Street View: Urban Hellscape

Street View: An Urban Hellscape: A visual discovery and celebration of urban grit told through textiles.  By Alyson Beaton

Walking down the street on any given day, I pass an auto parts store covered with illustrations of every auto part on offer within the store including, but not limited to: nuts, bolts, widgets, tires, etc…. Each graphic is painted in a two tone color scheme: yellow and red. The graphics are half heartedly applied to a building that was once beautiful, a three flat greystone with a ground floor retail space that is now an off brownish gray color with a front door that adorns a rusted metal gate with at least seven locks. Around the corner I walk past a beautifully restored 2 flat building that has been converted into a single family residence. The house is for sale for 2 million dollars. 

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I drive down the street on the way to my studio, driving past a cluster of old buildings, some with historic plaques dating back to 1910. The small storefronts have had many many lives but are now adorned with a cluster of street art claiming the space as an urban corner. Adjacent to the building is a huge dirt lot and three more randomly placed buildings, one claimed as a used car lot, a barber shop that looks only partly in business, and a pawn shop, and on the other side a 1990’s strip mall with a collection of shops like the Dollar Tree and Popeyes Chicken. Across the street, construction fencing is surrounding not one but two multi acre sites with six cranes in the air. There is no usable sidewalk in sight but people are still walking down the street, confused. 

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I am walking down the street, I have just left a brand new complex that has been recently rebranded. It appears to be an old factory of sorts in a seemingly “good” location, right on the water, perhaps for new up and coming industries. I see loads of vacant space next door just begging to be used, most likely reserved for a tech start up, but every inch of the space I am in is occupied as we weave up stairs and down small hallways. As I leave this revitalization dream, I pass parking lots full of cars that don’t appear to have been put there intentionally and am seeking a path to the nearest subway train to go back into the city. I walk past buildings with businesses I don’t recognize, check cashing places and beauty salons, all with some sort of handmade curtain that would resemble a bed sheet, and vinyl signage adhered to the glass. 

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I walk down a street that I have been on many times before, but this time the street is completely different. The construction fencing and cranes that had been here for years are all gone and in their place parks a new museum, high end shops and urban trail. This space is now a playground for the uber rich and consumers seeking an up scale experience as an architectural wonderland with an escher-like spectacle that is blocked from public consumption due to the high rate of teenage suicides that have taken place there, apparently caused by the sculpture itself. 

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The cities we live in are in constant change but all share the same DNA and life cycles, development and redevelopment. Gentrification, walkability, independent businesses are all things that define our urban cores along with the homeless under blankets behind any crevice out of sight. Our cities define our times, they are the places that unite us in crisis, where we march in the streets in mass messaging, they are the places where you can’t choose your neighbors, they are the places that allow us to express ourselves freely and snag whatever we want if we want it badly enough. 

The Street View Collection: Urban Hellscape is evidence of those ephemeral moments that define our cities, the median meadow that appears only once a year transforming a previous civil engineering design element for traffic flow into a beautiful scene. The glimmer of light that reflects off the glassy buildings when the sun is just right, the moment when the city lights up as day turns into night, the odd spray painted messages that appear on the ground mysteriously a code that only the workers can read, and the street art that reclaims a vacant structure often times just for a short moment before a new tag appears. 

Collection Prints: Urban Code, Hellscape, Median Meadow, Glimmer, City Glow, Grit, Open, Scribbles.

The High Cost of Living in the City

Matt and I have always lived as if we are part of a larger experiment. From housing ourselves and our family to our involvement in our community. Each house that we have created for ourselves over the years has responded to our needs at the time. We understand that how we live affects the larger whole, and that the eco-system of the city is rich with interaction. The obstacle we arrived at when moving to Austin, was the price of entry into the city. We have 2 kids, a large dog and a moderate amount of stuff (of course that is relative). When we moved to Austin, we ended up on the outskirts in a more suburban feeling area, almost remote. We honestly couldn't afford to buy a "teardown" in central Austin, so we settled for a house that we could move into given the amount of money we had to spend. Fast forward 3 years, and if you have been following, we decided to go back into the city to live. This decision was somewhat stressful but was a total no brainer, but we had to figure out how. 

