallery now owns, which honestly I am not going to see. They are not such bad guys but on a deep level, they just don't believe in my work too much --and they are not interested in what I'm doing now.

Only one image on the site, but just imagine this stuff is really good or check it out. The truth is I am not exactly sure of which exact works are in the show. (There is also a very great looking group show in the main gallery space)

"John Morris is known primarily for creating delicate and compositionally complex works on paper that feature built up surfaces and repetitive forms, reflecting his fascination with systems and patterns. In this series of eight works dated 2002, he explores a larger scale and introduces a subtle use of color: pale blue, purple, yellow and red play against faint marks of ink or graphite. In certain works, droplets of translucent or white acrylic gel create small reliefs and reveal a second composition over the image.

The tension between the decorative and the anatomical has been a constant in John Morris’ works and is heightened in these pieces. Associations with microorganisms lend themselves easily: systems of repetitive shapes grow organically over the page, their fluid combination evokes symbiotic relationships between organisms, life cycles carried by the fusion of two elements. The marks are suggestive of cellular structure. Miniature swirls, concentric fine circles or ellipses, pendant drop shapes, crown formation of globules of acrylic gel proliferate into complex compositions and result in elaborate shapes that seem caught in stages of expansion. As the distinctions between animals and plants were not clearly defined in nature’s early stages of development, the compositions call to both classifications, as if John Morris was studying the structures and reproductive mechanisms of primitive flora and fauna."

D'Amelio Terras
525 West 22nd Street, 212-352-9460
Chelsea
June 30 - August 19, 2011
Opening: Thursday, June 30, 6 - 8 PM

More Mars Bar Photos From Our Recent Trip to NYC

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Some of the photos I took here were taken using a beer bottle as a tripod. Not recommended if you have have actually been drinking. I have a lot of photos of this place, but oh, I wish I had more!

Mars Bar NYC....giving way to the ongoing gentrification of the lower east side soon

 
 
 
 
 
 

It's amazing this place has lasted as long as it has. A small dive bar, a two story building on a now prime corner of wealthy hipster central....near soho, the Bowery, Lower East Side and East Village.Mars Bar is a visual feast ( if you like this sort of wild crazy graffiti punk madness like I do). I can't believe its held on this long....a small building in a hip hip hip area of the Bowery. I loved taking pictures there and will miss it. Supposedly....it will be replaced by a new Mars Bar on the first floor of the new building thats going up. Hopefully someone will salvage that bathroom door ....and more.
Read about the future of Mars Bar here
Link to Mars Bar images from Google here

Create A Local City Guide For Cleveland, Youngstown, Akron, Canton, Pittsburgh: Deadline Tomorrow

Crap, I didn't know about this, till now when Bill Peduto tweeted about it.

Most of the time our cities are defined by the official powers that be, tourist offices, major advertisers and the like. Here's a chance to tell the world about the places and things you think make your city great.

Good Magazine is sponsoring a contest.

the OBJECTIVE

Create a guide for your city highlighting the best your community has to offer.

the REQUIREMENTS

Your guide has to fit on a standard page. Upload your submission here. We’ll accept submissions through Sunday, July 3. Afterwards we will post a collection of our favorite submissions and ask you, the GOOD community, to vote. The winning entry will be announced on GOOD.is, featured on our homepage, and printed in the next issue of GOOD. We’ll also send a GOOD T-shirt and a free subscription (or gift subscription) to the winner.

Aside from that, get as creative as possible using photos, drawings and anything else you can.

From Pittsburgh City Councilman, Bill Peduto's blog

"You, as a savvy Burgher, know the best that our city has to offer. Not just the places in the tourist guides, but those off the beaten path. The places that you’d want an out-of-town friend to see — the inside scoop from a local. Here’s your chance to show off your knowledge and tell the world what makes Pittsburgh special. GOOD.is is sponsoring a contest to create a “local’s guide” that showcases the very best of Pittsburgh. What makes your must see list? The ToonSeum? The Waffle Shop? Gertrude Stein’s birthplace and nearby Millionaires’ Row? Or how about your favorite neighborhood bar?"

Pittsburgh Weekend Art Events: 7/1-2/11.

c. David Grim (taken 6/29/11)

I completely forgot that June only had 30 days. Did I ever really know that? Anyway, Unblurred pops up abruptly this weekend.

