dyooy

Visit Grand Rapids & vote for Oliver

We encourage you all to visit Grand Rapids for ArtPrize 2010!  It’s truly an amazing place to be right now.  Downtown has been overtaken by art and swarms of people.  The art ranges from insane to funny to serious.  Totally worth a few days of your time – especially if you go see Oliver’s photos and DEW’s recycled material wall.  And, while you’re there, don’t forget to register and vote for False Promises!

For more information on ArtPrize, visit:
www.artprize.org

For Oliver Aguilar’s False Promises exhibit profile, visit:
www.artprize.org/artists/public-profile/34633

Thanks to all who helped out and supported this project!  And thank you Oliver for asking us to work with you.  It has been an amazing experience for DEW, inc.

In developing the concept for Oliver’s False Promises exhibit, we had to look at the essence of what Mr. Aguilar had experienced during his unemployment, what his subject matter was experiencing during the worst recession in a generation, as well as how during his daily documentation, life sort of carries on oblivious to the obviousness of a failed economic model based upon a system of diminishing returns.

What we saw in his work was desperation in a time of uncertain futures.  We saw how different people were reacting to those uncertainties in the form of public art and intended inspiration, we saw how some people were being forced to succumb to powers outside of their control and we saw how some people remained oblivious to anything and everyone around them as they simply focused inward upon their own sense of self gratification.

Fake Shutters is meant to serve two purposes.  First and foremost, it was designed as a backdrop for the False Promises exhibit that would compliment the exposition of a daily documentation of life as the ‘American Dream’ unraveled.  In short, we sought to compliment Mr. Aguilar’s exploration of culture during the ‘Meltdown’.  Second, and ultimately our challenge, was the ability to use routine materials that normally exist outside of awareness as being commonplace normality’s of American culture in a way that brings attention to the idea that nothing is without consequence, especially blind consumption without regard for understanding.

Looking back into history, we see the value of shutters in a New England colonial setting as being an integral component to survival as they would buffer the brunt of the harsh Atlantic Storms.  Any New Englander would happily tell you about the fury of a Nor’easter storm and how well built wooden shutters can protect the family from debris and shattered glass.

In today’s mass consumption models, we rely on spec builders, general contractors and building trade associations to define our choices for us.  Plastic petrochemical shutters are manufactured en masse and pumped into the consumption stream without regard for explaining why they are there or what purpose they serve.  Most home buyers simply accept what they are given.  The result, as we have seen, of an uneducated consumer, has been the mortgage crisis.  Mass produced spec homes have been force fed to consumers at every level, from builders to banks to realtors, all the way up to our former president George W. Bush, whom not months before the meltdown, was encouraging Americans to go out and buy homes.  We have told ourselves that we are buying something of value, because everyone else tells us it’s valuable without understanding what actual value is.

Drawing upon our own struggles as a company in trying to implement a process of design and development through innovation and consumer education, we have realized the enormity of the issue that reduces consumption to the lowest common denominator of cost over quality.  Our company has had to adapt to interfacing with every aspect of the built environment in order to provide a true model of equitable growth that can keep costs low but provides sustainable environments.

Our challenge, both as a company and as a civilization lay in the idea that we need to be cognizant of the products we purchase.  Our habits of mindlessly buying the lowest cost product that perceptually meets our needs is creating a debt service that we cannot handle in the future.  Beginning simply with our current mortgage crisis and economic meltdown, we are already racking up the bills in our attempts to stabilize an economy built upon a model of diminishing returns.  The burden will increase as health care costs soar.  From increased cancer rates to once unheard of allergies (peanut allergies, anyone?), to increased rates of Autism and Diabetes, the list will grow as cheaper products continue to be produced with toxic chemicals.  The issue isn’t even reserved to manufactured products, we see it in our food and pharmaceuticals as well, that taints our water supplies and compromises our children’s health.

Within Fake Shutters we seek to draw attention to mindless consumerism and offer hope that even our poor past choices can be incorporated into new uses and that we can learn from the past in order to make informed decisions for the future.  Let us just say, that we are still working on it.

