storm water management victoria bc

Have a look at architects Marceau Evans Johnson's example of stormwater management and aquifer recharge at L'ecole Brodeur in Esquimalt Victoria BC. This project was completed in 2007 and I have been waiting to see how it would handle a serious rainfall. Well we had one last weekend as nearly 10inches of rain fell on Vancouver Island in roughly 24 hrs. See images below to view how this natural drainage system handled this short and intense level of precipitation.

for more on the architects visit meja.ca

downtown victoria bc street car perspective-1907

On Saturday May 4th 1907 William Harbeck produced a cinematograph of downtown Victoria using a street car loaned by the British Columbia Electric Railway Company.

Follow his journey starting at City Hall, down Douglas Street turning right onto Yates finishing at the site of the old post office.
He captures an excellent view of the Empress Hotel site still in construction, the inner harbour and the Legislative buildings.

The second half of the movie starts at the Point Ellice Bridge where he captures a fleet of sealing ships, he then makes his way up up the gorge waterway by boat then returns passing by the industrial site at Laurel Point and finishes up at customs house.

For more info please visit www.hallmarksociety.ca

it started with a pencil

We all know that we could not live without the cutting edge mapping, drafting and modeling technology we use everyday to design and construct our spaces and places. But I think most of us would agree at some point in the design phase the humble pencil and or pen appear from a nearby desktop or container of some sort and play a vital role in the design process of our chosen creative form. So while I was combing the world wide web pursuing my favorite writing instruments I came across this digital museum curated by Dennis B. Smith. See below for images from Vintage Drafting Pencil Advertisements.

ROTRING 600 BROCHURE
ad concept and final piece by Barry Jones circa 1990

>ad type: magazine advertisement: Architectural Record
publication date: 1939 August
market: USA

ad type: magazine advertisement: Architectural Record
publication date: 1940 August
market: USA

ad type: magazine ad
publication date: 1960
market: France

ad type: newspaper advertisement from The Tech, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Student Newspaper
publication date: 1957 September 24
market: USA

ad type: miniature brochure (included in box with TK 9400 leadholder)
publication date: circa 1950s
market: Germany

ad type: leaflet

publication date: circa 1940s
market: USA

all images via curator Brian B Smith@LEADHOLDER

The Sound of Place 2 - Interview with Tommy Guerrero for Rifflandia Music Festival Magazine

Rifflandia 3 is just around the corner so be sure to grab your copy of the festival magazine at habit coffee and pretty much any other spot in downtown Victoria. This years line up looks awesome and the magazine looks even better, so figure it out.

Be sure to get to page 48 for my write up and interview with Tommy Guerrero.

For those of you not privy to get the magazine, please see below for my article...extended version.

Interview with Tommy Guerrero for Rifflandia 3 Festival Magazine by Christian Barnard

Tommy Guerrero spent most of the 1980s turning San Francisco into his own personal skatepark. Rolling with the legendary Bones Brigade, he bombed the city’s steep hills, introducing a surfing-style of skateboarding to the existing urban dance of the day. His style flowed like no other skater around and by 1985 Guerrero had signed a contract with one of America’s first skateboarding companies, Powell Peralta, cementing him in history as the world’s first professional street skateboarder.

Flash forward 25 years and you’ll find Tommy Guerrero is a 44-year-young office dude who spends the majority of his time as the art “misdirector” and a “computer monkey” (his words) at Krooked Skateboards in San Francisco. But don’t think for a moment that the dream is dead. What most people didn’t realize during Guerrero’s busy young life traveling the globe signing autographs and teaching actors like Christian Slater how to make it look real for the movies, is that music was as much a passion for him as was four-wheeled fanaticism.

With album titles like Soul Food Taqueria and From The Soil To The Soul, and tunes like “Terra Unfirma” and “Architec,” Guerrero's cerebral, atmospheric music perfectly captures the soul of San Francisco's urban communities. During rare breaks from work and happy domesticity he crafts sounds reminiscent of the playground of his youth: rap beats pumping out of passing cars, street performers jamming, the clamor of passing multilingual conversations; all of it merging into a cinematic soundtrack of the city itself.
But, Guerrero prefers to let people interpret his music in their own manner. Nonetheless, after a certain amount of me being a pain is his ass, he finally agreed to an interview…

CB: Offer us some insight into your musical background; where and how did it all start?

