Why not make a bus or a train car a musical stage? A group in Toronto called TRANSIT believes this is just the place to foster their local music scene by creating a music performance series titles The Transit Tapes which seeks to support the up and coming Canadian talent by hooking up musicians with local film, photography and audio crews. This project combines my love for music, fostering local artistic talent and even my obsession with transportation in urban areas.

The videos, made possible by Astral Media Radio, have an interesting feel to them, in the documentary vein, while playing along in busses while moving through the streets of Toronto. I love that the drummer in the video from Gentleman Reg above is drumming on the metal bar on the seat.

Unfortunately, likely due to audio quality and the ability to control the surrounding, the ’stages’ are without audience but I can’t help think how cool it would be if perhaps this project expanded to improvisational transit performances. It would be fun to see how people reacted to a full on band hopping on a train car, playing a full out song and then hopping back off again.

It reminded me of a project called In A Van shot around New York City’s lower eastside in September 2007. They shot one of my favorite bands, The Rosebuds…

In the spirit of my going away on vacation for a bit of relaxation and even a bit of sea kayaking…here’s a lovely video from The Rosebuds about taking their dog out to the lake set to “Nice Fox”, a track off their latest album. Enjoy and I’ll be back next week when the temperatures have returned to normal!

image via superpavel.com

I’m not accustomed to the triple digit temperatures. Everyone and everything is moving slowly, even the Portland MAX lightrail has a speed cap of 35mph in the typically high speed areas due to heat-induced cable sag. My already overactive imagination is running rampant in the heat….

I stared out the window of the train, watching the world pass by at a much slower pace than normal, like life in slow motion, set to the soundtrack on my ipod. I imagined the city catching fire in a somewhat random fashion…a garbage can, a bench, the side of a building…flames shooting up and running through the streets like dominos. No one panics. The streets are on fire, the sky grows black and the urban environment itself becomes a stage.

I hear a beat coming from the distance. I grab my violin sitting on the seat next to me, jump off the train and begin playing through the streets. Sirens blare in the distance and shadows dance on the buildings, produced by people dancing among the flames. I’m joined by others and people in the streets are banging on any available surface to provide percussion.

It’s an urban musical on fire.

Below, listen to the inspirational track from Bell Orchestre that I was listening to in moment through my headphones on the train. I love this live version because it captures a feel of musical chaos amidst dramatic lighting…

I have a horrible habit of not looking up but I suppose this is also something of a curse because of my profession, I’m generally paying more attention to what’s going on around me on the ground plane and perhaps a story or two above. A conversation recently with a relative who is a building inspector brought up the point that far too often buildings take this into account and only put the detail on the ground level. So it’s not just me, it’s society….as a whole, we don’t look up.

images via icopythat

Over the last couple years I’ve been trying to make it a habit to look up more and pay closer attention to what lies above me. I’ve discovered many interesting things. I even went back to my hometown and looked up only to realize that there was this whole world I had been completely unaware of for my entire growing-up life. What else have I missed?

This reminded me of a stunt my favorite public space shaker-uppers, Improv Everywhere, did awhile back in New York City’s Union Square called “Look Up More” designed to express this exact point…check it out….

As it turns out, they are also good for keeping beer cool when it’s hot….

images via Lisa Town

The whole “if you build it, they will come” thing doesn’t always work, especially when it comes to urban plazas. Well, ok, they will come…but maybe not with the most desired behavior. There are a lot of issues to consider when plunking down a large area of hardscape and the most important will always be programming. The space can be as versatile as design will allow but if there’s nothing going on then what’s the point? Bad behavior is likely to be what comes.

A fabulous example of a well-designed, versatile space with continual year-round events is Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square. The space sits right in the heart of downtown, next to the transit mall and bordered on two sides by the MAX light rail tracks. It doesn’t matter the season, there are all sorts of events to compliment them from sand castle building and outdoor movies to winter dances and art festivals. It has been nicknamed “Portland’s Living Room” and with good reason.

Last week I decided to head over to the square for lunch with a colleague who wanted to check out the “Noon Tunes” where a local artist plays once a week during the lunch hour. There was a stage set up in front of the amphitheater steps and in the rest of the plaza, tables and chairs invited downtown workers out for lunch. People were even giving out ice cream sandwhiches which was wonderful because it was SO hot!

Even if I’m not into that particular band, events like these are always good for people watching. Inevitably there are children twirling, people dancing in crazy ways and some guy going around giving the crowd high fives. He got me twice.

And then there was a whole group of kids that were totally cracking me up. They were pulling their shirts down over the knees and hopping and rolling around and laughing hysterically.

And when the high-fivin’ guy wasn’t running through the crowd he was dancing. People watching is awesome….

images via Lisa Town

Toronto’s at it again. I’ve written previously about the city’s guerilla gardening here and here. This time, the target is unused advertising posters that have already been torn up and neglected. The project is called “Poster Pocket Plants” and they even have a blog.

It also looks like they are claiming the previously anonymous project that I posted about just recently. And if you want to reproduce this sort of thing in your city, they have a template and directions on their website.

