"An architectural design competition for the purpose of developing a catalogue of desirable residential structures for 25-foot wide lots." http://www.livingsmartpdx.com/default.asp
just went to check out the site. both this and the CTC comp anger me. why should i pay them a fee just to see the design brief, to figure out what the site parameters are, what the submission requirements are etc.to determine if i have any interest in the competition? they clearly must be afraid people wont do it once they see how it is very mediocre. if its only posted on the web, this is inexcusable to hold the most basic information hostage. only collecting entry fees. with such little information [outside the jurors CV's which most often gets the largest space in the brief] i would stay away.
dont your remeber, IKE, in ford they had 10 pages of jury bios [and 1 full page for robertson who has done very little] and about 1/4 page for client goals. if they dont want to give me a clue what its about before they get my fiver, they can keep it.
with no apparent honorarium or stipend, why isnt the architectural community and the aia portland up in arms about this competition that is providing free design services for developers, let alone supporting it? broadly stating its an 'ideas competition to stimulate discussion' is just a load of crap. it says 'A future phase of this project will include the development of permit-ready plans.' is it bad developer building throughout portland that is driving the city to do this? fill me in, please.
in chicago, not a model at all for any form of fairness as we have heard on archinect, the city ran a program called 'new homes for chicago' and built the prototypes, at least awarding a commission with fees to various winners. did another comp; 'green homes for chicago' -- built the prototypes. ran an design competition for universal housing; built the prototype -- all with the purpose of being demonstration models for the public. its really been a huge success to show the public, not just slock developers, how to build affordable housing with financing. not just a stack of permit plans for developer use to avoid even further the role of the architect in community development / design. residents walk thru the units and actually begin to have a critical voice about the places they live and their communities. that should be the audience of the competition. they also did a program 'green bungalow' which renovated a number of existing bungalows [about 30% of chicago is bungalow] to demonstrate how they could be modernize, geothermal, universal design, live / work spaces etc.
25' lots are the norm in about 30% of the residential neighborhoods in chicago and it is a challenge.
We all know the role of the architect in residential design is non-existant. We can't expect the public in general or developers to just start awarding design fees to architects overnight. If architects want to work their way back into residential design on any kind of meaningful level, we have to start at the bottom. And if the bottom in this case is throwing some essentially pro bono effort out for developers, well, that's a starting point.
come on now. put your pro bono efforts where it counts to not-for-profit social agencies, not at developers dinner table. are you that desparate? clearly the polititian see the need to improve the quality of and put options in portland for good quality affordable housing. in chicago the need was there also and it took the governemt to figure out how to get the money to do it.[having a daley in the whitehouse at the time also helped]. the neigborhoods deparately needed rebuilding. these units are now being built throughout the city by private money - CDA's. Chicago had to power and recognized they had to be the lead in this area, set a strong example how to do it and they did it.
look at the competition. its not an ideas competition -- its to do permit drawings for developers for naught.
Actually, I do work for non-profits in the area, though not "social agencies".
I can see your point, setting the example of working for free. But like I said before, if architects want to get back into residential design in any meaningful way, were going to have to make some concessions and swallow our pride a little.
In the end, it's a house. You could knock this thing out in a weekend, and at worst your down $35. And there is the opportunity, however small it might be, that a developer might decide architects aren't a complete waste of money.
Or we as a profession can turn our nose up at this sort of thing, complain that it's beneath our lofty goals and ideals, and further alienate the general masses from what we do.
Knock it out in a weekend? If designing a house was this easy why have a competition?
It is not easy if you are really going to put some effort into it and push residential design and come up with some original concepts.
The competition seems to be set up so that the “award†is not monetary but the possibility of being published. I too have a problem with this standpoint. If the competition was severing a social good - below market rate, Habitat… some kind of *non-profit* it would be different. But this thing appears to me to be an incubator for free ideas that developers will use to build houses that are more appealing than what currently exists and those developers will make a profit on it.
That is not fair. We come up with the concepts that make living better in some way and homes more marketable while the developers make the money on it.
I hope no one enters this competition. Send a message back to the organizers that our ideas are not free for the pillaging.
