WAM Plaza Design Competition

here is a short video of the exhibition and public presentation...

newurbanbob — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 12:44:16 -0500

here is a short video of the exhibition and public presentation party

WAMchatter, October 26th, 7pm at the Weisman Art Museum Please...

rbaudler — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:13:00 -0500

WAMchatter, October 26th, 7pm at the Weisman Art Museum

Please join us for our public presentation for the Plaza Design Competition at the Weisman Art Mueseum. A reception prior to the event will be held at the Weisman at 6pm with presentations to follow across the plaza from the museum in room 230 of the STSS building. See you then!

Weisman Grand Reopening & Exhibition Opening

rbaudler — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:25:27 -0500

This weekend was the Weisman Art Museum Grand Reopening Gala (Saturday, Oct. 1) and WAMdemonium (Sunday, Oct. 2nd). The new expansion featured our team’s design competition materials for a new public plaza at the east end of the Washington Avenue Pedestrian and Bike bridge. Kick off festivities started Saturday night. Bob Kost, Director of Planning & Urban Design at SEH, was invited to attend the reopening gala with hundred of arts patrons including the wold renown architect, Frank Gehry. It was an exciting weekend. We look forward to presenting to the professional jury and the public on October 26th.

See some of the pictures from the weekend’s events below.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Mississippi River Bridge Plaza Design Competition Update

rbaudler — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:28:38 -0500

Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota

The SEH team completed their submission for the Mississippi River Bridge Plaza Design Competition on Thursday, September 1st. The timeline for selection of the winning entry among the four finalist teams is listed below.

October 1, 2011 Revealing: The Weisman Art Museum Grand Reopening Gala (Sold-Out)

October 2, 2011, 1pm WAMdemonium: WAM Grand Reopening & Exhibition of Design Competition Submissions

October 26, 2011, afternoonTeam Presentations to Jury

October 26, 2011, 7pmPublic Presentation of Designs, Weisman Art Museum

October 27, 2011Decision Announced

3-D visualization of plaza concept illustrated by team members...

newurbanbob — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 22:27:21 -0500

3-D visualization of plaza concept illustrated by team members at EE+K Architects a Perkins Eastman Co.

Photo

newurbanbob — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 22:21:17 -0500

Christopher Baker’s ”SWARM” art...

newurbanbob — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 21:12:17 -0500

Christopher Baker’s ”SWARM” art piece creates a programable sound and light project providing an interactive, variable user experience.

WAM Plaza, with its fully integrated ecology, landscape,...

newurbanbob — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:59:00 -0500

WAM Plaza, with its fully integrated ecology, landscape, architecture and new media public arts paltform can serve as a model for new public spaces at U of M.

Rendered site plan illustrating an...

newurbanbob — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:50:10 -0500

Rendered site plan illustrating an integrated plaza and new media arts platform.

Out of tortuous hours of plaza paving color studies, WAMZA...

newurbanbob — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:59:33 -0500

Out of tortuous hours of plaza paving color studies, WAMZA Artsmaster, color ninja emerges

next spring, artist Karen Bausman is hoping to change all of...

yproductions — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 23:54:09 -0500

next spring, artist Karen Bausman is hoping to change all of that with the installation of a series of living walls, bringing a network of lush plant life to the Gansevoort Plaza.

Piezoelectric walkway

yproductions — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 23:41:18 -0500

Piezoelectric walkway

Photo

yproductions — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 23:39:32 -0500

Public art in relation to LEED certification

yproductions — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 11:26:07 -0500

I thought it was interesting that at least some of the criteria where public art might add points to LEED certification were issues we are thinking about for WAM Plaza. (Pay no attention to the “light pollution” part.)

More soft seating from rebar - Bushwaffle

yproductions — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:05:44 -0500

More soft seating from rebar - Bushwaffle

Fiber Reinforced Plastic offers us weight and sustainabilty advantages

newurbanbob — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 22:13:00 -0500

In looking for information on the embodied energy / sustainability characteristics for structural building materials to consider for our project I came accross some interesting information (see below) Although it pertains to auto-manufacturing, I think there are some favorable sustainable material characteristics. More investigation is warranted as to costs, availability, color, etc.

The embodied energy, structural weight, and transportation energy (fuel requirement) characteristics of steel, fiber-reinforced plastics, and aluminum were assessed to determine the overall energy savings of materials substitution in automobiles. In body panels, a 1.0-lb steel component with an associated 0.5 lb in secondary weight is structurally equivalent to a 0.6-lb fiber-reinforced plastic component with 0.3 lb in associated secondary weight or a 0.5-lb aluminum component with 0.25 lb of secondary weight. The total energy requirements of structurally equivalent body panels (including their embodied and life cycle transportation energies) are: steel (211.6 × 10 ³ Btu), fiber-reinforced plastics (126.7 × 10 ³ Btu), and aluminum (174.3 × 10 ³ Btu). Fiber-reinforced plastics offer greatest improvements in embodied and total energy requirements, while aluminum achieves greatest savings in transportation energy.

