built

New cement aborbs pollution. Powered by titanium dioxide, the same stuff in the paint that absorbs pollution. As long as it creates less pollution when produced...
>  17 May 2006 | LINK | Filed in ,
Architectures of Control. A blog of structures and designs intended to control or limit the user’s actions. (A kind of “anti-social design notes”?)
>  4 May 2006 | LINK | Filed in , , ,
Little Brother is Watching. This billboard in Boston, is under attack for its political subject matter. littlebrotheriswatching.com challenges the Bush administration’s domestic wiretapping program. The Massachusetts state Outdoor Advertising Board officials sent the owner of the board, John Rosenthal, a letter stating, “You are directed to remove this billboard forthwith.” The Little Brother is Watching blog is open for comment. (via)
Little Brother is Watching
>  31 March 2006 | LINK | Filed in , , , , , ,

Guerilla Wayfinding, 2

Wow! Three weeks ago I posted a modest proposal for a guerilla wayfinding campaign, painting compass stencils at the exits of subway stations for disoriented commuters.

Today at the 8th Avenue L exit I found this:

Compass Rose on 14th Street

Here’s a hi-res photo someone posted to Flickr of the same compass at the Bleeker 6 exit. I found more at Astor Place and Union Square. Is someone reading this blog? And will they go all city?

>  28 March 2006 | LINK | Filed in , , , , ,

Guernica Stencils

Inspired by the call of Visual Resistance and John Unger, here’s an attempt at a few Guernica stencils:

fleeing.png lamp.png crying.png

Click on an image above for a printer-friendly PDF.

They could probably be simplified further, but here’s a first go.

Free to download and distrbute!

>  23 March 2006 | LINK | Filed in ,
Barriers for Disability at Work. “Most disabled people would tell you that the bigger concerns they have around the workplace are not around physical accessibility,” said Andrew Imparato, president of the American Association of People with Disabilities. “They’re more around attitudes. I think it’s easier to legislate and see change around bricks and mortar than it is around attitudes.” Half of the employers surveyed said workplace adjustments for accessibility came at no expense. 43 percent reported a one-time cost that averaged around $600.
>  16 March 2006 | LINK | Filed in ,
Squatter Skate Park Becomes Official. Searching for fast disappearing skateboard space in Seattle, two activists took matters into their own hands and created a fully functioning park before the city caught on. (via)
>  9 March 2006 | LINK | Filed in , ,
www.green.ca.gov. Gov. Arnold says: public buildings must be 20 percent more energy efficient by 2015. It’s all in the State of California’s Green Building Action Plan (33KB PDF).
>  9 March 2006 | LINK | Filed in , , , ,
Affordable by Design. Some examples of sustainable and affordable single-family homes. (via)
>  8 March 2006 | LINK | Filed in

Guerilla Wayfinding

Last night, a friend from out of town commented on his disorientation when exiting subway stations in New York City. Which way is North? It always takes a minute or two (or more) to find a street sign, landmark, or other orienting information. In some cases it means walking a whole city block to find out you’re heading in the wrong direction. I’ve lived here for 15 years and I’m still disoriented at far-flung exits where the streets all have names and no numbers.

In midtown they have do little kiosks at street level with maps to nearby landmarks. But this seems like overkill for mostly mixed and residential neighborhoods. So how hard would it be for the MTA to paint a little direction indicator on the pavement near each subway exit?

Hell, how hard would it be to take matters into our own hands? To start a guerilla wayfinding campaign?

To that end, I’ve posted a few free stencils here. I’ve tried to keep it in the MTA style — with the exception of the compass rose. (But then who doesn’t love a compass rose?)

Click the thumbnails below to download a 20KB PDF.

north compass_rose


Update 3/7/06: I’ve deprecated the uptown and downtown stencils, since it occurs to me that this could cause some confusion with the subway lines themselves often referred to uptown or downtown lines.


Update 3/28/06: Using their own fancy, two-color stencil, someone’s taken it on!.

>  5 March 2006 | LINK | Filed in , , , , , ,



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