ID TERMS

Hi Andrew,

Can you email me the ID terms. Had to post could not find your email address.

Thanks

Good News & Presentation Schedule

Students:

USP 3 Final oral presentations in class.

Reminder: All students are expected to make a short 5-7 minute oral presentation in class during the last week. Presentations can be made using Power Point slides, or on posterboard.

The schedule is:
July 29: last name begins with A-H
July 31, last name begins with J- Z

All students must attend both classes July 29, 31. Final papers due on or before July 31 at 5pm. No late papers accepted. Extra credit given for papers turned in on July 29.


Also, as many of you lost points not as much on the essays, but on the Multiple Choice and IDs, I'd just like to emphasize that we will be grading the final presentations and papers really on the amount of effort you put in, not on your ability to remember particular names and dates.

So if you have:

• a quality presentation
• sufficient, quality research
• clear writing
• engagement with the class themes

-you will receive a top mark on this part of the course.

And remember we will be assigning extra credit, probably ~3 points, for those papers that are turned in on Tuesday. So buckle down over the weekend and turn in the best paper and presentation that you can.

Theses & Arguments

Students:

The grading is coming along, and I just wanted to put out a couple of exemplars of very fine opening theses statements.

On Essay #1 Banham

"Banham's view of Los Angeles departed distinctly from that of many architects and urban planners who saw LA as a meaningless sprawl, and undifferentiated no man's land. Banham felt LA had purpose and merit in is development and architecture; it had followed a unique path specifically suited to its distinct ecologies and history."

• The strength of this opening is that it situates Banham among his contemporaries, and recognizing that his views oppose much of the architectural criticism of LA. Most importantly, it distinguishes between LA as planned [which Banham does not argue] and having a purpose and uniqueness [which is what Banham celebrates].
  
• The weakness is the use of "distinct ecologies": Banham does not say that LA's built environment follows the natural environment [think of his criticisms of Surfurbia as privatizing and closing off the beach], but instead selects what he sees as architectural styles that have PRODUCED 'ecologies'. As writers sometimes frustratingly do, Banham has his own meaning of ecologies here, meaning more like the way architecture makes you feel, or the milieu of a particular place like a freeway or a beach town.
  

On Essay #3
"Barcelona represents a unique city that took upon the challenge of preserving its historic areas as well as promoting it city as a globally prominent destination. This section will discuss the historic significance of Barcelona and what strategies Barcelona officials took to preserve public space."

• This opener offers a wonderful sense of the multiple changes simultaneously taking place in Barcelona, both preservation and renewal. It also brings in a sense of history and the role of globalization, key issues discussed in Return to Center.
  

I hope you can see that I was not looking for anything fancy when I say that I wanted a thesis, just something more than a preview of what you are going to say. For example, almost all of the essays on Banham or Whyte merely told me what the ecologies/architectures are, or what the elements of effective public spaces are. Those are good, but could be improved, methods of opening an essay.

Overall the work on the essays are really quite good and I'll be returning them to you tomorrow so you can know where you stand going into the final presentation/paper.

AC

Reply to all Questions

Avi and everyone else:

To answer these questions, not entire in order:

The full guidelines for the paper are in the syllabus, but the length is 10-15 double-spaced pages. Please do not go over 15 pages except for the bibliography.

Expect to have only 5-7 minutes for your powerpoint presentations unfortunately, as we'll have almost 15 people going in each class meeting.

Your examples from Banham and Relph are for better or for worse accurate. Study to that level of depth for Banham, which I think is feasible since he only has 4 ecologies and 4 architectures. Studying to that level of depth for Relph is less feasible, but what can I say? Sometimes school is difficult. But don't kill yourself trying to nail down every person and building he discusses, instead think of the major architectural/urban planning movements he discusses, and find some key people & buildings for each. I think your list does a good job of that.

As for sample questions, these were discussed in the review session. Again as follows

IDs:
Modernism or the International Style
Mies Van Der Rohe
The Illinois Institute of Technology
*Remember I am expecting 3 things from each ID: definition, significance/example, and citation. You can cite lecture where appropriate, but I expect at least 5 different citations across the 10 IDs.


Essay:
Discuss 3 of the 4 following architectural & urban design periods discussed by Relph. Modern Town Planning, the First Machine Age, Modernism & the International Style, and Postmodernism.

**Remember I am expecting a thesis statement in your introductory paragraph; even though the prompts are open-ended, you need to give me a clear argument. Simplicity is ok, even preferred! But I do not want a simple regurgitation of the books or lecture, I need to hear your thoughts and opinions on the material. Remember, I've already read these books and I know what they say--what do you think of them?


Multiple Choice:
Who among the following postmodernists argued that contrary to prevailing opinion, there is much to learn from Las Vegas' architecture and design?
--Denise Scott Brown
--Phillip Johnson
--Michael Graves
--Frank Gehry

For Herzog's book, I said in the review session that you should focus on the cities he discusses and what we can learn from them. Why does he choose the cities he does? How do they differ? What are his conclusions about successful/unsuccessful public spaces?

