On Thursday, Feb. 9, SPACE welcomes Peggy Orenstein, author of The New York Times Bestseller, “Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture.” Peggy will lead a book talk and solutions for raising healthy, happy and hardy girls.

“A must-read for any parent trying to stay sane in a media saturated world.”
—Rachel Simmons, Author of “Odd Girl Out” and “The Curse of the Good Girl”

“Orenstein has done parents the great favor of having this important debate with herself on paper and in public; she has fashioned an argument with its seams showing and its pockets turned inside out, and this makes her book far more interesting, and more useful.”—Annie Paul, The New York Times Book Review

Read The New York Times book review for “Cinderella Ate My Daughter.”

Sponsored by Hardy Girls Healthy Women, The Telling Room, USM Women & Gender Studies Program, Add Verb Productions and Longfellow Books.

For more information on Peggy Orenstein: www.peggyorenstein.com

TV SHOW Episode 4 TRAILER from TV SHOW on Vimeo.

Mitchell spoke to Hilary Bassett, Executive Director of Greater Portland Landmarks

MR: Your organization is a strong advocate for the preservation and revitalization of historic buildings, neighborhoods and landscapes. Portland would not be the same without these assets. GPL also promotes preservation as a form of sustainability by encouraging the adaptive reuse of buildings. This seems like a wise way to harness change for the better.

HB: A great example of preservation and adaptive use, both as a sustainable strategy in itself, and that also incorporates energy efficiency and green approaches is the revitalization of the former Baxter Library building at 619 Congress Street into corporate headquarters for the VIA Agency. The building originally served as the Portland Public Library, built in 1888, a gift to the city from philanthropist James Phinney Baxter. Francis H. Fassett designed the building using many of the classic characteristics of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. What works so well is that VIA has kept the architectural integrity of the building, and added its own personality, with creative interior partitions that allow the historic architecture to shine through and commissioned art that responds to the space. Portland architects Scott Simons and David Lloyd were instrumental in the transformation, as was VIA’s visionary CEO John Coleman. Greater Portland Landmarks recognized this project with an Honor Award in 2010.

I hear from so many people who visit Portland or who chose to move here that the city’s authentic historic architecture is part of the reason they come and stay. We have an opportunity here to capitalize on our unique built assets and great neighborhoods. People can feel the difference in the scale and quality of our built environment, even if they can’t express it in words. This also applies to our public green spaces like the Eastern Promenade and Deering Oaks.

MR: Also, Portland has not experienced explosive growth or scare like urban renewal in quite sometime. Thus, when opportunities do come along, they are heavily scrutinized – and may be with good reason. From GPL’s perspective, how can one of these opportunities best become a landmark of the present and the future.

HB: While it seems like a long time ago, Portland recently experienced an intensive period of potential growth along the waterfront, and I expect that such growth will return. Landmarks has always been interested in the part of the city which features the great Commercial Street warehouses, the Old Port, and the gateway to the city from the harbor. These historic buildings reflected a sense of pride and high aspirations for the city – at the time they were the best in contemporary architecture. Our vision is that the waterfront area defines the city from the sea. The areas there that are yet to be developed deserve great architecture that creatively reflects the identity and personality of our city – including its human scale, pedestrian friendliness, and amazing seaport setting. New buildings that express quality in their design, materials, and aspirations will be the landmarks of the future.

Mitchell Rasor is a musician, writer, and artist. He is also the Principal and founder of MRLD Landscape Architecture + Urbanism, an interdisciplinary design studio. Mitchell holds degrees from Oberlin College and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

PART 2: Mitchell Rasor spoke to Bruce Hyman, City of Portland Bicycle-Pedestrian Coordinator

MR: Is Portland going to see a noticeable increase in the number bike / ped accommodations or is there a “transportation glass ceiling” due to any of number of reasons – such as standards, policy or demographics?

Bruce Hyman: Related to bicycling, there is no per se ‘ceiling’ related to the vision, but some lag time will occur related to implementation due to funding and staffing capacity. We have essentially implemented about one fourth of the bikeway network on the city’s arterial and collector streets where bike lanes, shared lanes and paved shoulders would typically be the bike facility provided. These cater to a smaller segment of the existing and potential biking market; most cyclists (or people most likely to become more frequent cyclists for transportation purposes) prefer streets with lower volumes of traffic and lower traffic speeds than arterial streets such as Forest Avenue or Brighton Avenue.

