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Chinese Opera Base in the Qingyun Hutong / Origin Architect

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Text description provided by the architects. Spaces, in urban, may be formed overnight, but the soul of the city must not be shaped if it is not deposited, immersed, and chafed for a long period of time.

OriginLocated on the south side of the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Qianmen District has witnessed the rise and fall of the city for centuries. Qingyun Hutong No.23-29 courtyards lie on the eastern area of the Qianmen District, just like a miniature imprint in this grand epic. South courtyard, facing the theater stage of the Pingyao Pigment Hall across the alley, once sheltered Mei Lanfang, a Peking Opera master a hundred years ago. He used to train his voice in the courtyard brewing his unique artistic style. Once being the Guandi Gao Temple, there were abundance of well-structured halls following strict order during the heyday of religion in the Middle Courtyard, and the Hutong streets nearby were all named after it. The North Courtyard was occupied decades ago by an electron tube factory, so called "modern industry", with steel-framed and red-brick-wall.

However, these old buildings and memories are gradually vanishing. In recent decadesafter experiencing the era that families lived crowdedly and moved out collectively, the houses in yards are abandoned, collapsed and destroyed. That causes the rapid disappearing of urban texture and cultural memory. And now in the large courtyards, except for a dilapidated house remaining in the South Courtyard, two wing rooms in Guandi Gao Temple, as well as the roof-collapsed run-down factory, the rest have crumbled into dust and disappeared in a pile of rubble. The restoration project aims to restore the city's cultural context, preserve cultural memory and revitalize city and communities through appropriate intervention.

Tiny Hutongs and Successive courtyardsThe architect first carried out in-depth archaeological research and analysis of the process of land change. The remaining buildings are protected, the damaged part of the buildings are selected carefully for rebuilding to develop a courtyard group, so that the defective space texture of city can be recognized again. At the same time, a series of "Tiny Hutongs" are introduced into the courtyard by the specially reserved gaps, which are the inward extension of the outer city streets and drive the continuous flow of the inner and outer spaces of the whole courtyard group.

Memory CarrierArchitecture is not only an inorganic substance, but also a living history. During the redevelopment, the historical diversity of real remains has been affirmed and respected, and the conflicts between the damaged and intact, the red brick and gray brick, the factory building and courtyard are all-inclusive and even strengthened. The residual wall left by the Gao Temple is preserved as it was, as a witness to the interchange of history. Some buildings have been reinforced and patched as necessary. The inclined and collapsed walls are supported by terraced brick buttresses, and the old residual columns are butted up and down with new wood to restore their structural strength. The new measures are firmly anchored and grown together with the old members. After archaeological cleaning and excavation of mounds and rubble, several groups of hard fahlunite column bases Mei Lanfang's former residence have been rediscovered and returned to their original places. Other old objects and materials scattered around--old cornerstones, old bricks and tiles--are collected and randomly mixed into the new walls and floors as time fragments.

In the middle of the brick wall of the rebuilt house, a large number of dispersed glass bricks are inserted like clouds, and the existence of the house entity is weakened, which is not only a confession of one's fictional identity, but also a questioning of the reincarnation of being born and destroyed. Several other solid brick walls are penetrated by irregular steel members, keeping the memory metaphor of drilling holes through walls in the compound yard era. A thick trunk that has been dead for many years has been cleared out of the soil from the middle yard and placed on the wall where it was found to witness the coming and going of people in the future together with other still lush trees in the courtyard.

Weathering steel is used as the main intervention material in the factory building, and the air leakage hole on the red brick wall is closed. The internal structure is integrally strengthened by butting the same type of new angle steel with the old beam-column angle steel. New materials and old stuff are scattered in every corner and talking to each other in different ways, silently tell their real times and changes, and weave a touchable memory of time together.

Opera and CultureStemmed from the original historical accumulation, this place is defined as a compound of Hutong spaces and opera culture, which pours impetus into the revival of the surrounding communities and cities. Unlike large-scale centralized modern theatres, a series of places for opera creating, rehearsals, performances and salons form small-scale scattered communities, attracting emerging small cultural creative groups.

