Photo by Alexandra Corraza

Click HERE to see images from the DesigNYC Exhibition

Landscape Plan -- Design by Robin Key Landscape Architects

Western Terrace --- Rendering by Erik Nevala-Lee

Constellation Garden -- Rendering by Erik Nevala-Lee

Community Garden -- Rendering by Erik Nevala-Lee

“Since I was a child, I’ve been interested in bringing together community, affordability, and environment—both buildings and neighborhoods,” he says. “It’s been a very long-term interest.” Click the image to read Affordable Housing Finance's article about the Rose Fellowship's visionary founder. Photo by David S. Holloway

Global consumerism is slowly disintegrating our notions of place. On one hand, we have freeways and strip malls, big box franchises and tract homes. On the other hand, we have a demand for design and beauty that has made its way into all areas of our consumer culture but that is equally global: the iPod, the new Beetle, made-to-order mod pre-fab homes, computer wallpaper, IKEA, and Internet boutique stores are all products of this demand. A strip mall in one place could be anyplace. Purchasing objects from around the world via the Internet instead of buying them locally amounts to the same thing. Marketing images and aesthetics dislodge place and art. Jean Baudrillard speaks to this:

“…Disneyland as hyper-real world masks the fact that all America is hyper-real, all America is Disneyland. And the same for art. We have no more to do with art…as an exceptional form. Now the banal reality has become aestheticized, all reality is trans-aestheticized, and that is the very problem. Art was a form, and then it became….a value, an aesthetic value, and so we come from art to aesthetics–it’s something very, very different.”

Read the full text here.

The Gulf Coast Rose Fellows recently gave a presentation that explored best practices for disaster response.   Their report was derived from lessons learned from the ground in the months and years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; on pieces of the recovery and rebuilding that were successful, and pieces that were lacking or nonexistent.   The report expanded on the role of the existing community and advocated for disaster responses to tap into local formal and informal infrastructures.   The fellows challenged the role of designers in the response effort and identified areas where they could play a greater role, but also acknowledged that there are times when architects and designers aren’t the most appropriate resource to have on hand.

The presentation was broken down into three chronological phases that follow a disaster and talked about best practices for each phase, as well as appropriate anticipatory measures to mitigate losses in future catastrophic events.   Common elements persisted throughout the three phases, often morphing slightly to meet the changing needs of the population in the years after the storm.

The fellows are currently working on drafting the presentation into a format for wider distribution.

The partnership with DesigNYC  and Enterprise will provide Fordham Bedford with pro-bono landscape design services from Robin Key Landscape Architects and a host of in-kind resources for the greenspace initiatives.  The green space initiatives include an 8000 square foot rooftop garden terrace and 53,000 square feet of ground-level landscaping.

You can hear more about the DesigNYC partnership on the Brian Lehrer Show, aired February 24, 2010 in New York City.

The ground-level landscaping and roof terrace will serve to promote daily exercise, encourage social activity, provide shaded areas of rest and repose, and facilitate inter-generational connections.  The roof-top garden terrace will include multiple planted regions that foster small walking circuits, intimate and large-scaled gathering spaces, shaded alcoves, and an urban farm furnished with handicap accessible raised planter beds.

Robin Key Landscape Architects, Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation, and OCV Architects kicked off the projects by acquiring feedback from current Serviam residents. The session was informative and very positive.  The design teams were thrilled that some residents volunteered their own hand-drawn sketches and drawings of their landscape visions!

Both projects are expected to begin construction Spring 2010.  If you are interested in helping with these initiatives, please contact Rose Fellow Esther Yang at Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation.

Bronx-based Rose Fellow Esther Yang will be presenting on March 3, 2010 at the Pratt Center for Community Development with Jim Buckley, Executive Director at University Neighborhood Housing Program.

As water rates increase in New York City, many are looking for alternative water sources and conservation strategies. The session will outline current trends behind water rate increases and the development and property management tactics employed to resist them.

For session details, click here.

. . . since Ayn Rand. The Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship welcomes you to 2010, our tenth anniversary year and the beginning of a decade of change in the architectural design profession.

♥

“Fewer than one percent of architects in the latest survey of the American Institute of Architects (500 of 58,000 members) listed affordable housing as a primary interest. It takes vision, innovation, and dedication to reconcile good environmental practices with cost-consciousness. Knitting person-centered and earth-conscious values together with affordability and universal access is not unattainable or frivolous. Low-cost housing developers are beginning to accept the creative challenge of finding sustainable solutions to good design, good health, and affordability.” – Michelle Dean “Building Green”, published in 1999

Founded in 2000, the Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship is a part of sea-change coursing through the architectural design profession.  In 2009—ten years after Michelle Dean reported 99% of architects’ disinterest in affordable housing design—the Rose fellowship received more candidate applications than ever before.  These numbers testify to a paradigm shift in how today’s young designers are thinking about applying their skills and creativity in the workplace.  Evidence of this shift manifests itself in many ways beyond our immediate experience as well.

Fact:  A Harvard trained architect, Shaun Donovan, serves as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Fact:  Donovan recently spoke at Harvard’s graduate school of design about architectural design’s crucial role in producing high quality affordable housing.

Fact: In July, Michelle Obama endorsed Architecture for Humanity at the White House.

Such a bright and focused national spotlight on design in the public interest is a clear sign of a positive change gaining steam in the profession. The Rose Fellowship is amongst the key players in this new movement, creating partnerships between emerging architects and community development corporations.

Our 2010 fellowship applications will be online at http://www.rosefellowship.org on February 16, 2010.

Pugh + Scarpa's Colorado Court. Santa Monica, CA. Larry Scarpa is one of the Design Resource team members at the Affordable Housing Design Leadership Institute.

The Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship recently announced its plans for the first-ever Affordable Housing Design Leadership Institute at the University of Minnesota in July 2010.  Funded by the McKnight Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Institute will partner front-line affordable housing design architects and developers in a charrette geared towards improving the quality of affordable housing projects around the country.  Check back for more news.  In the meantime, read Architectural Record’s story here.

As a Rose Fellow, I came to the project just as financing was closing. I spent the last two years working with the development consultant from the client side of the project.

This will be a great site to welcome first-time homebuyers. The building is directly in front of a light rail platform and includes bike storage. Homeowners will enjoy and abundance of natural light in their homes, granite counter tops, stainless steel, energy star appliances. Solar panels power the common electrical needs. I even put in a little hands-on work and sewed fabric panels for the lobby.

Project Website

http://www.sfhdc.org/index.php/page/4800BayOaks

The New Year is off to a productive start for the Rose Fellows as Enterprise officially launches online workbooks to assist and guide project managers through Green Communities compliance and certification procedures. Two years in the making , the nation al Green Communities development team translate feedback from Rose Fellows into a  productive online resource that guides project managers towards strategic decisions and accountability measures.

Rose Fellows Ophelia Wilkins, Jessy Olson, and Esther Yang spearheaded efforts that compiled  construction field observations and Green Communities project feedback to shed insight on the process towards high-performance development.  Workbooks aim to trump the pre-existing compliance mentality as fueled by a checklist,  but encourages and emphasizes informed partnerships and thoughtful collaborations between the design, development, and construction teams. Furthermore, these spreadsheets will also serve as a tool and guide for project managers deliberating criteria and certification feasibility.

You can find the workbooks on the Green Communities website: http://www.greencommunitiesonline.org/tools/certification_process.asp