Friday

Ariela Steif apparently makes large sculptures which she will unveil at Garfield Artworks (4931 Penn Avenue), along with her drawings. Meanwhile Ashley Andrykovitch returns to the walk at Imagebox with a new series of paintings. And it looks like the figures in her work have sprouted flesh! Tommy Bones appears at Studio 5013 (you can figure out the address for this venue). Seth Liebowitz (proprietor of Artform Tattoo and Gallery in Lower Burrell) and Katie Moran come together for a show at Most Wanted Fine Art (5015 PENN).

Eat food, get a drink, do yoga, take a dance class, etc. Unblurred has it all.

And the latest feature at "Blurred" (Dean Cercone's inversion of First Friday) is Seth LeDonne. You don't have to wander far from the other galleries to visit, either. The space is located at 4810 Penn.

Saturday

Full disclosure requires that I disclose my revulsion for the Three Rivers Regatta and its crowds. BUT I'm a bit tormented by the fact that there are indeed a couple of attractions this year which interest me (and no, the inevitably lame Jimmy Buffett cover band is not among them). This year "World Champion Sand Sculptor" Thomas Koet is creating a mystery work, AND a small acrobatic troupe (Circus Orange) from Canada will be appearing. Of course these enticements don't make up for the lost bastion at the point... but I try to support any form of creative public amusement, especially when it's a bit odd.

Heads Up: Pittsburgh Zine Fair, Coming This Summer Is Looking For Vendors

Info on this is still developing. Website just went up.

They are also looking for people to help plan and market the fair and holding regular meetings.

Pittsburgh Zine Fair is being held for the first time-ever in summer of 2011. Exact date and location will be announced soon!

Email PGHZINEFAIR@gmail.com if you would like to be a vendor and/or if you want to receive updates!

Tabling at the Pittsburgh Zine Fair

If you would like to participate as a vendor at the fair email PGHZINEFAIR@gmail.com and include the following information:

■Your name
■The name of your zine(s)
■A short description of your zine(s)

Cost to sign-up as a vendor is $10, this money will go toward covering costs of the fair.

Website pghzinefair.com

On Facebook

Images From Pittsburgh Anthrocon, 2011

Here's a sample of the shots I took around this years Anthrocon Convention, which I missed last year. It seemed bigger and from what I heard they were very short of hotel space.

I'm not sure if the shots capture it, but the total level of creativity and invention seemed higher with a larger number of purely invented characters and creatures.

My impression is that this has gone somewhat more mainstream with a smaller percent of people fitting the geek stereotypes and large number of folks who-um, look cute without a fur suite if you know what I mean.

There was also more obviously hand crafted gear, which often showed even more expressiveness.

New Construction In Pittsburgh Uncovers It's Historical Past

Archaeology magazine has a long article about the huge mass of artifacts uncovered while building, PPG Place, PNC Park, and Three PNC Plaza all of which give a much better picture of the city in the 19th Century. Possessions of prominent citizens like General William J. Robinson, The first mayor of Allegheny City and his wife as well as many of it's poor, middle and working class have been found. Remember, Downtown was in the early days very densely populated.

Both, PNC Park and The New Fairmont Hotel in Pittsburgh prominently display the historic artifacts found during their construction.

A real must read--with a big copyright mark on it-so I'm not making direct quotes.

Pittsburgh, Superhero Block Party: Fantasy, Furries, Performances Downtown

Each year the Furry Fest gets better and more creative as the city embraces it.

From The Toonseum Website

Two of downtown’s most eclectic and innovative nonprofit arts organizations are teaming up to bring you a day of superhero-themed activities for the whole family!

Parents and kids aged 6-12 will enjoy a host of activities, including a Superman sound effects workshop, make-your-own superhero costumes, outdoor jazz, free comic books, and a special matinee performance of Midnight Radio: Superhero Edition!

All activities are located on the 900 block of Liberty Avenue downtown.

Activity Schedule

(Participants may attend any or all events.)

12-8pm ToonSeum : Superheroes: Icons & Origins Exhibit

12-1:30pm August Wilson Center: Family Reading Series: John Henry Storytelling & Folklore

12-1:30pm Bricolage: Make your own mask Activity

12-8pm Musicians Courtyard: Make your own cape Activity

12-8pm ToonSeum: Make your own logo Activity

2-3:30 Bricolage: Midnight Radio Superhero Edition! Live Theatre Performance

4pm Bricolage: Superman Sound Effects Interactive Workshop

Afternoon, August Wilson Center: Courtyard Jazz

Time TBD: Live Music

TBD, Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership: Cookies & Comics Free stuff.

Free!

More Shots Of Immigrant NYC

Queens



Brooklyn

Here are a few more shots I took in NYC of the incredibly diverse neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens.