I'm not saying that residential design is that easy, I'm just saying you could put together an entry for this competition pretty quick. You could spend a month or two, sure. But it's not like it's a hospital or something, the program is pretty clear. And there's nothing saying you have to "push residential design" or reinvent the wheel. Working within the existing discourse is always an option.
Why is it that that housing the general public, mister Average American is not worth an ounce of effort? Just because someone can afford to buy a house on their own they don't deserve some originality? I hear plenty of whining from architects and students about McMansions and $900,000 EIFS boxes. Here is an opportunity to propose some alternatives and all I see is a bunch of excuses why we're too good for this.
Take money out of the argument. What other problems do you have with it?
Believe it or not, the group that came up with this idea wants to put a stop to the infill crap that is starting to crop up in the neighborhoods on the left-over lots. Actually, a lot of full size lot owners are subdividing too to make money on lots that occur in the appropriate zoning areas. Small time developers with no design sense, or even community sensibility [in a architectural contextual sense], are erecting fast cheap mindless structures that are unfortunately killing the neighborhoods' feel.
The dark side of this is that Portland, in my opinion, would like a catalogue of wonderful bungalows and victorians to fill in the neighborhoods. I'm not interested in that, as a designer or as a Portland resident. The modernists on the jury would like to see good architecture of any style to appear. This seems somewhat promising.
However, I think you've hit the nail on the head. The promise here for the winner is to be published in this catalogue.
There is no discussion yet on how the designs would be built. I've heard Portland would like to have a plan book for small lot developers to choose from. In one sense, it doesn't design the building for them, per se. But, I can't imagine they will be the type of builder that will decide he needs a design professional's help to build from what amounts to a napkin sketch.
I'm torn. I think the idea to have a plan book of preset designs for as yet undefined sites is downright stupid (especially when promoted by architects). On the other hand, it's somewhat noble to try to bring up the quality of design and construction and even increase the visibility of design among the public. There is certainly a way to enter the competition in a creative manner, if you put your mind to it.
AND, it's cheaper than that damn AIA housing comp!
My underlying point is that the architects that came before us (for whatever reason) have undermined the value of our profession which is exactly why developers don’t hire architects – they don’t see our contribution to their bottom line. We should not perpetuate this situation by giving away our services – especially to those whom are obviously going to profit from it.
As to developing a “plan book†– I don’t have a problem with that as long as it is done right and properly credits all involved. The LivingSmart organization should have started by finding financial backing for the competition so that any published design intended to be built gets the proper financial reconciliation. This could be a flat fee for the design or a percentage of every construction of that individual design.
Good design will inherently provide more marketing power and well though out plans will bring higher sale & resale values. Neighborhoods will have a better sense of place and the “character†that buyers are looking for. While I agree that it is a noble cause to want to make our neighborhoods better environments don’t forget this is a business and somehow you have to make enough to survive not only right now but when you are sending your kids to college and when retirement comes looking for you. By giving developers your work you’re sending a message that your abilities come for free. Do you think the developer is building pro-bono?
I can't really argue with anything you just said. You're right, we can't make a living giving away our services. I guess my position is, these places are going to get built regardless, and if I participate and don't make any money, the end result might be a little better. If I don't participate, I still don't make money and the houses still get built. So, personally, I'll do it on my own time because I still enjoy the work wether I get paid or not, and hopefully it will turn out to be a positive experience. To blow it off, as if it hurts the developer of no one enters, just further alienates us.
Good design will do what you said, but if we keep holding out for the cash upfront, the good designs will never happen, and where does that leave us?
if one thinks the 'problem' will be solved with giving the developers a flip book of 'good look'n' solutions, they are kidding themselves. will they utilize higher quality materials? no. green solutions? no. local community participation and work skills? no. local community financing? no. you really think these week-end warrior home depot developers can read a plan let alone want to waste $3000 on those designs?