TG: It came from skating and listening to punk, seeing Sex Pistols on the tube when they played in San Fran. Also when the Ramones played a free show in front of city hall in ‘77 or ‘78... blew my mind. Me, my brother and friends started a punk band called Jerry's Kid’s...(not the later band that people knew of). I was the singer… then I started playing guitar but switched shortly after to bass. Then we formed a new group called Revenge. After that we became Free Beer...that was our last punk band. Last show was in ’84 with Angry Samoans, Suicidal Tendencies and someone else…

I was into metal and wanted to play like Getty Lee!! I Love rush! But it all comes from my father’s side of the family. We didn't grow up with any of ‘em but he and his three brothers were all musicians in San Fran. His parents were as well. My grandfather was a jazz git player and violinist and grandmother was a singer. I have some amazing photos of them from the 40s and 50s, but never knew ‘em. So me and my brother inherited it from them...genetics are hard to escape.

CB: How big of a role has the cultural landscape of San Francisco played in your life and career?

TG: In every way I would imagine. With skating it’s the hills...learning to adapt in such a unique environ nurtured a specific style/way of skating: fast. There's so much rich artistic soil in San Fran that some sort of osmosis trip happened and here I am. I don't consider what I do a "career.” I never wanted to burden myself with that load.

CB: If you were to describe the city of SF in sensory terms what does it smell, feel and taste like to you?

TG: Like a pot of stew with all the leftovers thrown in. Soup for the soul...with a bit of a bite.

CB: Being that you were involved in the music scene alongside your skating career, how has the culture of skateboarding informed your music? How have they informed each other?

TG: For me they are one in the same...an escape from the daily grind and bullshit the world hurls at you. They have taught me to count on myself and DIY everything.

CB: What turns you on creatively?

TG: Can be anything. Sounds and life of the city are a good catalyst, so much energy.
People are a great source of inspiration, from any/every walk of life... [I’m] always humbled by those helping others.

CB: Give us an idea on how your sound is evolving and where you see it heading?

TG: More percussive, sonically more interesting...and more about the journey than the destination.

CB: What are you working on now? Any new projects we should know about?

TG: I have an album coming out in October titled "Lifeboats and Follies." It came out in Japan last year. This is a different version though. I finished a "live" album for my Japanese label; it'll be out in September I think. I will be doing a small tour in September there. I have a small line with Levi’s Japan and a shoe coming out on Vans/Syndicate the 1st of next year...all pretty cool stuff.

CB: What can Victoria expect to see and hear from Tommy Guerrero?

TG: Good question!! If nothing else, honesty.

TG: Many thnx!!!

please visit

www.rifflandia.com

www.tommyguerrero.com

The Sound of Place

The sonic qualities of our environment, that is, the soundscape that is ever-present in our daily lives, helps to reinforce our sense of place. This post considers the potential of composed music's influence on creating the sound of place.

For the sake of this post the term "Music" will refer to anything man made in its sound structure.

For me, music can have a powerful memory trigger, it has the ability to transcend me to a place once visited. Memory is created around certain musical styles and specific tracks. Certain musical forms have distinct relationships to the places in which they were created. For example London UK, and the phenomina of dubstep, drum and bass. In my opinion the English sound in these musical genres is so unique. The artist and tune below awake my memory and senses which trigger the remembrance of paths once travelled. I can smell the city, see the faces, hear the bustle of the street, feel the pace at which the city moves.

The Sound of Place

Burial - Archangel

Precipitation Harvesting in Antiquity

The Cistern

Since the dawn of early cultures people have not only used natural water resources but also improved them by artificial methods. Based on observations of nature they constructed small and large storage vessels for temporary storage and transfer of water.

Cisterns were originally constructed in the region around the Mediterranean since the 3rd millennium B.C. Typically early cisterns were shaped into the natural rock with an inlet being covered by stones or wooden plates. In Roman times the use of stone as structural building material was introduced to cistern design. To avoid seepage and water loss the joints were filled with plaster. Population numbers of entire regions were dictated by the local cistern storage capacity. Modern cisterns range in capacity from a few litres to thousands of cubic metres, effectively forming covered reservoirs.

Umayyad Cistern, Jordan.

Vaulted Roman cisterns

Cistern chambers on the La Fourvière hill in Lyon (France)

Cistern Prachinburi Province, Thailand

Cistern, Iran.

Sketch of Nabataean cistern in Auara, Jordan. Built for private use by individual families. Storage capacity 200 m3.