I didn't go out of my way to get these. Sorry if the shots are "stereotypical" in any way--most photography, edits the world according to what the photographer wants to show. While places like this are very common in Brooklyn and Queens, there are also many places in which the ethnic shifts are far more subtle. Not all new immigrants are "poor", and many like South Asians have often live in more suburban type neighborhoods. Not everyone is shopping or living in an "ethnic" neighborhood.

Another thing these pictures hint at is the vast network of underground and below the radar jobs-from street vending, to gypsy cabs, childcare, landscaping and contracting that help employ so many.

One more point--Yes NYC, is growing-but obviously with influxes like this, very large numbers of people must be leaving-or the population would have gone up 400%. No place is perfect for everyone and New York has done so well by continuing to attract new people. Perhaps we can attract some of these folks-or the people who are leaving, or some other group who will find what we have right for them.

Cleveland's Large Factory Buildings Have Dynamic Collaborative Potential

To many it sounds dumb-but I wanted to see Cleveland cause it had a lot of large underused or empty factory buildings. Freshwater gives a good idea of the kind of creative ecosystems that can emerge just by throwing lots of diverse people and small businesses in one space where they can easily interact.

it takes a village: a redevelopment story for the ages

It starts with the sad story of another Cleveland business, which packed up and left for the suburbs (likely for a huge scale single floor factory) leaving one million square feet of empty space on Cleveland's east side.

Since that time, however, Tyler has been reborn as a thriving entrepreneurial district -- a bona fide urban village on the fringes of downtown. Each day 420 employees and 350 students come to learn and work at this village's two schools and 50-odd businesses. Toss in a coffee shop, peaceful green spaces, and a truly collaborative spirit and you've got one of the most unique redevelopment projects going.

So far they have been shocked by the demand as people seek them out-looking for just that kind of flexible, yet communal environment.

"Despite the fact that it is located 40 blocks east of Public Square, and comprised of little more than bricks, steel, concrete and glass, Tyler feels like its own little neighborhood. Employees grab their morning coffee from Pulley's Café, which is located in donated space and staffed by employees from another tenant, Solutions at Work. When one company at long last secured a recycling Dumpster from the city, he chose to locate it not at his loading dock but in a common area. New tenants make a point of buying their office furniture not online, but at APG, the on-site showroom."

Cleveland has several other similar buildings I know of--all of which are seeing solid demand.

The Tower Press Building
78th Street Studios

Pittsburgh: Grey Market curated by Josh Tonies @Fe Gallery Opens Tonight

"Fe Arts Gallery is delighted to feature local and national artists who challenge notions of value. A Grey market enables person-to-person exchanges, like Craigslist and eBay, where individuals can negotiate value. With the proliferation of artist run spaces, the gallery has expanded to include alternate modes of distribution and exchange. Each artist in this exhibition speaks to various facets of this phenomenon.

Jim Kidd is the artist in residence in Transformazium’s screen printing shop. Transformazium is a collective emphasizing the neighborhood as a center for production of innovative ideas, collective action and public health. Kidd’s work challenges the archive by presenting a collection of objects and images that reassign historical value. Evoking nostalgia, Brianna Rigg reassigns cultural value through artistic composites of familiar objects. Chad Gordon’s work conceptually and figuratively juxtaposes the aesthetic of ubiquitous glossy magazines with his own reinterpretation that engages the global market economy. Questioning the concept of value altogether, Edgar Um Bucholtz presents an installation, using video of a burning car from a "Eurosleaze" cult film in dialogue with wall text."

FE Gallery non profit art space is one of the more important venues in the city series of great shows and events.

This Friday, Artist, Josh Tonies, who is on the west coast getting an MFA, returns to curate this show-which gives another peak at an artist connected to North Braddock's Transformazium.

Fe Arts Gallery
4102 Butler St. Pittsburgh, PA 15201

Opening Reception:
Friday, June 24, 2011
7:00-9:00pm

Exhibition runs June 24 - August 1, 2011

New York City Asian Population Tops A Million: Images From Flushing Queens

From The New York Times

"Not so long ago, the phrase “New York’s Chinatown” meant one thing: a district in Lower Manhattan near Canal Street. Now it could refer to as many as six heavily Chinese enclaves around the city

Koreatown was well known as a commercial zone in Midtown Manhattan, but now parts of Flushing, Queens, where tens of thousands of Koreans have moved, feel like suburban Seoul. The city has spawned neighborhoods with nicknames like Little Bangladesh, Little Pakistan, Little Manila and Little Tokyo.