The old factory on the north side and the attached building of Guandi Gao Temple have been respectively transformed into an opera rehearsal factory and a special little theater. The drama and cultural exchange salon grown on the site of Mei Lanfang's former residence on the south side opens to Sanli River on the south side, bringing riverside scenery and tourists into the interior. Several creative spaces scattered in the middle and continuous internal streets connect all parts. For the purpose to ensure the modern comfortable conditions of various spaces, the park is equipped with various facilities and systems, and the air-conditioning equipment in each room is hidden under the ground or in the wall as required by the conditions.

As the future operation maturing, it is hoped that the new drama and cultural activities will break through the boundaries, spread along the flowing roadway to the depths of Hutong, and be integrated into the deep cultural foundation of the old city of Beijing.

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Chinese Opera Base in the Qingyun Hutong / Origin Architect - ArchDaily

John S. Chase is the Texas architect you wish you knew aboutor perhaps should have already heard of. Inspired by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright with his own postmodern twists, Chases work has left a mark in East Austin, on the Texas Southern University and University of Texas campuses, and in churches all over the state. Now, a new University of Texas Press book, John S. ChaseThe Chase Residence, celebrates Chases remarkable 60-year career. The book explores how Chase turned his own Houston home into the centerpiece of a larger body of work through a process that was in equal measure architectural, social, personal, and political. This new story of the Chase Residence, still home to Chases widow, Drucie, demystifies how Chase fashioned a space to fit his familyand simultaneously fixed his place in architectural history.

John S. Chase was also a trailblazer for architects of color. He entered the University of Texas soon after its desegregation and soon became the first Black person to obtain a masters degree in architecture. He was also the first state-licensed Black architect in Texas. At one point, Chase served as the first Black president of the Texas Exes, UTs alumni association. And he was a founding member of the National Organization of Minority Architects.

The Chase Residence was a collective effort. It was written by David Heymann, a professor of architecture at UT, and includes a lengthy essay from co-author Stephen Fox, an architectural historian as well as contributions from architecture students Heymann took on his visits to Chases own home in Riverside Terrace, considered a timeless masterpiece among the many houses, churches, and other edifices he built. That group, led by Heymann, tracked down Chases own architectural drawings, made new drawings of key details, and persuaded Chases family and friends to contribute photos that bring the homes long history to life. Best viewed at night, the Chase house, even after nearly 70 years, remains a lantern, a beacon in the city. It is a landmark and a landmark accomplishment.

Chase artfully created his house beneath loblolly pines with windows that fully embraced Houstons humid greenhouse climate. Its vast interior courtyard offered views of leafy tropical plants and gave his boys, John Jr. and Tony, space to ride bikes around a koi pond. The den where Chase worked offered vistas of family life even as he continued to sketch out a fast-growing list of projects for his firm. Inside the original house, Chase tucked a bar behind a bookshelf so that visiting Baptists ministers, teetotalers who frequently commissioned him to build churches, would not spot liquor but could be quickly extracted from an alcove when politico friends arrived for cocktails.

Churches remained a mainstay of Chases practice in the 1950s and 60s, Fox writes. Many churches designed by Chase still stand proudly in Austin, Dallas, and Houston, too. In Houstons Fifth Ward, Chase built the First Shiloh Baptist Church in 1954 and 55. The church features a towering brick sanctuary with dramatically rising roof planes and a bell tower, a landmark on Lyons Street fit for a congregation established for more than 100 years. A marker outside the church today marks its historic status and Chases contribution, too. Through those early works, Chase had become a starchitect.

Gradually, Chases other projects took form as other private homes, more churches, and landmark buildings that rose across Texasand beyond, as Foxs essay explains. One of his very first jobs in 1952 was a building for a group then known as the Colored Teachers Union in Austin. He later earned major commissions from clients like Texas Southern University and Tuskegee University in Alabama. Many of his masterworks still stand on TSUs Houston campus, including its Humanities Building, with a stunning rounded entrance bay, its student center, and its law school.

Eventually, Chase designed buildings on the campus of his alma mater, tooincluding UTs utilitarian San Antonio garage and the track and soccer stadium. But UT wasnt always good at remembering its famous alumnus. He doesnt appear in the school yearbook, for example. The first on-campus show featuring his work didnt occur until after his death in 2012. But recently, one of his early Austin works, the 1952 headquarters for the teachers union, was acquired by UT. Its now being remodeled and refitted as part of the universitys community engagement programsin a way, taking Chases architectural journey full circle. Theres also a John S. Chase scholarship fund at UT for promising Black students, particularly those with an interest in architecture. And now, at long last, theres a UT Press book honoring his legacy and his home.