Setting the stage for Fake Shutters

Though looking confused, he actually knows what he's doing

Prepped for early morning showers

Trying to find an outlet at the lumberyard (yes, in the rafters!)

Final preparations ensue

Simply amazing texture here (we want to lick it...)

After a long day. Panels drying.

Once at 20 admin employess, now down to three.

Sun sets at Timberlane Lumber Co.

We go home to be pleasantly surprised by another type of Americana

We still have mounting blocks to cut from recycled plywood!

Some last minute transport adjustments

Off to Grand Rapids reading our friends latest book 'Lost Detroit', on wasted opportunities in Detroit

Grand Rapids, MI.

Ready to unload at DeVos Place

Unloaded! Thanks to Sarah! DeVos Places curator.

Team trying to figure out why we aren't being allowed to install tonight.

Fake Shutters install begins bright and early the following day.

That was easy (pfffttt...)

The hard part begins

Good thing we have professionals

After a long day, nick and Ollie are very proud of their zero waste efforts!

Job done! Congratulations Oliver!!

As always Thanks for all you do.

DEW Team

Just a quick update for today.  We’ve been working days and nights to get wall panels done for Oliver’s ‘False Promises’ exhibit.  Sorry no pictures today.  Sean Penn has hijacked our office to film his new movie.  It’s a shame really, we’d love to meet the man, the legend.  But, we guess we’ll have to wait until the movie comes out.  Today we’re typing from the public library.

So far we’ve built forty feet of wall panels in four foot sections by 9′-0″ tall.  Originally we wanted to deconstruct a house in Detroit to use as the reclaimed pieces of the American Dream, but we’ve ended up having to look closer to home to tell a more personal story about the veiled American Dream.

This is a family story, and delivering the Art Prize panels to Grand Rapids, could very well be the last official act of a once thriving family lumber yard.  Beginning back in the 50’s, Willer industries was the largest residential carpenter contracting company in the state.  To stay profitable admist the building frenzy of the fifties and sixties.  Grandpa Willer opened Timberlane Lumber Co. in Novi (former landfill site…surprise) in order to supply his contracting company directly without the middlemen.

Today, the Lumberyard is left with only three employees.  The eldest son of J.B. willer and his wife, and one of the younger sons from a family of six children.  The eldest son, James Willer jr. is a lifelong carpenter and has harvested materials from construction sites over the years in pursuit of his own American Dream of someday retiring and working on woodworking projects.

So when you see the wall panels at Art Prize, pay special attention to the rough hewn shelf that James Willer carved out of a beautiful old weeping willow tree that simply wasn’t meant to exist in a suburban neighborhood.  The willow tree slowly died over the course of fifteen years after sprawling development imposed upon it’s happy existence.

As for the rest, everything is recycled and saved from construction sites.  We are putting into use, as retirement now seems another far off American dream for Mr. Willer jr.  Our Art Prize installation represents hundreds of square feet of material that has been kept out of landfills.  Not one item in our wall has been purchased from a store.  So as Oliver’s exhibit is titled ‘False Promises’, we’re thinking about calling ours ‘Fake Shutters’.  We imagine that you or your neighbor have them.  We still don’t know why, maybe you can tell us.

First off, we should correct ourselves from our last blog post, the term profiteering to describe scrappers may have been a bit harsh, instead, we should have said ‘entrepreneurial’.  Which isn’t far from the truth.  A few months back on the bus, we were sitting next to a young man that was bragging about buildings we were passing and how he had scrapped them out (meaning he illegally salvaged what metal was in the building, pipes, wiring…etc).  We asked him if he’d be interested in getting paid a regular wage to do the same type of work.  He said he would and we exchanged contact info (full disclosure, our phone committed suicide and we’ve since lost his number).  So, profiteering seems to sinister, when, from our point of view, these folks are just doing whatever they have to do in order to survive.  Of course, this precludes those that steal our cultural history, such as the Denby Memorial at the Brodhead Armory.