Asians, a group more commonly associated with the West Coast, are surging in New York, where they have long been eclipsed in the city’s kaleidoscopic racial and ethnic mix. For the first time, according to census figures released in April, their numbers have topped one million — nearly 1 in 8 New Yorkers — which is more than the Asian population in the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles combined."



This area, Flushing, Queens is one the city's emerging ethnic downtowns dominated primarily by a huge Taiwanese/Chinese community and the largest Korean population in the city. Flushing, which is not far from Laguardia Airport, now has many offices and hotels.

As you can see from the images-this is a place of considerable wealth and dynamism.

Under Bloomberg, transit and bus hubs are being rezoned to encourage the development of alternate, business districts to encourage more two way commuting. Although this trend has been going on naturally for a long time.

If you never leave Manhattan, You really don't know New York.

The Great Migration In Reverse: African Americans Return To The South

While New York's population is growing, attracting a vast global elite, and still surging immigrant populations, on some deep level the city has failed as a place most of it's working middle class residents either can or increasingly want to deal with.

Many, particularly in the far flung semi suburban areas that make up large parts of Brooklyn, Queens and even more so New Jersey and Long Island are packing it in and heading south--including, now several of my relatives, who also now live in the Charlotte area.

No group seems to be making this choice more than it's black middle and working class.

For New Life, Blacks in City Head to South

Spencer Crew, a history professor at George Mason University who was the curator of a prominent exhibit on the Great Migration at the Smithsonian Institution, said the current exodus from New York stemmed largely from tough economic times. New York is increasingly unaffordable, and blacks see more opportunities in the South.

The South now represents the potential for achievement for black New Yorkers in a way it had not before, Professor Crew said. At the same time, unionized civil service jobs that once drew thousands of blacks to the city are becoming more scarce.

“New York has lost some of its cachet for black people,” Professor Crew said. “During the Great Migration, blacks went north because you could find work if you were willing to hustle. But today, there is less of a struggle to survive in the South than in New York. Many blacks also have emotional and spiritual roots in the South. It is like returning home.”

This is part of a much larger emerging trend strongly impacting the former Rust Belt worthy of a series of posts.

Chicago -- Fewer Blacks in City Could Affect the Politics

Blacks leaving major cities for life in the suburban South

Study Finds African Americans Leaving Cleveland

The Herbert & Dorothy Vogel Collection: 50 Works For Ohio @ The Akron Art Museum

50 Works For Ohio

By now, you may have heard of Herbert and Dorothy Vogel, the postal worker and librarian who managed mostly through sheer dedication, sacrifice and sincere enthusiasm managed to amass one of the country's most important collections of Contemporary art.

The remarkable story of Dorothy and Herbert Vogel has become the stuff of lore. He a postal clerk, she a reference librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library, who decided shortly after they married in 1962, to live on Dorothy's salary and to devote Herb's to purchasing art. Together they purchased thousands of artworks, cramming their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment floor to ceiling with art.

Though the couple’s initial exposure to many artists was through gallery shows, they rarely purchased art from dealers. Instead, when they became interested in an artist’s work, they visited the artist studio and bought directly from him. They typically only purchased objects they could take with them on the spot.

The Vogel Collection has been characterized as unique among collections of contemporary art, both for the character and breadth of the objects and for the individuals who created it. When the Vogels began collecting in the early 1960s, their focus on drawing was an unusual one, suggesting another aspect of their foresight. Many drawings in the collection represent an artist’s initial form of an idea and others act as plans to be followed by a collaborator in the making of a work of art.

Part of the trick behind their collecting was that they rarely had to pay full gallery prices for anything--because they often bought from artist's whose work was being ignored or under appreciated. It's actually hard to know just how little the Vogels had to pay for anything since many artists just won't say. Quite often they were just given things for showing any interest at all.

Another "trick" was that both artists and galleries wanted them to own works, since they never sold them-even as they became so valuable.

Now, a large part of their collection has been distributed to museums across the country through an agreement with The National Gallery which gave one institution in each of the 50 states, 50 works from the collection.

The Herbert & Dorothy Vogel Collection: 50 Works For Ohio
June 18, 2011 - October 16, 2011

The Akron Museum Of Art

Open Call New York Urban Design Competition

OK, I just came accross this and I'm actually not too sure what this exactly about.It looks too awesome to ignore and I had to post about it.