As his clientele and family expanded into the 1960s, so did the Chase residence. The Chases welcomed their third child, Saundria, to the family. In 1968, when she was six, he began a renovation and simultaneously enclosed the atrium to create a vast two-story gathering space for a whos-who of famous friends and clients, including the late Congressman Mickey Leland, actor Gregory Peck who was in town for a Democratic fundraiser, and other luminaries like John Connally, then governor of Texas. One iconic photo shows Leland, a regular at the Chase home, lounging in that atrium with Saundria, by then a young adult. The Chase house, always in a state of flux, continued to evolve. This new book, as Fox writes, honors an architect who was part of a larger artistic movement that powerfully imagined, and gave compelling form to, new ways for African Americans to live in the American South, with dignity, assurance and distinctive modern style, too.

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A New Book Celebrates the Work of Architect John S. Chase - The Texas Observer

Talk about an immersive experience.

While countless tales have been told about shipwrecks and sunken treasures over the centuries, Dutch architecture firm ZJA is bringing members of the public closer to the real thing than ever before. The company just unveiled plans for an underwater museum in the Netherlands entitled Docking the Amsterdam which would be built around a genuine 271-year-old sunken vessel. Though the ship originally went under off the coast of Hastings in the U.K., it will be brought (still submerged) to its new home for the project. Once in place, the ship will be held in a massive glass tank where visitors can inspect its 40m-long body from many different angles.

Visiting this venue is like entering a theater that stages the investigation in progress and engages the public with the discoveries the divers and researchers do inside the wreck, reads the projects description. Though this is certainly the case, the nascent museum also has the potential to engage with an even more timely conversation.

The museums exterior will have a domed canopy made from technical fabrics.ZJA

The cargo ship was originally part of the Dutch East India Companys fleet and was returning from its maiden voyage to India when a storm damaged it so badly the captain intentionally beached it. Though the company was a pioneer in trade, students of history are also familiar with its critical role in colonialism and the slave trade which emerged as a result. The firm told Dezeen that, reassessment and discussion are essential in accurately relaying its history.

As far as the museums exterior, current plans call for a domed roof that will enclose the space with technical fabric. This not only allows more natural light to flood the interior but also creates enough room for an elevated walkway where visitors can view the ships remains from above.

The museum does not yet have an official opening date, but ZJA hopes it can begin welcoming guests in 2025.

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A 271-Year-Old Shipwreck Will Become the Center of a New Underwater Museum in Amsterdam - Robb Report

From Archinect's active community of architecture students and professionals, firms, and schools, we have selected five employers with current opportunities for architects, marketing professionals, and interns in New York City/Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Take a look at these new listings, and visit Archinect Jobs for more open positions.

SPF:architects is a Los Angeles-based architecture and design practice led by Zoltan E. Pali, FAIA and Judit M. Fekete-Pali. They are currently looking forjust filled a position for a highly motivated Marketing Coordinator/Social Media Strategist. Since this job was just filled, you may be interested in these similar opportunities.

Founded in 1993, Architecture Research Office (ARO) is a New York City-based firm with a diverse portfolio of strategic planning, architecture, and urban design projects. This Marketing Coordinator position is available for qualified candidates with 12 years of experience.

Kiss + Cathcart is a Brooklyn-based firm with a decades-spanning dedication to applying environmental principles to architecture, planning, and design. They are seeking aResearch/Sustainability Intern (paid position) with a passion for the environment and design excellence.

Founded by Yale graduate Drew Lang, NYC-based Lang Architecture is a boutique firm with a primary focus on residential projects. They are looking to hire a skilled Project Architectwith 36 years of experience.

With offices in San Francisco, Denver, and Woodstock, Bull Stockwell Allen is an established architecture firm specializing in hospitality, resort, recreation, and workplace projects. Current openings include a Project Architect and a Job Captain at the Bay Area studio.

If you don't already, follow Archinect's Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, or the dedicated Archinect Jobs Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds.