Suggestions for form and element refinment: bowl-shaped...

newurbanbob — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 21:36:16 -0500

Suggestions for form and element refinment: bowl-shaped bleachers with radial intersecting green-walls; circular lawn, vertical stent-structure as primary campanile partially covered green wall panels and attached wall-screen elements.

Sensor Network

bakercp — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 22:33:00 -0500

The Sensor Network

The goal of the sensor network is to provide a platform input/output platform that can be used by artists and studied by engineers. Artists can use both the input (the data) and the output (the lights and sound) to express any number of ideas. The model for this interaction is best described by Jim Campell’s Formula for Computer Art. In this case the distributed sensor network provides BOTH the input and the output.

Currently there is great academic interest in both designing, implementing and then interpreting the data from remote distributed sensor networks. This sensor network would provide an excellent place for engineering faculty and students to test their algorithms and do research in a real-world (non-simulated) environment.

Each sensor node will also be a single pixel of light and a single pixel of sound. All sensor nodes are not created equal. Some will have larger LED pixels (diffused or actual lumens) and some will have more powerful resonators. Some nodes will track people movement and some will track weather and environmental data.

The sensor node hardware themselves should not have a particular visual presence. They should be well-integrated into the hard and soft surfaces. They are only visible when producing light in the evening. Thus their placement will be visually significant, rather than their exact form.

Sensor Input

People / Bikes

Passive IR: Can detect low resolution movement data. If many are used in an array, fine detail can emerge.
Cameras+Computer Vision: Low resolution cameras combined with simple computer vision software can be used for people counting and tracking.
Pressure Transducers: Can sense the mass or movement of people or bikes.

Audio

Small Mics/Piezo Sensors: Can detect ambient noise and structural resonance.

Environmental: Air+Water

Gas and Air Quality Sensors: Real-time feedback on the particulate matter, gas, O2, CO, etc.
Water flow, level quality sensors might be mounted in the river below.
Weather station: Humidity, wind, temp, precip, etc can all be measured easily and added to the sensor net.
Green wall plant moisture, etc.

Traffic / Train

Break-beam laser and audio sensors can detect the passing of cars and trains that below.

Audio Visual Output

Light: LEDs can be multi-colored or white. Can be super bright or dim. Can be well diffused or tightly focused.
Audio: Might be a more generic resonator (i.e. this or this). Could also be a more direct mechanical intervention like those used in Byrne’s Playing the Building (here and video).

I’m sure the architects and landscape architects probably...

bakercp — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:43:29 -0500

I’m sure the architects and landscape architects probably know this recent Portland park project, but I think it is a good reference for building on an existing hard structure. It is also a nice canopy design — with a nice “low res” light installation on the underside of the canopy.

If you don’t know the project, check out a bunch of photos / description here: Simon & Helen Director Park.

Opportunity Diagrams… Ideas for representing the art...

rbaudler — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:47:23 -0500

public space expansion

create enclosure

views & focal point

ecological infrastructure

habitat

stormwater management

bicycle/ped conflict remediation

bicycle/ped conflict remediation

Opportunity Diagrams…

Ideas for representing the art opportunities (the virtual platform… a flexible platform, etc)? I will have a couple of ideas to show tomorrow to get some input.

WAM Plaza Design Competition

here is a short video of the exhibition and public presentation...

WAMchatter, October 26th, 7pm at the Weisman Art Museum Please...

Weisman Grand Reopening & Exhibition Opening

Mississippi River Bridge Plaza Design Competition Update

3-D visualization of plaza concept illustrated by team members...

Photo

Christopher Baker’s ”SWARM” art...

WAM Plaza, with its fully integrated ecology, landscape,...

Rendered ﻿s﻿i﻿t﻿e﻿ ﻿p﻿l﻿a﻿n﻿﻿ ﻿i﻿l﻿l﻿u﻿s﻿﻿tr﻿﻿a﻿t﻿i﻿n﻿g﻿ ﻿a﻿n﻿...

Out of tortuous hours of plaza paving color studies, WAMZA...

next spring, artist Karen Bausman is hoping to change all of...

Piezoelectric walkway

Photo

Public art in relation to LEED certification

More soft seating from rebar - Bushwaffle

Fiber Reinforced Plastic offers us weight and sustainabilty advantages

Suggestions for form and element refinment: bowl-shaped...

Sensor Network

I’m sure the architects and landscape architects probably...

Opportunity Diagrams… Ideas for representing the art...

Rendered site plan illustrating an...