Submissions due July 14

"Urban Design Week is a new public festival created
to engage New Yorkers in the fascinating and complex issues of the public realm, and to celebrate the streetscapes, sidewalks, and public spaces at the
heart of city life. Through an open-call ideas competition and a rich roster of discussions, tours, screenings, workshops, and events across the five boroughs, UDW will highlight the fact that cities are made by collective effort, and that each of us can play a part."

Near As I can tell this is an open call to any designer, artist, architect or urbanist with an idea to respond to a particular "NY Challenge"

The challenges themselves are the product of public input--

"Wouldn't it be great if...."

Some challenges are vague-but others are specific concepts-an urbanist, or person with more specific knowledge might flesh out.

A Random Sample

#117 Wouldn’t it be great if...It was actually feasible to get through the crazy intersections in front of Lincoln Center


#585 Wouldn’t it be great if...86th street was closed off to cars and had a light rail running across town.

#473 Wouldn’t it be great if...Flatbush had a green and social center

#306 Wouldn’t it be great if...there were bike commuter depots.

#538 Wouldn’t it be great if...highway underpasses had light installations-slash-pigeon repellers

#455 Wouldn’t it be great if...all that unused (or underused) land underneath the Williamsburg Bridge (Manhattan side) could be put to some productive or recreational use??

#456 Wouldn’t it be great if...building owners had more incentive to convert their rooftops into landscaped spaces, thereby reducing heat island gain and creating more open space for their residents?

#466 Wouldn’t it be great if...people and buildings didn't have to leave all of their garbage on the street in giant piles of bags, and instead had recycling and waste receptacles at the ends of the streets like they do in Europe?

#432 Wouldn’t it be great if...we used more of the old armories around the city for arts and cultural activities, like the one on Park avenue.

By the City / For the City

Calling all Designers: New Yorkers shared hundreds of ways that they think the city’s public realm could be designed to make it smarter, more beautiful and livable, and now we’re asking architects, designers, artists, and urbanists to respond to their challenge!

Now it’s your turn: Look through 500+ ideas we received, define your site, and apply your design skills to give visual form those ideas.

Together, all of these ideas – from citizens and designers alike – will be form a collective portrait of how we imagine the future, a crowdsourced testament to the ingenuity the many people who love this city. All of the submissions will be gathered in the Atlas of Possibility for the Future of New York, an exhibition and book that we’ll launch at this September’s first-ever Urban Design Week.

Check out all the details and ideas here

Pittsburgh, Show Off Your Gardens On Steeltown Anthem

No, we don't have a High Line--but unlike New Yorkers many of us have a little slice of paradise in our backyard, alleyway, hillside or community garden down the block.

Steeltown Anthem wants pictures to post!

It’s summertime! I feel like here in Pittsburgh we wait all year for the couple months where we can grill outside, play in the park, swim and take long bike rides. In the past I have had people ask me if I would consider posting people’s gardens and I thought now is the perfect time! This isn’t limited to just your backyard, you can also submit public gardens as well!

How to submit:
1. Send me a photo or photos of your garden (.JPG files)
2. Include your first name and neighborhood
3. Email them to steeltownanthem@gmail.com

Ex Cleveland Ad Man Tells Us Why He Thinks The City's Neighborhoods Have So Much Potential

From Freshwater Cleveland

OK this guy, Alan Glazen seems smarter, harder working and more creative than average by a long shot. He's now in the Avertising Hall Of Fame! Still, his take on how Cleveland neighborhoods like Ohio City, Tremont and Detroit Shoreway offer a great stage for authentic craft businesses rings very true to me.

He's now taking his thinking to the bank by starting a second career involving himself in new local restaurants and other ideas.

"It's the same story now. Shoppers are growing tired of soulless big box stores and contrived "lifestyle centers." These places lack any ties to the community. They have no local personality. There is no desire for excellence; no quest to be the best; no locally sourced foods. If you opened a Friday's or Applebee's in Ohio City, it would be a ghost town."

Like me, Glazen sees parts of Cleveland that remind him of Brooklyn.

"The question of which neighborhood was easy: Detroit Shoreway. Having lived in Brooklyn, I felt right at home. Detroit Avenue was just like Smith Street in Carroll Gardens, where many New York chefs were opening indie bistros."

As he says--only come with an A game. This isn't about what's in the place already, as much as about what you are willing to bring to the table.

"And I assure you -- there is money to be made. You can absolutely make a living in these urban neighborhoods and others. Just do ordinary things extraordinarily. Offer exceptional things accessibly. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Why should you open your bicycle repair shop in a Cleveland neighborhood rather than in a suburb like Solon or Westlake? Because you share a spirit with the bike messengers and people who ride to work each day instead of drive."