So, getting back to Art Prize as a spark to move us forward on Deconstruction.  We’ve been engaged in deconstruction discussions for a few years now and have been actively looking for those first few paid projects that we could test our methods of identifying local assets as the means to streamline the process of material brokerage and harvesting.  Realizing that anyone that looks at deconstruction from a business standpoint comes to the same conclusion of ‘Hey!  There’s no market for that stuff!’, we’ve decided to use Art Prize as an excuse to get the groundwork done on our end without any funding.

You may remember a few weeks back, we presented and sat in on a Deconstruction Panel hosted by Rogue HAA.  Consecutively, we’ve been moving forward out of the pre-analysis phase and into analysis phase.  Last week we submitted to the City of Detroit Planning and Development Dept. a proposal for collaboration with the City to ease some of the challenges we are having that involve a process different from traditional demolition.

Analysis of materials for mass deconstruction

We picked one of the Creekside homes that was open and accessible.  It should be noted that, contrary to demolition, deconstruction analysis needs to happen from the inside.  Demolition contractors have been doing this long enough that the removal of a single family home can be quantified pretty closely by simply looking at it from the outside.  Realistically, does a wrecking claw really care if there are 2×6 or 2×4 studs inside?  We don’t think it discriminates.

Old Stair and rail. Not much to salvage and most likely painted with lead.

Stripped clean already. Studs and Cedar siding in good shape.

Layers of construction seen at already removed doors.

Cedar siding. Dry, but salvageable.

After our analysis phase we plug it into our spreadsheets and [de]-construction modeling software.  From there we can pre-market and sell materials.  Once we’ve completed the entire analysis phase we are then ready to move into the implementation phase.  The implementation phase is the focused and professional selective demolition of buildings.  Our next post will go more into depth on the implementation phase.  For now, below is the first half of the report we submitted to the City Planning and Development Department.  More soon!

Well, our Art Prize installation has to be done on September 18th.  Our friend, Oliver Aguilar, has been selected as an Art Prize artist for his work titled False Promises.  Sometime during the economic meltdown Oliver found himself laid off from the largest Architectural Firm in the world.  He began documenting the effects of a global recession around him.  What he discovered will be on display at the DeVos Place convention center in Grand Rapids beginning Sept.22.

Our role? Well, Oliver came to us a few months back and asked to help him with the installation.  We went through many variations of what the exhibit would like using reclaimed pieces of a failed american dream.  We want to use the exhibit as a way to draw national attention to deconstruction and reclaimed materials as a commentary on an American obsession with irresponsibly advancing the built environment.  The ongoing cycle of building and abandonment, in essence, that has left the wake of human casualties Oliver has captured so beautifully.

Concept Sketch / Statement for False Promises

After many back and forths and hitherto’s and wherefor’s, DeVos Place finalized our location as a simple wall installation.  Below is the last proposal we submitted hoping for a space on the first floor in a large open area.

The install we were hoping for

What we ended up with is about 100′ of wall space on the second floor right next to the skywalk.

Last version of install proposal

Our concept stands though in that we are going to reclaim pieces of the American Dream and the catastrophe it has become.  Meaning, the mortgage crisis has left our cities with a glut of vacant homes.  The forces of nature (meaning profiteering scrappers and lost souls) have been taking their toll to degrade our neighborhoods with arson and increased crime.  So…trying to wrap our heads around speeding up the process for reclaiming building materials we reached out to our friends at Creekside Community Development Corporation (CDC).  They sent us along four property addresses of abandoned, city owned homes.

Photo by Creekside CDC - Home no.1

Photo by Creekside CDC - No.2

Photo by Creekside CDC - No.3

Photo by Creekside CDC - No.4

So, using the spark of Art Prize to fully start implementing our strategies for building an industry of deconstruction, we grabbed our recently acquired intern from the University of Cincinnati, Michael Westrate, and set to work developing the documentation and implementation documents.  Starting out with a Pre-Analysis phase, we got an on-the-ground look at the nieghborhoods and an idea of how to approach each building that would meet the demands of the local residents.  In many cases, deconstructed homes can keep materials on the same block to be used in rehabilitation projects.

