Sustainable Design in My Own Back Yard

Having been inspired by Nathan Shedroff's recent appearance and talk at UCD's Kleiber Hall I desided to try an experiment. I had been thinking about the concept of sustainable design for a few days since hearing him speak and I kept pondering the idea of how I personally as a carpenter could take the concept and implement it in my work and in my life.

I had been demolishing a redwood deck for a customer over the previous week. I knew that it was basically time for a new deck and that the old one was rotting in places. However, there was still some wood in the deck that had life left. Once you removed the rotten area the pieces that were still good would be too short to use in a new deck but surely they could be used somewhere. With my newfound inspiration I decided to see if I could come up with a project in which I could use the remaining wood. After mulling it over a few days I stubled on my answer while at a friend's wedding.

The wedding was held at lodge and in the lodge I literally found the answer under my ass. I had sat on a bench and realized it was pretty but not very comfortab

le. I had built benches in the past and a key component of many designs I found lacking was the seat itself. This particular bench had a small sign however that stated it had been made of “reclaimed” redwood from an old barn. So it hit me – I would design a better more comfortable bench and use the reclaimed redwood from the deck I was tearing apart!

I was having a good time at the wedding and after a couple beers I told my friends with excitement probably more about redwood benches then they had ever known or would ever want to know... After awhile I gave them a break and joined everyone on the dancefloor but secretly I was really excited to get back to my shop and work on the design.

Once back in the shop I decided to borrow bits and pieces from various designs and focus my attentions on the seat – the source of what most designs had been lacking. Using the methods discussed by Tim Brown at IDEO design firm I actually made a quick prototype seat out of simple materials and modified it until it had a curve that mformed to the bum, curved right up at an angle supporting the back and felt amazingly comfortable. That was it!

The next day I built the first bench and it was pretty

successful. I found that using the older lighter redwood made it a little lighter and easier to move around. It is now on my porch awaiting test subjects and feedback!

Mysterious Time Machine Appears on Campus!!

In a scene right out of the early 1990's computer game “Myst” a time capsule-like object has suddenly appeared behind the art building on the UC Davis campus. As of yet there has been no report of mysteriously dressed intruders but I'm sure we'll hear something soon. They have quite conspicuously parked their time machine under the redwoods in the Arboretum just behind the Art building next to the Davis loop.

I was surprised to discover what appears to be someone's incredibly cool art project while on my way back to my car after my Design 137 B class today. As I made my way along the path between the Art and Music buildings toward the parking lot on the back of the Davis loop I turned a corner and was stopped dead in my tracks by a most almost peculiar sculpture. It was so unique and yet familiar that I completely forgot what I was doing and where I was going. I gazed up and down over the object's metal surfaces. It was nine ten feet tall and comprised of a capsule shaped metal chamber with decorative ironwork attached as legs and

a base. The base actually had wheels, although they looked “beached” in the bark ground cover that they rested in. The chamber had an open port hole in the front just begging you to climb inside. The iron had an aged and warn looked suggesting it had traveled near and far possibly over not just time but space and had somehow ended up here. I knew it looked somehow familiar. It reminded me a little of a movie I had watched with my dad when I was a kid. The movie was called the “Time Machine” with an actor named Rod Serling (most famous for hostting the “Twilight Zone” TV series) that had been adapted from the H.G. Wells novel of the same name. But I knew that wasn't why it seemed so familiar.

Then it hit me – Myst! It was just like the contraptions created in the computer game “Myst” which was incredibly popular in the early 90's. In the game there were similar capsules in which characters teleported to and around a mysterious island in an unnamed sea. You had to travel from one place to another, unlocking the secrets of the island one by one in succesion until you solved the overall mystery of the inhabitants and were allowed to leave. It occurred to me that there were probably geeks all over the world like myself who would instantly get the “Myst” connetion whether the artist intended it or not. Of course you don't have to have played the game Myst to enjoy the sculpture.

I brought my cohorts in design, Kelly Stewart and Beth “Tater” Totten to see the sculpture later and they were instantly taken by the design. Beth, a trouble maker from birth, had to be held back from climbing into the inviting open chamber and getting us all arrested.

As of that day there was no plack out yet to name the creator but hats off to the artist for a truly successful design!

The Future of Design, the Future of Sustainability in our World

Nathan Shedroff: photo courtesy of California College of the Arts, San Francisco

Nathan Shedroff is one of the leading design thinkers preaching the gospel of sustainability today. On a recent visit to UC Davis Kleiber Hall – Shedroff spoke to a packed house. The topic was “sustainable design” and not only how to design products to be sustainable but how to communicate the need to the public for a different approach.

