Permitting Made Easy

Photos and mentions of the new Houston Permitting Center are beginning to show up on-line. Here's one from the Houston blog Is This Houston? houston by phone camera.

Lisa Gray's 'Coffee, Not Kafka' Now On-Line

I take it all back. Lisa Gray's story in the Houston Chronicle titled 'Coffee, Not Kafka' is now on-line. OK, there was no instant gratification on Sunday morning - meaning, I could not forward her story on the new Houston Permitting Center to the entire world. That is, of course, the first thing one wants to do. But today, it's right there on-line, so enjoy.

Houston Chronicle's Lisa Gray Touts New Facility

I wish that the Houston Chronicle would publish its entire Sunday edition on Chron.com at the same time the newspaper hits the curb in front of my house. That would have made for instant gratification. Meaning that I could forward 'Coffee, Not Kafka', Lisa Gray's terrific story on the new Houston Permitting Center, to the entire world as well linking to this blog. I expect that Lisa's take on the facility will eventually make its way on-line. But not soon enough for me.

In the meantime, grab the STAR section of Sunday's paper from the trash and enjoy a good read. She gives the place a great review. Thank you, Lisa Gray, for absolutely 'getting' this building.

And by the way, speaking of putting information on-line for instant gratification, a year ago, we talked about putting barcodes by each of the artful interventions in the permitting center, so folks could download pertinent information. I even visited the convention center to find out about their 'cell phone tours' for a low tech version. Just a week ago, I wandered through The Big Show at Lawndale and each piece had a label with a QR code. I also notice that the Houston Press is filled with QR codes.

Folks do indeed want instant information/gratification and I'll bet that if there were QR codes next to the artwork at the Houston Permitting Center, they'd be well used. Which means my job is not done until it's done.

And thank you, once again, Lisa Gray, for 'seeing' what this new Houston Permitting Center is all about.

Dick Wray's Tower

I know, I know, it is time I changed the photo on this blog's masthead to show off Dick Wray's four story stainless steel, laser cut, black powder coated, four story elevator tower. It's about time.

Charles Masterson and his crew did a great job and I need to upload many more photos of the installation process post haste.

Civic Art Matters

It's always helps to have contextual information about the subject at hand, so here is a link to Houston's Municipal Art initiatives. We are lucky indeed that in 1999, City Council passed an ordinance that designates 1.75% of specific project construction budgets be used to create and display civic art. Council certainly had the big picture in mind, no pun intended.

In a 2009 op-ed piece in the Houston Chronicle, Houston Arts Alliance's Jonathon Glus gives his take on the importance of civic art in big American cities. I agree with him. It's important and ultimately income producing.

The good news right now is that throughout the new Houston Permitting Center, there is a lot of art to see and experience. Art truly in the public realm.

That being said, after watching folks in the building today, I have the sense that they are all very, very focused on their individual permitting processes and may not be taking in the surroundings at all.

Perhaps after a few trips, they'll begin to look around and see just what a cool building this is.

Recreate/Houston/Reuse: Words On a Wall

Yesterday afternoon and evening, Robynn Sanders painted the first section of the 88 foot long basement corridor wall. We are working with recycling and all kinds of 're-words' in five languages, the concept being to reflect the cultural diversity in Houston and the universality of remaking, recycling and reinventing.

Now that I've just written the word 'reinventing,' it occurs to me that this word speaks directly, not only to diversity, but to the opportunity that Houston offers each of us to reinvent ourselves using individual talents and skills. So, this 88 foot wall does not only carry a recycling message. It goes further than that to say that in Houston, "We can reinvent both ourselves and our city. We can grow ourselves and our city." I may be getting a bit too metaphorical and poetic here, but you get what where this wall could go.

Here are photos from yesterday. Robynn has found it a challenge to use 'green' paint, as it seems to be thinner both on the wall and on the brush. It is definitely not lush and creamy.

Here's the palette she mixed. Blue for English, terra cotta for Spanish, red for Chinese, green for Vietnamese and teal for Arabic, plus a dose of gray for the recycling logo.

Here are the first two words or characters being painted. Spanish and Chinese.

Najwa, the wonderful lady who worked with me on Arabic translations, chuckled when she saw these two photos, because Phil is painting the Arabic from left to right. Arabic reads from right to left. Doesn't matter. Those who can read it, will move their eyes from right to left.

