I thought this Jackson Pollock was a fair image of our whole design aesthetic. Hopefully, it will be an inspiration as we all work on our Design Final. Good luck guys. It's been a great quarter.
GO TEAM RANDOM!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Actually, I swear this is the last post for tonight...
I thought this was cool... It shows a transition of time, and I used this as an example of showing how conventional railroads have been phased out over time and replaced by different and more efficient methods. This example comes with a bit of history, which I think you may find interesting.
This is was a picture taken in the mid-1960s. It shows a small locomotive pulling a couple of dated passenger cars through a crossing on Main Street in Walnut Creek, CA on this train's last journey on this rail line. This particular rail line ran from the north part of Livermore all the way until the east side of Concord. Today, this rail line does not exist. The old extension from the main line in Livermore has been torn up and developed over, and the only thing rail-like that still exists in Concord is an extension from the Amtrak line, and part of the old train yard (which is still used today) this particular line passed through.
At the time Walnut Creek, and most of the East Bay Area was known for it's lush farm land. After World War II, more people started heading out west to settle and raise families, which lead for demand in more houses and business. This phased out a lot of farm land in the East Bay to move over the hills into the Central Valley, where cities like Modesto, Fresno, and Stockton lie.
As Walnut Creek became a great spot for businesses, due to it's great location and easy access to San Francisco/Oakland without living in a busy city, it became quite a popular community to buy houses in. Which meant that certain things needed to be sacrificed in order to keep the community going. And since demand for a railroad in the East Bay was going down as more industries focused on using other forms of transportation (trucks, delivery vans, etc.), the railroad was used primarily for personal travel, as there were no major highways running through the East Bay. This soon however changed, as Highway 680 was built, which connected up with Highway 80 in the north and Highway 280 in the South. This lead to more people using cars to drive from one end of the East Bay to the other.
So now a railroad was basically sitting around, wasting space and money to maintain. The railroad was soon torn up, and trackage rights were bought to build a system for fast rail transit, what we now know as Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART).
This is a picture of what this exact scene looks like today...
Definitely looks different huh? It looks a lot more developed and current. Which is what Walnut Creek, as well as most of the East Bay has become today.
Was this transition a good one? Yes and no.
The fact that and older outdated rail system could be replaced by something efficient and easy to maintain, was a great change on the economy for this area. People are able to get to work faster, and are able to go around to different spots in the Bay Area faster.
Unfortunately, the good always has a bad. The noise of a railroad still remains. While the conventional and more noisy rail system has been torn out, the sound of a train whistling through the night making an ever-so annoying whining sound really doesn't sit well with the residents that live near these tracks.
Also, because BART does connect to some major populated areas (San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco), it has brought in new groups of people that shop there. It has also increased the amount of people that come in the town just to be there. Jammed up streets, busy sidewalks and long store lines at this once peaceful shopping/residential area have got residents heading for the hills to find a nicer and quieter place to live.
Hope you enjoyed this little tid-bit of information from a "railroad buff".
This is was a picture taken in the mid-1960s. It shows a small locomotive pulling a couple of dated passenger cars through a crossing on Main Street in Walnut Creek, CA on this train's last journey on this rail line. This particular rail line ran from the north part of Livermore all the way until the east side of Concord. Today, this rail line does not exist. The old extension from the main line in Livermore has been torn up and developed over, and the only thing rail-like that still exists in Concord is an extension from the Amtrak line, and part of the old train yard (which is still used today) this particular line passed through.At the time Walnut Creek, and most of the East Bay Area was known for it's lush farm land. After World War II, more people started heading out west to settle and raise families, which lead for demand in more houses and business. This phased out a lot of farm land in the East Bay to move over the hills into the Central Valley, where cities like Modesto, Fresno, and Stockton lie.
As Walnut Creek became a great spot for businesses, due to it's great location and easy access to San Francisco/Oakland without living in a busy city, it became quite a popular community to buy houses in. Which meant that certain things needed to be sacrificed in order to keep the community going. And since demand for a railroad in the East Bay was going down as more industries focused on using other forms of transportation (trucks, delivery vans, etc.), the railroad was used primarily for personal travel, as there were no major highways running through the East Bay. This soon however changed, as Highway 680 was built, which connected up with Highway 80 in the north and Highway 280 in the South. This lead to more people using cars to drive from one end of the East Bay to the other.