Pre-analysis - Neighborhood Character and general conditions of building

After our Pre-Analysis, we started asking questions about how to gain access into the properties legally.  Talking with other groups around town and coming to the realization that the City of Detroit simply cannot handle or maintain it’s vacant building stock, we are trying to start an initiative to get buildings into the hands of local non-profits temporarily until the Detroit Land Bank Authority (LBA) can take control.  Our thought is that a not-for-profit entity can attach a directive for a property and is transferrable to the LBA.  The basis for this is the classification system developed by CDAD.  Though not completely actionable across the board, the CDAD classification system serves as a launching point for communities to have further conversations.  Being a company that aligns design and planning professionals with communities in a process that drives implementation, DEW, inc. incorporates a feedback loop that develops long term investment strategies as part of the overall deconstruction process.  The benefits of this process allow organic growth of communities in lieu of broad strokes that remind us of urban renewal projects during the 50’s and 60’s.  More on this later.  And more on Art Prize, as well as the Imagination Station.  Stay tuned!

Though, enjoy some pics during our pre-analysis phase…plus whatever fancies us.  As ever, Thanks!

When the nieghbor asked if we were tearing this house down, we couldn't help but ask, 'Why, what's wrong with it?'

Most manhole covers come from East Jordan, MI. Definitely visit there if you get the chance

Sun sets over the urban FRONTIER (BTW, screw Levis for stealing our marketing campaign, we came up with it first)

Just our friendly Cass Corridor greetings.  Soccer season is all wrapped up, but there are pick-up games every Monday and Thursday night at 7:00 pm.  Monday nights at the WSU field, Thursday nights at Belle Isle.

We are on a count down to Art Prize.  T minus 19 days until we do our installation for our friends exhibit.  Fundraiser’s and preview showings happening Sept. 10th at 555 Art Gallery from 7:00 till 11:00 pm, and Sept. 15th at Motor City Brewing Works from 7:00 till 11:00 pm.  Tax deductible donations can be made payable to 555 Nonprofit Gallery and Studios. Mail checks to:  Oliver B. Aguilar….

In other news, we are getting going on multiple fronts for competitions.  The Detroit Competition is slowly coming around as soon as our web page can get up and running.  But in the meantime we heard through the grapevine that the first building we would roll out has become victim to scrappers.  Most offensive is that a cast bronze memorial plaque of Edwin Denby has been removed from the building.  Read more about it here at dETROITfUNK.

Also, stay tuned for more on PechaKucha Night Detroit as our next event is in November.  We will also be doing an ad-hoc event for the Detroit Creative Corridor’s Design in Detroit event (details to follow).  Call for entries is now open, so go to the web page and submit your work today!

If you haven’t seen, drive by the Trumbull sunflower plantings we did earlier this year.  The first blooms are done, but the larger ones are shining bright!

Photo by: Mathew Naimi

We will post more soon about all the craziness going on, but too much to do, so little time.  Check back for constant updates on deconstruction, art competitions, Art Prize and more!!

Thanks for all you do.

DEW Team.

Well, not really. But close.  On Tuesday, we presented at a panel discussion on Deconstruction.  A lot of good information was presented from all the panelists. Unfortunately, we were only allowed to present 10 slides that advanced at 30 seconds each.  Therfore, we feel it’s worthwhile to elaborate a bit here.  So, enjoy the free lunch.  We know it’s delicious.

We know it’s fairly obvious the benefits of Deconstruction vs. Demolition, but we thought we’d make it ’stoopid’ simple.  The following chart shows how Deconstruction compares to Demolition.  The first graph is a matter of cost.  Yes, Decon costs more than Demo.  It is a labor intensive activity.  The upside to being labor intensive, is that it employs more people.  The red line represents the Demolition industry.  It is a straight line, because there is absolutely no growth within that industry.  Demolition costs an amount that can be measured consistently.