Plans In The works To Transform Historic Youngstown Building Into A Boutique Hotel

Have to get back to Youngstown soon and really check it out. For a place that was absolutely flat on it's ass, a lot of low key positive things seem to be happening there exploiting the richly historic and well designed downtown and a good synergistic relationship with Youngstown State University.

Developer Envisions Wick Building as Hotel

"Out-of-town visitors to the Youngstown Business Incubator, the university, and to venues such as the Covelli Centre have no choice but to stay in the suburbs because of the lack of guest lodging downtown, Marchionda said.

"The initial reports suggest there's a need for more rooms than we first intended to build," he elaborated. Just how many rooms the new hotel would provide remains under study. "We're moving aggressively to do what we want to do there -- build a boutique hotel," the developer said.

Marchionda said the new hotel would be similar to Glidden House in Cleveland, an upscale hotel on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. "It would be an independent operation run by a group that invests in these types of things," he said, not a chain. "They would be an owner/operator and partner with us."

Should all go according to plan, Marchionda said he could proceed on the project over the "next few months," and begin work in earnest during the first quarter of 2012."

One problem that usually comes up with hotels on historic urban blocks is that the need for parking often results in tearing down one or more neighboring buildings--as is proposed for the planned renovation of East Liberty's Highland Building-and almost every hotel renovation in Detroit.

Simply Slavic, Pan Slavic Festival in Youngstown Today

This is a cool idea-Youngstown is having a festival celebrating the food, beer, music, art of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria, The Czech Republic, Russia, Poland and The Ukraine.

12 noon-8 PM in downtown Youngstown Followed by The Slavic Disco

For more info

Chicago Area Companies Rethink The Corporate Campus & Move Back Into Downtown

A few of the very large old school cities-mostly Chicago and New York have begun to draw back many more of the corporate headquarters that left for suburban campuses. (In NY, this has been going on for a long time)

From Crain's Chicago Business

Today, Sears Holdings Corp. and AT&T Inc. are looking to escape their compounds in northwest suburban Hoffman Estates. A shrunken Motorola has space to let in Schaumburg. Sara Lee Corp. eyes downtown office space after less than a decade in Downers Grove. Companies from Groupon Inc. to GE Capital hire thousands in Chicago while their suburban counterparts shed workers.

All reflect changes in the corporate mindset that spawned the campuses dotting outer suburbia. Empire-building CEOs from the 1970s through the 1990s craved not only cheap real estate but total control of their environments. They created self-contained corporate villages that cut off employees from outside influences.

As the 21st century enters its second decade, many companies are discovering the drawbacks of the isolation they sought. Hard-to-get-to headquarters limit the talent pool a company can draw on and feed a “not-invented-here” insularity that ignores major shifts in industries and markets.

Interestingly, companies and some of their investors are starting to connect suburban settings with a lack of innovation.

Another major factor is that in an era of leaner freelance work environments being tapped into a deep pool of potential workers, contractors and suppliers that central urban areas can provide is ever more important. One also can cut costs by not having to provide cafeterias, gyms and other services to replace the normal services of a city.

Potential employees are making similar calculations in reverse about the potential to find a new job in more remote suburban locations and finding it wiser to locate where the largest number of employers are.

One big problem with these very specially designed and isolated campuses designed around a single company is that they are often very hard to fill if that company shrinks or leaves.

Building an attractive city and a large broad base of small companies can help attract the big ones. Google now has it's second largest offices in NYC and has located next to a company it bought, DoubleClick.

So far, this trend has not happened strongly in many other cities-partly because real urban locations with substantial advantages over office parks are rare. It's a "Catch-22" situation-The city lacks enough density, diversity and energy to have a big network of companies and it can't build up any energy cause 60% of the land area is for parking.

More links

Chicago area businesses looking to move from suburban campuses.

Are the Millennials Driving Downtown Corporate Relocations?

Images Of Old Industrial New York

Industrial Queens



Industrial Brooklyn

Many say you can't compare, NYC with Pittsburgh because New York has no industrial past.

In fact--Every major city in the era before modern transport and refrigeration had a large industrial component--ports where cargo was laboriously off loaded by hand, local factories, slaughterhouses, Breweries and hundreds of local warehouses.

New York was of course, the nation's primary port until the early 1960's and it's leading area for shipbuilding, which was very much a heavy industry. It also was a leading manufacturing area for garments, jewelry, toys, electrical components and many other products.

