Eyck on Playgrounds

These playing children demonstrate the latent possibilities of urban renewal in general. With the aid of a little concrete, wood, aluminum there have come into existence social centers: places where children and parents meet, true extensions of the doorstep - for it is on the doorstep that the outside and inside worlds, the spheres of collective life and of individual life, intersect. Here at any rate the child has moved to the center. Since the artist is essentially an ally of the child, the job has been particularly rewarding... It is surely for the artist - whatever his medium - to introduce grace and beauty where they have vanished or gone into hiding. - Aldo van Eyck, architect who helped design 736 playgrounds in Amsterdam , mostly in the 50s and 60s.

Cities: “If they are not meant for children they are not meant for citizens either.”

14th and Vine Condos Update

One thing I try to do is correct myself or apologize when I was wrong. When I saw the original drawings for this building, I was pretty negative on it. But now that it is almost completed, I have to say it is looking good.

In the original rendering, the walls were shown blue. I didn't know it would be brick. For a building like this, details matter, and they have paid attention to some important details, such as the stone base and the alumacore detail around the uplighting. I think it all comes together. Sorry for the cell-phone pics:

Overall view from across the street:
 

The corner is transparent:
 

Uplighting detail
 

Storefront glass garage doors:
 

Also, the building across the street is just begining to take shape:
 

Imagination Alley

More murals were being added to the pocket park in the 1300 block of Vine yesterday, and it was hot, like summer hot. Visualingual highlighted this park pretty good last month.

They were adding a mosaic to the ground: 

And boys will climb: 

[Where: 1317-1319 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

Shillitos Time

Maybe the first phone number I ever dialed, 721-1700, still functions to tell you the current time and temperature of Cincinnati. Today with cell phones and computers all around us, all keeping the time, it is probably not used very often. But maybe once a year or so it comes in handy...