"To assure that the design options are actually used, the City of Portland will identify and implement process incentives or other mechanisms that will make the designs desirable and functional for builders."
to portland, i say: your starting this competition before you have begun to figure it out. step back, have a latte, figure out who you want this program to benifit, find a community, find a block, organized community grants programs, work with local craftsman, get it built, THEN put out a book -- flaunt your sucesses!! make it a grass roots effort as a long term goal -- people shown that good quality affordable housing can be well and folks will demand it. developers will then respond.
I'm holding a competition. If you guys want to send me your thesis, I will create a file folder and store them for my future reference. Then, when it comes time for me to do my thesis, I can just flip through what you guys already did and pull what I want. When I get published, you might be able to recognize pieces of your design in my work and that should be reward enough to send me your stuff. By the way, I charge a $75 filing fee.
is cash ok? or should i send you my credit card #. It is definitly frutrating with the lack of open local design competitions and then they throw this one out. I think i'm gonna submit anyway. Prolly not gonna be many submissions anyway and 35$ and 40 hours would be a deal if i get published. Sorta like those great "Escort service" publications. Even if all you can get out of it is a few contacts 35$ is really just a really great hangover.
I agree with Frit. houses are going to be built on these narrow lots no matter what. I would personally prefer to have a well designed houses on these lots than the usual developer crap.
Sure, the competition would be better if the winners got a cut of the profits. However, architects have been totally removed from almost all aspects of residential design and if we want design to be included in residential design again, we have to start somewhere. I think this competition may help developers see our worth.
its not about getting a cut of profits, fees. focus the effort on the community. teach them about good affordable design. make them the advocates for good design. if the developers cant sell crap because no one wants it after seeing good design, they will have a better understanding of 'worth'.
set it up so demonstration projects get built without the developer to show the standard of quality, design, etc. provide all costing information, details specs, permit drawings, special financing incentive program, architect, contractor, etc. allow the public to absorb, walk through and love them. sell the.
for the developer, its monkey see, monkey do.
you really think you need 20-70 projects to prove a point?
this is the cities brochure for green homes for chicago:
My registration process began weeks ago. I have paid in full. I have yet to recieve the competition packet... It's all electronic and supposedly automated, but it doesn't seem to work so well. There have been numerous email exchanges but I still don't have the brief... I'm not even sure if I'm going to do it yet... Irritating to say the least...
I posed some concerns to the Living Smart program:
Could you explain why the competition brief is not publicly available
until after you collect a registration fee?
Architecture competitions often restrict access to the brief. We have
followed the model of requiring a modest entry fee prior to distributing the brief because it helps to encourage follow-through on the part of the participants.
If you must collect a registration fee prior to distributing the
competition brief, could you describe the contents of the brief?
The information contained on the website is essentially what you can expect of the competition brief. The brief simply goes into more details about the setbacks, lot coverage, maximum building height, and so forth.
Where is this registration money going?
The registration money will offset a small portion of the cost of running
the competition. Among other things, it will help pay for printing and
distributing the monograph and Portland Catalog.
Other than publication, what are the incentives for competition entrants?
If the designs are to remain copyright of the competition winners, are
they guaranteed compensation or a licensing fee if the designs are
utilized by builders/developers?
The Living Smart competition submission form includes a license to publish the entrant's design but very clearly states that the entrant retains all rights, including copyright, to the design. All publications will indicate that the designs are protected through copyright and will include contact information for the designer so that interested builders and homebuyers can contact the designer. In addition, the City of Portland expects to select some designs and contract with the designer to create construction-ready plans that can then be purchased by builders and home buyers.
We have worked closely with local architects and designers on these parameters and believe we have done a good job of providing a vehicle to display and advertise the work of the winning designers and protect their interests.
I'm still having a hard time believing the brief is just an unsecured web address...not even a password? You would think they would send you a secret decoder ring to get access to the site.
Portland, Oregon
On Friday, September 10th, 2004 at 5:15 p.m., the Bureau of Development Services and Commissioner Randy Leonard will host a public reception to announce the Design Excellence winners of the Living Smart: Big Ideas for Small Lots design competition. The reception will be held at 1900 SW 4th Avenue, Room 2500 in Portland. The seven judges will announce the winners and be available to answer questions. The winning designs will be on display for the public to view.