As designers we are not in the financial realm of other professionals. We make a reasonable living but not one that would support such a move. We are determined to go against what people tend to believe, that the city is not for families. Up until now, minus the past 3 years, we have lived in a city. In Chicago, because of the school situation, which I can go into another time, we found ourselves making the move back south to Austin. The biggest benefit we reaped from our time in Chicago was profit we made off of our home we had renovated and sold. This amount of money was our only ticket into a central Austin move. All of that being said, we have a limited budget for our Denson home and studio and we need this move to be one that we can afford. We purchased Denson for $350K and are adding an upstairs and back addition, in total about 750 sf. The house will be about 1800sf, which is admittedly smaller than any other house we've lived in because there is no basement or garage. Being designers and makers we have lots of hobbies that need to be housed in the studio. 

As with any purchase, we had to compromise things. I wanted to be on a busy road where we could ideally have a home office in the front of the house and live in the back or upstairs. We needed a house that could be renovated, we don't have the money for a tear down, and we needed a bit of a yard to build some sort of ADU or guest house for renting out, adding to our income and making this whole move more sustainable for us. We figured being closer to where we work would help us cut down on driving and believe it or not, for the first time in our lives, our kids will be able to go to school near our home. Many other urban conveniences are not all currently accounted for like a walkable grocery store, but we are hoping that will come. We found Denson, this pristine little house on a busy street with everything we were looking for, our only compromise on this purchase is the ability to have our studio in the front of the house. 

Once the purchase was made, we started designing. We scribbled, drafted, modeled loads of ideas on how to make this house fulfill all of our dreams and ambitions. Fast forward 3 months, and we have a MUCH more modest design, but one that we feel will get it done for our budget. The reality of living in 2018 is the cost of living in an urban area. In Austin, that word is barely applicable compared to NYC or Chicago, but living urban is more than tall buildings, it is proximity to other people, places and things. Austin is growing like crazy and we can see so much potential for its urban infill and growth as a city. As designers, we have to be in the middle of it to truly understand it. The people that have made it what it is are a huge part of its future and being a designer is all about understanding places and people. We are working to figure out how we can start a conversation around this place, this city and how we as creatives can work to be a part of that fabric. 

GoodHood: Austin Neighborhood Rides

Not long ago as I was doing some design research on what makes good urban signage, I found an image that had the word "GoodHood" put into the sidewalk. I love the idea of claiming your hood as good! In an effort to do my due diligence in trying to experience my neighborhood by bike, car, walking and riding (transportation), I met up with my colleague Jacob to do a neighborhood ride-about. My goal was to show him the biking infrastructure that was newly put in place on Justin Lane, grab a coffee and chat and complete our circle. I figure I would want to do little rides like this that are rides I would take on a regular basis when running errands etc... Here is graphic of our ride and a detailed list of the experience:

May 29: Sunny 90 deg

10:15 am: Jacob arrives by bike at my house on Denson

Notes: We went up Denson to Lamar and jogged over on Romeria. At the Lamar intersection we observed walkers, people at the bus station, and a woman going down the Lamar sidewalk in a wheelchair. 

We rode up Denson along with the car traffic and waited at the light, not knowing if it was going to change. We had to turn left onto Lamar, so we used the car left turn lane. It felt fine, but we are both used to biking with traffic. We did a really quick jog onto Romeria, as I led the way since Jacob doesn't know the area. Romeria does not currently have any bike or walking infrastructure but I think is slated for some this fall. 

When we got to Arroyo Seco we turned onto the protected bike lane and rode up to Justin Lane. The new bike lanes are great and the markings on the street are very bold. At that point we grabbed some coffee at Dia's Market which looked really appealing from the street. It has a great front patio for dining but needs bike racks out front. While at Dia's we observed 5-6 cyclists going down the new bike lane on Justin, one couple with a baby on the back. Most of the people we saw were in 2's biking together. Most were in regular clothes; one man was wearing biking clothes. 

