Construction photos continue to fascinate, particularly as they might relate to a third-year design studio focused on materials and construction. I like this one very much for that reason and also for the company name of the buildings ultimate occupant: Frisbie & Fee. I couldn’t have made that up.

Frisbie & Fee were an International Harvester dealer in Elgin, Nebraska, so the scale and appearance of their new shop could easily fit on South Broad Street. Such a showroom would be only three or four blocks from a warehouse facility along the Milwaukee Road tracks. Do you think we dare borrow them? Or is there someone who’d prefer to take up the issue of franchised commercial activity like this?

As individual projects for ARCH 371 coalesce, it’s easy to become excited about all these new minds in the mix—rolodexes with vastly different sets of cards than my own. On Wednesday during class and Thursday more casually, I had three conversations that will add considerably to the diversity of projects represented in Agincourt and Fennimore county and that will expand the exhibit proposed for October 2015. Indeed, they give me additional ammunition to negotiate a venue for the exhibit.

Among the areas that would have been (and probably continue to be) important aspects of the local economy and cultural life are agribusiness and sport. I feel a stronger connection for the former, sport not having been a part of my youth, nor a current interest (insofar as team sports are concerned); I’m simply not a fan. Agriculture, however, offers a wide variety of building types and construction technologies that intrigue me, from the production of crops to their processing and/or transport: barns, and other farm outbuildings; storage and processing facilities; even factories are very likely a part of the mix and significant employers in the local economy. Lest you think a simple silo was without sophistication, however, I offer some images that suggest otherwise.

Experimentation in tile and concrete construction methodologies following the Civil War continued into the early years of the 20th century. From the standpoint of architectural history, even Frank Lloyd Wright’s “textile block” construction system has to be seen in this context. Were you aware that Wright’s “innovative” concrete blocks had been anticipated by at least three previous systems, and that when he attempted to patent textile blocks his application failed, probably for that reason; the paper trail doesn’t exist, so we’re left to speculate—which indeed I did several years ago in a paper presented at an SAH conference, which was well received but remains unpublished.

Also among the predecessors for Wright’s idea was a patent for silo construction by the Johnson-Record Co. of Minneapolis. Their steel-reinforced silos were at least a decade older than Wright’s earliest textile block house of the 1920s. Then there is the direct influence on the rural landscape wrought by state agricultural colleges and their extension services, particularly in the first third of the 20th century. This drawing (below) from North Carolina was paralleled in most states with land grant colleges such as Iowa State and NDSU (formerly NDAC). So anyone choosing this as a topic of investigation has a rich matrix of precedent to explore.

Even under ideal circumstances, architectural design isn’t a walk in the park. And among all possible building types (except this involving containment of nuclear waste), the two most difficult building types are churches and houses. What they have in common—and precisely what makes them equally difficult—is their highly personal nature: each of us knows precisely what a house should look like (the one where I grew up, dummy!) and a church should resemble the one we attend. Does that explain why both types are verboten thesis topics at NDSU? [This isn’t a position I support, by the way.]

Despite my several attempts at single- and even multi-family housing, Agincourt’s housing stock needs serious attention. Homes must surely constitute the community’s largest single building type and its most diverse. So let’s hope a few 371 students will contribute their creativity to the mix.

Of the three overarching sets of conditions that have shaped Agincourt—Forces, Factors, and Faces—matters of public health are reflected in all three. Consider the question of an epidemic like tuberculosis or influenza.

Tuberculosis was a force at the turn of the 20th century, a disease that was indiscriminate, no respecter of class; something over which we had little understanding and even less control. At a time when “germ theory” was precisely that, there was little government could do but sponsor the construction of sanitaria in places thought to be beneficial to those suffering from the disease and the be relatively free of it for those who were already healthy; rural places of high altitude. The factor of government intervention was minimal here in the U.S. and exercised primarily at the state level. Faces entered into the mix in the person of wealthy individuals who had been touched by the disease: among the most prominent was a member of Chicago’s McCormick family (of International Harvester fame) whose child had died from it.

