Lafayette Park - Detroit

About a week ago, Google celebrated Mies van der Rohe's 126th birthday with a doodle of his 1956 project, Crown Hall, at the Illinois Institue of Technology in Chicago. The doodle came complete with four box girders, their eight supporting columns, and 'Google' cleanly spelled across the facade (The letters with appropriate levels of transparency, according to their clear or frosted glass hosts, were a nice touch). So I wanted to take a minute to write a bit about Mies' Lafayette Park project in Detroit.

I had the pleasure of sitting in on a lecture in January at the Yale School of Architecture by Charles Waldheim, Chair of Landscape Architecture at Harvard. Waldheim is often credited with coining the term Landscape Urbanism, or the use of landscape and the organization of horizontal elements, rather than buildings, as the driver of urban form. I tend to recoil from the thought of sprawling landscapes as an organizer of city form, while visions of lifeless, drab suburbs flash in front of my eyes. I usually find myself gravitating towards dense cityscapes, vibrant neighborhoods and tree lined streets, pockets of the city carved out as park space. I am of the mind that urban spaces should be urban and rural spaces should be rural, both valuable to each other, yet independent. The space in between the two tends to struggle for identity.

Lafayette Park is certainly more park than urbanism, yet I find myself drawn to its serene configuration. The project was the first urban renewal project in the US, and remains arguably the most successful, despite Detroit's present condition. Mies is often credited with the project, probably because his is the most famous name of the group, but the project's success is a direct result of a triumphant collaboration between architect (Mies), planner (Ludwig Hilbersheimer), landscape architect (Alfred Caldwell), developer (Herbert Greenwald) and city. Lafayette Park is the largest collection of Mies buildings in the world, but it would not have succeeded had all the valuable pieces not performed their roles so well.

Hilbersheimer demanded that the project be available to residents of every social and economic situation. Caldwell brought a sophisticated ecological infrastructure, and Mies designed refined yet affordable buildings. While it is no secret that Mies was a tireless self promoter and the number one starchitect of his day, his clean and efficient buildings often cost less per square foot than many of his contemporaries. Lafayette Park is a shining example of that ability.

Courtesy: Michigan Modern

The city of Detroit has been slowly decaying since the first half of the 20th century, this project was an effort  to curb the trend of flight to the suburbs that Detroit, along with so many other cities, experienced in post-war America. The site of the project was formerly known as 'Black Bottom' section of Detroit, named for rich soil deposits brought by flooding in the early years of the city. The neighborhood's residents were displaced and the buildings demolished, sitting empty for years, while the city haggled and argued over what to do with the site before bringing in the team of Greenwald, Mies, Hilbersheimer and Caldwell.





Greewald declared when the project started that "this city is damned, but by no means doomed". He envisioned a community within a city where the residents could live, work, shop and play. The program included dwelling units, office space, shopping and a public school. Greenwald knew that the project would not be able to house enough permanent residents to support the retail that was required, so all of the large commercial blocks were located at the periphery of the site, creating a porous boundary to the park that could be accessed by both insiders and outsiders.

In his lecture, Waldheim drew some fascinating parallels between the abandonment of 20th Century Detroit and the abandonment of ancient Rome, and how the later played a crucial role in the development of the type of landscape urbanism that makes the former such a success.

Rome sat as an empty shell of its former self inside its Aurelian walls for nearly a millenium, making present day Detroit look like Paris. In the sixth century, the population of Rome dropped from over one million to less than 30,000 people due to warfare, famine, and social unrest. The population of Detroit has dropped from over 1.8 million at its peak in 1950, to under 900,000 in 2009.

The Ruins of Detroit is the website that immediately came to mind during the lecture.

He tied in the notion of urban landscape's origin as a theatrical backdrop founded in 14th Century theater and art where landscape was used as a way of seeing the world. How modern landscape is a product of emotional loss, the loss of a tie with man's foundational natural surroundings. He also highlighted Claude Lorrain's paintings of the small pieces of the disabitato that remained in the 16th century. His landscapes were so attractive because they depicted not what is rural, but what was once urban, which is fascinating to me.

Lafayette park, while not a pure urbanism, is certainly not suburban or rural. It is a unique project that broke a lot of rules and succeeded. Members of the development team made demands that were adhered to - mixing of social classes, richly functioning ecological systems, world class architecture - and the project is an overwhelming success by any measure. A superb example of urban renewal that can work. Certainly not what comes to mind when I think of what downtown blocks of major cities should be, but a fantastic project. 

Present day Detroit is often referred to as a blank cavas for architects and city planners. Lafayette Park certainly shows one way to paint the Image of the City.  

