Goody Clancy and Simpson Gumpertz & Heger team up once again at the AIA National Convention

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Goody Clancy Contributors

At this year’s AIA convention in Washington, DC, Goody Clancy and Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH) will host a joint party to celebrate a partnership that began 56 years ago… in 1956. We began our collaboration by working on the Monsanto House (better known as the “House of the Future”), which opened in 1957 for a ten-year run at Disneyland.

In the mid-1950s, SGH founding principal Frank Heger joined the collaborative effort led by Marvin Goody, one of our founders, to design Monsanto’s “House of the Future” (right). Monsanto had sponsored development of a prefabricated plastic house at MIT from 1953 to 1956 in hopes of demonstrating that plastic could play a central role in creation of an inexpensive modular house. Even a decade after the postwar housing shortage that frustrated men and women returning from World War II, architects and developers remained committed to cracking the nut of inexpensive, mass-produced houses (Levittown, anyone?). Though ideas of the future and attitudes about sustainability have evolved significantly in the subsequent 56 years, a commitment to innovation still marks both firms.

Today, the SGH/Goody Clancy relationship remains a fruitful one. Our work together in the past five years has ranged from assessment and studies of multiple building complexes to the repair and rehabilitation of historic buildings to the design of new buildings. We’re currently at work on a half a dozen projects, including four for higher education at the University of Massachusetts, Boston; the University of New Hampshire; Vanderbilt University; and the University of Rochester.

Our “56/56″ reception opens the first night of the convention at the Hotel Monaco. If you plan on attending the convention please stop by to help us toast our LVIth!

Posted in innovation neighborhoods, projects, Uncategorized | Tagged AIA, American Institute of Architects, architecture, design, Disney, Disneyland, Frank Heger, Goody Clancy, Hotel Monaco. reception, House of the Future, Marvin Goody, Monsanto House, National Convetion, plastic, SGH, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, University of Massachusetts Boston, University of New Hampshire, University of Rochester, Vanderbilt University | Leave a comment

O, Pioneers: 10 Minutes from Downtown, Columbus Artists Find a New Frontier in Franklinton

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Goody Clancy Contributors

Guest contributor, Heather Wirth, Urban Smart Growth LLC

Since last fall Goody Clancy has been working with the City of Columbus’s Planning Department and the Franklinton Arts District to develop a plan for revitalizing East Franklinton, a historic but neglected neighborhood just across the Scioto River from downtown. The arts community has eyed the former industrial area’s underused warehouses and factories for years and helped establish the area’s reputation for edgy, urban art with the Urban Scrawl festival (also here). Growing artist interest in the area inspired Mayor Michael Coleman to pursue the idea of East Franklinton as a new center for Columbus’s creative community, an initiative he announced in his 2011 state-of-the-city speech.

The plan aims to attract artists, researchers, entrepreneurs and new media and IT workers by encouraging development of live-work spaces and by using city investment to create new walkable infrastructure for the neighborhood. At this same time, it will strive to prevent the kind of gentrification that has forced artists out of other downtown neighborhoods (after pioneering artists made them fashionable) and that would threaten the small population of current area residents. Although plans like this frequently arrive in advance of actual new development, East Franklinton has already popped up on the radars of private investors like Urban Smart Growth LLC, a national developer of arts-focused live/work spaces. We asked USG’s Heather Wirth to describe progress of the developer’s first East Franklinton project, the former B&T Metals site at 400 West Rich Street.

400 W. Rich Street: Then and Now

400 W. Rich Street in East Franklinton began a new chapter when it opened its doors to artists on July 1, 2011. Twelve new studios on the first floor, ranging in size from 150 to 350 square feet, marked the first step in the transformation of this former warehouse into a dynamic, multifunctional arts complex within walking distance of downtown Columbus. Continue reading →

Posted in community and diversity, getting density right, Uncategorized | Tagged 400 West Rich Street, art, artist lofts, artists, B&T Metals site, Columbus, Columbus Arts Festival, East Franklinton, Franklinton Arts District, Goody Clancy, Greater Columbus Arts Council, Heather Wirth, live/work space, restoration, revitalization, Urban Scrawl, Urban Smart Growth LLC | Leave a comment

Suburban Swap and Living the TOD Dream

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Goody Clancy Contributors

Towns like Collingswood, N.J., draw residents keen to live close to mass transit. In some towns, though, shoppers compete with commuters for limited parking spaces. Image Source: Bill Denver for the Wall Street Journal

