Living in the Brownfield – Page67 by Lynette Jackson

Social media, image creation, photography and software are converging at an unforeseen rate that even Steve Jobs would have been awestruck by.  Exploiting this rich seam of convergence, one creative genius has caught our eye on Instagram.  Lynette Jackson, aka "p67_bylynettejackson", is photographing, designing, publishing, and distributing the 21C architectural monograph, all via her iphone.    

Her work is published in series, we call it a quad, the series introduces the subject, tells the viewer what to look at, points out the detail of construction, and directs us to notice the craft and skill that are commonly overlooked in the built environment.  Her work is parallel to the process of creating construction documents, each image changing scale, viewpoint and stressing the vital information for the viewer to  construct a new world, in that sense Lynette Jackson is an architect of the highest caliber.

Lynette creates architecture out of the world found all around us.  Her critical eye captures the essence of a structure and clinically remixes it, examining and dissecting the subject through a series of visual critiques that rely on her mastery of photography, connoisseurship, graphics, and architecture.

Architecture resides at the fertile intersection of site, system, material, and detail.  Lynette exploits all of these vital components in the creation of her images, which are distributed globally through her bi-weekly feed.  The sheer joy of seeing her posts is similar to that nostalgic moment when the quarterly subscription arrived in the post with architectural imagery of exotic projects & locales.

You can see and learn more about Lynette and her work through the following links - as always we advocate supporting the arts and the artist by becoming a patron!  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/p67/

http://lifeinlofi.com/2012/01/18/iphoneography-spotlight-lynette-jackson/

Living in the Brownfield - Independent Film

Guest Blog by Clint Newton - Spade of Reason

OK, so while not exactly the star, our office was used as a set for a soon to premier film by local author Jim Cowan. The Spade of Reason was filmed in the early months of 2011 on location in Bethlehem at the NCC South-side Campus, Spillman Farmer's office and other places around the Valley.

The film which is set in Texas in 1996 is a SciFi drama about a  brilliant but quirky young man Cax6ton who looks for messages in randomness, scattered tiles from a Scrabble game, simple computer programs he writes with a friend, white noise from an old TV, and finally government IT systems he subverts for his own ends. His journey takes him from dark places that none of us want to go but in some part have been.

In the early days of 2011 we began an intensive Social Marketing campaign to help position ourselves in a fiercely competitive market. As part of that effort I reluctantly embraced Facebook and was soon up to my digits in social media. While catching up with old friends rediscovered through this new to me media, I stumbled onto a link to ACE, the Arts Community of Easton, where I learned of a local author Jim Cowan's efforts to bring his screenplay to life using local independent talent. The screenplay intrigued me and so I thought maybe I could do something to lend a hand. As a set builder and designer I was looking for new challenges. While reading through the location log I was struck with an overwhelming almost eerie sense of familiarity. The scene he described was only feet from my desk at work. I sent him a brief email to tell him that I had his location and a few weeks later we had a shooting schedule. In addition to hosting, I was also able to find some vintage props to set the scene.
The location uses the brownfield as a backdrop stand-in for the Cold War era Pantex nuclear bom disposal facility. Unlike the intentionally desolate and bleary backdrop of the story, our brownfield is becoming greener and more vibrant every day. Learn more about The Spade of reason at  www.spadeofreason.com. Look for the Spade of reason to show at this summers South-Side Film Festival. Come out and see what Living in the Brownfield is like in person and on the silver screen!

And talking about stars: One of the local actors in the film, Reese Sebastian Diaz, is currently playing Michael Banks in Mary Poppins on Broadway.  After acting as the young Caxton in The Spade of Reason Reese went on to play roles in the national tour of Beauty and the Beast, produced by Disney, and then the national tour of Mary Poppins, also a Disney production, before continuing with his role on Broadway this spring,,

Your are invited to attend the premier for the Spade of Reason on March 24th 6-9PM at  Lipken Theater, Northampton Community College.   A trailer for the film and more details about the film and the premier are at www.spadeofreason.com

Please RSVP to: Karentrionfo@rcn.com  by March 14^th if you want to see the film, meet the cast and crew, and get some free food.

Living in the Brownfield - Architectural Digest Home Design Show for Vicki DaSilva

Well that's certainly my longest post title!  Huge applause for Vicki DaSilva, she'll be featured at the prestigious Architectural Digest Home Design Show this March 22-25th.   We love the work she does and hope that you'll go out and support her efforts. Stop by her booth and have her tell you about the time she was accused of "signaling to offshore boats"...a great story!

