Category: General

In Danger: Hangar One, Moffett Field

Hangar One, Moffett FieldHangar One, Moffett Field, originally uploaded by Telstar Logistics

The Fight to Save Hangar One, Silicon Valley’s Monument to the Age of the Airships:

The Macon is gone, but Hangar One survived. It was used by the US Navy for decades, but in 2002 it was determined that the structure was heavily contaminated with PCBs. It was then closed, vacated, and sealed off. Shortly before it closed, however, Telstar Logistics was able to take this photograph from inside the cavernous building:
Now the Navy is debating what to do about the problem. The cheapest solution, apparently is to simply tear Hangar One down. Thankfully, a group called Save Hangar One has mobilized to prevent that, and the organization’s proposed alternative would involve removing the building’s contaminated exterior and “re-skinning” it using a Teflon-coated fiberglass fabric. The catch is that the cost to re-skin Hangar One may run as high as $42 million. Decision time may come in November, when the Navy is expected to release its environmental evaluation and cost analysis. Our preference probably comes as little surprise.

I had the fortune to kick around Moffett, and Hangar One is one of the most amazing spaces I’ve ever been in.
Save Hangar One Committee.

Greg.org Discovers the Satelloons Of Project Echo

Echo 2

From about 1956 until 1964, US aeronautics engineers and rocket scientists at the Langley Research Center developed a series of spherical satellite balloons called, awesomely enough, satelloons. Dubbed Project Echo, the 100-foot diameter aluminumized balloons were one of the inaugural projects for NASA, which was established in 1958.
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I’ve highlighted some of the aesthetic or non-scientific elements from Hansen’s long, somewhat rambling but detailed chapter on Program Echo to make a point. Or more accurately, to pose a challenge. In the art world, thanks in no small part to Duchamp, we privilege intentionality above all; anything–even the most mundane or found object, situation, and action–is art if the artist declares it to be so. But nothing else.

Greg.org (awesomely) Discovers the Satelloons Of Project Echo and then discusses where to install said Satelloons.
Go. Read. Now.

Massive shipping container architecture roundup

Studenthousing OslofjordwegStudenthousing Oslofjordweg
Check out this shipping containers as architecture roundup:

Did you know that we have a problem with too many shipping containers? These days, the United States doesn’t export much, but it imports a lot, and it’s not economical to send the containers back empty, so the shipping containers just keep stacking up. One source said there are 700,000 abandoned containers in U.S. ports. That number has undoubtedly gone up. More and more people are looking at the things as housing components.

While shipping containers as architecture has come in and out of favor, and students consistently return to shipping containers as theses projects, I am always struck with the feeling of how completely horrible it would be to have to live inside of a shipping container. Think about it: they are 8′-0″ x 8′-6″ and come in various lengths. The trick is to design your way out of the narrow room and head height the containers present.
One designer alread has for the FREITAG Shop Zürich, below:

Check out the metalwork photos, build photos and stocking photos to see an excellent use of shipping containers.

Monumental Failure: Why we should commercialize the National Mall

L'Enfant MapL’Enfant Map, originally uploaded by plemeljr

Monumental Failure – Why we should commercialize the National Mall:

Trekking on toward the Capitol, I noticed that no one else was enjoying themselves either. Overheated parents pushed catatonic youngsters in strollers. Seniors staggered through the heat and dust. With no relief from the beating sun, tourists fanned themselves with brochures and wrapped T-shirts around their heads. Like me, most were sunburned, thirsty, and exhausted, possibly experiencing the late stages of heat stroke. Instead of the nourishing patriotic uplift that the Mall should provide, their weary stares betrayed a sober realization that they had encountered not the joyous public sanctuary they imagined, but a civic burden–in a metaphor for the way Washington works, one that cruelly ignores the needs of the very Americans whose taxes enable it.
This isn’t the way it was supposed to be. Pierre Charles L’Enfant, whom George Washington commissioned to design the capital in 1791, envisioned the Mall as a “place of general resort” that would be “attractive to the learned and afford diversion to the idle.” L’Enfant had in mind the great places of France: the parks and avenues of Paris, the stately precincts of Versailles. According to the architectural historian Pamela Scott, “The Mall was to be the center of the intellectual and artistic life of Washington.”
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These days, the experience of visiting the National Mall is a lot like a junior high school civics class–there’s lots of history and statesmanship in the air, but it’s more pedantic than enjoyable, and going to the bathroom is all but out of the question. This is partly because bluenose historic preservationists wish to preserve the Mall in amber, partly because Congress’s interest in it is limited to appeasing whichever ominous-looking interest group happens to be demanding public tribute. Today’s Mall is completely isolated from the life of the city, a far cry from the intended civic gathering place. Save for the odd march or protest, it is ignored (so much so that it’s a popular place to dispose of corpses, which surface every now and then in the Tidal Basin).