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This week's featured hiring firms are SPF:architects, Architecture Research Office, Kiss + Cathcart, Lang Architecture, and Bull Stockwell Allen -...

Architects have warned of the disastrous unintended consequences of a government proposal that would allow high streets and town centres to be converted into housing without planning permission.

The half-baked ideas could do irreversible harm to the commercial hearts of towns and cities up and down the country, they said, and render local authorities powerless to intervene in shaping their districts.

Former RIBA president Ben Derbyshire said the loss of local democratic control was unacceptable at a philosophical level and questioned ministers claim that the proposal would breathe new life into cities. Instead he predicted that footfall would plummet with devastating results.

In a consultation announced this month the government proposed the creation of a new permitted development (PD) right, effectively granting permission for the vast majority of commercial buildings in England to be converted to homes.

The proposed right, which could come in to force as soon as August and does not require primary legislation, would apply even in conservation areas.

It would allow any buildings in the newly created Class E use class to be converted into homes without planning consent.

Class E covers the vast majority of non-residential town centre uses, including offices, shops, restaurants, estate agents, gyms, GP surgeries and nurseries and many more. Only a small number of distinct uses kept outside Class E because of their unique characteristics or community value such as pubs and theatres will be exempt from the new right.

The proposed right is much wider ranging than existing conversion rights, introduced in 2015, which have seen more than 72,000 homes created from former offices and light industrial units. Not only does this extend the right to many more building types restaurants and cafes, clinics and creches for example but the tight size limits imposed on many of the existing rights would be removed.

Until now, for example, while developers have technically had a permitted development right to turn shops and professional services premises into homes, this has only applied to properties smaller than 150sq m.

Now, however, properties of any size can be converted without planning permission meaning the largest shops on the high street could be quickly converted into homes, with no right for the local authority to object.

In order to undertake the conversion, developers will have to meet space standards and ensure the provision of adequate natural light, as well as meet a handful of other tick-box prior approval criteria a response to the growing criticisms of the poor quality and small size of many existing homes created under PD rules.

However, these prior approval criteria will not allow local authorities to object to the conversion on the basis that they want to retain commercial uses in a particular location, or in order to support the delivery of local plan policies around town centres.

The proposal also goes further than previous rights in that it will apply in conservation areas albeit with an additional prior approval criterion added to consider the impact of conversion on the conservation area.

Only a short list of areas including National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty will be exempt from the new right. However, local authorities will have the ability to apply for so-called article 4 directions exempting specific areas from the measures, if they can mount a persuasive case as to why that is necessary. A number of London boroughs, for example, managed to secure similar exemptions from the 2015 office-to-resi rights. And they were enthusiastically deployed by prime minister Boris Johnson when he was mayor of London to protect the capitals commercial heartland.

Local authorities will not be able to object on the basis that they want to retain commercial uses in a particular location, or in order to support local plan policies around town centres

The new proposal is so far-reaching that leading planning barrister Zack Simons, of Landmark Chambers, said it was by far the most radical planning reform of the year, despite the publication of the Planning for the Future white paper in the summer, and the bringing in of a raft of other controversial permitted development rights (such as the right to demolish and rebuild commercial property).

The proposals have been welcomed by some developer lobby groups, including the Home Builders Federation, with Housing Today columnist Paul Smith, of developer Strategic Land Group, writing today that permitted development rightsprovide the ability for our towns and cities to respond quickly to changing circumstances.

However, Holly Lewis, co-founding partner at architect We Made That which has extensive experience of working with local authorities on urban realm strategies, told Building Design: When have you ever walked through a residential area and thought, Wow! This place is buzzing!? Its common sense that uncontrolled switching of high street units into housing threatens the vitality of our town centres.

Opening up high streets to property speculation as a misguided attempt to answer current challenges will only exacerbate the ingrained inequalities that have been so starkly exposed by the pandemic.

Julia Park, head of housing research at architect Levitt Bernsteins, questioned the governments haste.

In a column published today in Housing Today sister publication BD, she writes: It is hard to imagine that the re-purposing of high streets and town centres will ever be reversed so these decisions cannot be taken lightly.

Given the long-term impact that so many of these half-baked ideas will have, local authorities surely deserve time to plan for an orchestrated shrinkage of town centres and high streets, incentivised by favourable business rates for non-residential uses and we deserve a planning process that upholds local democracy.