If I missed anything let me know. See you tomorrow.

The Modern Urban Landscape

I think I might be doing an over kill on the terms... any suggestions on which ones I can cut out... this is my list for the Relph book only... although alot of these were also covered in the lecture also.

Broadacre City
Burnham, Daniel
Chicago World Fair
Chrysler Building
City Beautiful Movement
First Machine Age
Garden City
Garden Suburbs
Home Insurance Building
Howard, Ebenezer
Le Corbusier
Five points of architecture
Radiant city
Levittown
Mies van der Rohe
Modernism
Radiant City
Second Machine Age
Louis Sullivan
Wright, Frank Lloyd


Also what should we take aways from the Herzog book for the Midterm.. this book is a great source for the final project but I am not sure how you plan on testing on it?

Mid-Term Four Ecologies

Hi Andrew,

The Banham book is a little hard to follow or really take notes for the Midterm on... for this book what should we do to prepare for the test?

These are the possible ID terms I pulled out...

1. Surfurbia
2. Autopia
3. Trasportation Palimpsest
4. Fantastic... do you suggest anymore?

I feel Banham is not really using these IDs as ID's but as an overall way of explaining what is going on in LA. How will you test on this book because a lot of what he is saying is in the first person? I also feel he is not really coming to any real conclusions he is just rambling on about LA... just my opinion...

Midterm Review

Is it possible to get a sample essay for the midterm... also can you post possible ID termssss?
Can you also post a sample multiple choice questions so I know what level to look at the material.


Cheers...

Final Question

Hi Andrew,

How long does the final project have to be and how much time do we have for the power point?

Midterm Review

Students:

This is just a reminder that we are having a review for the midterm exam tomorrow after class.
YOU MUST BRING QUESTIONS REGARDING THE CLASS LECTURES, FILMS, AND READINGS, AS I WILL ONLY BE BRINGING PRACTICE MULTIPLE CHOICE, DEFINITION, AND ESSAY QUESTIONS.

Thanks, and see you tomorrow,
AC

Blogging

Students:

So far there has not been much enthusiasm for posting, which I understand. But I want to encourage you that the more you use this space, the more you will all benefit from each other's experiences, especially when it comes to preparing for the exam and executing your research projects.

So I wanted to quickly suggest some of the types of things to consider posting, especially as the class progresses. I really hope to begin to hear about your experiences in the field--both Professor Herzog and I know what it is like to try to engage the real world and produce research from it. It is a fun, but at times difficult process.

• Comments or questions related to class readings or lectures
• Questions about the midterm. Obviously I can't say what will be on it but feel free to send in your questions as you are preparing for the exam.
  
• Experiences in the research project. One thing I'd especially like to see are some of your experiences in the field doing research so that your colleagues can benefit from your successes and frustrations. Any of the following could be valuable to someone else, either as things to emulate or failures to avoid:
• Research sources--online, journals, books, news media, etc
• Sources for visual materials--atlases, encyclopedia, etc
• What it's been like to be in public spaces and doing research? Conducting interviews, taking notes, interesting observations, run-ins with security [hopefully not], experiences challenging your initial conclusions when you returned to your sites, etc
  
• How to relate your topic to the class' themes
• Putting together a PowerPoint presentation of your findings

And remember, even if you don't feel like posting to this space, you can send me an email and we can discuss.


Finally, for those of you who were interested in yesterday's lecture topic on mental mapping, you can use that in your research. Maybe not necessarily asking strangers to map out San Diego, but things like cognitive distance. If you're in Imperial Beach, you might ask someone how far away UCSD or Balboa Park are.

Here are the library's copies of Kevin Lynch's Image of the City

And if you like this topic, you could also use the following book in your paper. It is easy to read, and touches on the psychological aspects of urban planning and living. If you are looking at malls, then definitely pick up this book.

David Sibley. 1995. Geographies of Exclusion. New York: Routledge.

Good luck

Proposal Reminder

Students:

Again to reiterate some points made about your proposals, and your projects generally:

First, you probably already know this, but the more you put into this effort the more you will get out of it. And almost inevitably [although it might not seem like it at the time] your grade will rise with the amount of time spent as well.

Secondly, we are absolutely looking for the most focused project you are able to produce. As you are reading class and outside materials and thinking of your topic, try to make a list of all the things that are interesting to you about the La Jolla Cove, for example. From there, hierarchize them so you can fit in other ideas into one, coherent thesis. And as Professor Herzog suggested, the more specific you are, the more helpful we can be.

Also, feel free to type out questions or brainstorms you're having below your proposal. These can often be very helpful to key me into your larger thought process, as I realize you haven't had much time to think about this project yet.