Sustainability, according to Nathan Shedroff is really the only choice. According to Shedroff we can no longer afford the old ways of designing for comfort and fashion without any consideration to how the product is made, how long a useful life it has, and where it ends up when it's life is over. Throwing everything in the landfills when we're done with it is akin to sweeping it under the rug – sooner or later you run out of rug.

To address this we have to address the key questions that the common consumer has: What is the incentive to incorporate sustainable design? Why would anyone do it if it costs more? If it is sustainable will it still meet the needs of the people?

With a simple “bullseye” he breaks the areas of importance into three categories: Financial, Social and Ecological. He stresses that you cannot focus just on one and ignore the others. Truly smart design one must address all three.

One of the most powerful tools is communication. In the past the rift between the need for sustainable design and the belief that it was necessary has been a matter of communication. Educating the public in terms that they can understand is key. Leading the graduate MBA program at the California College of the arts he teaches his students to how to successfully paint a picture of the need for change.

Shedroff cautions us to avoid use of the term “Green” as in “Green building and “Green Design”. He states that it's basically a marketing or communication issue. “ People have a lot of old images associated with the term 'green' - hippies, dirty feet, granola....connotations of another era”. According to Shedroff, these old images cause people to close their minds and quickly look away so if we're trying to sell people on sustainability we need a new approach. Also the term has a tendency to focus just on the Ecological impact of design and divert attention from the financial and social aspects. These are simply too important to be passed over. If we stress the interaction of all three areas and the concept that smart design addresses them all people will be more likely to take the concept seriously.All in all, in order for sustainability to be embraced with open arms we are going to have to think on all levels and take a smart approach.

Nathan Shedroff is chair of the new Design Strategy MBA program at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

Above: New graphics for better communication to the public emphasizing the three major components effected by and effecting design and their interaction.

“Objectified “- The future of design and it's impact on the world around us....

Want to gain a whole new appreciation for the things in our everyday lives? Go see the movie “Objectified” from producer/director Gary Hustwit. It's an incredible film that follows designers through the process of design from the way they brainstorm and research to how they implement change to suit need in the most ordinary everyday objects and thus make them “extraordinary”.

An example used is the taking of an ordinary potato peeler which is not comfortable or easy to grip and giving it a more ergonomic handle so that people can peel bags of potatoes without getting sore or constantly dropping the utensil. It may seem small and insignificant but people eat a lot of potatoes. Plus it's just one of thousands of items we touch and interact with on a weekly basis. If we continue to improve all the objects we use what would be the overall effect on our lives?

Objectified makes the point that literally everything in our lives, all the objects, tools and contraptions we interact with on a daily basis to work, to live, to get from one place to the other have been designed by someone. We are constantly surrounded with someone's design work.

The designers interviewed in the film introduce us to a staggering concept. Until recently a huge portion of all that has been designed ends up in landfills with not much thought given to lifespan or recyclability. Now that we have the all new potato peeler what happens to the old ones? Chance are the majority of them go straight into the garbage can and eventually to the county landfill.

We are at an important crossroads in our history. There has been increasing awareness to the concept of responsibility and as Objectified puts it, “stewardship” of the earth. For today's designers this means designing from now on with consideration of the entire lifespan of the object or “Cradle to Cradle”. How big is the carbon footprint of the object while being made? How long will it be useful? When it breaks, is worn out or is simply out of fashion, where will it go? The landfills are limited. New designers are making tomorrow's generations of “stuff” of increasingly more recyclable material and with a smaller carbon footprint. An example is in the world of technology – computers, cell phones, mp3 players. There has been movement away from plastics such as the once touted “material of tomorrow” poly vinyl chloride (pvc) and toward lightweight aluminum which can be melted down and reused. This approach is being applied an all levels and with the attitude that it is late in the game and there is no other way.

Go see Objectified – you'll never look at your potato peeler the same way again.

Above: out with the Old and in with the New

Your True Colors- or are they?

Color collage inspired by Joseph Albers

by RLFriedrich(2001)

When you see color what are you really seeing?

As a remodeler I have for years dealt with the issues surrounding the choosing of colors. Mariages have disintegrated and lawsuits have been filed over this basic ritual that every homeowner must eventually face. But in the end it always comes down to choices.