Ben Derbyshire, chairman of housing specialist HTA Design, warned of the chaotic free-for-all that would ensue.

As everyone knows, including Robert Jenrick, a successful high street has to be curated: ask any of the Great Estates in London, he said. Marylebone High Street prospers because someone really cares about whos there and the shopping experience.

He warned: The amount of activity of high streets would plummet and that has to be really carefully managed and thats before we get to the quality of the accommodation itself.

PD conversions would bring in no section 106 money and councils would also lose business rates, while at the same time facing a potentially higher social services load as a consequence of people living in substandard accommodation. He also questioned how the new homes would be serviced with no space for wheelie bins among other issues.

Derbyshire urged the profession to keep up the criticism until the disastrous unintended consequences have been averted, pointing out that some U-turns on PD rights have already been won by campaigners, such as the requirement for space standards to apply and for habitable rooms to have a window.

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Architects fear latest permitted development expansion will be disastrous - Housing Today

Developers Dream Office REIT and Humbold Properties have revealed a SHoP Architects-designed supertall skyscraper that, if approved, will straddle Torontos entertainment and financial districts and soar 79 stories above one of the citys oldest streets. Described in a press release as a true mixed-use tower with 588 residential rental units, over 10,000 square feet of retail, and 660,000 square feet of office space, the projecttopping off at just over 1,000-feet-tallmarks the New York City-based SHoPs first skyscraper project in Toronto. Canadian firm Adamson Associates is serving as executive architect.

Per the developers, SHoP was selected for the project, to be located at 212 King Street West, due to the firms previous successes in melding historic buildings with wholly contemporary structures. As pointed out in the project reveal, SHoP is responsible for the design of two of only three projects in New York City history to incorporate modern high-rises with existing landmarked buildings: The ultra-slender 111 West 57th Street in Manhattan and 9 Dekalb Avenue, an under-construction residential supertall in downtown Brooklyn thats slated to be the tallest in the borough.

As for 212 King Street West, it will celebrate (read: rise directly above) not one but three iconic, low-rise heritage buildings at the site: 212 (the Union Building), 214 (the Canadian General Electric Building), and 220 (the Nicholls Building) King Street West. According to real estate blog Toronto Storeys, Dream Office REIT owns the Union Building while Humbold owns the Canadian Electric Building. Both companies co-own the Nicholls Building.

We are excited to unveil a design that not only honours our citys rich architectural history but injects new energy into the downtown core, said Robert Singer, vice president of Humbold Properties. We are thrilled to be partnering with Dream to create a new vision for this unique intersection and to carry these buildings legacies on for generations to come.

Noting a sensitive, civic-minded approach to skyscraper design, the announcement went on to elaborate on the interplay between old and new at the intersection of King and Simcoe Streets:

When it came to the existing heritage buildings along King Street, the goal was to be respectful and celebratory, skillfully interlocking the residential and commercial floorplates in a way that sparks a dialogue between the historical and contemporary components of the project. Generous setbacks and recessing of the tower are intended to give the buildings at-grade the space needed to maintain and enhance their presence along King Street.

The centerpiece of the vertical megadevelopment will be a so-called civic-scaled atrium that will serve as a year-round public gathering and event space while also doubling as the main office lobby. Express elevators will provide access to rooftop green spaces atop the base-comprising heritage buildings and, below ground, there will also be a direct connection to PATH, Torontos expansive subterranean network of amenity-lined pedestrian corridors that link its downtown office towers with shopping centers, parking garages, and subway stations.

As noted by Gregg Pasquarelli, founding principal of SHoP, the atrium creates a relationship between indoors and outdoors while establishing a visual connection with Roy Thomson Hall, a concert hall that serves as home to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and David Pecaut Square.

We know we have to move forward and innovate, but we need to do so in a way that demonstrates sensitivity and sensibility, and contributes to the life of a city, saidPasquarelli. The soul of the building lies in the intensity of details.

This emphasis on encouraging and expanding civic activity will extend out of the atrium and onto King Street itself thanks to a planned sidewalk-widening effort that will allow for outdoor cafes, greenery, seating, and improved pedestrian circulation.