To address this potentially larger cycling ’market’ we are piloting a new type of bikeway called (in other locales) a Bicycle Boulevard – a network of primarily local, residential streets that is prioritized for bicycle travel while still providing for motorist use. We are branding them as Neighborhood Byways here to encompass the much broader intended livability benefits to the neighborhood and pedestrians. These projects can incorporate traffic speed/volume management techniques, streetscaping, and pedestrian safety projects. A 4-mile pilot Neighborhood Byway/Bicycle Boulevard project is being implemented now in the Deering Center neighborhood. We have emerging plans for a city-wide implementation of a Neighborhood Byway/bicycle boulevard network as part of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Element of the Comprehensive Plan we’re writing now.

On the pedestrian front, we are trying to more systematically address accessibility issues related to implementing the Americans with Disability Act (including new and rehabilitated curb ramps), safe street crossings of arterials (called for in the ’93 Transportation Plan), adding new/enhancing existing crosswalks, expanding the shared use pathway network, improving the quality of streetscapes, working with schools/parents on Safe Routes to Schools projects, filling gaps in the sidewalk network/rehabilitating existing sidewalks in poor condition, and enhancing pedestrian access to the bus transit system (a big turnoff to attracting more riders is the safety in accessing bus stops/routes).

We are also working to adopt a Complete Streets Policy this spring which will make it city policy to formally incorporate the considerations of all users of the streets of all ages, abilities and modes of travel (motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, transit users and operators, freight providers, and the young and old) into the planning, design, construction, maintenance and operation of the city’s streets and street network.

Mitchell spoke to Roger Conover, Executive Editor of The MIT Press

MR: As the publisher of some of the most important books on  art, architecture and urbanism published in the last 30 some years, and as a resident of Maine, you must have a unique and maybe even privileged view of many aspects of Portland, especially its arts and design culture. I know you are also a writer, and wrote  architectural criticism for the Portland Press Herald for a period of time.  How was that experience? Do you think a full-time architecture / design critic – not just a blogger – could have a positive impact on Portland?

Roger Conover: There is no architecture without criticism, and no criticism without architecture. Architecture is a language, and to read it requires a literacy that goes beyond an immediate, subjective, personalized response to buildings. Buildings exist within social, political, economic, temporal, and cultural contexts. It is the function of criticism not just to look at how buildings are made, but to make their meanings and values visible. My experiment with the Portland Press Herald did not continue beyond a certain point because I was not in the praise business, and it became apparent after a while that what was desired, both by the paper and its readers, was someone saying what a great city Portland is, and how wonderful its buildings are. My last column was going to be a polemic about the threat that historic preservation poses to the future of architecture in Portland. It probably won’t surprise you that it wasn’t printed, and that I didn’t submit any columns after that.

Whatever the game, there is no doubt that rigorous observation and constructive criticism raises the level of play. Portland wouldn’t have so many good restaurants if it didn’t have demanding diners. But those diners’ tastes are not just enabled by chefs. They have been fed by one of the country’s most discerning food-discourse providers, aka as the bookstore Rabelais. This combination of access–to food and food criticism–has contributed enormously to the culinary literacy of Portland. Portland is not lacking buildings, but would the buildings be different–dare I say better– if there was more critical exchange around them? I think so.

Mitchell spoke to Charles Colgan, Chair/Professor, Community Planning & Development Program / Public Policy Policy and Management – Muskie School of Government

MR: Your research is in the areas of regional growth and development, economic forecasting and transportation policy.  While there is an apparent trend to mass urbanization on a global level – last year in China the number of people in cities surpassed the rural population as people migrated to seek employment – there are also numerous “shrinking cities” such as Detroit, Flint and St. Louis. What are the general socio / economic demographic trends for Portland? Is there a critical mass Portland needs to achieve to become more sustainable from an economic and transportation perspective?

