Chris Hardy | IDEAS

Texting prunes our language, while Twitter compartmentalizes our thoughts. The working dialectic is a leafless tree – pollarded, with inadequate adjectives, resulting in smooth grey bark. Modern language does us a disservice, when you tell me of your workplace woes – the meaning spans a library of potential, from gently anxious to freaking out. … Read more »

Texting prunes our language, while

Twitter compartmentalizes our thoughts.

The working dialectic is a leafless tree –

pollarded, with inadequate adjectives,

resulting in smooth grey bark.

Modern language does us a disservice,

when you tell me of your workplace woes –

the meaning spans a library of potential,

from gently anxious to freaking out.

The beauty of our mongrel tongue

is usually found in perspicuous specificity.

from talweg to tor, the susurrus of gab

should give us the perfect word –

or at least a pleasurable dictionary fumble.

Stress is barren, with anxiety, tension,

and a small set of engineering terms,

practically lifted from a command prompt.

In our lives of sweaty plastic keys

and accelerating expectations,

we need a new lexicon of stress.

Some ideas:

Smoos – lightly frazzled, but everything is under control,

is cute and fuzzy, but slightly uncomfortable,

like an Ikea office chair.

Garbleforp – can’t keep up, keep getting buried,

is a velarized stumble, dropping a stack of files

and needing a cry.

Damfrigizt – freaking out with anger and fear overtones,

a tautology more than a minced oath,

best said under the breath and repeatedly, as a koan.

Umberwold slows us down, it’s too much to even try.

Let’s just pretend the power went out and turn off the server.

And lie on the floor in the cold room, rebooting.

A few starters to share, pass the meme.

we are name-givers after all,

and with a lexis of stress,

a precise understanding,

we will be able to rise above it

to have nuanced strategy and tactics.

The Inuit didn’t idly coin their snowy terminology,

they make their words work for a living.

In English our history of violence is tediously long,

with an associated richly evocative

and distressingly poetic word-hoard.

But the balance to the cruelty is a dictionary

of amends and amity.

It is hard to see a dagger in the emails.

The slow building of adrenaline from cubical-drama

doesn’t share the same threat as an axe-handed invader.

But both we can better understand

when we give it a name, and pause,

considering our enemy.

Chris Hardy is a designer in the San Francisco studio.

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Posted by Chris Hardy
in Uncategorized
on 14 November, 2016

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Landscape Architecture as an aesthetic discipline may at times seem irrelevant in the face of such pressing problems as global warming, social inequity, resource depletion, and habitat loss. But there is a fundamental aspect of what we do that tackles these issues, with landscape architects a part of interdisciplinary teams. This movement, if you will,… Read more »

This movement, if you will, can encompass the specification of recycled content and the parametric modeling of coastal revetments. We participate whenever we push our projects, clients, and communities to consider data as part of the design, when we reach out to large groups through social media to contribute to democratic design processes, and when we collaborate with horizontally structured interdisciplinary teams. In return, we experience a growing sense of empowerment and capacity; we’re part of an idealistic and values-driven practice that at once ignites a designer’s passion and adds a touch of whimsy to our work. We are the Neo-Victorians.

Like Olmsted and Downing, we have the benefit of following a cresting wave of innovation in tangentially related industries. Olmsted first used asphalt, patented in 1870, to reduce noise from carriages in Central Park; Portland Cement was invented in the 1850s; the Bessemer process was patented in 1856. The first reinforced concrete bridge was built in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in 1889. The Victorians were inventing urban parks with new high-tech tools developed during the industrial revolution. Neo-Victorians have the information revolution as our wave. We came into practice after the hard work of adapting computer technology to design occurred; we expect open access to information, and using CAD, 3D modeling, GIS and cloud-based collaborative tools to enable precision, processing, and systems analysis.

The similarities between generations is also aspirational. Olmsted’s generation of urban park designers sought to improve the quality of life for the public. Neo-Victorians come out of school with the desire to change our environment and communities for the better. We are embracing the challenges of an urbanizing world undergoing climate change and the Anthropocene. We are exploring the relationship between design and social justice. Public Architecture’s 1% program, B-Corporations, non-profit design firms, and activist designers all push issues at the front of practice.
Since the 1980s, the growth of concept-based design curriculum has become pervasive. Today, “Draw ‘til it’s beautiful” and problem solving is not sufficient without a strong narrative. In seeking narrative, designers are trained to develop higher levels of awareness around the site, as well as the politics of place and systems. Their interventions are tied, however tenuously, to these networks of ideas and this pedagogy develops the expectation of higher levels of meaning to practice. Concept-based design education has raised a generation of unabashed idealists who see landscape architecture not as a job, but as a lifestyle decision.