A virtual meeting in which the public can learn more about the skyline-reshaping development is planned for January 25. And before anything happens, the city, as mentioned, first needs to grant the new 212 King Street West with approval. Its worth noting that Toronto hasnt proven itself to be particularly averse to supertall projects given that there are two superlatively lanky towers, Foster + Partners The One and the Hariri Pontarini Architects-designedSkyTower at Pinnacle One Yonge, currently under construction in the city.

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SHoP Architects unveils a mixed-use supertall tower in Toronto - The Architect's Newspaper

Architect of Lockheed Martin dead at 89

One of the primary architects behind the 1995 merger that created Lockheed Martin has died at age 89.

Daniel Tellep was the CEO of Lockheed Corp. when he and Martin Marietta CEO Norm Augustine began a series of secret meetings over the course of a year that culminated in the merger of the two defense giants, according to a Lockheed Martin release.

He served as CEO of the combined company for nine months, then remained chairman until 1998.

Dan and I had been good friends as well as business competitors for many years, even before the opportunity to create Lockheed Martin appeared, Augustine said in an email sent to Lockheed Martin. He was a superb engineer, a visionary and a quality human being who truly impacted our nation as well as our company. I count myself fortunate to have known Dan and will truly miss him.

Tellep began working for Lockheed in 1955 as a principal scientist in the Missiles & Space Co. subsidiary. Lockheed Martin said one of his proudest moments was being honored with the 1964 Lawrence Sperry award by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics for his work on re-entry technology and heat transfer.

His family created a tribute page hosted by Lockheed Martin that traces his interest in aeronautics to his childhood when a cousin gave him a model airplane kit in the late 1930s. As an adult, he became a pilot and liked to fly sailplanes. In his later years, he took up painting and writing.

He is survived by four daughters, his first wife, two step daughters from his second marriage, as well as grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Tellep died Thanksgiving morning. The family reported that his final words were: Live beautifully.

Posted by Nick Wakeman on Dec 17, 2020 at 1:53 PM

See the article here:
Architect of Lockheed Martin dead at 89 - Washington Technology

By: Sebastian Morris 7:30 am on December 17, 2020

Renderings from Bruno Kearney Architects reveal a new TD Bank retail location within the historic Brill Building at 1619 Broadway in Midtown, Manhattan. Located on the corner of West 49th Street, the property was originally constructed around 1931 and was designated a landmark in 2010 for its ornate Art Deco faade. The prominence of the building requires approval of all proposed work by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC).

Despite objections from Community Board Five, the commissioners ruled that the proposed construction will have no adverse effect on the historic faade and has allowed permits to proceed.

The architects presentation to LPC relied heavily on a 2010 precedent, at which time the commissioners issued approvals for the installation of over 9,700 square feet of illuminated retail signage. To date approximately 7,600 square feet of signage has been installed spanning both Broadway and 49th Street elevations thereby obscuring the protected faade.

The proposed retail signage for TD Bank is paltry in scale compared to the behemoth billboards currently on display.

Renderings of TD Bank signage at 1619 Broadway Bruno Kearney Architects

Illustration of previously approved signage at 1619 Broadway circa 2014- Marvel Architects

Rendering of previously approved signage at 1619 Broadway circa 2014- Marvel Architects

Additional construction includes the installation of two double-door glass entrances into the bank, the removal of existing glass lights to accommodate TD Bank signage, a new fixed aluminum louver, and an internally illuminated TD Bank logo that will be viewable along 49th Street.

The project team has not announced an anticipated construction date for the new TD Bank.

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Renderings Reveal Commercial Renovation to the Brill Building at 1619 Broadway in Midtown - New York YIMBY

Every day, hundreds of people walk, run, and bike along the Lafitte Greenway in New Orleans, one of the citys newest parks. Bordering the central path are lush green bioswales sunken gardens that capture stormwater. The 2.6-mile-long stretch of greenspace transects some of the citys historic neighborhoods, connecting Bayou St. John to the French Quarter and passing through Treme and Mid-City along the way.

New Orleans-based architect Bryan C. Lee, Jr. calls the Lafitte Greenway a civic green boulevard and describes it as a space that has continuous motion.