Charles Colgan: Portland and all of Maine’s other major cities saw population growth from 2000-2010, which is a reversal of trends away from the cities that have been going on since 1970. The shift reflects an increase in residential real estate development in Portland, particularly on the Peninsula, the growing international migrant population, and a trend among older people to re-locate nearer to urban services. Whether these trends will continue in this decade is an open question given the disruptions in the real estate markets and the economy, but in general Portland is well position to emerge with both a growing economy and a growing population. Most of the jobs that Maine will add over the next decade are jobs that tend to be centered in our urban areas, and Portland still has room for denser housing development in many parts of the city. Portland is a city that is well-sized for sustainability- neither too small to lack key urban assets nor too large to suffer the worst of urban disamenities like traffic congestion.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Mitchell Rasor is a musician, writer, and artist. He is also the Principal and founder of MRLD Landscape Architecture + Urbanism, an interdisciplinary design studio. Mitchell holds degrees from Oberlin College and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

The film, the third in Gary Hustwit’s design film trilogy (joining Helvetica and Objectified) will be followed by a conversation with Noah Chasin, assistant professor of art and architectural history at Bard College, and Mitchell Rasor of MRLD Landscape Architecture + Design. The event is co-sponsored by AIGA Maine and MRLD.

To kick off the conversation we thought we’d enlist Mitchell Rasor to collect musings about how our city is evolving from Portland-area urban planners, designers, professionals and all-around thinkers. We’ll be posting his collected responses throughout the next few days and we hope you’ll chime in. You can also become part of the conversation tomorrow at our screening of Urbanized.

PART 1: Mitchell (MR) spoke to Markos Miller (MM), Citizen Planner and Founder of Franklin Reclamation Authority.

MR: You have been actively involved with a number of grassroots level planning efforts. In your bid for Mayor you advocated for an inclusionary process. I have seen you in action in terms of inclusionary planning, transparency and professionalism, specifically on Reclaiming Franklin Street. Some might say that Portland is too inclusionary and this slows down or even thwarts economic development. What is your take on this?

MM: A poorly developed and implemented public involvement process will slow down or thwart economic development. Unfortunately, few governmental officials or professionals in the development field have the necessary skills to design and facilitate at the level of public engagement that can add value to a project and increase public support for the project. Furthermore, our current planning review paradigm dates back to an era when public involvement was almost unheard of; gradual efforts to engage the public have been add-ons to the development process, creating extra layers of process, as opposed to fundamentally realigning the planning process.

The public is always going to have its say on a development project, the question is when in the process the public plays a meaningful role and how that role can be constructively integrated into the development process. At its worst, there is no public input until all decisions have been made or a project is completed. Then the public is rightfully angry and resentful, breeding a culture of contempt for public servants and elected officials. The earlier that public involvement takes place in the planning process, the greater the opportunity to establish an understanding of the goals of the developer, the users of a project, and the community that will provide a home for the development.

Meaningful public involvement is an issue of quality, not quantity. Having lots of meetings and long meetings does not add up to a meaningful inclusionary process. Power points and talking to the public do not equate meaningful public involvement. A meaningful inclusionary planning process must be based on a culture that values the knowledge and insights of the local community, the willingness to educate and be educated, and the skills needed to facilitate a public dialogue. Professional staff play a key role in educating the public and policy makers so that informed decisions can be made.

When there is little consensus on the goals of a community this process may require considerable investment. Building agreement and establishing trust between the public, the private sector, and local officials takes time, requiring multiple feedback loops so that the learning and agreements can be documented and tested. This may involve gathering a wide data collection from the public, emphasizing inclusive visioning strategies. With the Franklin Street process this was necessary because the original plans for Franklin Street were rejected by the community (because the public had not been involved).

However, once there is agreement on the goals of a community, and a there is a culture of trust between government officials and the public, the need for such a wide reaching inclusionary process is diminished. Community stakeholders are an important part of this process, provided that their role is that of a steward of the community vision. When neighborhood and civic leaders, as well as government officials, demonstrate their understanding and support for community goals, and this is reflected in the outcomes of the planning process there is little need for greater public involvement. This also provides the community support that professional staff need in order to be professionals, using their skills and knowledge to ensure that the expressed community goals are best realized.

The Franklin Street Redesign process has attempted to follow such a process: establishing a vision that is strongly supported by the community, articulating the values expressed in vision through performance criteria, and presenting design alternatives based on what has achieved similar goals in other projects or communities. Form-Based Codes are another interesting example of realigning the planning paradigm so that community values play an early, informative role instead of a late, reactive role. Form-Based Codes call upon a community to envision what it wants to loo like, documenting this in a largely visual manner, and then ideally offer a permitting process that ideally facilitates the realization of the community vision.