Arroyo Seco bike lane

Extremely comfortable and shaded, no problem even in the summer heat. Note the lack of other cyclists on the path - maybe too early in the day?

Justin Lane bike lane

Brand spankin' new and easy to navigate. Hopefully this will be a part of a more comprehensive network through the City.

11:20 am: We left Dia's and headed toward Airport Blvd to complete the circle. Crossing Lamar was hairy and really confusing but we made it over riding on parts of the sidewalk. This intersection is kind of a mess and there were loads of pedestrians walking around because of the bus stops on Lamar. We used the pedestrian crosswalk to get across Lamar and it felt completely safe but probably not the ideal way to cross. 

We rode up the Airport bike lane which was really sunny because there are no trees, but it felt fine, maybe because of the wildflowers on both sides. We wove around several walkers but all were happy to be on the urban trail. 

We turned right on Guadalupe into the bike lane after the traffic went past the intersection. The lane was a bit narrow and hot because of the black pavement but became wider as we approached Denson. There was little or no traffic on Guadalupe as we rode down, we were able to continue our conversation. 

All in all, I gave the ride 4 stars because it was enjoyable, easy and mostly protected even on a hot summer day. The worst part of the ride was easily the Lamar/Airport intersection. 

Airport Boulevard Red Line Trail

Beautiful wildflowers line the path, making for an easy and safe ride. Could use some shade trees, however...

Embracing the Future of the City

I have been thinking a lot about cities and urbanism and technology. This time it is a bit different because I am finishing up teaching a graduate design course at the University of Texas at Austin. During the course, I learned a lot, not only about my students but about the world. When I read the news, all of it is bad, pretty much every day there is more bad news. From a disastrous President to a crumbling world reeling in the midst of climate change. It is no wonder everyone is obsessed with AR and tech to save us (or better yet allow us to escape), but on the other side I hear people who want the real world to continue. This new vision for our future world is one that embraces human experiences, values our humanness and in turn makes being human in the world better. The best thing about this world is that it isn't pretend. I actually can't think of anything worse than living in a world where you fly around having fake experiences with either a screen on your face or somehow projected in front of it, or even worse a physical world controlled by Google (like the one they are working on in Toronto) where every action is monitored by a machine and in turn controlling your actions. making us, essentially the AI we are so afraid of. 

I think the thing I wonder about the most is why people aren't clamoring to be better humans? I wonder why they don't see any real hope for the world we live in. I am endlessly curious and in a world that has the limitations of a computer algorithm, I can't see anything interesting at all. If we lived in a world where every action was predictable we would cease to exist as a human race. People are always talking about an apocalypse where we all die and the world ends. I have to wonder if that is simply giving into tech and a world controlled by Facebook and Google. 

My previous business, Lille Huset, was launched as a "modern business." I started my idea on kickstarter, I used facebook for fans and marketing, I had an e-commerce site, I had google ads, and a blog. For seven years, I worked the use of all of these platforms to gain credibility of my ideas and bring something to the world that I really believed in. The problem was, my digital identity was wrapped up in my ability to continue one idea, and to continue to get deeper into the digital web. My days were spent online, filling orders, making posts, taking the "perfect" photos for instagram, emailing bloggers, doing all the "work" that continued the narrative. When I decided I was done with the project, I didn't know which way was up. I had believed that the inter-web would continue to reward me. I had a digital crisis, I didn't know who I was, who people expected me to be and where I was going. I was living in a world that did not actually exist and no one cared if I was there or not. 