The May 2 Wall Street Journal featured an article titled “Suburban Swap: Trading a Backyard for a Train Station” – a kind of TOD primer that nevertheless provided some pretty compelling arguments from developers and residents alike in support of TOD, and some equally compelling photographs, including one from Collingswood, NJ. Turns out that one of our urban designers, Wei Jin, lived in Collingswood, and in fact worked on the station-area planning while living there. After seeing the article, she commented that “…Collingswood is close to my dream town…It has beautiful and affordable houses, nice tree-lined residential streets, a lively and cute main street, big and beautiful neighborhood parks and rivers/lakes for family recreations, and most important of all, with PATCO station in town, it takes only 15 minutes to center city Philadelphia. I used to spend only 30 minutes door-to-door to go to work in Philadelphia…” Definitely worth a read.

Link to article here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304811304577370044093629550.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Posted in community and diversity, transit and walkable places | Tagged Charlotte, Collingswood, Denver, New Jersey, PATCO, Philadelphia, suburbs, TOD, transit, Wall Street Journal, Wei Jin | Leave a comment

UK Shared Space Wins Award

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Goody Clancy Contributors

Written by senior graphic designer, Steve Wolf

Update: I wrote about “shared space” streets in February, citing London’s Exhibition Road as a high-profile example of the trend toward shared spaces that give all users—from cars to pedestrians—free access to the full roadway without curbs, bollards, and barriers to keep everyone safely segregated. Counterintuitive though this model seems, it turns out to work very well with some fine-tuning. Exhibition Road just won a “special mention” in the prestigious European Prize for Public Spaces competition. (Poke around in the archive of past prize winners just because the projects are so amazing.)

Posted in getting density right, transit and walkable places | Tagged European Prize for Public Spaces, London Exhibition Road, shared spaces, Steve Wolf | Leave a comment

Trends in Campus Planning (As Seen on My Way to Gymnastics Practice)

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Goody Clancy Contributors

Written by Amy Kohn, Senior Planner

Urban places have a wonderful way of bringing together people with a common interest in…just about anything. Which is, I suppose, how I discovered Cambridge Community Gymnastics, an eclectic group of gymnasts and aspiring-gymnasts who range in age from about 16 to about 60 – and who can be found up to five days a week at an MIT gym.
Over the past year, I’ve learned that old people like me can re-learn back flips…and that, even on familiar turf, my campus planner “spidey sense” doesn’t turn itself off outside of work hours. I pull out my camera as soon as I step off the train. “Oh! Excellent new parking garage signage!” “Look! Emerging retail!” “That’s how you get people to use revolving doors!” I won’t make you look at ALL my pictures — but illustrated below are some great examples of major trends in campus planning — all observed at MIT while on my way to gymnastics practice. The big theme? Transparency: facilities big and small designed to showcase research, students, and the secret life of MIT.

TRANSPARENCY IN ACADEMIC FACILITIES
MIT’s Dreyfus Building is a product of its era, made of hard-to-love, hard-to-adapt concrete. But at night, this building GLOWS. Big, light-filled windows make the building feel see-through and create striking visual connections between the chemistry labs inside and the quad outside. Design by I.M. Pei in 1967, the lab underwent renovation by Goody Clancy in 2003, work that recieved R&D Magazine‘s Renovated Lab of the Year Award in 2004.

Continue reading →

Posted in transit and walkable places | Tagged academic, Amy Kohn, campus planning, facilities planning, MIT, public space, Transparency, walkability | Leave a comment

Scavenging for Funds

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Goody Clancy Contributors

Written by Paul Santos, Senior Graphic Designer
A few weeks ago, regular blog contributor Sara Garber and I assembled a four-person team to participate in a citywide scavenger hunt to help raise funds for the Boston Living Center – New England’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to the wellness of the HIV/AIDS community. All 13 teams gathered at a restaurant in Boston’s South End, where we received the basic rules and a sealed envelope containing a list of 100 items to find. Once the clock hit 8pm, the hunt started. Some teams bolted out the door while others carefully strategized their plan of attack. Our team fell somewhere in the middle. Once we scanned the list and had a general idea of where to go, we hit the streets. We had 16 hours to find as many things as we could and return to the restaurant before they sealed the doors. Continue reading →