When considering how landscape architecture as a discipline will address the world’s future, the answers are already embedded in our collective practice. Neo-Victorians are diverse and pluralistic, unhesitatingly technical and optimistic. This mandates the integration of environmental amenities and infrastructure; community involvement; and an aesthetic whereby digital custom fabrications welcome ornamentation.

Neo-Victorians are everywhere: small research-oriented firms, government, nonprofits, and corporate offices. These different types of practice provide varied channels and support for elevating the discipline. Work such as Kate Orff’s Oyster-Techture or Petrochemical America integrates real data and research methods into design processes, revealing charismatic ideas for intervention and experimentation. Challenging typical funding and business practice, Mass Design Group’s work in Rwanda identified the issue first, and the team applies as much creative process to funding its work as to its physical design. SWA Group’s Landscape Infrastructure practice integrates public space amenities with large-scale infrastructure systems such as the Buffalo Bayou Park and flood control system, in Houston, Texas.

Neo-Victorians have a huge advantage over the Victorians: there are so many more of us, and we come from all over, with every culture and background influencing our inspirations. We practice with the last 150 years of technical advancement, cultural development, and design experimentation at our fingertips. We will develop many strategies to overcome the looming crises of our times. Many will not work, but those that do will inevitably have major implications.

Imagine today’s cities without the benefit of Olmsted and the Victorian designers. Tomorrow’s communities will look back on the Neo-Victorians as igniters of an explosion of ideas who just started to harness the power of the digital age to inform place. As we continue to focus on concept, values, and rigor we can look forward to a future enriched by the romantic belief that we can make a difference, and find nobility in giving our best selves to our work.

Chris Hardy is a landscape architect in the San Francisco studio and the creator of the montage accompanying this post.

One Response to “Who Are the Neo-Victorians?”

Durp

With this good article, a lot of light is shed as to how landscape architecture is the future we need if we have to overcome the current urban problems.
June 28th, 2016 Reply

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Posted by Chris Hardy
in Landscape Infrastructure, Landscape Urbanism, Urbanism & Planning
on 13 May, 2016

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Honestly, part of the reason I volunteered to help the Institute of Outdoor Theatre develop a guide for aspiring outdoor performance organizations was filial duty—my Dad works there, and he needed a landscape architect’s contribution. The other was that we use amphitheaters as a ubiquitous public space typology—with the implied ‘if you build it, they… Read more »

My mentors were a sagacious and hilarious group of outdoor theater veterans who taught me that their art is struggling in a competitive entertainment industry. We have seen how Netflix is crippling movie theaters; consider the patron experience for outdoor performance. I live in San Francisco, a cool, largely bug- and rain-free paradise. By contrast, I went to high school in Louisville, Kentucky, where outdoor performances have two excellent seasons: spring and fall. To entice a family out of their cozy AC-refreshed (hopefully bug-free) family room, outdoor performances have to provide a better experience. We too readily assume that the facilities we design will be well used. We need to take into consideration audience comfort and facility flexibility, and work with facility programmers to make successful venues.

Many facilities are hamstrung by the seasons; rain can further reduce the number of performance nights, challenging the bottom line for many organizations. As a landscape architect, I get distressed by one of the potential conclusions—to build typical theaters. Picnicking under the trees at “Midsummer’s Night Dream” or listening to bluegrass out in a field are rich experiences that are diminished indoors. By providing a simple shed, either to protect the stage or cover part of the audience, the facility can dramatically increase play nights. The Globe took this into account for the good seats during Shakespeare’s era, but so have some excellent contemporary theaters, such as the Miller Outdoor Theatre in Houston or Louisville’s Iroquois Amphitheater.

Many historical dramas are one-show venues. Predictably, over time their attendance drops. Some organizations incorporate other shows to provide variety; other groups, notably Shakespearean troupes, have succeeded through providing a range of shows within a genre. From a landscape architecture perspective, we should push for facilities to be multifunctional, especially for venues set in public spaces. The more specialized a facility is, the more challenging it will be to accommodate alternative uses. Determining the array of activities and types of shows a space can support is just as important as the specific production that starts the design conversation.

One approach is to simply provide enabling space. If an event needs risers, then risers can be brought in. Elaborate constructed amphitheaters target a fairly specific use—and are usually only justifiable if there is an active cultural programmer. The upside to this method is the low front-end investment and a blank slate. The downside is that many of the necessary amenities for performance will require temporary installation—increasing event costs and complexity. An especially innovative example of this approach is the Ark Nova inflatable theater designed by Anish Kapoor and Arata Isozaki.

