Posts Tagged ‘kevin kellogg’

April 08, 2013

Community Action, not Top-Down Overhaul, Will Lead to Walkability in Phoenix

by: Jennifer Gunther

Tweet Today’s post is by contributing writer Jennifer Gunther reporting on Day 2 of Phoenix Urban Design Week’s Urban Tactics Symposium: The AIA Arizona office downtown hosted day two of Phoenix Urban Design Week’s Urban Tactics Symposium, which featured keynote speaker, planner and walkability expert Jeff Speck and a panel of planners, researchers and designers who presented key strategies that can help Phoenix become less autocentric and more of a socially oriented urban space. The author of “Walkable City” gave an overview of the first section of his book, laying down the case for walkability’s powerful impact on the overall quality…

October 15, 2012

Propinquity Deprivation Disorder – A Real Downer in Phoenix

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Since I’ve been boasting a great deal about how much I love Portland, some people have rolled their eyes and glibly said it’s not that great, especially in the winter months. It’s rainy and cloudy and people are prone to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) there. According to the National Library of Medicine, “Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a kind of depression that occurs at a certain time of the year, usually in the winter.” I have no doubt this is true. I lived in Pittsburgh for a year and it was cloudy there on most days for all the long and…

February 21, 2012

Daniel Arreola on Latino Urbanism

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet The Latino Urban Form lecture is this tomorrow!! We have an amazing panel who will talk about a relatively new and increasingly relevant concept called Latino Urbanism. To give you an idea of what Latino Urbanism is about, I asked each of our three speakers to give us their thoughts on it in a short interview. You can find my interviews with Kevin Kellogg or James Rojas here and here, respectively. Today I’m featuring the final interview with Daniel Arreola, a professor at ASU who teaches about Mexican Ancestry Populations in Phoenix. The lecture will take place on Wednesday…

February 15, 2012

Kevin Kellogg on Latino Urbanism

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Next week, the Sustainable Communities Lecture Series, brought to you by Women Design Arizona and Blooming Rock, will present a lecture on Latino Urban Form featuring three great thinkers on the subject. James Rojas, a transportation planner at the City of Los Angeles, is the founder and foremost authority on Latino Urbanism in the country. Kevin Kellogg, who has been featured and has written for this blog several times, is an architect and urban planner who has hands-on experience with Latino urban planning and design. And Daniel Arreola is a professor at ASU who teaches about Mexican Ancestry Populations…

March 30, 2011

Car-Free Stories: A Seatless Bicycle and the Stigma of Cycling for Women

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet On Wednesdays, I usually post an update on the Castaway House. But our team is still in the middle of choosing a contractor to work with, so I’ll give you an update next time. Today, I’d like to share a car-free story with you. Yesterday at around 2:00pm, I said goodbye to my friends Kathleen and Doreen and walked over to my bike that was tied to the sign post at La Condesa. I put my computer and gunny sack into my big silver basket and proceeded to unlock my bike, like I usually do. But then it struck…

March 01, 2011

Marking the 1-Year Anniversary of Places, Spaces and Faces Community Dinner

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet I can’t believe it’s been one full year since Places, Spaces and Faces Community Dinner was started! We started off small, but with fantastic participation at a quality venue, setting the standard for future events. Kathleen Bartolomei, one of the original founders, had a brilliant suggestion at the first dinner which has helped sustain the dinners every month since. She installed the tradition of voting for the best cook in the different categories (sweet, savory and later drinks) and the winners would help organize the next dinner. “Built-in sustainability” she called it and boy she was right! As the…

January 02, 2011

New Year’s Resolutions for a Better Community

by: Jim McPherson

Tweet Today’s post is by Jim McPherson, a follow up to his guest post last week. He helps us kick off the new year with some resolutions on how to improve Phoenix and concrete steps on how to get started. Thanks Jim!… Happy New Year! Here in Phoenix, the sun is out, the sky is clear, and there’s a slight chill in the air. Not bad, not bad at all. It’s also that time of the year to resolve to improve upon the previous year. It’s time to look forward and to move forward. Last week in my post, “Yes…

November 01, 2010

Cultivating Direct Experiences and Propinquity in Phoenix

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet According to Carol Venolia in her article Real Time in Natural Home Magazine, modern day society is moving away from direct experiences, such as actually spending time with our friends, and moving more towards indirect experiences such as chatting online instead. This distancing from real experiences, the author argues, creates a less satisfying and perhaps somewhat of a distorted life. The idea of direct versus indirect experiences is very much tied into the concept of propinquity which was first introduced to me by Kevin Kellogg. Propinquity, if you’re unfamiliar with the word, “refers to the physical or psychological proximity…

October 13, 2010

Working at a Coffee Shop, a Microcosm of the Urban Experience

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet When I tell people I work at a coffee shop, many give me a quizzical look. They shake their heads and say, “I could never work at a coffee shop”. When I get specific and tell them I work at Lux Coffeebar, a coffee shop that is known for its music blaring within its bustling, crowded, dark cavern of a space, their minds are boggled. (As you’ve probably guessed, I’m at Lux as I write this post). I was speaking to a woman once and she was complaining about how when she goes to coffee shops, all she sees…

September 30, 2010

Anonymity, Memory, The Body and The City

by: Kevin Kellogg

Tweet Today is a very special Thursday installment of the Blooming Rock blog. Kevin Kellogg is the guest author of today’s post. Kevin, AIA, NCARB, LEED ap is Urban Laureate at the ASU Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family. He is an urban designer, architect and planner and principal of Kellog + Associates based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Kevin has over 25 years of experience in the planning, design and development of affordable housing and community planning. He is currently serving as the Urban Laureate, a research fellowship devoted to sustainable urbanism and community engagement. ‘Memory…