Monday, June 20, 2011

More on Metalab's CO2 Review

See this link for more about tracking 'people movement' in the lobby of the new Houston Permitting Center: CO2 Review. And remember to mouse over the blank spot in the text to find the link. Still haven't been able to make the links visible on this particular blog of mine.

However, a question about making links visible will be the first words out of my mouth when I go to the Apple store today or tomorrow to pick up my laptop, which, last Thursday evening beeped and turned dark. Turns out that its motherboard was tired, very tired. It just gave out, so a new motherboard has been ordered. Memory - that would be all documents and photos - will remain unimpaired, fortunately. At least, that is what Apple says. But those beeps signaled real distress. This may have been more than you needed to know about why that link in the first paragraph of this post has to be moused over to get anywhere.

Exhale and See Yourself On A Big Screen

See this link for more about Metalab Studio's sensors on eight lobby columns. They record both sound and CO2 (that would be folks exhaling) and then display the sound and people movement on that big glass screen just inside the north entrance. We hope that folks begin to play with this artwork and discover the connection between those sensors and their own movements.
Remember, on this blog at this time, you must mouse over the blank spot in the first line of this post to see the actual link. I still need to have someone redo the code so that links are not invisible. Why this is happening, I do not know. I am neither young enough or tech savvy enough to fix it.

Move In

This morning the Houston Permitting Center opened for business. I am absolutely sure that the facility will surprise both employees and their customers. I may be over-attached to the place, certainly over-invested, but nevertheless, this building has been repurposed in sophisticated, eye catching ways. The original brick and concrete columns remain throughout and the white sheet rocked interior walls do not detract, but reinforce what we can see of the history of this place. Studio Red certainly had a vision for how this 85 year old rice warehouse could morph into a 21st century green building, retain some of its original character and yet, function in new millennium ways.
The original skeleton is everywhere in evidence and we can see how well the new has been incorporated. The 'new' would be those hundreds of cubicles, glass walled offices around the perimeter of each floor, interior stair railings and the exterior elevator tower, mesh covered open stairways and the green roof. And then there's the civic art and lots of it, too.
Jesse Sifuentes' murals, Serena Lin Bush's Houston sky views in the basement stairwell andMetalab's CO2 monitors that gauge people-traffic in the lobby are just some of the public art that is accessible to all Houstonians.
So, I have to believe that this morning everyone is ramped up and ready to work in this new space. I hope the system itself works too and that there aren't too many IT issues or too many plans and project numbers lost? misplaced? in the move.
I will take myself over to this building soon, just to sit in the lobby and watch the flow. Just to see how it feels on the first Monday.