A total of 425 house designs for 25’ wide lots were submitted from the U.S. and 20 other countries. For more information about the judges or the competition go to http://www.livingsmartpdx.com
The Living Smart design competition arose from growing neighborhood opposition to in-fill houses that appeared out of scale with the surrounding neighborhood and triggered the demolition of existing houses. In an effort to balance the desire to maintain the character of Portland neighborhoods and uphold the City’s responsibility to provide affordable housing options with increasing density, Commissioner Leonard proposed a design competition that will result in a catalogue of plans designed to strike that balance.
The competition provides a unique opportunity for the City to collaborate with international designers, builders and neighborhood interests to generate a large pool of creative design options that promote “living smart.â€
i went to the reception last night, but everything became hazy after commissioner leonard said that the purpose of this competition was to help developers bipass the permit process and "not have to hire an architect". i think i booed and then blacked out.
i have foggy memories of some juror talking about how flat roofs are very very difficult to do in portland but to hell with that, and any other contextual issue at hand here, including budget or practicality. so they decided to pick the designs that they felt demonstrated "design excellence."
walking around the room, i had to agree that a few of the designs were somewhat excellent, however, some of them were just completely rediculous and didn't answer the problem whatsoever (but were "edgy!" or "fresh!" or -yes- even "blobby!"). so i kinda of threw up in my mouth a little at that, but was pretty impressed at the breadth of worldwide entrants. i think it was to one's advantage to not be a portland designer in this scenario, because the problem of context was not really at all a deciding issue for the jurors.
i think they made a big mistake by putting out a brief that stated that the main problem with existing designs for these narrow lots was their inability to fit in with the vernacular - but then voting on designs that looked better suited for los angeles or vienna (not all of them, just many).
but i don't know, i'm convinced that this whole process is not going to persuade developers to use these designs, or if they do, it will be the cheapest one (the most mediocre one) and that will be that. developers are cheap bastards, they don't care about design.
and, commissioner leonard is a big dork.
so, sorry i don't have the names of the winners or pictures as i was intending. the merit awards went to someone from vancouver, vienna, harvard and someplace else. they selected 49 boards and were considering slimming that down even further.
i'm curious to hear someone else's impressions who attended.
it's so strange sitting here in the middle of the heartland knowing that people I may know already know the outcome of this thing... (used to live in PDX)... and not being able to know until some point in time in the next ten days or however long it takes... i would think that they could scan in the list of winners and post it in oh, say about, five minutes... maybe that will happen tomorrow.
the merit winners are:
Hannes Wind and Julia Zeleny from Vienna
Jill Dau, Blair Payson and Scott Passman from Cambridge (GSD?)
Wayne T. Chevalier, Adin Dunning and Jeremy Fredrichs from Seattle
Jim Ralph and Michael Laflamme from Vancouver, BC
Supposedly the boards will be available online at www.livingsmartpdx.com beginning monday.
Living Smart Competition
"An architectural design competition for the purpose of developing a catalogue of desirable residential structures for 25-foot wide lots."
http://www.livingsmartpdx.com/default.asp
Anyone doing this competition?
just went to check out the site. both this and the CTC comp anger me. why should i pay them a fee just to see the design brief, to figure out what the site parameters are, what the submission requirements are etc.to determine if i have any interest in the competition? they clearly must be afraid people wont do it once they see how it is very mediocre. if its only posted on the web, this is inexcusable to hold the most basic information hostage. only collecting entry fees. with such little information [outside the jurors CV's which most often gets the largest space in the brief] i would stay away.
Yeah, I'm always weary when there are "community members" as jurors.
dont your remeber, IKE, in ford they had 10 pages of jury bios [and 1 full page for robertson who has done very little] and about 1/4 page for client goals. if they dont want to give me a clue what its about before they get my fiver, they can keep it.
