Layers of desire: Student (creamy filling)

People want different things from the site of the new bus loop (both above and below ground)

Students want:

• a place to hold Storm the Wall
• green space where people can interact
• a bus loop where they feel safe/has natural light/has retail spaces
• Student services such as lounges and study rooms
• Year round exterior seating spaces
• Public space instead of commercial space
• Pedestrian only space

What's already there: The Grassy Knoll

The University Boulevard Competition proposes to replace the Grassy Knoll and the Lower SUB Plaza with a covered area and retail buildings. These two areas, however, serve various purposes that may not be adequately served by the new spaces.

The Grassy Knoll serves as:

• A metaphorical rallying point


• A movie theater (see Friday September 8th)


• A place to eat outdoors


• A place to meet people


• A demonstration space


• ski/toboggan hill


• A place to watch Storm the Wall

It is referred to as "a site for and symbol of student activism... a cherished spot on campus."

The Lower SUB Plaza is used as:

• A space for discourse


• Sport area

Comments about designs for the are new bus loop say

• that students are "very concerned about the underground bus loop. In all the designs, having more entrances and somehow opening it up a little would make (them) feel a lot more comfortable about going there, especially at night. Also, there (is) lots of paving and almost no natural surfaces..."


• that “The grassy knoll is one of the few places students can gather on campus to meet each
  other, to socialize and to build real community. All the proposals replace this with places for students to buy things and consume. We want real social, green space, not the limited amounts each proposal has to offer.”


• That “What UBC campus lacks is green spaces which act as communal meeting grounds for its students and staff. Boulevards do not count, as no-one actually hangs out on boulevards. The grassy knoll currently is one of the only such features of this campus.”


• That students are “VERY concerned with the destruction of the "grassy knoll." It has long been the center of student political activity on campus, and is well used as such. There seems to be an emphasis in these presentations on cozy pathways and places to lounge in the sun. This is blatantly impractical, as there is rain at UBC for most of the school year. UBC is a large school, and this should be celebrated; it feels good, as a student, to be part of a crowd in an open space, all rushing to class in the same direction. The division of this open space into smaller pathways actually diminishes this sense of community, in addition to creating a potential safety hazard for students walking at night. "
  
  

Bonus Link

The SALA (School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture) Sustainability Guru just stopped by my desk while waiting for a meeting to start. He suggested that I look at the Kennedy Expressway Greenway by Perkins + Will. The project covers portions of the expressway while leaving openings for exhaust and views to the road. Adjacent buildings direct air movements to clear air at both park and road level.

It's an amazing project (although unlikely to be built) and certainly a great precedent to cite. Thanks, Sustainability Guru!

Clerical Work

I've got a full committee! I heard back today from another professor saying no, and stomped downstairs to complain to the professor running the thesis projects. He wasn't in his office, so I spent a few minutes yelling at Thesis Advisor M. After I had cooled down a little bit, she realized we hadn't spoken to a professor that taught here last year, who has worked with small-scale architecture (and incidentally is interested in my favorite modelling program, Maya). Thesis Advisor M called her right then and there, she accepted, and now Big D is part of the team! I'm so pleased: she's very outspoken and creative, and will be a great addition.

The committee is as follows: Thesis Advisor M, Big D, The Flame and R the Engineer. I'm really happy to have all of them. I sent them an e-mail with the following dates for meetings, but may have to move it around a bit to accommodate everyone.

• January 31
• February 21 (During reading week)
• March 14
• April 4

That leaves a week between the second meeting and my midterm review, and four weeks between the final meeting and my presentation. Somehow booking meetings makes this thesis thing feel a lot more real.

Link-fest II: Electric Link-a-loo

Since I'm going to have to wait for information to come in, I thought I would spend some time today trolling the web for interesting architecture sites. I find that the blogosphere is a very useful place to find inspiration not just for design strategies, but also for representational techniques. How are architects showing what is important? What kind of people do they use? What is happening between rendering/handrawing/illustrating/photshopping? The way projects are shown is inextriably linked to what they are about so it is extremely useful to look at how architects represent their projects, and what kind of art is happening and can be co-opted for my purposes.

The best way for me to do this is to look around on the web. The information here may not be completely up to date, but it is often more recent than anything printed. So here is a list of websites that I found today and thought could be interesting. I'm going to see how often they have new content and if I still like them in a few weeks, will add them to the links sidebar.

Eikongraphia
anArchitecture
BLDBLG
A Daily Dose
Tropolism
The Wooster Collective
Gravestmor
Mark Magazine
ArchRecord2

In touch/out of touch

My meeting with Thesis Advisor M generated a fair amount of momentum. Last night I e-mailed a bunch of people and read a bunch of different stuff. Now I'm waiting to hear back.

Richard Drdul has agreed to join my thesis committee: Hooray! It will be great to have a transportation engineer on the project. I'm so pleased I found his weblog. I think maybe I'll ask him to come in before the first meeting to stress that the project will never be built and therefore cost is not an issue. He also put me in touch with a fellow from UBC Properties Trust who I'm meeting on Monday to discuss the current plans for the transit exchange.

Apart from this there isn't really very much going on. Maybe I'll go home and make trouble there for a while as I wait for information to start coming in

Loopy Figures

While I'm waiting to hear back from some of the people I emailed for information today, I'm also looking into user statistics for the bus loop. Richard Drdul includes a Transportation Status Report with most of these numbers on his blog and the rest are from the Comprehensive Community Plan and Campus Transit Plan.

• Ridership increase since 1997: 140%
• Total weekday transit trips to and from UBC: 45,600
• Percentage of trips made to and from UBC on transit: 42%
• Weekday transit trips per prson: 0.86
• Peak transit time: 9:00-15:00 (18,270 trips or 40%)
• Student population at UBC in 2005: 43,550
• Staff population at UBC in 2005: 7,650
• Faculty population at UBC in 2005: 2,100
• Total UBC population in 2005: 53,300
• Estimated transit ridership for 2011: 56,300
• Estimated number of incoming buses (morning) in 2011: 141
• Estimated number of incoming buses (morning) in 2022: 165
• Estimated time elapsed between arriving buses (morning, 8-9 am, 2003): 50 seconds
• Optimum capacity for bus loop until 2028: 40 buses
• Increase in trips per person between 1997 and 2005: 91%

The UBC Campus Transit Plan also identified several concerns regarding a below-grade transit station:

• Fear that the station and bus tunnel would be ugly
• Location of bus entrance to station may avoid traffic better south of University Boulevard
• It may be difficult to ventilated the station and there may be impact on the surrounding air quality
• It may be difficult to make station secure

It lists the following as advantages of a below-grade station:

• Faster transit service/fewer delays because station would be fare-paid zone
• avoidance of traffic congestion and delays at pedestrian crosswalks
• Could be designed to allow for the implementation of rapid transit at a future date (the Comprehensive Community Plan says that one of the principles for transit is to
  provide flexibility for changing transit configurations over time such as planning the transportation system to accommodate a potential future LRT route and stations.)

The CCP has "Placemaking Principles " for both open space and urban form, and lists Planning objectives for the University Commercial and UBC Academic Core.