I gave up social media about 8 months ago and retain an instagram account just to search for things occasionally, and check in on my 14 year old daughter. Each time I open it, my heart races and I have a mini panic attack. I loathe the idea of "likes" and "comments". I started to notice how I was being controlled by the overly styled and the sheer quantity of images my friends were posting that made their life look better than mine or just that they loved their kids more because they took pictures of their every action, making me insecure and feeling like a target of a sort of mind control that made me either feel competitive, question myself or simply depressed because I could not keep up. From there I began to compare myself to other makers, how many sales, how many posts, how many likes, how good their photos were, using the right kind of hashtags all for no real gain, so I stopped... I think I have a sort of social media PTSD that causes my physical nervousness every time I open it, but since quitting my life has been so much better. I would highly recommend to everyone to quit social media, it just may make you a little bit more human. You'll find that you've been controlled the whole time and that the things you were striving for were manufactured by other humans (the perfect photos) and you may just find that you yourself have a life to live in the real world. 

In the years following the end of Lille Huset, which is currently 1 year, and having given up social media, I have been able to find my next project. Matt and I have been working on the future of the city. We are allowing ourselves to dream. We are not worrying about the insanity of social media or if other people "heart" every idea we have and working on thinking and talking about how our city will evolve. The work we are doing now on our new house in central Austin, is to establish a hybrid of sorts. A circumvention of the system and using the system to help grow the city in a positive way, not necessarily blocking out a useful inter-web, just wielding it for us. I know that the internet is never going to go away. It will only become an apocalyptic beast if we let it. I think we can develop our cities as humans and use technology to make them better, as a tool not a control mechanism. 

The house we are designing is centered around urban life, affordability, and to change the way we work and shop. As long as we are still physical, I believe we will continue to eat food, walk around, breathe air, commune with other, and... live. 

Austin, A Small Town or City?

We have been living in Austin for going on 3 years. We landed here in the city limits but in a somewhat suburban feeling area that is about 13 miles from the downtown core. We have certainly felt isolated after living in the city of Chicago for 13 years prior. Chicago has been on an upward urban trend for all of the time that we lived there. Our lives depended on transportation systems, our neighborhood with our friends and places to eat and go for fun. We did have a car, but did not have to depend on it to get anywhere. We came to love the streets of our neighborhood where people gathered at the farmers market and for festivals. Our decision to move was brought on my our jobs and opportunities back in our home state. Our transition to this town was not easy. It was probably one of the toughest transitions I have had as an adult. Although my husband and I grew up in here, we came to think of Texas, and all cities in it, as individualistic places where community was not what inspired city life. Transit has been a point of contention in Austin for as long as I can remember, and people drive everywhere. We chose to live where we do because it seemed as good as anywhere else in the city. When we drove around we saw neighborhoods that lacked a town center or gathering places and didn't even have sidewalks. 

Now that we are returning, we landed in a place that is truly at a crossroads. Having lived in Dallas, we experienced some "return to the city" ideas but the city remained truly a car town. Austin, is in a different place and at a different time. Being a very millennial town as well, it has the opportunity to develop in a different way than its peers. Being urban nerds, we researched plans that are in place to make Austin more neighborhood centric and that value walking and biking as alternate modes of transportation, and most excitingly, transit plans that will make this a place where you can ditch your car altogether. The disappointing things still remain that PUD's are the developer route of choice. These developments tend to ignore what is already in place in a neighborhood and create a little enclave of homogenous housing. We are huge fans of great urban infill as housing, live work and as mixed use buildings. We also know that to be a great city you also need great civic places for people to gather and play. We are hopeful that we can identify some of those places around central Austin. 

Austin is a place that has all of the ingredients to be a truly walkable, bikable, transit oriented city of neighborhoods. As designers, we are passionate about cities that are places for diversity of people, with co-mingling and love of place expressed by care of home and neighborhood. We see our current role as simply living in the city and being a part of the fabric, and as designers to observe and react to what we see. We are moving to a home in the central Austin neighborhood, Highland. We are anxious to know what people love about that part of Austin, and how we can influence positive change in that area. We are thinking about how great cities like Chicago came to be and how the voices of designers and architect shaped that. Having a vision at the micro level but also seeing how those small changes affect the whole.