What came up as one of the biggest barriers to implementing a Deconstruction industry here in Michigan is that Demolition makes financial sense because Michigan loves trash!  The states ‘tipping fees’ are well below the national average.  Which means that we even love other peoples trash!

Yes, we import trash from places like New York and Toronto.  If you’re not familiar with Tipping Fees, it simply means how much is charged to unload trash per ton.  Being so low in Michigan, when trying to compete head to head with Demo, Decon is a losing contender.  But, we contend that we are still comparing apples to oranges.

The green line represents the Deconstruction Industry, or what the industry would become.  The next few slides provide the path to get those green lines to do what their supposed to (cost less and exponentially increase jobs).

The first step towards recovery is admittance.  So, let’s simply admit that we have a problem.  A problem with jobs, education and, to be blunt, a growing economy.  This isn’t an isolated problem to Michigan, but with lack of diversity in our industries, it is magnified here.  Since we transitioned from a production and manufacturing based economy into a consumer economy, the lack of diversity has choked out our ability to be prosperous at the levels we are used to.

We can use our unwanted and detrimental building stock as a natural resource that can be harvested.  In doing this we are capitalizing on existing opportunities using our existing assets.  To compare with a healthy garden (you may have even heard the new term ‘economic gardening’), what an investment in Deconstruction represents is supporting our native species.

We won’t go into how our company, DEW, can provide explosive growth by acting as the scout ants that feed directions to the worker ants in order to create a fertile soil, but we will say that ants are a great start to encourage more native species.  (sorry this slide is so dense with information.  We think you’ve seen it before though, here).

Once we admit that we have a problem, we have a choice.  We can either continue to stifle growth further by going through of series of justifications for why things are the way they are and why they must continue to be that way (effectively denial), or we can make a commitment to move forward.  So let’s pretend that Michigan, Wayne County, Detroit…whomever, can make a commitment to move into diversified green economies.  What happens next is to create a safe place for which to nurture these economies.

Traditionally, public policy tries to be all encompassing.  Broad strokes to cover broad ideas.  We’re sorry, but our fragile economy simply cannot handle major surgery right now, it would collapse.  That means that we can’t afford to raise tipping fees to $7.50 per ton.  We probably can’t even raise them to $2.00 per ton (up from the current $.21 per ton)  But what we can do is come in from the backend.

Our state needs to look at green tax strategies and incentives for small or large businesses.  This is what we are calling the protective ‘Umbrella’ of Market Demand.  Our current consumer culture is creating infertile environments for growth.  A commitment from our legislators and policy makers towards creating a small umbrella of market demand would be the catalyst for growth.

So, let’s pretend if our legislators have made a commitment to grow economies (yes, we know it’s a big ‘IF’).  Let’s pretend for a minute that business were given incentives to buy products from manufacturers of green products.  Let’s pretend that budding entrepreneurs were given the tools to compete with globally damaging big box stores to offer products that were cost comparable to mass produced products from China, Malasia…etc.  What then?  We still have an issue with access to larger markets.

The next step would be fairly easy though.  If a commitment from policy makers were in place, the funding mechanisms for Deconsruction would open up the advertising budgets and we’d be able to begin to aggressively sell a ‘green’ lifestyle.  We all know how desperately Americans want to be able to keep up with the Jones’.  We need to give them that next social status item.   This is building the market demand.

Everything else is logistics, but feel free to read through the necessary requirements needed to really get this industry going.  This lunch is on us!

OH!  A big thanks and Congratulations to Rogue HAA!  The event was a great success.  Brian, Melissa and Carl all did an amazing job.  We are looking forward to many more discussions and engaging events.

DEW Team.

This Tuesday, our very own Derek Roberts CEO (among a ton of other silly acronyms), will sit on a panel about Deconstruction in Detroit.  The event will be on Tuesday, August 17th at Recycle Here.  6:00 pm.

View Larger Map

The event is part of Hamilton Anderson & Associates offshoot endeavor to educate, engage and inform a general population on design and why it’s so important. This will be the 8th event among a series of lectures and other events that can be found on the Rogue HAA blog.