The genesis of this wall occurred last fall when I attended the ribbon cutting for Neighborhood Centers' new Gulfton campus, where I learned that their clients speak over 80 different languages. Wow! Gulfton is just one part of Houston, a microcosm of the whole. I loved the fact that so many languages are used right here in my city. What a gift.

I suppose I could have visited Gulfton to collect the word 'recycle' in 80 languages. I did not do that. But I did think about using more than English and Spanish words. I wrote a list of English words that begin with re-. It was easy to come up with nearly 50 in a few minutes time. In retrospect, it might have been fun to play with the Latin root word from whence so many of these words come from. I digress.

The making of this wall has been very much a collaborative experience. To obtain 're-words' in at least five languages, I reached out to friends who speak the language I wanted or have a friend who can. As things progressed, at least a dozen people were involved in making or confirming translations. I am still toying with adding in at least a word or two of French and Russian, both languages well represented in Houston. I may still call friends for one or two more words. After all, this wall is 88 feet long and a work in progress.

This wall has become an unexpected joy on which to work, because it involved so many Houstonians. What might have happened if we'd involved 100? I see another project down the road.

Withdrawal, But Not Quite Yet

I was not at the site today, but I was there twice yesterday. In the morning I was to meet someone at 10:00. He was not in the building, so I wandered instead. Ended up on level 3 where I found the "Overheard' wall entirely covered with yellow plastic tubs - emptied and ready to go back to the movers. Must be that employees on level 3 are settling into their new quarters.

The level 3 lobby was filled with people, many of them looking out the window, which I found interesting. I ended up having a chat with one of those folks as each of us moved toward the elevators. I asked if he liked the new building. He said that yes, he did. A big improvement, he added.

I took that as an opening for conversation and introduced myself to John Rodriquez, Pearl Classic Homes. He was there to run plans by a plan reviewer. However, I think he was leaving with the thought of returning another day when things are more settled. The delay didn't seem to phase him or dampen his enthusiasm for the facility.

We talked about the new wood floors in the elevator - which I was seeing for the first time. I remembered that Texas Timbers was to install those floors. They're made of salvaged Texas wood, much of it from Hurricane Ike.

The elevator flooring led into talk about the main lobby's reception area which includes a lowered ceiling made of salvaged wood, also by Texas Timber. The wood beams that make up the lowered ceiling over the reception area and the race track are all words in 'bar code'. You can read them if you're lying down on the floor. We might need a plaque that speaks to that.

Mr. Rodriguez and I talked some more about the art. Talked about Metalab's piece in the lobby and I showed him the CO2 monitors that reflect people movements on the big wall screen by the north entry.

Talked about Jesse Sifuentes' coffee mural, the montage of vintage maps and blue prints on the cashier's wall and Serena Lin Bush's sky monitors in the basement stairwell. This man is one patron who is pleased to see how well this new facility turned out.

At 6:00 p.m., I was back at the site and met with Robynn Sanders until nearly 8:00 p.m. to discuss the 88 ft. long basement corridor wall that she'll begin painting on later this week. For some time now, we've had the concept, the paint colors and translations of recycling words in five languages.

The timing for painting this very long wall is now upon us and we needed to confirm the particulars. Robynn is terrific to work with. We can think things through in tandem with one another, putting ideas out there and knowing when we've hit on the right one. This wall will be a really good one.

The low western sun was golden when we came out of the building, so I took a few photos of Dick Wray's tower, but still don't have the one I want. The photo that says it all. No, I don't have that one.

Still, Dick's tower is the asterisk, the frosting, the building identifier. Call it what you will. It looks pretty good right now and there are just a few more small pieces of powdered coated metal that need to be added.

Dead tired last night. Too tired to read or watch a Netflix or gather together all those emails from the artists so I have the proper verbiage for aluminum plaques that will be made for each work in the building.

Didn't get to that task today either, because I spent a lot of time at the Memorial City APPLE store where I was then referred to the APPLE help hot-line to obtain the serial number for some of my software. Seems that having a new motherboard installed last week obliterated the entryway to Aperture. Stuff like this eats up a day.

Enough. Enjoy the photos. Know that there are more to come.