So now a railroad was basically sitting around, wasting space and money to maintain. The railroad was soon torn up, and trackage rights were bought to build a system for fast rail transit, what we now know as Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART).
This is a picture of what this exact scene looks like today...
Definitely looks different huh? It looks a lot more developed and current. Which is what Walnut Creek, as well as most of the East Bay has become today.Was this transition a good one? Yes and no.
The fact that and older outdated rail system could be replaced by something efficient and easy to maintain, was a great change on the economy for this area. People are able to get to work faster, and are able to go around to different spots in the Bay Area faster.
Unfortunately, the good always has a bad. The noise of a railroad still remains. While the conventional and more noisy rail system has been torn out, the sound of a train whistling through the night making an ever-so annoying whining sound really doesn't sit well with the residents that live near these tracks.
Also, because BART does connect to some major populated areas (San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco), it has brought in new groups of people that shop there. It has also increased the amount of people that come in the town just to be there. Jammed up streets, busy sidewalks and long store lines at this once peaceful shopping/residential area have got residents heading for the hills to find a nicer and quieter place to live.
Hope you enjoyed this little tid-bit of information from a "railroad buff".
Environmental Design
Boy oh boy, what a long and grueling task indeed. But we seemed to pull together an idea that made sense to us at the time. And here are the pictures showing our transition from light to dark, calm to chaos, lonely to sad, etc.
Stage Design
Posted on Tuesday... Talk about beating out the clock thanks to campus-wide power outages...
Anyways, here is our stage design. The point of this stage design was to go through the major stages of a man's life.
And first we start out with birth...
As you can see, the very childish elements add somewhat of a infancy feel to the room. Decorations and toys are two key elements that played a role in this room. The fact that everything has a very light tone and color makes it feel very warm and welcoming.
This setting is perfect for a baby to be nurtured and raised before it grows up into a young child.
Next, we move onto adolescence/young adulthood. The child is no longer a child, he is now a teenage boy. Growing up in the world, or mainly his high school, as noted by the letterman jacket.
This young man has decorated his room to be able to fit his lifestyle. He has a dog, a bed with leopard style sheets, and a stereo. All of which are the so-called necessities of a teenage boy.
Obviously, all men have to settle down at some point. And this room definitely shows it all. It's got that mature "I let my wife design the room" flair.
All of the furniture and nicely placed paintings make this a cozy room for the couple looking to relax after a long day at work.
And the darkest part of the stage of life, the end of it. The tattered and torn walls show that this room has not been taken care of at all.
The broken desk, and the empty yet dirty bed show that this room has been vacant for a long while.
The dirt spread across the floor brings up the phrase "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" as the room begins to die out, way after its owner did.
The room is lifeless, and cold, not what it once used to be.
Anyways, here is our stage design. The point of this stage design was to go through the major stages of a man's life.
And first we start out with birth...
As you can see, the very childish elements add somewhat of a infancy feel to the room. Decorations and toys are two key elements that played a role in this room. The fact that everything has a very light tone and color makes it feel very warm and welcoming.
This setting is perfect for a baby to be nurtured and raised before it grows up into a young child.
Next, we move onto adolescence/young adulthood. The child is no longer a child, he is now a teenage boy. Growing up in the world, or mainly his high school, as noted by the letterman jacket.
This young man has decorated his room to be able to fit his lifestyle. He has a dog, a bed with leopard style sheets, and a stereo. All of which are the so-called necessities of a teenage boy.
Obviously, all men have to settle down at some point. And this room definitely shows it all. It's got that mature "I let my wife design the room" flair.
All of the furniture and nicely placed paintings make this a cozy room for the couple looking to relax after a long day at work.
And the darkest part of the stage of life, the end of it. The tattered and torn walls show that this room has not been taken care of at all.
The broken desk, and the empty yet dirty bed show that this room has been vacant for a long while.
The dirt spread across the floor brings up the phrase "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" as the room begins to die out, way after its owner did.
The room is lifeless, and cold, not what it once used to be.
Monday, November 24, 2008
C'mon...
Hey guys! I still am missing the pictures from our last project. I need them. Please, get them to me as soon as possible so I can put them up here.
~Hayley
~Hayley
Monday, November 3, 2008
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