Likewise, I'd had my eye on this for a while and intrigued, but I'd like to know more about it before paying to register...
with no apparent honorarium or stipend, why isnt the architectural community and the aia portland up in arms about this competition that is providing free design services for developers, let alone supporting it? broadly stating its an 'ideas competition to stimulate discussion' is just a load of crap. it says 'A future phase of this project will include the development of permit-ready plans.' is it bad developer building throughout portland that is driving the city to do this? fill me in, please.
in chicago, not a model at all for any form of fairness as we have heard on archinect, the city ran a program called 'new homes for chicago' and built the prototypes, at least awarding a commission with fees to various winners. did another comp; 'green homes for chicago' -- built the prototypes. ran an design competition for universal housing; built the prototype -- all with the purpose of being demonstration models for the public. its really been a huge success to show the public, not just slock developers, how to build affordable housing with financing. not just a stack of permit plans for developer use to avoid even further the role of the architect in community development / design. residents walk thru the units and actually begin to have a critical voice about the places they live and their communities. that should be the audience of the competition. they also did a program 'green bungalow' which renovated a number of existing bungalows [about 30% of chicago is bungalow] to demonstrate how they could be modernize, geothermal, universal design, live / work spaces etc.
25' lots are the norm in about 30% of the residential neighborhoods in chicago and it is a challenge.
Resist i say to Portland. Resist.
We all know the role of the architect in residential design is non-existant. We can't expect the public in general or developers to just start awarding design fees to architects overnight. If architects want to work their way back into residential design on any kind of meaningful level, we have to start at the bottom. And if the bottom in this case is throwing some essentially pro bono effort out for developers, well, that's a starting point.
come on now. put your pro bono efforts where it counts to not-for-profit social agencies, not at developers dinner table. are you that desparate? clearly the polititian see the need to improve the quality of and put options in portland for good quality affordable housing. in chicago the need was there also and it took the governemt to figure out how to get the money to do it.[having a daley in the whitehouse at the time also helped]. the neigborhoods deparately needed rebuilding. these units are now being built throughout the city by private money - CDA's. Chicago had to power and recognized they had to be the lead in this area, set a strong example how to do it and they did it.
look at the competition. its not an ideas competition -- its to do permit drawings for developers for naught.
Resist i say to portland. resist.
Actually, I do work for non-profits in the area, though not "social agencies".
I can see your point, setting the example of working for free. But like I said before, if architects want to get back into residential design in any meaningful way, were going to have to make some concessions and swallow our pride a little.
In the end, it's a house. You could knock this thing out in a weekend, and at worst your down $35. And there is the opportunity, however small it might be, that a developer might decide architects aren't a complete waste of money.
Or we as a profession can turn our nose up at this sort of thing, complain that it's beneath our lofty goals and ideals, and further alienate the general masses from what we do.
Knock it out in a weekend? If designing a house was this easy why have a competition?
It is not easy if you are really going to put some effort into it and push residential design and come up with some original concepts.
The competition seems to be set up so that the “award†is not monetary but the possibility of being published. I too have a problem with this standpoint. If the competition was severing a social good - below market rate, Habitat… some kind of *non-profit* it would be different. But this thing appears to me to be an incubator for free ideas that developers will use to build houses that are more appealing than what currently exists and those developers will make a profit on it.
That is not fair. We come up with the concepts that make living better in some way and homes more marketable while the developers make the money on it.
I hope no one enters this competition. Send a message back to the organizers that our ideas are not free for the pillaging.
I'm not saying that residential design is that easy, I'm just saying you could put together an entry for this competition pretty quick. You could spend a month or two, sure. But it's not like it's a hospital or something, the program is pretty clear. And there's nothing saying you have to "push residential design" or reinvent the wheel. Working within the existing discourse is always an option.
Why is it that that housing the general public, mister Average American is not worth an ounce of effort? Just because someone can afford to buy a house on their own they don't deserve some originality? I hear plenty of whining from architects and students about McMansions and $900,000 EIFS boxes. Here is an opportunity to propose some alternatives and all I see is a bunch of excuses why we're too good for this.
Take money out of the argument. What other problems do you have with it?