Posted in community and diversity, Uncategorized | Tagged Boston, Boston Living Center, Boston State House, Boston University Bridge, Scavenger Hunt | Leave a comment

Urban Improv in San Antonio

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Goody Clancy Contributors

In the course of our work in San Antonio on behalf of the San Antonio Housing Authority, we ran across this project – “Pon la mesa” [“Set the table”] – by artist Jose Chapa. It was set up on South Alamo Street for April’s First Friday event, and it’s a knock-out! Jose’s Facebook page discusses its origins, how he made it, and what lies behind it aesthetically and otherwise. (On the strength of “Pon la mesa,” we invited Jose to join us for a brainstorming session about possible “urban improv” events in San Antonio’s East Side neighborhood, where we’ve been working).

Image via Facebook

Image via Facebook

Image via Facebook

Image via Facebook

Posted in community and diversity | Tagged Diabetes, Jose Chapa, Pon la mesa, Public Art, San Antonio, San Antonio Housing Authority, set the table, tactical urbanism, urban improv, urban intervention | Leave a comment

Lessons from (Architectural) Jury Duty

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Goody Clancy Contributors

By David Dixon, principal-in-charge of planning & urban design

I had the privilege of chairing the jury for this year’s AIA Pennsylvania Architectural Excellence Awards, and it was a real pleasure. I invited three terrific colleagues to join me: Diane Georgopoulos FAIA (MASS Housing’s affordable-housing design guru), Jim Alexander FAIA (principal of Finegold Alexander + Associates and a highly respected preservationist), and Rob Chandler AIA (one my partners and responsible for the design of much of Goody Clancy’s academic work). I asked for their help in part because each is a skilled and thoughtful architect who believes that while architecture is about art, it is a civic art that carries the responsibility of building a world that is at once more livable and more sustainable, and in part because as a dyed-in-the-wool urban designer I knew I needed other strong perspectives.

I have served on various chapter and national juries before, but I have never been as struck by the consistency of a theme among entries that had nothing to do with style or building type or sustainability. Of course, a couple of projects won awards the old-fashioned way—by pulling off acts of real architectural bravado—but the large majority of entries demonstrated what I would term the art of urban transformation. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged AIA Pennsylvania, architecture, David Dixon, excellence awards, judge, jury | Leave a comment

All Steak or Mostly Sizzle? Chicago’s $7 Billion Infrastructure Plan

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Goody Clancy Contributors

By Ron Mallis, Senior Planner

What’s striking about Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel’s March 29 announcement of an ambitious $7 billion overhaul of city infrastructure that relies on unusual financing mechanisms and extensive public-private cooperation is that the plan emerged at all. That is, in a national, not to say global, environment that appears to be about nothing but constraints, here comes Chicago, bringing Daniel Burnham’s dictum “make no little plans” into the 21st century. Sure enough, there are aspects of this proposal—which includes miles of new sewers, 180 acres of new parkland, transit improvements, energy retrofits for municipal buildings, and a fourth runway for O’Hare airport—that may be unique to Chicago, or to Emanuel’s similarly, um, singular personality. And the city’s Millennium Park is emblematic of those unique qualities. Robert Puentes, director of the metropolitan infrastructure initiative at the Brookings Institution, notes that lots of cities have lost patience with congressional inability to agree on spending priorities, which has hobbled federal infrastructure spending. They’ll be watching to see how Emmanuel’s plan works, he told the New York Times. “This is not just a Chicago story.” For my own part, though, I wonder if in fact this is a Chicago story. All answers, speculative or otherwise, greatly appreciated.

Source: New York Times: Morgan Street Station, Chicago

Posted in community and diversity, getting density right, Planning | Tagged Chicago, infrastructure, Millenium Park, New York Times, Park, Public-Private funding, Rahm Emmanuel, redevelopment, Ron Mallis, Schools, transit | Leave a comment

Warm Day in the Back Bay

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Goody Clancy Contributors

The record-breaking warmth of the past two weeks has Bostonians confused: We don’t know what to do when we can’t complain about the weather. Except that yesterday, everyone knew to swarm parks, sidewalks, and outdoor cafes throughout downtown in the record-setting warmth. (Interesting to recall that only two years ago the city lifted its ban on setting out tables on the sidewalk before May 1). With flowers blooming weeks ahead of normal and Hubway stations popping up early, we set out to document a slice of Boston’s spring fever in the blocks around our office.

Continue reading →