A designer after my own heart, John Briscella, having studied ID in Philly and Architecture in Vienna, is currently based in Philadelphia, where he experiments with cartography, product design, and spatial experiences, both large and intimate.

Above, the Streets Clock was fabricated by Fluid Forms, a vendor I’ve been watching for a while. It’s not cheap, but it’s cool stuff. Below are the Throne of Paris and the Philadelphia Outdoor Barrel Fireplace.

For more images and information, check out John’s portfolio. For less information and even more eye candy, check out his blog.

Via Pattern Pulp and Mocoloco.

Enjoy Your Weekend: tons going on this weekend, including the opening of a brand-new gallery in Covington tonight.

Clifton Arts Center Work Could Begin in January: Cincinnati’s already strong arts scene keeps growing.

Exhibit Makes a Statement: two medical students install A Beacon for Broken Health Care at the Heidelberg Project in Detroit.

The Cosmetology behind Civic Art: American Dirt examines the role of public art, particularly the acclaimed Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia.

Postcard: Philadelphia: more love for the over 2,500 murals that have been painted throughout Philly.

Vintage Travel Posters: yummy picks from the 1950s-1970s by the always inspiring Grain Edit.

Recycling Old Car Parts: car part art!

Alexandria, VA-based artist Megan Nolton of Art Shark Designs creates wonderful Gocco cityscapes, including images of New York City, Baltimore, Paris, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. I love the red umbrellas!

Ben Franklin Bridge by Sean Kinney

NYC-based Sean Kinney plays with LEGO for a living! He has produced commissions for galleries, museums, television, publications, celebrities, and companies like Google, ABC, Mazda, JP Morgan Chase, ELLE, and FAO Schwarz. A few of the sculptures are available for sale, as are posters and prints of his work, which you can purchase in his online shop.

Great Wall of China by Sean Kinney

Greenwich Village by Sean Kinney

Columbus Circle by Sean Kinney

Yankee Stadium by Sean Kinney

Empire State Building by Sean Kinney

For more artful LEGO shenanigans, check out I LEGO N.Y., LEGO Skyline Chili, and the LEGO Farnsworth House.

Edmund Bacon and I are two of the very few people who graduated from both Cornell and Cranbrook, so I have to have a soft spot for him. More than that, though, I really respect the fact that his vision for a public plaza in downtown Philadelphia, conceived as an undergrad at Cornell and realized years later when he was the Executive Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, shifted as skateboarders adopted the [arguably unsuccessful] public space as their own. How many dedicated professionals have the confidence and humility to accept when their work takes on a life so vastly different from their original vision? How many of them actively support such a radical change?

In the photo above, Ed Bacon was skating [err, sort of] in JFK Plaza, a.k.a. LOVE Park at the age of 92 to protest the skateboarding ban. I’m with him on siding with the urban skaters. Bacon passed away three years ago today.

OTR’s Bohemian Rebirth at the Iris Book Cafe: my BuyCincy love for this recently opened coffeeshop in Over-the-Rhine.

Activists to Turn Parking Spaces into Green Spaces: more on PARK[ing] Day, happening in cities worldwide [including Cincinnati] on 19 Sep 08.

Slow Food Savors Its Big Moment: Slow Food USA is hosting a food-themed festival in San Francisco this weekend.

Xtracycle: No Car… No Problem!: Xtracycle builds and sells “Sport Utility Bikes” and also teaches people to build their own.

Selling Cities Despite Bad Images: Newark, Jersey City, Trenton, and Union City work to remake and rebrand themselves.

Home, Small Home: 250 Square Feet in SoMa: New Condo Development Targets Young First-Time Buyers without Too Much Stuff: starting at 279k.

TRASH: anycoloryoulike: a vivid NYC-wide, trash-themed artist intervention.

I really hope you’ll be able to attend the opening reception for A Mad Tea {Towel} Party! at the Nicholas Gallery downtown. I curated this exhibit, which opens Fri, 11 Jul 08, 6-11 pm, and which includes work by 25 artists and designers worldwide, most of whom have never before shown in Cincinnati.

Check out the exhibit site for the official curatorial statement, work samples, and full list of participants. I’m most excited about having the opportunity to do this because of all the people involved:

First and foremost, Nick Paddock, owner of Nicholas Gallery and one of the coolest people I’ve met in Cincinnati, who agreed that this is a good idea.

Second, being able to show the work of talented people I’ve met since moving to Cincinnati, including Cedric Cox [work shown above], an awesome local painter I met through Nick, and Zabet Stewart, co-author of Anticraft, a super-fun book I designed about a year ago. Hopefully, I’ll meet a few more of the participants at the opening.

Third, showcasing the work of the friends I’ve had seemingly forever — Corbett Marshall, partner in Catskill-based Variegated Inc. and co-author of Eco Dog, Karen Lemmert of Baltimore’s Manifold Design, Nicole Pivirotto of Brooklyn, and Ben Long of Indianapolis’ Fab Crew. It feels a bit like a reunion in that sense.

