Ethical Considerations in Adaptive Reuse

I will openly admit that I dorked out real hard during a presentation of  past case studies, specifically The Liberty Hotel, illustrating the power and process of viably reusing historic structures.  Having gone to undergrad quite near to the Liberty Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I usually try to make a point to stop in whenever I was nearby to gawk at the gorgeous space. For those unfamiliar with it (and I definitely recommend that you check it out if you’re ever in the area) it was originally a jail that was rehabilitated to its present use as a swanky hotel.  And beyond the elegant interior, I found it particularly impressive that they also have a permanent exhibit section devoted to the history and subsequent reuse project.

Beyond Cultural Consumption, Towards Cultural Confluence

Before this past Halloween, an article by Jarune Uwujaren for Everyday Feminism was circulating around the blogo-Facebook-sphere entitled “What’s the Difference Between Cultural Exchange and Cultural Appropriation?” Simultaneously, my class had been discussing audience interactions with culture through an article written for the Getty Conservation Institute’s spring newsletter entitled  “Cultural Tourism” by Dean MacCannell, professor in the Landscape Architecture and Geography Department at University of California, Davis.

Not Sure I Can Afford to Leave My Heart in SF Anymore

The timing was wryly appropriate to be discussing gentrification in class – my home area has seen a marked recent uptick in publicity regarding the current class turf wars of San Francisco. From local social media communities cropping up to decry the wealth disparity to the private Google charter buses becoming a symbol of rapidly growing tensions, San Francisco is, and has historically been, a case study for the economic divisions wrought by a tech-driven town. NPR even has our own special series entitled “Income Inequality in The San Francisco Bay Area” – what a dubious honor, thanks NPR.

A Tale of Two (or More) Cities

Rua do Gamboa, Macau 2014

When I was little, the few memories of visiting Macau I held were of sweetly flavored Portuguese egg tarts, crumbling almond cookies being baked en masse in the streets, and candy colored buildings that evoked Disneyland. The former Portuguese colony was always something of a long-held curiosity, and my innocent associations almost subconsciously rejected the assault of contemporary images of Macau as the new hedonistic paradise, the Las Vegas of the East. Really, I had only visited perhaps once or twice in my life as a child, and yet there was something so vivid and nearly tangible of Macau’s past allure that I couldn’t quite let go of it as I prepared for my recent trip, the first time since I was a child.