Believe it or not, the group that came up with this idea wants to put a stop to the infill crap that is starting to crop up in the neighborhoods on the left-over lots. Actually, a lot of full size lot owners are subdividing too to make money on lots that occur in the appropriate zoning areas. Small time developers with no design sense, or even community sensibility [in a architectural contextual sense], are erecting fast cheap mindless structures that are unfortunately killing the neighborhoods' feel.
The dark side of this is that Portland, in my opinion, would like a catalogue of wonderful bungalows and victorians to fill in the neighborhoods. I'm not interested in that, as a designer or as a Portland resident. The modernists on the jury would like to see good architecture of any style to appear. This seems somewhat promising.
However, I think you've hit the nail on the head. The promise here for the winner is to be published in this catalogue.
There is no discussion yet on how the designs would be built. I've heard Portland would like to have a plan book for small lot developers to choose from. In one sense, it doesn't design the building for them, per se. But, I can't imagine they will be the type of builder that will decide he needs a design professional's help to build from what amounts to a napkin sketch.
I'm torn. I think the idea to have a plan book of preset designs for as yet undefined sites is downright stupid (especially when promoted by architects). On the other hand, it's somewhat noble to try to bring up the quality of design and construction and even increase the visibility of design among the public. There is certainly a way to enter the competition in a creative manner, if you put your mind to it.
AND, it's cheaper than that damn AIA housing comp!
Frit,
My underlying point is that the architects that came before us (for whatever reason) have undermined the value of our profession which is exactly why developers don’t hire architects – they don’t see our contribution to their bottom line. We should not perpetuate this situation by giving away our services – especially to those whom are obviously going to profit from it.
As to developing a “plan book†– I don’t have a problem with that as long as it is done right and properly credits all involved. The LivingSmart organization should have started by finding financial backing for the competition so that any published design intended to be built gets the proper financial reconciliation. This could be a flat fee for the design or a percentage of every construction of that individual design.
Good design will inherently provide more marketing power and well though out plans will bring higher sale & resale values. Neighborhoods will have a better sense of place and the “character†that buyers are looking for. While I agree that it is a noble cause to want to make our neighborhoods better environments don’t forget this is a business and somehow you have to make enough to survive not only right now but when you are sending your kids to college and when retirement comes looking for you. By giving developers your work you’re sending a message that your abilities come for free. Do you think the developer is building pro-bono?
Daver,
I can't really argue with anything you just said. You're right, we can't make a living giving away our services. I guess my position is, these places are going to get built regardless, and if I participate and don't make any money, the end result might be a little better. If I don't participate, I still don't make money and the houses still get built. So, personally, I'll do it on my own time because I still enjoy the work wether I get paid or not, and hopefully it will turn out to be a positive experience. To blow it off, as if it hurts the developer of no one enters, just further alienates us.
Good design will do what you said, but if we keep holding out for the cash upfront, the good designs will never happen, and where does that leave us?
here, here, daver. and proto, good points too.
if one thinks the 'problem' will be solved with giving the developers a flip book of 'good look'n' solutions, they are kidding themselves. will they utilize higher quality materials? no. green solutions? no. local community participation and work skills? no. local community financing? no. you really think these week-end warrior home depot developers can read a plan let alone want to waste $3000 on those designs?
"To assure that the design options are actually used, the City of Portland will identify and implement process incentives or other mechanisms that will make the designs desirable and functional for builders."
to portland, i say: your starting this competition before you have begun to figure it out. step back, have a latte, figure out who you want this program to benifit, find a community, find a block, organized community grants programs, work with local craftsman, get it built, THEN put out a book -- flaunt your sucesses!! make it a grass roots effort as a long term goal -- people shown that good quality affordable housing can be well and folks will demand it. developers will then respond.
I'm holding a competition. If you guys want to send me your thesis, I will create a file folder and store them for my future reference. Then, when it comes time for me to do my thesis, I can just flip through what you guys already did and pull what I want. When I get published, you might be able to recognize pieces of your design in my work and that should be reward enough to send me your stuff. By the way, I charge a $75 filing fee.
is cash ok? or should i send you my credit card #. It is definitly frutrating with the lack of open local design competitions and then they throw this one out. I think i'm gonna submit anyway. Prolly not gonna be many submissions anyway and 35$ and 40 hours would be a deal if i get published. Sorta like those great "Escort service" publications. Even if all you can get out of it is a few contacts 35$ is really just a really great hangover.
anotomical, starting to sound like stanley tigerman.....
if i send you 72.67, would that work for you?