There are dozens of state and private tuberculosis santoria across the U.S. North Dakota’s was situated in the Turtle Mountains near Dunseith; it was called San Haven and is now derelict. European examples may be more architecturally sophisticated and “stylish” but they all reflect developments in public health policy and innovations in materials, design and construction that inhibited the presence of germs and facilitated cleanliness. Alvar Aalto’s design for Paimio, Finland and Duiker & Bijvoet’s example at Zonnestraal are landmarks of early Modernism, unduly overshadowed by better known Bauhaus characters.

All of this will soon come to bear on Nick Braaksma’s project for Agincourt. I’m excited.

Industry, manufacturing and other sorts of enterprise other than retail continue to interest me. I had thought, for example, that the community might have supported some kind of pre-USDA pharmaceutical manufacturing. Something a step or two above snake oil and other patent meds; a business to help put Agincourt on the map, so to speak, in a more positive light than hair restorer and foul-smelling potions for the gout.

What do you think of this image? It’s identified as a “drug and chemical company” but could easily be adapted for our use.

The “Railroad Ave” street sign might not even require photoshopping.

[#610]

In a FaceBook exchange two days ago, someone suggested that I should run for public office. Imagine! American voters would have an easier time casting their ballot for a Muslin than a card-carrying atheist. Some of the discussion last night (Friday) in Duluth drifted toward the topic of politics, and I had to admit the placement of Agincourt in northwest Iowa made sense in many ways except politics: That entire quadrant of Iowa is squarely in the Fourth Congressional District, the domain of Representative Steven King. The very best I could hope for Agincourt was that it might be a speck of purple in a sea of red.

In these last few weeks of the 2014 campaign Agincourt is littered with campaign literature and yard signs—heavy on the red, white and blue, with green and orange reserved for third-party candidates or local “no party” contests. The drive from Duluth to Fargo Saturday afternoon made the point.

Not having been to Agincourt this election season, I can only comment on the political landscape—especially windblown campaign literature and yard signs. We’ve got one in our yard.

Driving around town I’ve been inclined to draw some conclusions about the distribution of yard signs: their greater presence in some neighborhoods; their appearance in front of certain businesses. Neighborhoods with a high percentage of absentee landlords, for example, have a preponderance of one political party, and I’m guessing the candidates were chosen by the landlord, not the tenant. We ate in South Fargo last night—and had to run the gauntlet of the dreaded South 25th Street construction project, which is waaaay behind schedule with no reason put forth and no penalties imposed—and noted, once again, a preponderance of one party. You’d think the street paving would be complete, given the clout represented by the signage in their yards. What it told me, however, was much simpler: 1) this is a neighborhood way outside my resources, and 2) the folks wouldn’t want us as their neighbors anyway.

I suppose it’s an even bet when a business makes public its party of choice. It may attract clientele or it may just as readily repel them. There are a couple of service providers on 25th Street that I’d have no reason to patronize anyway, but if I did they’d be at the bottom of the list.

All these signs will have to come down the night before Election Day. But did you know there’s still a Rick Berg sign up from two years ago?

Tuesday was a Dr Bob day, my bi-weekly encounter with self.

These last few sessions have been focused—more than most—on two fairly simple ideas: First, I’ve begun asking several times a day “What’s my goal?” and am surprised by the clarity gained from such a fundamental query. Self-defeating behavior and I have been fellow travelers far too long.

The second idea isn’t so much a ploy as it is a template. Dr Bob and I are each inclined toward a Yiddish cultural frame of reference (him ethnically and me just because it’s my schtick) so his suggestion that I should consult Leo Rosten and find the definition of “mensch” has provided a useful model but one that is also likely to remain ever out of reach. Rosten’s mensch is:

Someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character. The key to being “a real mensch” is nothing less than character, rectitude, dignity, a sense of what is right, responsible, decorous.