Chandra Baori step well

This step well is located opposite Harshat Mata Temple and is one of the deepest and largest step wells in India. It was built in the 9th century and has 3500 narrow steps in 13 stories and is 100 feet deep.

Roman cisterns, aqueducts and step wells.

The Basilica Cistern or "Sunken Palace" lies beneath the city of Istanbul.

Photographic Evidence

Edwin Zwakman puts a new spin on the long standing tradition of recording the Dutch landscape. The images below are from his 2004 series titled "Backyards".

Fly-Over III, C-print plexi, reynobond, 220 x 161 cm 2003

Straat II, C-print, plexi, reynobond, 220 x 157 cm 2004

Tuin IX, C-print, plexi, reynobond, 220 x 146 cm 2004

Tuin I, C-print, plexi, reynobond, 220 x 146 cm 2004

Tuin III, C-print, plexi, reynobond, 220 x 146 cm 2004

Tuin V, C-print, plexi, reynobond, 220 x 146 cm 2004

Tuin V, C-print, plexi, reynobond, 220 x 146 cm 2004

Tuin V, C-print, plexi, reynobond, 220 x 146 cm 2004

Tuin VI, C-print, plexi, reynobond, 220 x 146 cm 2004

Tuin VIII, C-print, plexi, reynobond, 220 x 146 cm 2004

Tuin VIII, C-print, plexi, reynobond, 220 x 146 cm 2004

Green Streets Victoria BC

I am currently working on a project with a scope of work that extends beyond the boundaries of the site. The idea is to work with the city of Victoria to include a Green Streets concept to the development's adjoining streets.

What is a Green Street? Well it includes but is not limited to a sustainable stormwater strategy that meets regulatory compliance and resource protection goals by using a natural systems approach to manage stormwater, reduce flows, improve water quality and enhance watershed health.

The project brief looks something like this:

- Traffic calming

- Improving pedestrian and bicycle safety

- Reducing the demand on the city’s sewer collection system and the cost of constructing expensive infrastructure / pipe systems

- Diverting stormwater from the sewer system

- Reduction of impervious surfaces so stormwater can infiltrate to recharge groundwater and surface water

- Increasing urban greenspace

- Enhancing community and neighborhood livability.

Can't tell you much more about the project at this point but I have included similar projects in the Portland and greater Victoria area to get you thinking.

A new way of managing stormwater run off.

NE Siskiyou Green Street, Portland, Oregon. Photo by Kevin Robert Perry.

Checkdams made from packed earth and river rock are used in each curb extension to slow and retain stormwater runoff.

NE Siskiyou Green Street, Portland, Oregon. Photo by Kevin Robert Perry. NE Siskiyou Green Street, Portland, Oregon. Photo by Kevin Robert Perry.

NE Siskiyou Green Street, Portland, Oregon. Photo by Kevin Robert Perry.

NE Siskiyou Green Street, Portland, Oregon. Photo by Kevin Robert Perry.

Trent Street Rain Garden Victoria BC.

A great local project by the forward thinking minds over at Murdoch de Greefe Inc.

(SW 12th Avenue Green Street Project, Portland, Oregon. Photos by Kevin Robert Perry.)

(SW 12th Avenue Green Street Project, Portland, Oregon. Photos by Kevin Robert Perry.)

(SW 12th Avenue Green Street Project, Portland, Oregon. Photos by Kevin Robert Perry.)

(SW 12th Avenue Green Street Project, Portland, Oregon. Photos by Kevin Robert Perry.)

For all things Portland, Landscape and Urbanism based, check out Jason Kings Blog here.

sketch

Lately my studio work has been filled with detailed renderings and construction drawings.

I find a great way to loosen up from hours in front of the computer is to produce a series of quick sketches. Unhindered by the rigidity of CAD, the idea is to let the eye and hand work together seamlessly. The image below was produced in 10 minutes.

Olive tree and Spaniel

Old friend and London based garden designer Jonathan Snow sent me this image he captured while on a plant buying trip for a client.

When you visit a nursery it usually never hurts to take an image of specimen trees they have in stock that you may want to use on future projects.

When appropriate, these select images are great for giving your clients a visual idea of what you are intending to plant.

"Notice the architectural branching structure of this mature Olea europaea".

design development

Although this is still work in progress I thought I would post some design development work completed for one of my new projects. The visuals below are snapshots of my massing model. The green indicates planting strategy zones including a series of tiered green roof planting areas. More to come, click images for a closer look....

overview west

overview east

close up of tiered roofing system