There are several approaches you can take when you decide to redesign your humble abode. First, you can do it yourself. There are books, DVDs and even an entire television network dedicated to cheering you on and guiding you every step of the way. If you take this route it can save money but the risks often lie in the choices you make. I have come onto many potential job sites and often been greeted at the door by a frustrated man or woman who looks like they have recently lost a lot of sleep. It usually turns out that they started the work themselves and it either turned out they didn't have as easy a time as they thought or they made catastrophic choices.

When you hire a contractor you can try to tap into their reserve of knowledge and experience but this doesn't guarantee you success. Why? Because we all think differently when it comes to colors and color combinations.Your contractor has made a career of knowing how to use power tools and apply the paint but not necessarily put the colors together. So who can do this?

If you have the money you can hire an interior designer. It is his or her job to look through carpet and linoleum samples, shuffling them together with paint chips to pour over literally thousands of possible combinations. These they scrutinize with vigor and a fine eye and ultimately narrow it down to a select few that for some reason might appeal to the customer. Since we all think differently and all have different tastes how can they possibly hope to accomplish such a momentous task?

They answer may lie in their training. Good interior designers have an understanding of the way people think and perceive colors and color arrangements and when it comes to understanding people and color one of the best educators is Josef Albers. His teachings on color theory are an essential for designers and artists alike.

According to Josef Albers we all have a different perception of color. We can all look at the same red school house but we all see it in a different way. Through the filters of our eyes the particular combination of shades and tones is different to each one of us; as different perhaps as our own fingerprints. Albers compares the pairings of colors and the ultimate combination they form to the way different musical notes come together to form a chord. In music when you mix together a combination of notes that doesn't work we describe the resulting cacophony as “discordant”. In the contracting world when yo

u mix together a combination of colors that doesn't work we call it a “homeowner special”. How can you avoid living in a “homeowner special”?

A good start would be to learn the basics of understanding color and the perception of color. Albers book “Interaction of Color”(1971 Yale University Press) is great read on the subject. Of course Albers goes way beyond the basics. In his book we learn of such discoveries as “The Bezold Effect” stating that when you have a particular collection of colors you can change just one tone and create an entirely different effect and perception- akey element when applied to design. He also goes further in his comparison of music tocolor showing us that we measure both musical tones and color hues in

wavelength. Other topics that serve to educate the reader or the “Relativity of color”, harmony and relative “weights” of tones when juxtaposed to each other. In the end the reader comes away armed with a whole new understanding of how we view color and what “color” truly means.

study by Josef Albers demonstarating the "Bezold effect"- by changing just one color the overall impression of to the color landscape changes drastically.

Is Google the new Big Brother?

In the classic 1984 George Orwell introduces us to a world where the government is controlling every facet of people's lives. They do so through an army of enforcement agents and a system of cameras that watches anyone and everyone wherever they are - public or private. Well, the government may not have gotten to this point just yet but there is someone keeping an eye on us all.

For years it seemed that Google was too good to be true. They designed the best internet products for us to use and in an apparent bout of insanity forgot to charge us for them. Their search engine worked so well it became the undisputed champion and favorite amongst 87.7% * of internet users in 2003. Industry analysts criticized them for providing a such an amazing free product with no real way of gaining income from it. However, the people knew a good thing when they saw it and proved it by ravenously gobbling up stock when Google went public in 2005. The stock continued to rise making millionaires quickly out of early stock holders. Over the next few years naysayers continued to say it was too good to be true but Google had their elves hard at work behind the scenes.

Over the past couple years Google has perfected a system of analyzing use of their free products from Google Maps to the Gmail email program in order to generate revenue from advertisers. Here's how it works:

Anytime you use Google search to find a restaurant or business, a central database takes notes. When you use Google maps to get directions somewhere Google assumes you're going there and places specific adds along the side of the next window that pops up. The adds are for businesses in the neighborhood that you might benefit from visiting. Similar practices are used in conjunction with Google Earth. The most controversial practice and the one that is attracting attention and critics is what they are doing with Google Mail or "Gmail".

When you type and send a message to someone using your gmail account, a program looks for key words in your message. To cut to the chase let's say you send a message to your spouse regarding some lingerie that you plan on wearing. An add for Frederick's of Hollywood or Victoria's Secret might then pop up in the next window. Commercial companies love this and this is one of many ways Google has found to "cash in" on the widespread use of their free products. There's only one problem - people don't like the idea of anyone reading their emails - even a computer. The P.R. folks at Google insist that it is only a computer program looking at emails and no actual person views them, but people still see it as an invasion of privacy. Also the question is posed: Is Google saving the information any where- say in a compiled profile attached to you or your computer? If so, who can access it. If so this would give rise to a whole generation of legal battles. There are already cases in court of legal entities trying to subpoena cell phone records to determine whereabouts. With the potential Google has for information that picture could be much more detailed.