Then I stumbled on Guy Kawasaki’s blog and some very useful tools toward achieving menschdom. I quote (without permission) his suggestions:

1. Help people who cannot help you. A mensch helps people who cannot ever return the favor. He doesn’t care if the recipient is rich, famous, or powerful. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t help rich, famous, or powerful people (indeed, they may need the most help), but you shouldn’t help only rich, famous, and powerful people.
2. Help without the expectation of return. A mensch helps people without the expectation of return–at least in this life. What’s the payoff? Not that there has to be a payoff, but the payoff is the pure satisfaction of helping others. Nothing more, nothing less.
3. Help many people. Menschdom is a numbers game: you should help many people, so you don’t hide your generosity under a bushel. (Of course, not even a mensch can help everyone. To try to do so would mean failing to help anyone.)
4. Do the right thing the right way. A mensch always does the right thing the right way. She would never cop an attitude like, “We’re not as bad as Enron.” There is a bright, clear line between right and wrong, and a mensch never crosses that line.
5. Pay back society. A mensch realizes that he’s blessed. For example, entrepreneurs are blessed with vision and passion plus the ability to recruit, raise money, and change the world. These blessings come with the obligation to pay back society. The baseline is that we owe something to society–we’re not a doing a favor by paying back society.

You have to love anyone named Guy Kawasaki who knows some Yiddish.

This semester has been rich with opportunities to observe and grow. My world is increasingly binary, but more than that, it is syzygistic (i.e., riddled with syzygy—look it up), made of yoked pairs that we frequently misconstrue as synonyms. Things like justice and the law, for example. We’re bombarded with news coverage that highlights the discrepancy between these conflated ideas. And so it is with theater and the dramatic. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t find myself a player in some scene of political theater; an encounter between me and someone else which has nothing whatsoever to do with the words we exchange and everything to do with their impact on the people nearby who have no idea they’ve been conscripted as an audience. Ask me out for a drink and I’ll explain.

Bottom line: I shall continue to play the Infinite Game of Life to the very best of my ability in the declining number of days that remain. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

[#605]

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:…. —Isaiah 40:4 KJV

As a grad student many years ago, I took a seminar in American History, two actually, but the more profitable of the two—and the more challenging—dealt with U.S. history before 1850. I was born and nurtured in the Midwest where that limitation ought to have severely cramped my style.

There are two eras of American history with negligible interest for me: one is certainly the Civil War (battles holding no fascination whatsoever) followed closely by the Revolution (why so little discussion of Founding Mothers?). So when I sat down with Cathy Matson to choose a topic, she recommended something urban and closer at hand. But since Wilmington (Delaware’s large city nearest the University of Delaware campus in Newark) is relatively new and not well documented in original documents, Dr Matson directed my curiosity toward Philadelphia, just a forty-five minute drive up I-95.

Initially, it was Philadelphia’s waterfront that captured my interest, a strip destroyed during the construction of Interstate 95—path of least resistance and all that. In colonial America, Philly was a commercial town dominated by Quaker financial interests and an important component of our national economic engine. So I wondered about its waterfront, analogizing it as a membrane engaged in a type of commercial osmosis. That might have been a worthwhile project (I still think it is) but at every turn William Penn’s famous plan for his new city presented itself: an Enlightenment exercise in Cartesian reason and Democratic civility. Then, one day, on the trek back home to Newark this thought crossed my mind: Why, of all the sources I’d consulted about Penn’s plan, were they so universally preoccupied with its origins—from the Roman castrum to the Londonderry plan of Ireland’s English overlords—while none of them seemed the least bit interested in the plan’s actual implementation; conception at the expense of delivery. Immaculate urban conceptions are one thing, but what happens when the rubber meets the road?

Philadelphia became a case study of the Ideal meeting the Real.

Twelve weeks and forty pages later, I completed “‘The crooked straight and the rough places plain’: Implementing William Penn’s plan for Philadelphia.”

I won’t burden you here with three pithy pages on Colonial privy pits. But I will say that several things are true of both Penn’s plan and Agincourt: 1) the former strongly influenced the latter, and 2) the 19th century pattern of Agincourt’s implementation is likely to have paralleled the chronology of its 17th century predecessor, one of them planned at the height of the Enlightenment, the other during its last gasps.