These are fundamental issues of power. If the paradigm is based on a recognition that the public grants power to officials, then a public inclusion becomes the foundation of community planning, and empowers decision makers and professionals to lead as public stewards. However, if power is seen as something that is wielded over the public, then public inclusion will always be perceived as an additional burden, or even a threat to ‘getting the job done’.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

More to come from:
Christian MilNeil, Blogger and Man about Town (Rights of Way: A blog for better streets and public spaces in Portland, Maine).
Bruce Hyman, City of Portland Bicycle-Pedestrian Coordinator
Roger Conover, Executive Editor, The MIT Press
Charles Colgan, Chair/Professor, Community Planning & Development Program/Public Policy Policy and Management – Muskie School of Government
Hilary Bassett, Executive Director of Portland Landmarks

Mitchell Rasor is a musician, writer, and artist. He is also the Principal and founder of MRLD Landscape Architecture + Urbanism, an interdisciplinary design studio. Mitchell holds degrees from Oberlin College and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Click here to listen to the May 2011 NPR Echoe’s interview with Sumner McKane.

Photo by Jessica Pierce

Many thanks to all who came out to our New Year’s Eve extravaganza, ICING. It was a perfectly festive way to end SPACE’s stellar year.

We had large scale art installations from John Sundling, Colin Sullivan-Stevens, Alicia Eggert, and Mike Fleming; Turkish and Middle Eastern music by Okbari; Galen Richmond’s one-man electronic orchestra (Computer at Sea); Dilly Dilly’s lovely acoustic set; the Meiklejohn brothers’ midnight countdown topped off by Shirley Temple and David Bowie; and Sean Mewshaw’s invigorating instructional videos, starring some super talented SPACE staff (yes, there IS breakdancing). Check out ICING photos here, provided by Jessica Pierce.

Our fabulous food was provided by:
13th Cookie // Bar Lola // El Rayo Taqueria // Pai Men Miyake // Tulips Cupcakery // Sweet Marguerites // Verbena

Our curated wine list was compiled by Food Coma TV’s Joe Ricchio.

And a big thank you to our sponsors and Host Committee:
Coffee By Design // David Wood Clothiers // Might & Main // Shout House // The Portland Phoenix // The Contemporaries at the Portland Museum of Art

Annie Leahy & Mike Carey
Cyrus & Patty Hagge
Chelsea & Noah DeLorme
Bree LaCasse & Chris Moore
Marcie & Andrew Griswold
Sara Corbett & Mike Paterniti
Gibson & Reneé Fay-Leblanc
Paul & Dodo Stevens
Jessica Tomlinson & Henry Wolyniec
Rob Gould
Sean Wilkinson & Megan Carey
Alice & Dick Spencer
Chris Corbett & Manny Morgan
Don & Louise Tuski
Wooly & Hoddy Hildreth
Andy Graham & Anne Riesenberg
Emily & Duncan Bruce
Sean Mewshaw & Desi Van Til

Thank you all for your continued support of SPACE Gallery’s mission to present contemporary, unconventional, and emerging arts, artists and ideas. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Submission guidelines:

Each artist may bring one piece to SPACE during the dropoff period as follows:
Thursday, January 12, 3-7 PM
Friday, January 13, 3-7 PM
Saturday, January 14, 12-6 PM

Guidelines:

• 2D work dimensions (1width + 1height) not to exceed 100 inches
• 3D work footprint dimensions not to exceed 36 inch diameter
• One piece per artist
• All works must be dropped off ready to hang / display
• All work must be accompanied by a submission form
• All work must be dropped off and picked up during stated times. No exceptions!
• Artist is responsible for the transport of work to and from SPACE
  
• Artist grants SPACE permission to use images of work to promote Free for All and SPACE.
• SPACE will retain a commission of 40% of the retail price of each work sold.  All artwork sold will remain on display through the end of the exhibition.  SPACE will pay all proceeds due to Artist within 30 days of the end of the exhibit.
• SPACE will provide insurance of artwork for the duration of the loan stated above.  In the event of loss or damage that cannot be restored, Artist will be reimbursed 60% of the retail price listed above.
• By submitting work, Artist understands the spontaneous, experimental nature of Free for All and understands that SPACE will make all decisions regarding placement/hanging of work in the show.
• SPACE is very excited by the range and volume of work expected for Free for All and plans to exhibit each and every piece of work submitted…however, we reserve the right to make final curatorial decisions.