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“If you want to understand…”

Bill Humphries — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:39:01 +0000

For the Fourth of July, Maria Kalman’s sketchblog on Thomas Jefferson, a brilliant and flawed man.

If you want to understand this country and its people and what it means to be optimistic and complex and tragic and wrong and courageous, you need to go to [Jefferson's] home in Virginia. Monticello.

This does not absolve him of the wrongs he did, but I have some better perspective and respect for the man. [ via Terry Karney ]

Undesigning the Emergency

Bill Humphries — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:09:01 +0000

Rough notes from Benjamin Bratton’s talk on design and terrorism at the 2009 ETech conference. In particular, he discusses the role of Twitter during the recent Mumbai terrorist attack. I wasn’t there to see the talk, but several folks were burbling about it on Twitter.

Walking through history at LAX

Bill Humphries — Mon, 07 Jan 2002 08:00:00 +0000

Rohit Khare peels back the layers at LAX’s Terminal Three.

Like most things in Southern California, a human structure has to be driven, never walked. It reveals too many of the seams of history to savor things on foot.

Center for Livable Communities

Bill Humphries — Wed, 12 Jan 2000 08:00:00 +0000

I haven’t had a chance to dig into this site, but the American Institute of Architects is sponsoring research on livable communnities. The AIA defines those as offering:

choices in housing, shopping, recreation, and job opportunities;
transportation alternatives, interweaving spaces for pedestrians, bicycles, buses, trains, and cars;
a variety of open spaces and places for active recreation, walking, and public gatherings; and
a shared identity and sense of pride that results from the visual character and vitality of the community.