"Google knows more about you then your mother" said Kevin Bankston, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation a recent interview. This idea has privacy advocates and watchdog groups sounding the alarms and the issue is sure to be a "hot button" topic in the months and years to come as the use and power of these intelligent programs increases.

The potential for profiling people is huge. Picasa Web is a program that allows you to store all your photos on line. Not long ago, the company was bought by Google. With facial recognition software it's possible that Google will even know who all your friends are.

Is Googles master design going to far? Not long ago many of these ideas would have been unbelievable but with today's technology what is possible may make you want to question how you use that little electronic box in front of you.

Momento - A creative new idea that still grabs you

I recently decided to re-watch the movie "Memento" starring Guy Pierce. I had always loved the movie but couldn't figure out why I am always drawn back to it. Generally speaking I have spent hours pondering what it is that makes us like or dislike movies.  

What it all really boils down to is the design of the movie - that is, the way it's put together. In my pondering I have isolated a few key elements that seem to spell success and I came up  with a few guidelines.

1 - Content - To start with, any movie that is creative enough that I cannot predict it's path is off to a good start. I hate it when a movie is obvious and you know the ending a hour before you see it. It makes the movie extremely anti climactic which makes the lead up to the end boring. This leads to characteristic #2

2 - A good creative ending. I think many if not most movies can grab your attention most of the way through and keep you rolling along for awhile but it takes real talent to write a good, original ending that is not to "over the top" and works.

3 - Does it stick with you? I think this idea is often overlooked and people don't realize the importance. I have found that an original well done movie sticks with you and you find yourself thinking about it the next day and possibly the day after. The better the movie, the more you find your mind drifting back to it. If you are so intrigued that you watch it again then it has good "replay value" and that is hard to find in the video store.

Momento satisfies all these categories and more. The director Guy Ritchie came up with the pioneering new concept of filming the movie starting with the final scene and presetting the viewer with each scene in descending order leading back to the begging. The movie is a mystery and it's clear early on that there as been a murder and the lead character's wife has been killed and he is left with a brain injury that keeps him from storing any new memories. The filming style causes you to relate to the main character's confusion. You never now who to trust as the main character or hero heads bluntly through time trying to use his instincts and a series of permanent tattoos that list the clues he's found so far. To avoid spoiling the end I recommend picking up a copy. Or is it the beginning ?

The Basement Gallery in the Art building – what you've been missing.....

Ever heard of the basement Gallery on the Art Building? Until a few days ago, neither had I.

Now, many people in the UCD community have loved and enjoyed the Nelson Gallery for years. I myself have been there many times making my way downstairs to see everything from a collection of hand turned wooden bowls to the recent(and favorite so far) Merch Art exhibit. But that's not what this entry is about. I am talking about a room that is located at the far end of the basement hallway in what looks like a forgotten corner next to a boring supply clos

et. The room is simply called “The Basement Gallery”.

The Basement Gallery is however anything but boring. It s a simple format featuring budding artists from the UCD art program. Often their work is hanging crudely with simple paint smudged push pins or binder clips. Some sculptural work is suspended from the the rough exposed rafters with crude bailing wire. Labels for the pieces are often hand written and sometimes in pencil.

The art itself is an exciting mish-mash of works from every medium and any genre. Whatever students are working on. I particularly loved the works of a student named Liam O'Donnell who had both black and white photos of athletes and paintings made with prismacolor pastels, the two types of work having no apparent connection except perhaps to the artist himself. Two feet away from these were 2 large iron girder-like sculptures that seemed to be swimming up stream of all the other displays.

There is no attendant on duty. It's truly a “do it your self and view it yourself” kind of exhibit. One of my favorite things about the exhibit was the visitor's lor which was simply a cheap sketchbook picked up

most likely from the art supply section of the bookstore and tossed onto a small worn table with peeling paint near the entrance. Perhaps because it is a sketchbook with blank pages and no lines, visitors have taken it upon themselves add their own “art” to the exhibit, or at least to the log book. As you thumb through the pages you see a lot of quick cheap comments like “nice work” or “thanks”. Not exactly earth shaking stuff but the illustrations people have added are curious and thought provoking. One picture shows a severed hand with long talons and the words “Haitian Divorce” written on the palm. It's possibly a reference to the Steely Dan song of the same name?

