Archive for the ‘urbanism’ Category

May 30, 2011

Michael Pinto on How Architects Can Save the World

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet In March, I had the pleasure of seeing architect Michael Pinto speak at the Taliesin West Spring Lecture series. Michael’s office, Osborn Architects, is based in Los Angeles, a city that faces a lot of the same problems as Phoenix, except magnified and sometimes it’s a little bit further ahead in addressing those problems. The reason I decided to interview Michael was that I could tell that he takes a much broader approach to architecture than just designing beautiful buildings. He actually thinks that architects can change the world for the better. And so I was hooked. Michael proved…

May 25, 2011

The Words and Forms of Paolo Soleri

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Last week I attended a special event organized by the AIA-Arizona an hour north of Phoenix at Arcosanti. I rode up with friends and sustainability wonks Jonce Walker, Joe Zazzera and Jeremy Stapleton in Joe’s Prius. The event included a tour of Arcosanti and a subsequent talk by Paolo Soleri. Mr.Soleri introduced The Lean Linear City concept to us and then proceeded to answer the questions of the various design professionals in the audience. Below is a photo essay of my unforgettable experience at Arcosanti mixed in with Mr. Soleri’s always remarkable thoughts. It’s a shortsighted proposition that we…

May 23, 2011

Reevaluating Valley Metro’s West Valley Light Rail Plans

by: Will Novak

Tweet Today’s post is by Will Novak, a regular commentor on Blooming Rock full of good ideas and a deep knowledge of our city. Even though Will has moved away, it seems his heart is still in Phoenix. We hope to lure him back here some day as his vision for Phoenix is a great one. Will Novak is an urbanist & Stand-up Comedian from Central Phoenix. He moved to Boston to chase his comedy dreams (and a girl). You can follow him on Twitter at @RealWillNovak, or watch video of him telling jokes at WillNovak.com. With the success of…

May 18, 2011

Peter MacDonagh on the Importance of Green Infrastructure and Old Trees

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet The Marq2 was a 48-block long redevelopment project in downtown Minneapolis. This project utilizes the Silva Cell, to contain large amounts of bioretention underneath the paving. Photo courtesy of The Kestrel Design Group. Do you know what green infrastructure is? It’s the stuff inbetween gray infrastructure (streets, piping, roofs, bridges, drains) and blue infrastructure (the lakes, rivers and other natural bodies of water). Green infrastructure helps filter, clean and minimize the amount of gray infrastructure run-off that goes into our lakes, rivers and natural bodies of water. I learned all this from the brilliant landscape architect Peter MacDonagh, partner…

May 08, 2011

Photos from Jane’s Walk Phoenix – Call 16

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet This morning’s Jane’s Walk on Calle 16 (on 16th Street between McDowell and Thomas) was phenomenal. We learned so much about the mural project from artist and co-founder of Calle 16 Hugo Medina. He showed us how the mural project is helping the people of this neighborhood take pride in where they live, how it’s helping to get locals involved in doing something larger then themselves, how it’s helping mentor young artists into established socially-minded artists and how it’s really the beginning of a movement to show off the talent and creativity that we have here in Arizona. Also…

May 04, 2011

Jane’s Walk – Calle 16

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Gennaro’s mural on Calle 16, photo from Arte + Gennaro A few months ago Yuri Artibise, urbanist and Arizona state coordinator of Jane’s Walk, a series of free neighborhood walking tours, asked me if I would help organize a Jane’s Walk on Calle 16. Of course I was delighted and said yes because Calle 16 is MY neighborhood. But I was also a little sad because part of the reason Yuri asked for my help was because he was moving from Phoenix to Vancouver. Yuri and his wife Linda left last weekend and have reached their destination safely. We…

May 03, 2011

Bryan White of Green House Farm, an Architect of Buildings and of Dirt

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Bryan White, sitting in his back yard urban farm with his chicken Polka Dottie Bryan White is an architect gone wild. He and his wife Miro are the owners of an urban farm in the back yard of their home on Osborn and 24th St., in the heart of the city, called Green House Farm. I visited Bryan a while back to interview him and I have to tell you, it was the most pleasant interview I’ve done as of yet. We sat in his back yard, a mini farm, enjoyed the gentle breeze of the spring afternoon, watched…

May 02, 2011

PHXexposed

by: Keith Mulvin

Tweet Today’s post is by Keith Mulvin. I love it when Keith’s kind, smiling face greets me at the Phoenix Public Market and when I run into him at various local events, coffee shops and other hangouts. Keith G. Mulvin was born and raised in Tempe, Arizona and now lives in Phoenix, Arizona. He has a Bachelor of Science in Urban Planning from the School of Design at Arizona State University. He currently works at the Phoenix Public Market. Keith is dedicated to Phoenix and is being the change he wants to see, with a coffee cup in his hand….

April 27, 2011

The Costs of Owning a Car

by: Taz Loomans

April 26, 2011

How we can fit all the growth of the next decade on less than 1% of our land and save 400 million gallons of gas doing it.

by: Kevin Kellogg

Tweet Today’s post is by architect/urban planner/thought leader Kevin Kellogg, who, I feel lucky to say, is a regular contributor on the Blooming Rock blog. While the history of Phoenix points to low density, suburban sprawl as the continued norm, it is possible to grow both economically and accommodate more population in a sustainable way by focusing the future growth onto vacant land around light rail stations. Much as the 1985 highway plan has enabled sprawling subdivisions around freeway off-ramps, the light rail line presents a transformative investment that could shape new types of urban places for the Valley: a…