Gonzo's Aerosol Mural: Level 3

Gonzo 24/7 painted a mural on canvas that, if memory serves, is almost 20 feet long. Really nice interplay of forms that build a cityscape with a swirling highway running through it. Gonzo says that intricate flowery pattern overlaying the deep orange was made by painting over lace. Who knew? Well, it works.

Swamplot Focuses on 'Overheard' and Solar Panels

Just read Swamplot's take on the level 3 text wall titled 'Overheard.' This wall was installed by A&E Graphics just last Wednesday and is immediately adjacent to the lobby elevators. Apparently, it caught someone's eye. Check out all the comments on Swamplot, too.

Thanks to Earl Greer and the countless plan reviewers and inspectors who allowed me to listen in on their conversations over many weeks. And thanks to them again for listening to what I captured to see if it was 'the real thing.'

Thanks to Kelly Musebeck at S.O. Creatives for taking all those overheard phrases I'd transcribed on yellow legal pads, for listening to my ideas for covering an entire wall with these conversational phrases, for designing the wall and finally for tweaking that design again and again as we made it what you see right now on level 3.

And thanks to A&E Graphics for producing this text wall, for cutting the plexi conversation clouds and for installing the entire thing.

One never works alone. I may have dreamed up that idea many months ago, but it takes a village to make it a reality. Everyone adds their skills and creativity to the idea. I've always maintained that collaborations are the way to go.

Swamplot also covered Metalab's new solar panels on the roof of the new Houston Permitting Center.

For more information on how this new permitting center got started back in 2009, here's another Swamplot link.

Gonzo and Carolyn Get Hitched

"We're getting hitched in June." That's what Gonzo said last February. And so he and Carolyn Casey (aka CKC) did get hitched. They were married at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church last evening at 7:00 p.m. The church was full and both the bride and groom looked happy and so 'a couple.'

Reception followed at Spring Street Studios and the place was jammed. Lots of food, dozens of small children of all ages and stages, and seemingly hundreds of guests. Good DJ too.

Wish them well.

What I Saw Today At the Site

Always something new at 1002 Washington Avenue and this morning was no exception. Arrived at 10:45 to see the A&E Graphics van leaving the parking lot. I rolled down my window to say thank you. I knew they'd just installed one of my text walls. I missed the entire installation for an early morning appointment with my favorite physical therapist who made those tight neck muscles bend to her will for my well being. An appointment with her and a really good rain over most of Houston made for the beginning of a really nice birthday. Plus all those Facebook messages that keep popping up on my iPhone. Facebook has totally changed folks' birthdays, don't you think? In a good way. But more about this very special building.

Walked into the lobby, which by the way, is very cold. The air conditioning sure is working. Real folks at the cashier's windows involved in what I assume are real transactions. I think I see some dollar bills being counted there.

Into the elevator headed for level 3 and it was terrific to see that wall for real. At last. After all the scheduling delays because the wall had to be repainted with semi-gloss and then it had to dry and then the size of the wall paper was not exactly right. But now, it's really fine. Looks just as we imagined and planned.

That wall represents hours and hours of time spent listening to plan reviewers and inspectors interact with architects, engineers and designers at the building on Main just south of Westheimer. Last spring, I filled entire yellow legal pads with transcriptions of real conversations, then got it all on a lengthy word document and finally edited it to phrases and expressions that best exemplify what happens when the city takes a look at a set of plans. Had the text vetted by the very folks who use this 'language' and after hearing a few chuckles, I knew it'd be 'good to go', as they say.

This morning there were real people sitting in the reception area on level 3, right in front on Gonozo's cityscape mural.

Couldn't resist relooking at the entire building. Went to level 4 to see Geoff Winningham's photo mural on metal. Reflection of UH Downtown main campus building in ripples along Buffalo Bayou. Two folks fishing in the image too.

Just inside the doors to the administration offices is another text intervention. This one is bar code that reads GREEN. Hand made with many different types of salvaged and recycled local woods by Bob Card and installed by Daniel Adame, this piece is both understated and rich in detail. Each strip of wood is stamped with its provenance.

The installation of Dick Wray's tower panels by Charles Masterson and his crew continues. More photos by Beth Collins Wray coming soon.

Suffice it to say that it's hard to let go of this building. But, we artists don't have to let go quite yet. There's still a reception in the works, when we will all get together to celebrate a project unique in Houston. Date and time to be announced. In the meantime, I need to get those artist plaques ordered and installed and finish the attendant paperwork.

Thanks to all. We're almost 'good to go.'

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.