The overall impression you get is that the museum is in a constant state of flux and it's wonderful. You feel that pieces are constantly coming and going as students bring them in fresh from their class reviews or pack them off to their portfolios. The exhibit is a fantastic peek into the life of the art student and perhaps even more the “mind” of the art student.

Photo at top left: Untitled - by Liam O'Donnell , conte and prismacolor pastels

photo at lower right: a page from the visitor's log

The Basement Gallery is located in where else? -the basement of the Art Building at UC Davis and is open all year whenever the building itself is open.

Tapestry of Heritage-African American Quilts at the Nelson Gallery

African American Quilts at the Nelson Gallery

The Sandra McPherson Collection and the Avis C Robinson Collection

During the days of slavery African American

women not only worked the fields and cleaned the plantation houses but were the last line of defense against the bone chilling cold that crept into the cabins and field houses where their families lived. They sewed by hand not only the clothing the me

n, women and children wore in the day but also the bedding that kept them warm at night. As good material was hard to come by, they collected scraps of whatever they could get; recycling worn out thread-bare clothing, beddi

ng and even flour sacks. They would

carefully take apart the material and collect it until they had enough to make the heavy quilts that kept them warm at night. Out of these hard beginnings came the tradition of African American quilting.

This week at the Nelson gallery in the basement of the Art Building you can see a fantastic collection of these quilts from the slave era until now. When you walk into the exhibit you see an As you weave through admiring amazing array of colors and intricate repeated patterns. you might be tempted to quickly walk past a more simple quilt hanging in the middle of the room. However a second glance at the nearby information placard reveals it to be made by slaves almost two hundred years ago. Suddenly you can't take your eyes off it and it all the other quilts disappear. You can feel the heavy air of history hanging around it as you get an overwhelming urge to touch it in hopes of feeling a connection to that long ago time. You hold your breath and try to imagine the quilt lying across a bed in a field cabin....

Over time the tradition of quilting evolved spawning colorful repeating patterns and designs. Many examples of these can be found at the exhibit this week at the Nelson gallery.

upper right: various quilts at the exhibit

- photo by Dave Tipton

lower right: Quilt by Rosa Ella Kincaid made around the turn of the century -photo by Dave Tipton

Vinyl Records - A Lost Canvas

I remember when I was a kid laying on the floor of my mom's little apartment in Concord with half her record collection strewn over her 1970's avocado toned shag carpet. She had an old combination unit stereo that had a record player on top, a radio for FM and AM and a eight track tape player- state of the art for the time. My mom was a returning student, having dropped out of high school to give birth to me. Now she was going back to get her high school equivalency certificate and eventually she would go on to get first her Bachelor's Degree from Mills College and then her Master's Degree from UC Berkeley. I would spend hours looking at the covers of the albums while the sounds of Led Zeppelin's grinding guitar or Simon and Garfunkle's smooth harmonizing drifted out over the green landscape.

The Album covers were amazing to me. The pictures and the art work were magical and transported me to whatever mystical land was depicted. It's a ritual that is dying out in the age of digital music. The act of actually holding the large cardboard sleeve in your hand and running your fingers obver the images or feeling the innovative textures that were often incorporated into the sleeve so you could “feel” it as well as “see” it.

On a recent visit to the Nelson Gallery in the art building there was a great selection of these albums as apart of the Merch Art exhibit(See Merch Art Blog previous). Lots of musicians were hiring real artists to design there album covers such as “Sticky Fingers” by the Rolling Stones. The album cover was designed by the excentric Andy Warhol and featured a picture of a pair of jean with a real working zipper that could atually zip down to revel the “naked” album underneath. This haptic/optic approach makes the viewer want to do more than view.  I remember my dad had this album and used to scold me and say I was going to break the zipper.  Plus I think it made him uncomfortable that his child was playing with the zipper on this pair of a stranger's pants.   Big Brother and the Holding Company lead by Janis Joplin came out with an album called Cheap Thrills in which they hired. Local Winters underground Comic book artist Robert Crumb to pen a comic across the cover. An album by the Talking Heads featured a see-thru yellow plastics jacket. The designs and art chosen use several Gestalt principles to draw the eye to images ides.  Isolation of a single subject from the haze and business of the rest of the photo causes you to wonder about the small character in the middle of one Blue Oyster Cult Album.  All these techniques were completey original in their time and they paved the way for artists and musicians to work together to bring us the music in extra dimension. If you haven't been by the Nelson Gallery to check it out make plans to do so because looking at the tiny thumbnail attached to your mp3 file is not the same!