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This motion has certainly been present since the bike path was built in 2015, but the land beneath it has seen movement for more than 200 years. Before it was a park, it was a railroad, and before that, a shipping canal. Residents have always lived alongside this stretch of land. Lee sees a deeper story that needs to be told here. He envisions creating a new space a bridge that will span the bioswales that he hopes will encourage the parks users to slow down, pause, and reflect on the citys destructive, unjust, and buried history.

Lee is the founder and design principal for a nonprofit design and architecture firm called Colloqate (pronounced co-locate.) He approaches all of his work with a set of core beliefs he calls design justice.

For every injustice in this world, theres an architecture, a plan, a design that has been built to sustain that injustice, Lee says. Weve got to acknowledge how, whether we play a minor role or a major role in some of these things, how best to not be complicit.

Lee and Colloqate first gained national recognition for a project they called Paper Monuments. In 2017, when Confederate monuments were being torn down across New Orleans, Lee and his colleagues collected a series of lesser-known stories about the citys historical injustices. They created posters to tell those stories and pasted them on brick walls and public spaces across the city. The posters were also distributed at book stores and libraries.

In an open letter about the Paper Monuments, Lee and his colleagues said, The question of a singular monument or of a singular location is less important than our conviction that all residents have a right to this city and an inherent role in shaping the place in which we all live, work, learn, and grow together.

Now Lee wants to use architecture and design justice to tell a story about the displacement of people, cultures, communities, and environments across New Orleans. This time, his approach will be a series of outdoor pavilions hes calling the Storia Program.

One will be a modified A-frame structure that opens up entirely and is planned for a site adjacent to the New Orleans African American Museum. As a venue for collective memory and storytelling, this Defrag House will be a hub for public art and also an event space for musicians and poetry readings. Lees aim is for it to represent the people and communities across New Orleans who have been forced out, whether by Hurricane Katrina, other impacts of climate change, gentrification, or violence.

We are reflecting and building, essentially, a living memorial to those who have left and a living documentation of how that happened, Lee says.

Another structure planned in the Storia Program is the Delta: A bridge spanning the bioswales of the Lafitte Greenway.

Its about ecological displacement, Lee says. The intention is to draw connections between our human movement around water and the city, and its movement around us. How has water influenced the city of New Orleans? he asks. How have we influenced the water systems within the city?

The Chitimacha were the original inhabitants who lived on the land that is now New Orleans. Their homeland encompasses all of the wetlands in the Atchafalaya Basin in central Louisiana. According to their recorded history, the Chitimacha were one of the most powerful tribes in the southeast before European contact. Yet, a 12-year war with the French annihilated their members. When a Chitimacha chief signed a peace treaty in New Orleans in 1718 to end the war, the majority of their tribal members had been enslaved, killed, or displaced.

In the mid-1700s, the French transferred their authority to Spanish colonizers, who irrevocably transformed land and water to serve the powers of commerce and trade. During the final years of the 18th century, the governor of the then-Spanish colony, Francisco Luis Hctor de Carondelet, ordered forced laborers convicts and slaves to dredge a canal that would open up a new pathway for ships to access the heart of New Orleans. That canal is now the Lafitte Greenway.

In the mid-1800s, the canal was transformed into a railway corridor, and then in the late 1920s and early 1930s, part of it was filled. Eventually, the land fell into disuse and was abandoned. It sat like this for decades, until 2005, when a group of local residents now called the Friends of Lafitte Greenway saw its potential as a community park and started to advocate for its transformation. That same year, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and displaced hundreds of thousands more of its residents.

From the Chitimacha to Katrina, water has shaped the way people live in New Orleans. Lee wants the Delta bridge to span the centuries and tell these stories.

It is fundamentally about how we tell a history of ecological and communal displacement, ecological and communal binding through this structure, Lee says. Both the structure itself and the habitat around it are nodes to a history and nodes to a story and place that is often negated and unfamiliar to residents.

To address this ongoing historical inequity, Lee is working with New Orleans residents, including those who live in the homes adjacent to the park, to design the Delta bridge. He envisions it as a lightweight steel structure that stretches 60 feet in length and features pieces of art to speak to the ways in which water shapes land. But beyond that, he says the ideas and design will need to come from local residents.