The neighborhoods of NY, with the closest resemblance to Pittsburgh are on the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront, where long before the subways were built, dense clusters of worker housing sprung up around the ports and factories.

Until about early 1980's Manufacturing still accounted for over a half million NY jobs-a number that today is much, much lower. The city's efforts to protect many former manufacturing districts through strict zoning codes, have only very recently changed. Almost all of New York's famous art districts grew up illegally in these former industrial or warehouse areas.

These are a few shots I took around these now very rapidly changing areas in Queens and Brooklyn.

(FYI--Blacks and Puerto Ricans did not originally migrate to NY "to collect welfare", but to find work mostly in New York area factories.)

Will The Pittsburgh Biennial Get Much National Press?

Finally, a number of major cultural venues, The Warhol, The Carnegie Museum, The Warhol, Pittsburgh Filmmakers and CMU's Miller Gallery are collaborating on a large scale exhibit project similar to what I have long advocated on here.

"We are quickly becoming one of the most dynamic art communities in America, and the Pittsburgh Biennial is going to prove that Pittsburgh is a place that cherishes and supports the arts," says Warhol curator Eric Shiner.

Highlighting a broad spectrum of works and providing increased recognition for more than 60 of the region's top artistic talents, the survey-style show features everything from 2-D work, installation and sculpture, to time-, interactive- and process-based works.

Pittsburgh Filmmakers will dedicate its galleries to a presentation of media arts, while works on view at The Miller Gallery will examine the city's long labor history as well as CMU's legacy of presenting courses that explore the social role of art in public contexts. Featured at the Miller will be collectives and artists who work collaboratively in socially engaged ways, such as in publishing, installation, art education, new media, performance, and printmaking."

Finally, many of the best artists in the city brought together in the kind of large scale show that should allow each to really show off what they are doing.

Now comes the next question--will anyone beyond the immediate Pittsburgh region know about or care about this show? Well, on a positive note-since the show has a somewhat broader definition of a "Pittsburgh artist" and has included several people who no longer live here full time, at least one NY dealer I talked to knew about it.On the negative side, the absence of any artists from a wider region-means that those places have no particular need to pay attention.

I think the show will receive limited out of town coverage and that very little of the wider contact, dialog and recognition will develop. Pittsburgh is like the irritating date who only talks about themselves. My guess is Pittsburgh Foundations and other large funders are behind some of this extreme introversion. They are not doing any serious Pittsburgh artist any favors.

Green Thinking Needs To More About Neighborhoods Than Buildings

Up until very recently, the whole LEED certified green building thing looked and smelled like a bit of a racket to me.

The biggest flaw in LEED is measuring buildings without looking at the context they fit into which is why many of them sit in parking lots with no transit access--or in areas exclusively zoned for single uses-where you will have to get in a car to get a cup of coffee.

This year standards have come out to better evaluate neighborhoods.

First launched as a pilot program in 2009, LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), in cooperation with the Congress for New Urbanism and the Natural Resources Defense Council, to reward environmentally conscience neighborhood design. The new standards sought to encourage the creation of places that protect fragile land, lower energy use and emission creation, and limit waste. The three umbrella standards which the USGBC ranks new projects;

1) Smart Location and Linkage,

2) Neighborhood Pattern and Design,

3) Green Infrastructure and Buildings;

all seek to create a benchmark for area development. The Smart Location and Linkage standard focuses on limiting newly developed land, rejuvenating brownfields; while conserving bodies of water, erosion susceptible land, animal habitats, and agriculturally rich soil. It encourages the creation of neighborhoods that promote dense and well connected areas that support pedestrian and bike traffic. Neighborhood Pattern and Design focuses on the infrastructure choices made within the community that reduce the carbon footprint created by residents in their day to day lives. And Green Infrastructure and Buildings, much like LEED’s original green building code, uses passive and active designs and tools to reduce water waste, improve energy efficiency, and lessen infrastructure’s environmental impact.

Copied with links kept.

Location. The centers of regions and older suburbs perform better than the fringe, even if other factors are held constant.

Connected streets. A well-connected street network (featuring smaller blocks and lots of intersections) shortens travel distances and makes walking more feasible and pleasant. It is the single most important determinant of how much walking will take place in a neighborhood and the second most important determinant (after location) of how much driving will take place.

Places to go. A mix of conveniences such as shops, schools, and places to eat and socialize encourages walking, promotes fitness and health, and reduces emissions from driving.