Outdoor performance productions that provide a unique and valuable experience will be successful, and the venue can be a contributing part of that experience. In some locations, such as the Minack Theatre in Cornwall, England, or the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, the setting alone creates a special experience; the former is built atop a granite outcrop over the Atlantic, and the second uses the Boise River Valley as a backdrop. The venue can also add to the experience through a careful separation from reality: Entering the theater can be compared with entering the story, such as at the Lost Colony in North Carolina, where visitors are led through a series of historic landscape features and a native woodland before reaching the staging area. Sight lines, circulation sequence, and materiality can each contribute to the full experience of the event. Using this approach, we create the place to support the experience, show the story of the landscape, and ultimately contribute to the deepening of local community culture. People have been gathering in open spaces to tell stories for as long as we have had language, and people have also been designing outdoor spaces to support stories for almost as long. We can build on those lessons in our careers to address the challenges and opportunities of today.

For a copy of the guide Outdoor Theatre Facilities, visit http://www.outdoor-theatre.org/publications/.

Photograph of Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre courtesy of David Jensen.

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Posted by Chris Hardy
in Arts and Culture, Community, Ecology, Social Impact
on 8 August, 2014

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Last year the San Francisco Office was excited to offer pro-bono design and documentation services to a halfway-house nonprofit residential treatment center. The plan was to solicit material donations and have a volunteer construction day to build therapy gardens for the facility. We collaborated with the organization’s directors and staff to make a survey, conduct soil… Read more »

Unfortunately, the nonprofit didn’t own the property, something our design team was unaware of. When the landlord was shown our plans, they flatly refused any improvements. They no longer wanted the halfway-house as a tenant and had no interest in the grounds being improved for residents. Thus, a couple hundred volunteer hours abruptly culminated in a complete lack of action.

As the informal project manager for this effort, I felt both disappointed and guilty for wasting my team’s time. I should have thought to ask if the organization we were working for owned the facility. Based on the confidence the program director had about the grounds, it never occurred to me that this would be an issue. A hard lesson learned.

Reflecting on this experience, I remembered a document developed by DesignConnect, a volunteer community design organization at Cornell University. Each semester, cities and towns in Upstate New York apply for student teams to study local issues and produce vision documents. Over a number of projects, DesignConnect has gained institutional experience as to what volunteer opportunities are likely to be most productive for the communities and the student teams, and has developed questions to evaluate them. Ask yourself the following three key questions before committing to a pro-bono service so you can avoid traps like the one we encountered in our experience:

Who are you working for, and what is their interest in and capacity for the project?

The “client,” whether a nonprofit organization, community advocate, city agency, or individual, should be clearly identified before dedicating time to a project. As a design firm, many of our pro-bono efforts focus on making physical interventions in the world, although sometimes we are also educators and advocates. For those projects that require physical interventions, it’s vital to have a client who will take ownership of the project and maintain or operate it after the volunteer effort is over. Some clients will request volunteer services for projects they are not particularly passionate about or dedicated to because the services are free. A simple strategy to filter out opportunistic pro-bono clients is to request a nominal fee. In addition to passion, can your client handle their part of the project? With volunteer efforts, your commitment can sometimes extend into developing the social capital behind a program, whether you’re ready for that role or not.

Who are the decision makers for the project?

This was the key question that I should have investigated for the halfway house. Sometimes your client will say they are the only decision maker. You should push them for more information. Who has to provide approvals for the project? Is it a school district, neighborhood group? Who has jurisdiction over the land in question, and who are the owners? Once you determine the decision makers, then you can better understand the scope of your commitment. Engaging all the decision makers at the beginning of the project is important to avoid being blindsided later in the process.

Who will use the project, and why do they merit volunteer work?

As landscape architects and planners, much of our effort is already in the realm of social impact design. But there are many reasons to volunteer: a particular progressive issue that we typically don’t get to work on, a human need in an unfunded situation, an interesting design challenge. There is also strategic volunteerism, where we do pro-bono work for a client or project we are interested in developing a professional relationship with. It is important to identify why you and your team are committing to this project, and who will benefit from the work.

At SWA, our volunteer work is just as valuable as our paid work, and we want to make the most impact with our dedicated time. There are opportunities in pro-bono work for deeply fulfilling work that benefits society, and I encourage everyone to participate in SWA’s commitment to the 1% program. Asking these questions should help other teams avoid pitfalls and be more effective in their volunteer efforts.

One Response to “Social Impact Design Practice: Key Questions to Ask Before Volunteering”

Jon's products

It’s remarkable to pay a visit this site and reading the views of all
friends concerning this piece of writing, while I am also keen of getting familiarity.
August 5th, 2014 Reply

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Posted by Chris Hardy
in Social Impact
on 5 March, 2014

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Posts By: Chris Hardy

Seeking a New Lexicon of Stress

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Who Are the Neo-Victorians?

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