Light painting time exposure photographs made at night live on location using fluorescent lamps. Commissions welcome for your chosen location. Vicki DaSilva is a pioneer of light painting and light graffiti photography. Her work has been exhibited and collected internationally. Meet Vicki in person at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show March 22-25, 2012 in NYC.

Stop in and see Vicki at MADE: Booth M54

More of her work can be seen at www.vickidasilva.com

hope to see you at the show, congrats Vicki !

http://www.archdigesthomeshow.com/

Living in the Brownfield - Industrial Architecture Part 2

This is a continuation of the Industrial Architecture series, I've developed some images to try and begin to explain the scale of the endeavor as it relates to being there.  Keep in mind that over the weekend we had some high winds, they resulted in something unusual, as shown in the images.

this image shows about 25 SF of the layout that occurs for the tilt up constructions - the entire project is 1.2 million square feet - so that's a lot of layout!

from wikipedia:
"In this method concrete elements (i.e. walls, columns, structural supports, etc.) are formed on a concrete slab; usually the building floor, but sometimes a temporary concrete casting surface near the building footprint. After the concrete has cured, the elements are tilted from horizontal to vertical with a crane and braced into position until the remaining building structural components (roofs, intermediate floors and walls) are secured."

the layout for the wall panels contines along all side of the steel frame structure that is completed from the inside out to allow for the panels to be formed on site and, literally, in place.

from wikipedia:
"Tilt-up construction is a dominant method of construction throughout North America, several Caribbean nations, Australia, and New Zealand. It is not significantly used in Europe or the northern two thirds of Asia. It is gaining popularity in southern Asia, the Middle East, parts of Africa, Central and South America.
Concrete elements can also be formed at factories away from the building site Tilt-up differs from prefabrication, or plant cast construction, in that all elements are constructed on the job site. This eliminates the size limitation imposed by transporting elements from a factory to the project site."

when shooting these images I was trying to convey scale, but also capture a sort of "craig ellwood modern", "case study california" feeling out of the utilitarian structure. 

 In the book, "Big Shed", Will Pryce  opens his discussion about the orgins of the typology with the following story:
"In 1994 Norman Foster delivered a lecture at Hong Kong University.  Describing his new airport at Stansted he talked almost entriely about the building's cheapness and efficiency.  At the end of the lecture a student asked why Foster had talked so much about economics and so little about aesthetics - to which Foster replied that if the student did not understand that he had been talking about aesthetics then that there was nothing more to be said."

I close with this image of the windswept debris that I've run through a glitch producing software called Decim8.  All of the images were taken and fully edited on the iphone and will be uploaded daily through out the week on instagram - you can find me at "fac_610" if you want to see more iphoneography.

once agian - the site plan to add something to the overall understanding of the scale.

Living in the Brownfield - Industrial Architecture Part 1

Our office is located on a 1000-acre site that was the former home the to Bethlehem Steel Corporation.  The site still contains many of the iconic structures that define the architecture of the industrial revolution in America.  Over the next few days we'll be sharing some imagery of those buildings, but today we wanted to explore industrial scale and the current condition of the site.

Spillman Farmer Architects is currently working "one of the largest speculative industrial projects under way in the U.S."  for Liberty Property Trust as noted in the Wall Street Journal's Deal of the Week | by Maura Webber Sadovi .  Her article, titled "A Steel Site is Recycled", explained the scale of the project in numbers as "1.2 million square feet" of space.  Our project, item #1 above, can be viewed in context
of the overall site.  Some interesting facts below to help set the scale of the structure :

1.  You could fit 62 offices the size of our own within the structure - see item #2.
2.  If the project was an open office space you could have 26,530 people in cubicles.
3.  If you wanted to host an indoor soccer tournament you could play 60 games at the same time, thats    
     a lot of soccer!

More next week on the exisitng structures that surround our office and are still in use today by Lehigh Heavy Forge.

SFA News - Archdaily Building of the Year 2011

We got two in the running for nominations this year!  Go check them out...and vote!

cultural building nominee - ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks
Paul Warchol Photography

http://www.archdaily.com/building-of-the-year/2011/vote/building/170936

industrial building nominee - Central Energy Plant at Dickinson College
Steve Wolfe Photography

vote early and vote often (once a day at least!) - much appreciated!

SFA News - American-Architects Review: Building of the Week

We're really proud to have our project featured by the american-architects website, the quality of architecture they publish is world class and we're honored to have our project included!

We want to thank all of those involved with making this project happen, the donors, the clients, the people in the field, and all those who continue to visit the Sigal Museum after the grand opening!  This building of the week article is dedicated to all of you helping to keep culture and history alive in progressive fashion!

http://www.american-architects.com/en/projects/project-current-review/34256_sigal_museum