Courtesy: Dwell

Dwell

Michigan Modern

For more images and testimonials of Lafayette Park, here is a New York Times interactive feature and a slideshow from Dwell.

Ralph McQuarrie

Ralph McQuarrie, the artist who gave life to George Lucas' script for Star Wars, died last week, so I wanted to give a little tribute to the man whose mind changed the world of design and of filmmaking forever.

McQuarrie used his experience as a designer, animator, technical illustrator for Boeing, and as a soldier in the Korean War to create some of the most recognizable characters in history. I always find myself drawn to artwork that references a technically rich base to create a fantastically vivid story. McQuarrie was certainly a master of that. 

Here is a quote by McQuarrie that I enjoy: 

"I used to try squeezing work out, but it's like toothpaste in a tube that will only come out so fast … There's no point pounding my brain – the best thing I can do is collect my thoughts as soon as I'm told what's needed. Then I lie down and let it gel unconsciously. I sort of semi-sleep, and somewhere along the way of going to sleep or coming out of it, I get exactly what I need – it's just there, rising like the bubbles in champagne from somewhere inside."

In addition to Star Wars, McQuarrie worked on Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Raiders of the Lost Arc, Cocoon, and more. Many of the most iconic scenes, images and characters in (at least my) history of film were born out of McQuarrie's imagination.

Here are a few of his visions before any actors were ever cast.

Kansas

I wanted to post this before the Missouri game, but an uncompromising work load caused a bit of a delay. I actually got the idea for the drawing and started laying it out on Kansas Day, January 29th. I decided the Missouri game would be the natural time to finish and publish the drawing, but alas, here we are, March 3rd. We just happen to be taking on the apparent new rival tonight, though. Texas. They are down this year but will surely be back. 

No rivalry could ever dream to match what we had with Missouri, but against Texas, at least we will be playing a team that is able to compete for a championship on an almost yearly basis. 

I want to be able to put my thoughts on the death of our rivalry with Missouri on paper at some point, but for now, here is a drawing for the Texas game. It didn't turn out quite like I wanted it, but I hope you like it...Rock Chalk. 

Kansas Coach Charlie Weis

I always like to give any major decisions like this a couple of days of thought before forming my opinion. I never like any new album I buy the first time I listen to it; it always takes a couple trips through it before I start tapping my toe along.  I always give it a second listen, and it always gets better the second or third time through. I think that’s probably because any good musician’s work evolves along with his or her life. That’s what makes the music good.

So with that, the more I think about this hire, homer glasses removed, the more I like it, and the more I am convinced that Dr. Zenger knocked this one out of the park. There are some potential negatives to the hire, as there would be with any new coach. If Weis was not successful at Notre Dame, how will be successful here? Is his health and mobility going to be a concern? Recruiting is such a huge part of college football, and something that he can’t build on from his time in the pros.

The positives outweigh the negatives by a long shot, though.

From what I have read and listened to from people that know Charlie Weis, and have spoken to him since the hire, I am very excited - for a few reasons. The number one being that from all accounts, Weis loves a challenge, and he has a great one in front of him. Just like he did when he signed on with Bill Belichick and the Patriots. The super power Patriots that we all know have not always been. They were a lousy franchise for most of their existence, until just over ten years ago, when Bill Parcells came on as head coach. Parcells then left in controversy.  The next two seasons, leading up to Belichick taking over with Weis as offensive coordinator, the Pats finished a humble fourth in the AFC East. Then the new regime finished fifth, dead last, in its first season. The next year, the Patriots made it to the Super Bowl against the previously perceived unbeatable ‘Greatest Show on Turf’, of the St. Louis Rams. The Patriots shocked the world in that Super Bowl, and the rest, as they say, is history.

A lot of what has gone into the rebirth of the Patriots has minor transference to the college game, but Weis had a major role in turning the fantastically average Patriots into the one of the most dominant professional franchises of my generation.

 

When asked what he knew about Kansas football before talking to Dr. Zenger, Weis said ‘I knew that they were 2-10, and that Kansas State was 10-2.’ Weis loves a challenge, and he has a great one in front of him.

Some argue that if Weis couldn’t win at Notre Dame, with the best facilities, boosters and alumni support in the country, how can he win at Kansas?  First we have to define what ‘not winning at Notre Dame’ means to most people. In the case of Weis, it was three bowl games in five years, two of them BCS bowls, and one losing season. To most schools, that would be a great five-year stretch. To Kansas, it would be the best five-year stretch in school history by a wide, wide margin. But it was clearly not good enough for Notre Dame. Understandable. So let us look at how the challenge at Kansas is night and day different than at our good Lady.