Artists For Sale?

When you think of an artist's work what would you imagine? A painting hanging in a museum? A sculpture next to a pond? That makes sense, but how about a Wayne Thibaud wristwatch, or an Andy Warhol handbag? Those are probably not the first things that come to mind.

Right now over at the project room in the Nelson Gallery is a fantastic exhibit where you can find all these things and more. The exhibit is simply entitled “Merch Art” but packs a vibrant technicolored punch.

Why would famous artists so blatantly delve into the commercial world? There are a few possible reasons; on the advice of their agents, for extra publicity, contract obligations or perhaps one of the oldest reasons in the world – to pay the rent. - good old “quick cash”.

Whatever the reason, the Merch Art exhibit has a fabulous display of a variety of artists lending themselves to the commercial design art world. It's the perfect answer to the question “Design or Art?” these products are both. Hands down my favorite in the building, the exhibit features everything from Record album art by the likes of comic artist R. Crumb and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe to plush toys by Jeff Koons. There are running descriptions of why the artists did what they did, how they were inspired and how the products were used and enjoyed.

There were a couple of brightly colored golf balls with quotes about life on them. At first glance you couldn't they didn't seem very interesting but the accompanying literature told a different story: a collection of artists in New York joined forces with each designing a different hole for a miniature golf course. The course itself was actually playable and the museum housing it charged $5 per game. The exhibit was so successful that the museum reportedly made $85,000 in three days. This just goes to show that stepping outside conventional design and marrying together less conventional mediums can yield fantastic results.

Photo 1 - "Bunny Rabbit" (2004) Cookie Jar by Momoyo Torimitsu, photo by Dave Tipton

The Merch Art exhibit runs from September 24 – December 13, 2009 In the “Project room” of the Nelson Gallery in the basement of the Art building at UC Davis. Items on display are from the collection of Lawrence Banka and Judith Gordon of San Francisco

The Coffee House Comes Full Circle

At some point after coming back to school for the first time in years, I decided the experience wasn't complete without a visit to the UCD Coffee House. Now to be honest, although it's been a long time since I had taken classes I have been on the campus off and on teaching at the Craft Center, guiding trips for Outdoor Adventures and a variety of other activities. I mean, let's face it, if you live in a college town it's pretty hard to avoid “The College”. So after about a week of classes I was feeling the need for caffeine and I thought with great excitement “hey – I can go to the Coffee House”.

Now when I first got here as a student years ago the Coffee House was sort of a shack on the east side of the Memorial Union which like most of the rest of campus had not been updated or remodeled in years. They were always battling cockroaches and barely staying ahead of the health departments's axe. It had old beat up wooden paneling, worn out tables and chairs, thread bare thirty year old couches and an old upright piano sitting off to one side and never quite in tune. Amateur “Chopins” would randomly come in, sit down and play everything from “Moonlight Sonata” to the ever hated “Chopsticks”. So the place had issues but it w

as all part of the charm and we loved it.

At some point later after I had left school I heard that they day had come when the Coffee House had come head to head with the health department and lost. The campus administration had always had a tenuous relationship with the Coffee House but the students loved it like an old flea bitten dog and if it were to be closed down the resulting protest would likely make the six o'clock news destroy every last bit of lawn in the quad area. Two thing motivate college students: the first is the promise of free beer and the second is any sort of interruption in their supply of caffeine.

So the administration opened their purse to help out the Coffee House for the first time since Amelia Earhart went missing. Once the resulting moth cloud dissipated they got to work and started a remodeling and upgrade process that stretched over twenty years, cost millions of dollars and saw the Coffee House move to several locations.

The first big renovation lasted on and off over the next 5 years and when finished unveiled a bigger brighter, all new state of the art Coffee House on the west side of the Memorial Union. Upon returning for Picnic day visits aging alums grumbled and groaned that it looked like a shopping mall and had been completely stripped of it's “homey” charm – not to mention the cockroaches. New students, however loved the new building having known nothing else. Eventually, however there turned out to be construction issues due to cost cutting misjudgements that seemed to plague many of the new projects in the late nineties. So soon talk began about remodeling and moving the Coffee house once again to make it “stronger, faster and sleeker” then ever before. The more recent students picked up the “grumble” baton from the alums and ran with it, taking their place in a long line constant construction critics.

