Southern Exposure – An Interesting Observation

[Boilerplater]

The guy seemed concerned about my ability to tolerate the commute…it would be a horrendous and costly commute if I were to drive from Trenton every day.  I think I’d lose it!  I told him I would find a room to rent during the week.  Might be practical.  His last guy left w/o warning and he thought he just got fed up with the commute after driving in from eastern Long Island.  I really can’t stand long commutes.  Probably one of the things that appealed to me about the whole New Urbanism thing, that you could live close to your work!  Honestly I don’t know if I’d be able to stand living in the city.  Its a bit too much for me.  I go there and wonder how people stand it.  If you’re wealthy and can easily get away from it to your upstate or Hamptons vacation home, I guess that makes it tolerable.  But to be stuck there…how do people do it?  Lots of alcohol?  Anti-anxiety meds?

[Boilerplater]

Thanks.  I left last spring.  I have family in NJ so it made sense to come back here.  I really prefer the southwest.  Much of the “scenery” here is rotting old cities, bleak strip malls, and sheet metal warehouses.  I’m tired of looking at it!  That’s one of the reasons I moved west in the first place.  At least you still have inspiring scenery to look at in Colorado!

[Boilerplater]

Yeah, they’re about 30 minutes away.  I already spoke to them a while back.  Maybe I didn’t appear to be stable enough after a few layoffs.  I was told they have a problem with people leaving after they’ve invested training into them.  There is probably a reason they have people leaving regularly.  Maybe the boss is a nut job. They often seem to be seeking designers.  But at least it shows people are spending money in that area.  Maybe my best bet is to advertise my services directly, open my own office.

[Thomas J. Johnson]

Millennium is an excellent spring, summer and fall park, no doubt about it. It’s crowds are a testament to that fact. It’s a really well designed park, in general. It’s modern but ties into the adjacent classic architecture. It’s spacious and popular yet it still enables you to find a quiet spot to yourself. It has a variety of attractions and moves large numbers of people very effectively.

I’m not knocking the park in anyway. As Mr. Halpern noted, there may have only been 4 south facing benches but none of them were occupied, at what should have been a peak time (lunch on a sunny winter day). It’s a successful design, I just couldn’t believe that there were only 4 South facing benches and none of them were occupied.

There are two huge twin plazas there that were caked in sun but all of the benches were lined up around the perimeter, under trees. I could see some kind of seating, like curvaceous lounges, out in the sun being popular… then again, we probably won’t see the sun for another 3 months…    

[Trace One]

It is the responsiblity of the designer to take into account ALL groups. Just wait until you are old, Wyatt, and find negotiating a 50 foot walk is a big day – but a good one. But the designer behind your walk didn’t want benches to clutter the thing up!.

It’s ridiculous, to prioritize design over need of humans. Reminds me of the Seagram building, a very gorgeous structure, having windows that only were open, closed or half-way. The office workers had been subjected to a nazi regime of design.. 

 A bench is something for people to sit on outdoors..all kinds of people…for all kinds of journeys..

there can never be too many benches. (and seat walls, for your old lady with old bones, do NOT cut it). 

Just as I think the decorative aspects of the design should never trump the environmental aspects (there is NO need to decoate highways in dry zones with plants that need water – decorate with rocks, or  paint …!), I think that function comes before form..We are craftspeople, not artists.

[Steve Mercer]

Hi Thomas,

How did you eat your lunch and check your eye-lids for light leaks at the same time?  Must be a true multi-tasker!

LOL!

 

Happy Holidays!

 

s.

[Thomas J. Johnson]

Hi Steve –

It went something like this… I ate my lunch on a West facing bench and then relaxed for a moment before realizing that only the left side of my face was getting sun. Not wanting a lopsided tan, I set out to find a nice south facing bench. There were two in my immediate vicinity but because of the way the adjacent benches were being occupied, it somehow felt weird to go sit there, with a slew of unoccupied benches available… (maybe my attempt to avoid being weird actually ends up making me weird… maybe I over analyze…eh, so it goes…)

Not wanting to encroach on the other bench sitters I wandered the park looking for another south facing bench on which to soak up the sun… when I couldn’t find one, it became a “take inventory” design analysis school assignment (in my mind at least). Which made me the weird guy walking around looking at benches…

Short story, long, all of which led me to count 4 south facing benches…

Light leaks in eyelids would not be fun… multi-tasking is a fallacy…

Happy Holidays!

– T

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