The head football coach at Notre Dame is the implied face of the university, much like the head men’s basketball coach at Kansas. Of course all universities are institutions of learning, but to a lot of people, the face of Notre Dame is the head football coach. The position is more akin to a CEO than a coach. It is a person that has to put all the pieces of the machine in place for it to function like it should, then be able to site back and watch it work, and look good doing it. He goes to fundraisers, glad hands with big time donors, kisses babies, goes on television, makes public appearances, all the things that a guy like Weis is not exactly at home doing. Bill Bellichick didn’t even let his assistants talk to the media, so to go from the isolationist calculating masterplanner to the public face of the most historic program in college football was a paradigm shifting mess.

There are coaches out there who are very good at those things. The first few that come to mind are names like Mack Brown, Roy Williams, Bobby Bowden, Mike Krzyzewski, Bob Stoops, and most importantly, Bill Self.  From all reports, Coach Weis was not comfortable in that roll at Notre Dame, and its one that he wont have to play here, because we already have one of the best in the business in Bill Self.

The other paramount difference in the schools is the type of player that he will be able to recruit to Kansas, and how he assembles a staff to coach that player.

This is the part where we are going to have to wait and see what happens, but that I am eager to see develop. It is clear to see what was not working at Notre Dame when looking with an objective eye. Weis put together a staff that brought in record breaking recruiting classes year after year, but had marginal success on the field. Coaching at the college and professional levels are worlds apart.  Weis came from the pro game, where every warm body on the team is a world-class athlete. A thoroughbred. Much like the recruits he brought in to Notre Dame. The difference is that in the pros, every player already has a highly developed fundamental base that was cultivated at the college level. Football fundamentals are not taught at the pro level, where the decided advantage comes from the schemes designed by the coaches. This is perhaps the biggest reason for Weis’ limited success at Notre Dame. He had a coaching staff that brought in top-notch talent, and put together brilliant schemes, but without a concentrated dose of fundamental development of the Jimmies and Joes, the x’s and o’s don’t mean much. I can’t believe I just wrote that. Weis is an intelligent man, and I think this is an area of his masterplan for Notre Dame that will be amended for his time at Kansas.

If the rumors of talks with Tim Grunhard are true, it is a clear indication of Weis’ intent to put together a staff that can not only recruit, but also develop young talent. 

No positions are more important to develop fundamentally than the offensive and defensive lines. Any lineman that is large enough and strong enough to be recruited by BCS schools is playing against inferior opponents for 90% of his high school career. All he has to do is come off the ball hard and he will be successful a majority of the time. He won’t have to use proper technique, good pad level, quick feet and most importantly effective hand placement. He can just use his arms as violent bludgeoning billyclubs to out mollywhop anybody that lines up across from him. That's all over when he gets to college. If he tries that against Frank Alexander, Ndamukong Suh, or even James McClinton, he will receive the very essence of a rude awakening.  This is one of the criticisms of Weis’ time at Notre Dame - that he had a staff focused more on recruiting and scheming than on player development. This is where coaches like Tim Grunhard have the potential to shine.

Grunny said on the radio Friday that he had not yet been contacted by Weis, but that he would absolutely be interested in coaching the offensive line if he is. The Internet was abuzz today with rumors of talks between the two. They know each other through Notre Dame, and Weis has offered the former Chief jobs in the past. Grunhard said that he wanted to accept the jobs, but that the time was just not right for his family. Now could be that serendipitous situation.

Grunhard is currently the head coach at Bishop Miege High School in Kansas City. In his first season as head coach, Miege, finished 3-6. They were district champs the next year and won state two years later. He played his college ball at Notre Dame, where he worked his way from mid level recruit to starting role, and ended his career starting every game as a senior for an undefeated National Championship season in 1988, among the best Notre Dame football teams in school history. He was then drafted by the Chiefs in the second round, and learned from long time veteran and nine time pro-bowler Mike Webster before assuming the starting role, and becoming an anchor of the Chiefs franchise throughout the 90’s. In short, Grunhard knows a little bit about what it takes to develop young talent. If he is Coach Weis’ first new hire, things should be looking good for Kansas football fans.

Tim Grunhard, in perhaps the best pose in football card history

There are a many more factors that make Weis a great coach – a tireless work ethic, a no-nonsense attitude, and a commitment to academics among the most important, but a lot of coaches share those traits. This has gotten a little bit long winded, so the last thing I want to comment on, specific to Charlie Weis, is the potential for KU to have an exceptional quarterback in the future. Todd Reesing showed us how important a great quarterback is, not only in terms of winning and losing, but also fan support and media exposure. Both of which are increasingly more important with the possibility of another round of conference realignment always looming. 