Fast forward to now, and the Coffee House has been through several moves. When I returned recently to get my all new 2009 cup of adrenaline I was amazed to find the Coffee House where?......right back where it was 20 years ago. Not only that, but it had been divided into a half dozen small shops categorized by the different products they sell so that if you wanted a cup of coffee, a piece of fruit and a sandwich you would literally have to go through three different small shops each with their own cash register. With horror I sat contemplating how this could possibly be an improvement when I noticed a display in the hallway that ran between all the shops and explained everything. I sighed in relief as I realized this location was temporary. The newer more bionic coffee shop would be unveiled back on the west side of the MU in 2010. Further, the display was actually quite delightful and had a great collection of articles and photos chronicling the trials, tribulations and travels of the Coffee House from it's humble roach hotel beginnings to the soon-to-be-unveiled “Taj Mahal” that is apparently underway only a hundred feet away.

upper left photo - the recent, compartmentalized coffee house

lower right photo - display of pictures of the coffee house over the years

The UCD Coffee house is open Monday through Saturday 7 am to 6 pm – if you come by bring small bills and some patience

Campus Parking - The Step Child of UCD

Tried to get a parking spot on campus lately?  Try again!

Campus parking has always been a  source of friction at UCD - Anyone who has ever had to park here knows that it's hard to find, expensive and if you mess up - really expensive!

I thought I would take a look at the different aspects of parking from a design perspective and see what I could come up with.  

Historically as the campus has grown "real estate", or the  space available for buildings and classrooms has become a hot commodity.  Often, parking lots have been sacrificed to make way for new residence and instructional halls.  With enrollment continuing to increase almost every year since Davis started this had exacerbated the difficulty of providing enough spaces for all the cars that need to be on campus.  Wait a minute...do all these cars really need to be on campus?  Probably not.  

One of the most overlooked potential solutions to the parking problem is simply sliming down the number of cars that are on campus at any given time.  But how do we do that/  Well, here's one solution.  

For an answer we can look to UC Irvine - At UC Irvine  Freshmen or sophomores are not allowed to have cars.   When compared to other schools their parking problems are much less.  The system is less impacted.  

So what other problems are there ?  How about bad publicity?  The parking program has a bad reputation.  Not what you would think of as a normal problem but it's true.  If you look at it from a standpoint of negativity.  People commonly refer  and the parking attendants as Parking Nazis.

Rather than blame them, a solution might be to change the scope of their job.  For one thing, they are required to fill a quota for tickets.  This is to generate funds and the campus has actually come to rely on the funds.  The thing is, their job should be to enforce the rules with the overall goal being everyone following the rules and things running smoothly.  If officers have imposed quotas then it puts them in the position where they want people to violate the rules and this stands in direct opposition to the goal of having everything run well.

So the solution to this - remove the quotas and start a more positive based training for the enforcement officers.  Sounds a little mushy why not try it.  If it doesn't work, try something else.

A Man in Touch with Nature– British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy

"Roof" (2005) by Andy Goldsworthy; photo by Lee Ewing, courtesy of National Gallery of Art

Perhaps one of the most unique Sculptors of our time is Andy Goldsworthy.  Most people in our country have seen one or more of his sculptures,  or at least in the thinking of comics commentator Scott McCloud, a digitally reproduced image of a photograph of one of his sculptures.  

Goldsworthy is one of the purest e

xamples of an artist who draws his ideas from the world around him rather from within.  His eyes are always open and looking for new subjects with which to apply his hands to.  His method is a multi part process beginning with long walks in nature and observation of the natural world. He considers whatever he finds to be potential canvas, media, backdrop or even a tool with which to construct his natural sculptures. 

A freshly blanketed field of snow might become the setting for a mammoth pattern of snakelike trenches which when viewed from a distance take on a mesmerizing pattern.  Scattered willow branches might become an interwoven basket-like creation that suggests a nest for some mythical dinosaur-sized 

      bird.  A long black thorn might become a piercing or scratching tool for making patterns on  palm leaves.

He sees shapes, colors and potential in the smallest of items collecting them and rearranging them so that they form beautiful patterns which stand in 

contrast the natural patterns around them.   The effect is that the sculptures seem to have magically created themselves. 

Goldsworthy can spend hours and even days on a sculpture and if he feels it isn't quite right he will take it apart and re-do everything.