Ways to get around. The more transportation choices, the better. If you’re lucky enough to be within walking distance of rail transit, for example, the number of automobile trips during rush hours can be up to 50 percent lower than what would otherwise be expected under standard engineering forecasts.

Density. As I have said before, it doesn’t necessarily have to be high density to reduce driving and watershed-damaging pavement per household. We see substantial improvements in performance as we move from large-lot sprawl even to ten homes per acre; beyond 40 to 50 homes per acre, we continue to see improvements, but at reduced increments. Moderate density helps a lot.

Green stormwater infrastructure. While runoff per household goes down in denser neighborhoods, runoff per acre can go up unless mitigated. Green infrastructure, when in the form of publically accessible green spaces, can also bring an array of additional benefits to a neighborhood.

In my opinion-real green building certification should give at least equal weight to the buildings context as to the building itself -which is why almost all the buildings, in a walkable, transit oriented place like Manhattan are more than half way to an A.

National Geographic Traveler Includes Pittsburgh On List Of Six Best Cities To Kayak

A lot of lists out there seem bogus, but this one naming Pittsburgh as one of the most interesting and beautiful urban areas to Kayak rings true. The city has yet extract full value from most of it's waterfront.

Did you know you can kayak down the Chicago River in the heart of The Loop?

Supersize NYC, Apartment Buildings Scale Up

When you live in a city or visit often, it's hard to notice how rapidly things are changing. NYC used to always have a whole lot of apartment buildings, averaging between 12 and 25 stories with a relatively small number of really tall ones. Even so by looking at the skyline one could usually know with confidence that most of the tallest buildings of 30 stories and up were office buildings, located in the two main office districts--downtown and midtown. Also, many large areas were mostly made up of much smaller residential buildings. In the last 15 years or so this has radically changed with a new emerging skyline in which both apartment and office buildings regularly top 40 stories.

Spotting the apartments is somewhat easy, since most of these new buildings have tall needle like forms or other tricks meant to maximize window space as opposed to office buildings in which large block floor plans are more desirable.

There are two main factors, the first being that Manhattan as basically the only urban area with a fully supported high capacity subway system and mostly unbroken street grid is just seeing a massive amount of demand.

Another factor is that city government in the Bloomberg era has made a concerted effort to maximize development and tax revenue per dollar of transit investment.

The sum total result is a city that is both increasingly anti car, pro pedestrian and pro growth at the same time. Similar things are happening in the outer boroughs, but the story there is more complex.

Part of Historic Strip Produce Terminal To Be Taken Down

Plans are in the works by the owner of the iconic wholesale produce market on Smallman Street to tear down about a third of the building as part of a larger plan to better connect the Allegheny River waterfront.

It (Buncher) is seeking to tear down a section of the terminal between the 16th Street Bridge and 17th Street, or about 528 feet of the 1,478-foot-long building.

Even as it described the terminal as a "Pittsburgh icon," the URA argued that its length and unbroken nature "inhibits the development of the Allegheny River frontage."

"The combination of the terminal and the 16th Street Bridge creates barriers that limit redevelopment of the area to the 'gated community'-type project, and reduce the opportunity for public access to the river," it wrote in its application to the state.

"Removing a block of the produce terminal allows the riverfront connection, and allows the new development of the riverfront parcel the visual and physical connection to the rest of the city that will allow the new development the greatest chance of success."

Plans for the property include constructing a 75 unit residential building as well as offices and retail. The existing-Pittsburgh Public Market which now occupies the space would move to the remaining part of the building.

Generally, I strongly support the plan. People need to appreciate history while being honest about the current Strip which does not work very well for wholesalers (who originally depended on rail terminals) or support thriving retail beyond very limited hours.

Developing a more normal street grid and integrating the Strip better with the river and the Downtown will improve both by making the area more dense and accessible to pedestrians. When will Buncher start to do the same thing with the hideously ugly superblock buildings it owns on Liberty Ave?

More Bushwick Street Art

The last of the images I took of Street Art in Bushwick, Brooklyn last week during an open studio weekend.

Be back with more thoughts and posts which hopefully will be relevant. Cleveland, in particular has large masses of the building types that make up Bushwick, and is starting to develop the kind of organic mixed use buildings many creatives crave.

Some Bushwick Street Art

Bushwick reminded me of Williamsburg, in perhaps the early 1990's, where the scene mostly made up of hundreds of artists studios, pop up galleries and hit and run parties wasn't obviously visible.

A big clue as to the underlying energy is the mass of high quality street art--something increasingly very rare in the rest of the city or at least Manhattan.