Livable Memphis

Germantown Charette Winding Down

As the City of Germantown discusses how to revitalize its center,The Lawrence Group, a company based in Davidson, NC, pushes ahead with the city's plan.  A public pin-up session of the work is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. tonight before the final presentation tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m.  The full story can be found here.

Memphis: City of Promise, City of Lost Opportunity Lecture

Memphis: City of Promise, City of Lost Opportunity
Hosted by ULI Memphis and Rhodes College
Sponsored by Henry Turley Company

Date: 7 p.m., Tuesday, October 24, 2006 (Reception starts at 6 pm in the Crain Reception hall, Bryan Campus Life Center)
Location: McCallum Ballroom, Bryan Campus Life Center, Rhodes College, 2000 North Parkway, Memphis, TN

Featuring Kenneth T. Jackson
Professor Jackson is a graduate of the University of Memphis and the University of Chicago. He has spent much of his career exploring the impact of suburbanization on American history. His best known publication, Crabgrass Frontier, explores how the ideal American life became equated with the detached single family home located far from the inner city and urban workplace. He integrates social history with economic and architectural analysis, taking into account such factors as the availability of cheap land, inexpensive building methods, and rapid transportation. Crabgrass Frontier has been reprinted five times in hardcover and twenty-five times in paperback. He is presently working on two books to be entitled Gentlemen's Agreement: Race, Class, and Differential Development in Newark, White Plains, and Darien, 1840–1990 and The Road to Hell: Transportation Policy and the Decline of the United States. Professor Jackson will discuss the ways urban growth, suburbanization and land use in Memphis have shaped our city over the past century.

Registration:
Early registration - $25 for members/$35 for non-members/$15 for students
At the Door - $40 for members/$50 for non-members/$20 for students

Special Offer: Pre-registered ULI Members will be entered into a drawing for a signed copy of Kenneth T. Jackson’s book, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States.

To register online please visit: http://www.uli.org/register/index.cfm?id=1921
For More Information Please Call 1-800-321-5011 or visit http://www.uli.org/events/index.cfm?id=1921

Working Together for Green Communities

Earlier this month Kathleen Wolf, from the University of Washington, gave a presentation concerning the importance of green communities in urban areas at the joint annual meeting of the TN Urban Forestry Council and the TN chapters for the American Planning Association and American Society of Landscape Architects.  A pdf of the presentation is available for download here.

Germantown Charette Has Begun

Unique concepts and approaches are anticipated at the Germantown charette.  Addressing issues such as Poplar Avenue and Germantown Road mixing with an environment that is aimed at being pedestrian friendly poses a challenge.  See full story here.  A pdf of the Germantown Smart Growth Plan (pre-charette edition) is available for download here.

Architecture Lecture Series

Design Psychology: Using Design Psychology to Create Ideal Places

Presented by Dr. Toby Israel, Design Psychologist and Author

Tickets can be purchased at the lecture.
CES Qualified: One (1) AIA/CES LU

Presentation

Location: BRIDGES, Inc. - 477 Fifth St. (at Auction Street )
Cost: $10 per person ($5 special rate for this lecture only for all students and faculty at the University of Memphis and Memphis College of Art with I.D.)

Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 7pm
Sponsored in part by Applied Technology Group Inc.

How can Design Psychology be used to create authentic, fulfilling ideal places?  In order to answer this question, Dr. Israel first introduces this new field defined as “the practice of architecture, planning and interior design in which psychology is the principal design tool.” She then explains how she worked with key thinkers/designers such as Michael Graves to explore their “environmental autobiography” including ways they unconsciously “reworked” they past history of place.  Dr. Israel then gives examples of how the Design Psychology process can be applied to real projects including residential, institutional and corporate projects. During the session, participants try hands-on exercises from the “Design Psychology Toolbox” - - exercises that can they can use to create ideal place.

Speaker Bio

Toby Israel , Ph.D. is a visionary founder of the new field of Design Psychology.  Defined as “the practice of architecture, planning and interior design in which psychology is the principal design tool”, this new discipline continues to gain nationwide attention, including, most recently, in The New York Times, on NPR’s Talk of the Nation and Radio Times, in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Design Psychology visioning sessions and one-to-one interviews/exercises she conducts with homeowners bring to the fore the vast personal store of experience and emotions that contribute to an individual’s choice and design of home. Those she has led through her “toolbox” of exercises include Michael Graves, Andres Duany, Charles Jencks and Jane Pauley.

Trained as an Environmental Psychologist, Dr. Israel has over twenty-five years of experience in design, psychology, the arts and education.  She has served as an environmental consultant in the USA and UK including as the project manager for the research division of LRK (Looney Ricks Kiss design firm), as the Visual Arts Coordinator for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and as a professor at the University of Lincoln School of Architecture (UK).

Dr. Israel ’s international experience and groundbreaking theories about people and place are summarized in her
book, Some Place Like Home: Using Design Psychology to Create Ideal Places. (Wiley/Academy, 2003). This “extraordinary book. . . . . includes thought-provoking examples that incorporate the concept of design psychology for residential, institutional and corporate design.” (Design Management Review, 06/25/04)

Website:  www.designpsychology.net