Most of his sculptures(but not all) are temporary, often created in places where

 the where the surrounding elements themselves will soon reclaim them.  They are recorded and brought to the world in photographs.  Goldsworthy himself is often the photographer, waiting hours for just the right time of day to get the best light with which to bathe his creations.

A documentary of Andy Goldsworthy's works entitled “Rivers and Tides”(2003) is vailable at video stores and on Netflix(also available on Netflix for instant viewing)

* Photo - "Pebble Circle" by Andy Goldsworthy 

Rusty and Creaking - The re-admittance Process at UC Davis

Recently I had the "pleasure" of going through the re-admittance process at UCD.  Why "pleasure" with quotes? Because it was anything but a pleasure.  In fact it was downright painfully and possibly treacherous to your health.  

It all started when I realized Davis had opened up the Interior Architecture program through the Department of Design.   I had just been getting ready to leave Davis for good when this new program caught my eye.  After trying a couple of classes during summer I decided I might checking into how difficult it would be to re -enroll.  After meeting with advisers it seemed like a possibility.  So last June I filled out an application and mailed it to the registrar's office along with a check for $70.   

Well, summer went by and Fall was beginning and I still hadn't heard anything.  I had called the registrar's office early on and each time they said they would email me as soon as they processed my paperwork.  With classes starting in a couple weeks I thought it might be convenient to know so that I could plan accordingly.  This time I was forwarded to the person who was processing the applications for re-admittance students.  She didn't answer and I got her voice mail so I left a message.  Later I called and left two more.  To these I also got no response.  I thought they had either lost my application or decided to turn me down but I figured either way someone should talk to me because  I had paid them $70 and they owed me that much.  

So I went to the registrar's office and waited in line for a 45 minutes before finally reaching the front and telling them the story.  This time I got results  one of the desk attendants ran in back and a minute later came back out.  She informed me that I had been approved but they were not processing any of the re-admittance students' paperwork until a few days later, nor were they letting any of them know whether they were accepted or not.  

The Problem - classes had started a week before.  The person at the desk  advised me to keep going to classes that I wanted to get into and as soon as they processed me I could go online and enroll.  That sounded good except that the classes were already full and had been for a long time as previously enrolled students had filed them up.  I met two other people who had applied for re-admittence and they, like myself had been attending classes not knowing whether they were wasting their time or not.  I wished them luck.  

Eventually,  after calling a few more times I found out I had been processed and was in the system.  No letters or emails ever came.  To this day I have received nothing "official".  No "Welcome back Dave"  no congratulations, nothing.  Just a bill for $3500 on my campus accounting page with lots of descriptions of the horrors that await me should I not pay in time(that path I am well aware of)

I fought for awhile and go tint the two classes I needed.  Because I work 30 - 40 hours a week I can only go part time so two classes was enough.  

As a system the design of UCD re-admittance program is a failing.  But it's just one small part of a larger design that also seems to be rusty and falling apart.  After getting in I encountered difficulties and friction with all the other step - financial aid, application for part time status, declaration of California residency, etc..  The people working in these areas all seemed to be tired, disgruntled and generally unsympathetic to any complaints I had.  If I mentioned that fact that I paid a lot of money and was it too much to ask for a little assistance the answer usually was something like - "That's just the way it is" or "budget cuts" followed by a grown or "we do that to everyone".  One woman in the Student accounting department boldly told me that they figured if I wanted to get back in bad enough I would do what they asked.  

I have to say it was a rough an depressing re entry into school.   I spent hours over the first two weeks standing in line, arguing and writing on hold.  Meanwhile I had to work and homework was already piling up.

Solutions?  Well, the most common problem I kept hearing was "budget cuts" so I guess more money would be a solution if they could find some.  But wait, don't they raise registration  fees and charge us a lot of money?  So maybe they problem lies in how they are spending it.  I see a lot of remodeling of buildings going on that wasn't happening the first time I was a student.  

I'm sure it's more complicated then that but what I fear is that behind the scenes they are arguing much like they way our government is arguing over health care.  

The effect of all this-  I know I almost gave up but somehow I am still here.  I wonder what happened to the other re-admit students I met.  Why did I keep going?

The Answer - there has however been a ray of light.  After all these the educators are still the same,  not the same people, necessarily but they same great attitude.  Their classes are overbooked, and people are sitting in the aisles.  Many of them could be making more money in out in their fields but they are still here.  They are still kind and they still care and they made me feel like it was somehow a good idea to keep fighting my way back in.

*Photo- "Bureaucracy" courtesy of Mommylife.net