The question is not what quarterback can Weis bring in, its what quarterback would not want to play for Charlie Weis? There is nothing I can say about it that hasn’t been proven by his record.  He turned Tom Brady from a fourth string back-up quarterback, almost unheard of in the NFL, to multiple Superbowl champion, and to one of the most recognizable names in sports. Brady Quinn’s first two years at Notre Dame were fine, but his numbers his junior and seniorseasons under Weis were almost remarkably better. Perhaps the most impressive is Matt Cassel’s Pro Bowl season under Weis, contrasted with the years before and after their time together. Any quarterback that wouldn’t give the opportunity to play for Weis serious consideration would be foolish. Maybe that is one thing left for Weis to accomplish. In a game where every quarterback he has touched has turned to gold, he is still hungry to turn one to bronze.

We can dream, can't we? 

This post ran a little bit long, but I am confident in everything that I have written. Sheahon Zenger made a fantastic hire in Charlie Weis. Nobody knows what the future holds; we very well may have another losing season next year. Player attrition and new additions will play a major role, but I know that we will not be embarrassed, and that Weis will put together a team that Kansas fans can be proud of. 

I cannot wait to see how Charlie Weis approaches this challenge in the next step of Kansas football. I’ll be giving it another listen, and I suggest you do, too. 

December 8th, 1980

First blog post.

Welcome, and thanks for being here.

I wish I was able to tell you what this blog was going to be about, but it’s going to be a little adventure for me to find out with you. I know it will somehow involve art and architecture, a little music, some Kansas sports, maybe some recipes and short stories thrown in. It probably won’t be anything groundbreaking, but hopefully a good song you haven’t heard in a while, a good building you haven't seen, or a good article to read or exhibit to see. It should at least be something topical or temporal. There is a story that I want to tell, I’m just not exactly sure what it is yet.

Plus now that I don’t have school to occupy all my time, I need something to do, and I decided the moment was right to jump with two feet into 2002, and start a blog. 

So for this first post, I chose a to pay a little tribute to John Lennon. I always think about him on this week. December seventh and eighth are important days in American history. The anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the anniversary of John Lennon’s murder in New York City.

OK, I just figured out one thing I don’t want this blog to be: morbid. So I promise it wont be.

But John Lennon’s death made an impression on me as a kid - and I wasn’t even alive yet when it happened. I remember one day, I’m not really sure how old I was, but I was looking up at my mom, she was still taller than me. So that probably puts me under 11, I’d say around 9. I don’t know when I started to like Beatles music as a kid, but I remember that this was the day I became fascinated by them, mostly John Lennon.

I was riding shotgun in my mom’s old blue Jeep Cherokee, shooting off question after question about the Beatles and their history. I asked if they were all still alive (see as a kid, I was still of the mindset that anyone older than my parents could very well be already dead of natural causes. Plus all the pictures of them I had ever seen were in black and white), and she answered that all of them are still alive except for John. At first I reasoned that he must have been the oldest in the group, and had died before the other, younger Beatles. So you can imagine how confused I was when told that he was shot. On purpose. I mean only bad people get shot, I was crushed to find out that one of the members of this great new band I had found was a bad man.

Mom: “No, no, he was a very good man”

Me: “Then why did somebody shoot him?”

(Long pause. We were heading uphill on 9th Street at this point, towards Emery, and as we crested the hill, she explained that...)

“Sometimes people just do things that don’t make any sense at all”

I still remember it like it was yesterday.

Why would somebody kill a person that made such good music, and was not a bad man? And was in black and white pictures? I was growing up in the age of Vanilla Ice, and I figured somebody would shoot him way before they shot John freaking Lennon. I mean, he was a Beatle. Please don't take this the wrong way, I don't think that Vanilla Ice should be shot.

But if you had to choose one or the other…

So I became fascinated, and wanted to know everything there was to know about John Lennon and the Beatles, and maybe find out why this happened. I went to the library to read books, listen to music, and ask other people that were taller than me about it. I made Beatles tapes, drew Beatles pictures, trying to figure out why.

I still haven’t gotten an answer any better than the one my mom gave me that day.

So for my first post, I made this little video for a few reasons; today’s date, the fact that Christmas season is upon us, and that American soldiers will be headed home from Iraq to their families very soon. 

This is also a bit of an exploration. I want to do some experimentation with the blending of art, music, photography and video. A few hurdles on that track are that I am a marginal artist, a mediocre photographer, and a downright monstrous musician. So maybe if I mash them all together, something palatable will emerge. Sort of like goulash. My number one goal with this video was to create something that I could put my name on and say that this would earn no less than 'B' grade in a junior high Film Media class. Because we have to have goals.

So here is my first attempt, I really hope you enjoy it, if nothing else it’s a great song.

Happy Christmas, everyone.

Lennon from C T on Vimeo.

And the finished product...