The Tennessee Valley Authority: Design and Persuasion (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007) explores design’s role in promoting the United States’ most extensive regional planning endeavor. Following my introduction, essays explore the several design disciplines that were united in the effort: Christine Macy writes on architecture, Jane Wolff on landscape architecture, Barry Katz on industrial design, Steven Heller on graphic design, Todd Smith on mural painting. Jennifer Bloomer reflects on rural life in the Tennessee Valley, before and after the work of the TVA, and the volume concludes with an afterword by Senator Howard H. Baker, Jr. 2008 marks the 75th anniversary of the TVA.
Illustrations include both archival photographs and new photographs by Richard Barnes, including those below. (Click on an image to enlarge.)
The 1%
The 1% program of Public Architecture challenges architecture and design firms nationwide to pledge a minimum of 1% of their time to pro bono service. The 1% connects firms willing to give of their time with nonprofit organizations in need of design assistance.
Rivers Make Lines
A map of southern Louisiana, modified as if sea level were a mere one foot higher than it actually is, suggests the natural form of cities along the lower Mississippi.* Naturally, they are linear. Rebuilt as an essentially linear city, New Orleans could become one of the few cities in North America where light-rail transit actually works.
We might expect denser development uptown in the band between Magazine Street and the river, with nodes of activity at the foot of each of the major radial streets — Jackson, Louisiana, Napoleon, Nashville, and so on. A light-rail route along the existing railroad right-of-way at the river could merge seamlessly into a regional storm evacuation network.
* These maps are derived from more precise maps, based on satellite imagery, developed by Richard Campanella in his extraordinary Time and Place in New Orleans: Past Geographies in the Present Day (Gretna: Pelican Publishing Company, 2002), an essential cultural and topographical reference for the rebuilding of the city.
Bob Aufuldish / Aufuldish & Warinner
Aufuldish & Warinner was formed in 1990 by partners Bob Aufuldish and Kathy Warinner. They are image makers as well as designers, frequently creating the illustrations, icons, photographs, or typefaces needed for a project. Bob Aufuldish is the original designer and cover designer for arcCA (Architecture California).
Over the course of thirty years in architecture, I’ve enjoyed the privilege of teaching and administering in architecture and design programs at RISD and California College of the Arts; teaching as a visitor at Tulane University, Carleton University, and U.C. Berkeley; writing for a wide range of architecture journals, from Residential Architect to Harvard Design Magazine; editing arcCA, the AIA California Council quarterly; and designing a few buildings. Now, from Berkeley, California, I advocate for design and for designers.
My aim in this website is to put into practice some of the advice that I offer clients, including “Serve as a resource” and “Differentiate yourself.”
For example, my practice differs from a conventional communications practice in two ways:
First, I’m an architect and architectural educator, so I understand intimately and value deeply the concerns and ambitions of architects.
Second, conventional communications focuses on articulating your expertise and connecting you to folks who know they need that expertise; my practice focuses on articulating your aspirations and your capacity to realize them, and I help you connect to folks who will share and support those aspirations.
Another recommendation I typically offer is, “Be concrete and specific in describing what you do well,” which is another way of saying “articulate your capacity,” and which is really about projecting your expertise into a field of possibilities. (Doing so requires a bit of bragging, something that makes many of us uncomfortable; for help, see “On Bragging” under “Tips and Guides.”) Here are some things I do well:
Explain the value of design—its purposes, processes, and products—to non-designers, who might include potential or current clients, public authorities, and project neighbors.
Tease out differentiating characteristics of a firm’s work. In a field in which almost all marketing materials sound alike, such differentiation is useful not only for business development but also for the continued improvement of a firm, its processes, and its products.
Identify resources that a firm can post or publish to draw interest and demonstrate capabilities.
Coach staff to communicate the values and capabilities of their firm.
Help architects improve their writing—by utilizing existing explanatory skills (i.e., sketching), focusing on vivid content, and thinking of marketing as a form of teaching.
Edit—to bring together the multiple voices of a firm into a consistent presentation, effectively pair language and image, and translate architecture jargon for the non-architect.
Write . . . but only when it’s part of the broader process of increasing and leveraging a firm’s self-understanding. (If you just need a spot of writing done—and there’s nothing wrong with that—I can recommend good people.)
Help architects broaden their horizons, by connecting ideas to concrete opportunities and connecting interested individuals to one another.
If you think I might be of some help to you, or you’d just like to chat, please give me a call at 415.309.2085, or e-mail me at tim@culvahouse.net.
Tim Culvahouse, FAIA
Lisa Findley
An expert in cross-cultural design, Lisa Findley is a distinguished international educator; advisor to the Province of Yunnan, China, on the intersection between historic preservation and tourism; and architect with a background in environmental policy and political science. Her work connects cultural geography, anthropology, postcolonial studies, landscape architecture, natural history, and cartography. Author of Building Change: Architecture, Politics and Cultural Agency and Contributing Editor, Architectural Record, she is a professor of architecture at California College of the Arts.