Keep reading, and I thought I'd add a link to an interview by Mike Davis to help you on your way. Even if you read the first bit of this, you get a sense of how fantastic this man is and how he truly has a knack for urban spaces and how they spawn particular social lives.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/82655/tomdispatch_interview_mike_davis_turning_a_planet_into_a_slum

Midterm

I know it should be farther away, but here's a thought about the midterm. I could imagine a short answer question being any one of the three topics:

Modernism architectural style
Mies Van Der Rohe
Frank Lloyd Wright

Between the lecture and the film these were all extensively covered. What will make a top answer is to link the style to its main proponents, and main achievements/failures, or vice versa. So if you get modernism, explain what it is, what it came after/before, and how the above figures--or others such as Gropius and the Bauhaus architects--mattered to it. Or if you get a modernist figure, explain what s/he did and how s/he fit into the larger movement of modernism.

I lived in Chicago for 6 years, and can speak to how awful Van Der Rohe's buildings are, and how wonderful Wright's are. At least in my opinion, I agreed with a lot of the film today

For example:
On Wright--click on falling water or the Robie house
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/index/wright/wrightindex.html

Contrast that with Van Der Rohe's Togendhat's house:
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/architects/mies_van_der_rohe.htm

And just imagine going to this campus:
http://www.mparchitects.com/articles/images/campus-iit.jpg

If nothing else, I hope these images show the contrasting styles that modernism included. Remember these architects were unified by certain ideas about the social purpose and possibility of design and planning, even if these ideas took them in different directions. They also represent similarly-inspired oppositions to the earlier, elitist and ornamental era of building...

ac

Final Project notes

Students:

I just wanted to reiterate what Professor Herzog said in class today regarding your final projects.
If you're having trouble thinking of a site, and how it relates to our course topisc, you should begin by thinking about what's been said in class that is interesting, consulting the course texts, or looking through the references in the syllabus for starters.

Either that or just start going out into campus and greater San Diego and start to think critically about what public spaces look like, how they're being used, what kind of people are/are not there, and keep that ball rolling. Remember a key task is for you to put your spin on what the meaning seems to be for that space. Here are some additional ways of thinking about that question:
--is the space used in tension, or calmly functioning? what are people doing in this space--staying there, en route to somewhere else, on the phone, walking sitting, etc? start by making simple observations like these
--if it is being used in some kind of routine stability, does that seem planned or somehow spontaneous?
--if people enjoying the space, does the space seem designed for that kind of activity and pleasure or are people improvising?
--what surrounds the two spaces you're comparing? how does the larger built environment affect the behaviors and uses you see in the spaces you're considering?
--does the architecture seem functional [probably modernist] or playful [possibly post-modernist]?
--what's public about the space you're observing? how do you and the people who are using it seem to think it is indeed public? and how does that produce or inhibit certain behaviors?

This concept might seem kind of fuzzy, but one of the things we want you to think about is architecture as a 'social discourse': this means that spaces both reflect society AND help shape it. Take Chicano Park in Barrio Logan, which only emerged in its current form as a highly coordinated response to a variety of projects undertaken by the government and corporations, often with little regard for residents: The Coronado Bridge, a CHIPS facility, the ship yards, industrial and toxic sites, and more. So it is possible to see Chicano Park as a result of community struggles to create public space and thus representing a social discourse. But struggle is not necessary for social discourse: Horton Plaza, created by a public-private partnership [PPP] between the Center City Development Corporation [public] and private capital very much represents a social discourse, but one very different from Chicano Park.

I hope some of these thoughts are helpful in spurring your topics.

Remember I want to see quality, thoughtful paragraphs with sites selected, REASONS why your comparison is interesting and relates to class, and the sources you're using [so far]. Please also feel free to include any questions you're having, pictures, maps, etc.

Take a notebook and a camera with you! Don't trust yourself to remember, but take down your observations while they're fresh and rich. You never know what will strike you as interesting later. Mark down the time of day too.

Enjoy, and have a fun holiday-
ac

Greetings and Welcome

Students:

Welcome to USP3 The City and Social Theory. This is just a quick hello and a reminder that the scheduled discussion section is not going to be held. Instead, I will be available after every Tuesday class meeting.

And remember that your 1 paragraph proposal is due no later than the start of class next Thursday, July 10th. You need to have:

• --your 2 sites selected

• --your area of focus selected, or an idea of why you are interested in these spaces and how this relates to the course [this can of course change, but you need to get your wheels turning now]
• --1-2 sources. These can be used either as:

1. models of how to do this kind of project. Here see the Whyte book, Professor Herzog's text, Chapter 1 of Mike Davis' City of Quartz [especially for those of you doing LA], or Hal Rothman's The Neon Metropolis [although it's about Las Vegas, it's an excellent and fun to read model for how to do public space research.]
2. sources you are relying on for specific information regarding the history of the space you're covering, and/or the issue you're going to focus on. I recommend Mike Davis' Under the Perfect Sun, one of the only histories of our city, or the San Diego Historical Society's online history at: http://www.sandiegohistory.org/timeline/timeline.htm

Keep in mind you cannot actually cite the SDHS timeline unless you use it as an example of the "booster"/advertised version of San Diego history. Of course all sources have a bias, but this one is so biased it does not count as an academic source. I highly encourage you to go to the SDHS, however, as it is an excellent starting point for learning of the history of public spaces in our city & county.