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The Perfect Place

Dear Design Colleagues:

Has a woman or man ever designed a perfect place in the Rochester region?

The sanctuary in Kahn’s 1962 First Unitarian Church on Winton Road? The full-on, street view of Lloyd-Wright’s 1908 East Street Boynton House? Highland Park, for its simple eloquence and ability to not lose its identity and purpose over the course of each of our four seasons?  ... an ephemeral array of table and chairs outside the Cottage Hotel in Mendon on a warm, sunny 2019 night….credit to the barista?

What have we seen in the last 100 years or so? 
The early developments of concrete and steel, Bauhaus, the eruption of Modernism, the “provocative arguments of Postmodernism”, the superstars and global brands of 2019? 

 Through which lenses do we view it? ...Scale….proportion….rhythm….siting…..balance…..massing….color….materials.

What will we see in 2119?
A recent Samsung-commissioned SmartThings Future Report suggests 1) Expect to see Super Skyscrapers, Earthscraper, and Aquatic Cities. Not only will we build higher, but we will build downward with Earthscrapers tunneling underground. Humans will be able to survive in underwater Aquatic Cities…. 2) How  we vacation will change drastically. Drones will carry homes all around the world for holidays. Commercial flights will be available for trips to the Moon and Mars. Lighting services will adapt to suit your every mood and taste…..3) 3D printers will build your home and your furniture.  3D printed foods will allow you to entertain guests by downloading dishes from famous chefs and print your favorite gourmet dishes…..4) And, similarly, there will no need to live on a college campus when the virtual reality avatar of your favorite Mandarin-speaking professor can be projected in your home. “

Survey #1
Into that admitted mash-up of shallow historicism and conservative futurism, we ask 2019 Rochester designers the following:

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* 1. What was the single most significant advance in the design and construction field in the last 100 years ... (Concrete? Computer software? Frank Lloyd Wright? Modernism? Suburbia?)

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* 2. What do you think is the most important designed space in the Greater Rochester region, and what makes it so ... (Wright’s Boynton House? Kahn’s Universalist Church? Johnson’s Mushroom House? Johnson’s Temple Sinai? LiDestri’s East Avenue House (beside Little Theatre)? Halprin’s poorly utilized Martin Luther King Park?  Asbury First United Methodist on East Avenue? Mt. Hope Cemetery?)

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* 3. In what designed space(s) are you happiest? Or embittered? And, why ... (Your bedroom? Your car? Doing yoga atop Cobb’s Hill Reservoir? Praying in ….name your favorite house of worship….?  Playing beer pong at ……name your favorite tavern space….? Pressing tomatoes at the Rochester Public Market? Getting your haircut at Felix’s Barber Shop on Avenue D and North Clinton? Dancing at the Bug Jar?

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* 4. What will be the most important design advance in the next 100 years ... Oh great one, tell us the future, and we’ll share this with your ancestors in 2119! (Autonomous cars? “Avatars/Digital Reality/Virtual Reality” that will attend your life for you while you lay around the house in your underwear? Façade-less buildings that are simply screens for design digital projections?  Life-Aquatic-under-Sea? Tiny Homes on the Moon?)

0 of 4 answered
 

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