You may remember that we have been sending letters and posting general information about Deconstruction a few months back (see posts here and here). Well, as it turns out, we’ve recently been added to the list of resources on Councilman Ken Cockrell’s Green Task Force (which put together this little website, check it out…though not to be confused with Greening OF Detroit) as part of a subcommittee on green jobs and businesses. We’re a little excited at the prospect, as the biggest barrier to any new industry in the City, is the City itself. Which is to say that municipalities have operated under certain standards for decades that have grown out of necessity to protect life and safety on jobsites and that follow a process that is an attempt at being transparent without impeding upon a property owners rights. The situation we find ourselves in though is that the City is actually one of the largest property owners. This is causing a whole slew of problems, especially since a functioning city Landbank can’t seem to get up and running.

So moving forward with Deconstruction (which we are…kinda full tilt at the moment with building allies and establishing the industry standards) we’ll have to jump some pretty big hurdles as some of the bigger boats can’t change direction that quickly. So wish us luck, we’ll need it…and probably a whole slew of lawyers at our back….

But in the meantime, check out the panel discussion this Tuesday!!

OH!

Don’t forget to vote for Recycling in Detroit’s schools! Vote and vote often. Thanks for all you do.

Link to Pepsi Refresh Project here.

The developer that we had talked to about implementing our ‘possibility engine’ decided to go it alone on the Old Tiger Stadium site.  So without any financial backing from a developer that has experience in large mixed-use projects, we have no choice to pull out of the mix.  That means we are cancelling the Corktown Residents Visioning session.  Looks like we’ll have to wait until next inning to get our chance at bat.

Old Tiger Stadium Visioning Workshop

Tuesday, July 26th

CANCELLED

Sorry for the inconvenience.  We are a little disappointed ourselves.  But no worries, we all know what a contentious site that has been and will continue to be.

We just hope that if there is a winning developer, the kick-back machine gives way to common sense in insuring that any development on the site actually raises the tax base in the area.  For example, we challenge you to find an example of a Wal-Mart that has raised property values within a neighborhood.

So, moving along.  We promised more updates.  We really have a lot to tell, jumping around from California, Paris, Miami and Chicago to places as far off as Traverse City and the Old Mission Peninsula to get a taste of one of Michigan’s best kept secrets…our wineries.  Not too mention that Jolly Pumpkin has a restaurant in the Old Mission.  We’ll have to get back for that.

Considering all the great work that the Kresge Foundation has been doing, we thought it might be fitting to start our updates with our recent drive-by of their headquarters.  If you don’t know about it, a few years ago, they retrofitted their Historic Barn office and built a new building that has since been awarded a LEED Platinum Rating by the USGBC (the highest rating available under LEED).  Designed by architects, Valerio Dewalt Train Associates, we just can’t help show some low cost examples of how good design can respond to and mitigate a buildings impact upon the environment.

Enjoy!

Permeable Hardscape (means water goes to ground table, not sewer...translates into 'Saves Taxpayers Dollars!'

Retrofitted Barns, Silo's and Windmill. Yummy.

The new building fits in nicely to the old world construction. BTW, we just LOVE the retaining walls.

Up close and Personal. Local rocks we imagine = low embodied energy!

We love the educational signage.

These guys look happy.

aahhh life. We could get used to working here.

Looking around, we can see the effects of the economic meltdown and the foreclosure crisis all around us.  We’ve been busy lately, so we apologize for not keeping up on the blog.  We have loads to talk about and will be reposting regularly once again, now that we are settling into a routine.   However, there are some important updates we need to get out there.

First:

Corktown Residents:

Old Tiger Stadium Visioning and Market Capture Workshop.

Date: Tuesday, July 27

Time: 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Where: Design Evolution Workshop, inc.

3420 Cass Ave. Suite No. 305

RSVP to jwiller@designevolutionworkshop.com

Seating is limited.

Also, here is a video file of the presentation we did for the Corktown Residents Council.  Ideally we’ll be able to get these into flash someday.  For now, this is what we have.  More soon!  Thanks for all you do.