That works, but don't expect too much space in my filing cabinet. Please keep all submittals to 8.5" x 11" and no more than 1/2" thick.
at least when stanley did it, he took full size originals and we were guarateed a gallery showing, in his name, of course.
maybe you should consider electronic filing to keep your options open. just set up an ftp site and will upload it to you. no screwing around.
did you see the motown boys?
Yeah, the Pistons rocked. Did you see all of those blocks?
Thanks for the suggestion regarding the competition. I wll keep them in mind next year when I hold the second annual thesis competition.
Prince was amazing. the boys planned it carefully and will take in in motown friday night in 5. on to the lakers.
I agree with Frit. houses are going to be built on these narrow lots no matter what. I would personally prefer to have a well designed houses on these lots than the usual developer crap.
Sure, the competition would be better if the winners got a cut of the profits. However, architects have been totally removed from almost all aspects of residential design and if we want design to be included in residential design again, we have to start somewhere. I think this competition may help developers see our worth.
I personally plan to enter the competition.
its not about getting a cut of profits, fees. focus the effort on the community. teach them about good affordable design. make them the advocates for good design. if the developers cant sell crap because no one wants it after seeing good design, they will have a better understanding of 'worth'.
Ted,
Wouldn't this be a prime vehicle to show the public good design? If not, how would you propose to do it?
Dan
Let us know what's in the competition packet when you get yours.
set it up so demonstration projects get built without the developer to show the standard of quality, design, etc. provide all costing information, details specs, permit drawings, special financing incentive program, architect, contractor, etc. allow the public to absorb, walk through and love them. sell the.
for the developer, its monkey see, monkey do.
you really think you need 20-70 projects to prove a point?
this is the cities brochure for green homes for chicago:
Green building
All the projects were sold for $145000 on a 25' lot. 1 won an AIA green buildings award this year.
by EHDD
anybody register for this? what's in the competition package?
My registration process began weeks ago. I have paid in full. I have yet to recieve the competition packet... It's all electronic and supposedly automated, but it doesn't seem to work so well. There have been numerous email exchanges but I still don't have the brief... I'm not even sure if I'm going to do it yet... Irritating to say the least...
They don't mail you a brief, it's just a link to the website:
http://www.livingsmartpdx.com/brief/
I know they don't mail you the brief. THEY WOULDN'T EMAIL ME THE GODDAMN LINK.
Thanks for the link by the way!
I posed some concerns to the Living Smart program:
Could you explain why the competition brief is not publicly available
until after you collect a registration fee?
Architecture competitions often restrict access to the brief. We have
followed the model of requiring a modest entry fee prior to distributing the brief because it helps to encourage follow-through on the part of the participants.
If you must collect a registration fee prior to distributing the
competition brief, could you describe the contents of the brief?
The information contained on the website is essentially what you can expect of the competition brief. The brief simply goes into more details about the setbacks, lot coverage, maximum building height, and so forth.
Where is this registration money going?
The registration money will offset a small portion of the cost of running
the competition. Among other things, it will help pay for printing and
distributing the monograph and Portland Catalog.
Other than publication, what are the incentives for competition entrants?
If the designs are to remain copyright of the competition winners, are
they guaranteed compensation or a licensing fee if the designs are
utilized by builders/developers?
The Living Smart competition submission form includes a license to publish the entrant's design but very clearly states that the entrant retains all rights, including copyright, to the design. All publications will indicate that the designs are protected through copyright and will include contact information for the designer so that interested builders and homebuyers can contact the designer. In addition, the City of Portland expects to select some designs and contract with the designer to create construction-ready plans that can then be purchased by builders and home buyers.
We have worked closely with local architects and designers on these parameters and believe we have done a good job of providing a vehicle to display and advertise the work of the winning designers and protect their interests.