Lastly, I finally get to display and, in some cases, see in person for the first time, work by people I’ve long admired — Eleanor Grosch of Philadelphia’s Push Me Pull You Design, Montreuil-based Atelier LZC, and Cincinnati’s own three sheets 2 the wind.

None of this is in the official statement because it’s not really the intent, just the side benefit. Through organizing this, I’ve been exposed to the work of so many amazing people, some familiar but most of them new to me. For someone who ruminates so much on the idea of place, the place I’m focusing on right now is the environment we’ll create Friday night at the gallery — a confluence of diverse works by some really talented folks whose paths might never otherwise cross. I’m really looking forward to it.

Walking Tour of Downtown Cincinnati Surveillance Cameras: Bill Brown of the Surveillance Camera Players is giving another tour this Sunday; I wrote about the last one here.

OTR Without Kaldi’s Is Unthinkable: say it ain’t so…

Homeowners, Realtors Angry Over Rental Scam On Craigslist: renter beware — those pesky Nigerian scammers are now posing as landlords on Craigslist.

Dam You, Mediterranean: the Atlantropa Project: Herman Sörgel’s 1929 proposal to dam both ends of the Mediterranean Sea, create new land, and generate massive amounts of hydroelectric power, via the always entertaining Strange Maps.

Fallen Fruit: Fallen Fruit is an LA-based activist art project that encourages the planting and harvesting of fruit on or overhanging public spaces such as sidewalks, streets and parking lots.

Portland Edible Rooftop Garden One of Few in U.S.: a rooftop garden in Portland, OR supplies fresh produce to a restaurant below it.

Summertime: in honor of the Summer Solstice, let’s kick back and enjoy the smooth song stylings of DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince.

Upon the completion of his addition to the Cranbrook Science Institute, Steven Holl gave a lecture in which he described architecture as “the choreography of people across space.” I had never thought of it that way before but, once he said it, it seemed so obvious. In fact, it not only explained a lot of my interest in architecture, but it connected it to my experiences within graphic design and even helped me better understand my seemingly disparate interests in film, literature, and cartography.

Increasingly, I’m finding that my interest in urban architecture has less to do with form than with use. To be sure, form can control or enable uses, but many uses are at odds with formal intentions. Beuaitiful experiences can be had in ugly places; unfulfilling lives can be lived in beautiful places. I have my own preferences when it comes to form, but I now see that as only one aspect of my assessment of architecture and, in fact, the fetishization of architecture without any regard for human experience troubles me a great deal. Given that, I’m always fascinated when I see people using the built environment to their own ends, which sometimes run counter to intended use. Case in point: the street skater.

I’m surprised that I don’t see more skaters in downtown Cincinnati. I’ve always appreciated their use of downtown infrastructure outside of regular business hours and, since I find myself there in the evenings and on the weekends, I would enjoy their company.

Skaters use urban infrastructure in surprising, often impressive ways. Theirs is an impromptu performance that occurs during periods of underuse and, on a practical level, their presence downtown is preferrable to the otherwise relative absence of people. The scraffito they leave behind articulates this possibility of alternate uses of what may otherwise seem like fairly bland public spaces.

An extreme example of skaters’ defiance of original design intention is their appropriation of JFK Plaza in Philadelphia, more commonly known as Love Park. The brainchild of Edmund Bacon, skaters turned this seemingly bleak downtown plaza into a major tourist attraction. Bacon even came around to this new use for his civic space, supporting the skaters with this small act of civil disobedience.

It’s exciting to witness skaters traverse a landscape that wasn’t meant to accommodate them, to see that they can create their own sense out of this infrastructure. Skaters create their own social space within one designed for others and for other uses. They should not be relegated to their own skateparks; parks should be designed with their needs in mind, among the myriad needs that are already considered.

For a much more in-depth look at street skateboarding than I can provide, I recommend Skateboarding, Space and the City: Architecture and the Body by Iain Borden.

Downtown Targets Suburbanites: “Those are the people we want to speak to in ways that they can understand.”

Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit: US drivers, particularly in the South and West, are finally starting to change their habits.

Burlington Cohousing: a cohousing community in Burlington, VT; the neighbors’ bios are a voyeuristic treat.

Look!: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Brandes Residence: a Usonian house in Sammamish, WA is on the market for $1.7 million.

Obama in the Buff: not as juicy as it sounds — Shepard Fairey, MARTY, and a trio of Obama-loving graffiti-haters duke it out on the corner of Houston and Bowery.

Bicyclist Beats Motorist and Straphanger in Race to City Hall: the City of Brotherly Love sure is wacky.

The Real World: Brooklyn. For Real.: it’s the end of the world as we know it.