You know urban gardening is becoming popular when websites start popping up that want to match people up based on their gardening compatibility. But this isn’t a dating site, this is about sharing land between those that have it with those who don’t but want a space to grow food. Smart thinking. It’s a great concept and makes perfect sense.

This website is called Urban Garden Share and while it’s based out of Seattle, I can certainly see this taking root elsewhere. There are other programs out there in the nation for people to sign up for plots of land in community gardens but this one is unique in that it’s completely individually organized. It’s all about the hookin’ up.

urbangardenshare.org explains:
“There is limited green space for food and flowers in this place we call the urban jungle. Matching homeowners (with garden space) to gardeners (with experience) is the perfect solution for cultivating both food production and community. Condo and apartment dwellers are faced with containers or p-patches as their only prospects for vibrant gardens. Homeowners can be overwhelmed by yet-another-garden-project. Together, we make a great team.”

I dug through some of the listings and it’s rather amusing. It’s kind of like looking for a house really…what are the qualifications that you desire? Would you like a view with your garden? Do you want your garden share to be near public transport? Or do you respond to simply written ads like “My backyard wants a vegetable garden”.

Seattle is facing a huge dilemna right now…what to do about the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

What will become of the 1.7 mile deep-boring tunnel project that is expected to cost at least 4.2 billion dollars that the voters of Seattle voted down, only to be ignored. Amongst the major protest regarding the tunnel an interesting site has emerged called tunnelfacts.com. In addition to trying to point out the reasons for the tunnel being the wrong decision for the city in dealing with the viaduct, it has a very compelling page that displays graphically what can be done with the money being used for the tunnel.

A fellow-landscape architect and resident of New York City, Socorro Alatorre, sent me some thoughts and photographs from several of her visits to the cities newest green addition. For her, seeing the park just 2 days after the opening, there was little surprising as the park looked exactly like the design renderings had sprung to life. The paving was exactly as it was expected. However, what did capture her attention was the execution and the high quality and detailing of all the elements.

Socorro was happy to see that the plant material looked to have established itself and made a huge difference in softening the park. It’s an unusual palette, especially for an urban space, full of perrenials and grass but one that was ‘native’ to the ruins of the High Line.

It’s interesting to have such a contrast between the meadow-like park with the industrial surrounding and history. Socorro points out that some people have referred to it as a “prairie” park and do not appreciate this unique palette nor understand it’s heritage. It is definitely an interesting look at what people expect of an urban park in terms of its greenery.

An interesting thing she pointed out and something that I hadn’t even thought about is that there are no evergreens in the park. What is going to happen in the winter? There were no evergreens in the ‘native’ palette but are people going to understand that when walking a plant-less park in the winter? It will be interesting to see what kind of reactions that park receives after the fall season.

I love edges that find away to blend with the surrounding vegetation but especially when it’s in a way that remains architectural in the form and elegance. The edge treatments on the High Line with the fingers that reach out in the vegetation from the main path are just that. However, many comments heard by Socorro was that the bumps and inlets of the edge treament has caused problems with some visitors to the High Line.

The bumps at the beginning of the fingers seem awkward and to not make sense, especially when “wheels” like strollers and such, are not allowed up there. The inlets themselves were seen as a tripping hazard because, and this is something I never would have thought of, Socorro points out that typically New Yorkers don’t look where they walk.

Comments were also made about the economic development that has occurred around the park and how this elevated greenway has really opened this industrial area up and raised property values. This park is a huge asset to the neighborhood and provides outdoor, relaxing space to an area very much in need.

Another detail of the park is the public art that can be seen throughout. One of these is a stained glass window which has about 52 different tones of blue’s and green’s and which represent all the different tones of the Hudson River. Socorro says that the best time to see this window is at mid-day where the sun hits it and then you can really appreciate every single tone. Another piece is a lighting piece underneath of the buildings. While Socorro hasn’t yet seen, she said that she is told that the purple color created a very nice effect at night.

images via Socorro Alatorre

image via broken city lab

It’s always interesting when unintentional acts lead to something great. Take this natural area for example. It isn’t the result of a re-naturalization project…it’s simply what happened when the city workers, including those who maintain this park by doing such things as cutting the grass, went on strike in Windsor, Ontario. The strike has since lasted 14 weeks (and is still going) which is apparently just the right amount of time for this meadow to come into it’s own. And as it turns out…its quite beautiful!

Broken City Lab decided to make a sign to highlight one of these wonderful accidential meadows. More signs are soon to appear in other equally lovely locations throughout the city. From their website:

“These naturalized areas allow for a moment in which one might be able to mistakenly believe that Windsor is a progressive city, a place where this type of naturalization is encouraged for its beauty, for its potential to attract wildlife, and for the stories our landscape is capable of telling.”

“With rumours circulating about a potential 30% of the newly naturalized areas across the city remaining in their naturalized states even after the strike is over, there is the potential for being able to believe that there is hope for Windsor.”