Thanks to louismeier for posting the brief...
I'm still having a hard time believing the brief is just an unsecured web address...not even a password? You would think they would send you a secret decoder ring to get access to the site.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 7, 2004
Commissioner Leonard and Bureau of Development Services
Announce Design Excellence Winners of Narrow Lot
House Design Competition at Public Reception
Contact:
Ty Kovatch, Office of Commissioner Leonard 503.823.3003
Susan Feldman, Bureau of Development Services 503.823.7706
livingsmartpdx@ci.portland.or.us
http://www.livingsmartpdx.com
Portland, Oregon
On Friday, September 10th, 2004 at 5:15 p.m., the Bureau of Development Services and Commissioner Randy Leonard will host a public reception to announce the Design Excellence winners of the Living Smart: Big Ideas for Small Lots design competition. The reception will be held at 1900 SW 4th Avenue, Room 2500 in Portland. The seven judges will announce the winners and be available to answer questions. The winning designs will be on display for the public to view.
A total of 425 house designs for 25’ wide lots were submitted from the U.S. and 20 other countries. For more information about the judges or the competition go to http://www.livingsmartpdx.com
The Living Smart design competition arose from growing neighborhood opposition to in-fill houses that appeared out of scale with the surrounding neighborhood and triggered the demolition of existing houses. In an effort to balance the desire to maintain the character of Portland neighborhoods and uphold the City’s responsibility to provide affordable housing options with increasing density, Commissioner Leonard proposed a design competition that will result in a catalogue of plans designed to strike that balance.
The competition provides a unique opportunity for the City to collaborate with international designers, builders and neighborhood interests to generate a large pool of creative design options that promote “living smart.â€
Does anyone have a copy of the winners list from yesterday's 5:15/5:30 pow-wow?
Thanks.
i went to the reception last night, but everything became hazy after commissioner leonard said that the purpose of this competition was to help developers bipass the permit process and "not have to hire an architect". i think i booed and then blacked out.
i have foggy memories of some juror talking about how flat roofs are very very difficult to do in portland but to hell with that, and any other contextual issue at hand here, including budget or practicality. so they decided to pick the designs that they felt demonstrated "design excellence."
walking around the room, i had to agree that a few of the designs were somewhat excellent, however, some of them were just completely rediculous and didn't answer the problem whatsoever (but were "edgy!" or "fresh!" or -yes- even "blobby!"). so i kinda of threw up in my mouth a little at that, but was pretty impressed at the breadth of worldwide entrants. i think it was to one's advantage to not be a portland designer in this scenario, because the problem of context was not really at all a deciding issue for the jurors.
i think they made a big mistake by putting out a brief that stated that the main problem with existing designs for these narrow lots was their inability to fit in with the vernacular - but then voting on designs that looked better suited for los angeles or vienna (not all of them, just many).
but i don't know, i'm convinced that this whole process is not going to persuade developers to use these designs, or if they do, it will be the cheapest one (the most mediocre one) and that will be that. developers are cheap bastards, they don't care about design.
and, commissioner leonard is a big dork.
so, sorry i don't have the names of the winners or pictures as i was intending. the merit awards went to someone from vancouver, vienna, harvard and someplace else. they selected 49 boards and were considering slimming that down even further.
i'm curious to hear someone else's impressions who attended.
aliceb...
doesn't sound like too much fun for you...
it's so strange sitting here in the middle of the heartland knowing that people I may know already know the outcome of this thing... (used to live in PDX)... and not being able to know until some point in time in the next ten days or however long it takes... i would think that they could scan in the list of winners and post it in oh, say about, five minutes... maybe that will happen tomorrow.
oh well. i appreciate the update
the merit winners are:
Hannes Wind and Julia Zeleny from Vienna
Jill Dau, Blair Payson and Scott Passman from Cambridge (GSD?)
Wayne T. Chevalier, Adin Dunning and Jeremy Fredrichs from Seattle
Jim Ralph and Michael Laflamme from Vancouver, BC
Supposedly the boards will be available online at www.livingsmartpdx.com beginning monday.
ok here we go.
the design excellence winners
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