To organize community around the Delta project, Lee wants to have conversations. He wants to ask nearby residents and the city at large about their experiences with water: How has water shaped their lives? How has the environment and climate change influenced them specifically? But Colloqate is not just distributing questionnaires or handing out surveys in order to collect data. Their aim is deeper: to listen to stories and build relationships.

Humans are directly related to the outcomes that we put into the world, Lee says. Engaging with people is just as important to a project as the structure itself.

At Colloqate, architecture is not simply a profession of designing buildings and structures. Lee and his colleagues firmly believe that the very premise of architecture is complicit in systems of racism by creating physical environments that have historically disenfranchised Black and Brown communities, blocked people from accessing power, and reinforced segregation.

Design justice is actively about challenging existing systems that use architecture as a tool of oppression, Lee says. It seeks to tear down those structures and rebuild them with intention to give communities power.

When applied to outdoor spaces, he says design justice, along with art, can expose buried histories in the landscape. Public spaces present an opportunity to build community and host civic engagement. Beyond that, design justice also begs the question of what a park means, as a concept and a cultural value, to different communities.

When we talk about parks, are we still talking about it through a lens of whiteness or are we doing it through a lens of Indigeneity or Blackness or Hispanic, Latino? How are we seeing it? Lee says. If we are capable of reconciling cultural differences and building spaces and places that support a larger swath of engagement, were going to do a lot better. He goes on to say, Its harder to detangle and dismantle communities when communities are whole, when they have connections to one another.

In a part of the city thats seen so much movement for centuries, Lee hopes the Delta bridge will offer people a place to pause and think, perhaps about their relationship to the history and context of the place.

With the pandemic, community organizing around the Delta project and others has largely been put on hold. Lee now hopes the bridge and the Defrag House will be built in early 2021.

Our ability to really pull people together in this moment is tough, Lee says. But public outdoor spaces are taking on new meaning and importance in light of public health guidelines for COVID-19. One could argue that design justice is more important now than ever. The sole purpose, Lee says, is to build power and build community.

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This architect is using design justice to empower communities through outdoor spaces - Grist

The Week

Former National Security Adviser Michal Flynn tiptoed once again toward urging President Trump to declare martial law to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory, citing discredited voter fraud claims. Trump "could immediately, on his order, seize every single one of these voting machines," Flynn told Newsmax host Greg Kelly Thursday night. "He could order the, within the swing states, if he wanted to, he could take military capabilities, and he could place those in states and basically rerun an election in each of those states."Using the U.S. military to force states to redo an election is "not unprecedented," Flynn added. "These people are out there talking about martial law like it's something that we've never done. Martial law has been instituted 64 times, Greg. So I'm not calling for that. We have a constitutional process," and "that has to be followed."> Here's Michael Flynn on Newsmax saying that Trump could order "military capabilities" to swing states and "rerun an election in each of those states."> > "People out there talk about martial law like it's something that we've never done. Martial law has been instituted 64 times." pic.twitter.com/KNmiAGGiPF> > Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 18, 2020The federal government hasn't implemented martial law since after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, and then only in the territory of Hawaii. "Flynn's insane rant" appears to rely on "the numerous invocations of martial law" before and during the Civil War, University of Texas law professor Steve Vladek said. Since then, Supreme Court precedents and several laws notably the Posse Comitatus Act have severely constrained the president's ability to declare martial law."Nothing to see here," Slate's Will Saletan tweeted. "Just a retired general and former undeclared foreign agent for an authoritarian regime, freshly pardoned by the president for lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia, asserting precedents for martial law to overturn the president's electoral defeat."Former President Barack Obama fired Flynn as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, then "tried to warn Trump about him," New York Times reporter Maggie Haberbman noted. "Trump hired him, fired him, complained about him and his son during transition, and then has obviously changed course." The Bulwark's Tim Miller added: "Michael Flynn lying to the FBI was the biggest break the nation caught during the Trump years. The thought of the insane mad man in the room when Trump was making decisions is frightening."More stories from theweek.com 5 insanely funny cartoons about Trump's election-fraud failure Trump has reportedly been convinced he actually won, tells advisers he may not vacate the White House Jill Biden tells Colbert she's proud of her doctorate, baffled by criticism of her use of honorific

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Wake-Up Weather: Clouds and sun - Yahoo News