It’s that time of year again, to profile the apartments that best invigorate their homes through color, in Apartment Therapy’s annual Fall Colors Contest.

Shown here are the ‘Final Four‘ contestants, using kitchens for comparison. Here’s the inspiration and color tips from each of them:

The East (top image) - “After living with white walls for one year we painted a bedroom wall red and quickly realized the rest of the house needed color. Don’t be afraid to use bold colors that make a statement.“

The Southwest (middle image) - “Given this was our first home, we were very excited to experiment with different colors throughout the house. Paint is not permanent so don’t be afraid to go bold!“

The Northwest (lower image) - “Color makes us smile when we walk through our front door. Do not be afraid to mix colors, patterns and textures. Combine new, antique, Modern, retro and classic pieces all together. Use all the things that you have collected, been gifted, and that remind you of where you have been and inspire your future.“

The winner, representing the Midwest, shown to the left. His inspiration and tip:  “I am constantly inspired by fashion, music, art, literature and anything that creates a story either mentally or visually. Put together a scheme you love and find a room to put it in.“

Check out photos of the Fall Color winners in 2007 and 2006.

There’s an emerging market for green housing and transportation, and in the Bay Area, California, both the private and public sectors are taking leads to accommodate them.

At The Uptown apartments in Oakland, developer Forest City Enterprises offers home buyers free annual membership ($25) to the car-sharing service Zipcar, free annual public transit passes and access to bikes. Developer Rick Holliday offers a free bike with every unit at his Pacific Cannery Lofts development, plus a bike lounge with parking for 300 bikes, bike repair work benches and stands, an air fill-up station and private lockers.

Since September 2008, Oakland requires all developers with projects of more than 50 units and/or 50,000 s.f. of non-residential space to complete a “transportation demand management” plan, including strategies to increase bicycle, pedestrian, transit and car-share use.

The City of San Francisco passed an ordinance in 2005 requiring new residential buildings with more than 50 units to provide car sharing on site or within 800 feet, and dramatically reduced parking requirements to as low as one car for every four units, such as in the Market-Octavia neighborhood.

At SOMA Grand in San Francisco, developer TMG Partners donated a Smart car for its residents to use through the local car sharing service, City CarShare. Developer Allan Mark gives Vespa scooters to new buyers at his 733 Front St. development in SF’s Jackson Square.

As a sign of the times, here’s a quote you would have never heard ten years ago, even five… from the zoning administrator and assistant planning director for San Francisco, Lawrence Badiner, “The idea is that if there are fewer cars in the world, more people use the Muni [local transit line] and there are less carbon emissions. It’s all about sustainability.”

Read more in the San Francisco Business Times, Developers find ways to drive new residents home.

Which incentives motivate you the most? What would you suggest?

Image: The Uptown Apartments in Oakland, California. Note the proximity to transit and the courtyards within each building.

How does one apply a successful crowdsourcing model to placemaking?

In the previous entry, we profiled Threadless, a $20 million t-shirt company that crowdsources its designs. We talked about how the benefits are similar for t-shirts and placemaking (we’ll use housing as an example), but how does that serve as a framework in crowdsourcing cool housing for creatives?

First, you have to even the playing field. Shirts are mass produced and creative buildings (that’s all we’re talking about here, not mass-produced buildings) aren’t. Let’s say a limited run of only 30 shirts of a certain design will be made, just as there will be only 30 units available in a proposed residential building. Thus, these shirts will be of a significantly higher cost to justify their not being mass produced, and it’s no longer a scenario where there are enough shirts for everyone who wants one. Now we’re getting closer to housing parameters.

The following are not Threadless programs, but it wouldn’t be much of a stretch.

Second, you have to weight the votes. For instance, those not interested in buying, say, a $100 limited edition shirt shouldn’t have final voting power in choosing the winning design. To discourage people from being dishonest just to vote even if they’re not interested, something like a voting fee, limited editions membership or deposit is effective. This is the same for future homebuyers crowdsourcing a residential building, where only those that are open to buying - evidenced with some kind of financial commitment as mentioned - can make collective decisions on unit size/price point combinations, green features and common spaces.

Third, securing your customers. This is where it gets creative. For shirts, if there are only 100 to be made, but 50 are needed to break even, then the group needs to know that and ideally, be informed of the progress toward reaching 50 which would then trigger the 100 shirts actually being made. There is an option of providing this for the top three designs, but that could also dilute the total number of limited edition buyers to the point none of the designs reach 50 orders. With housing, it’s closer to 80-90% units sold to break even, except that since we’re talking about a factor of 2000 in price, the likelihood of changing one’s mind is considerable. Thus, if there are 30 units of housing, the number of ‘committed’ buyers should be at least three times as large. This is why step 2 is imperative.

Fourth, once the community moves in, there’s no limit to the things they can collectively improve as a team that’s already proven themselves.

What do t-shirts have to do with creating places? Since we were recently on the subject of t-shirts that expressed the love of certain places, it’s a good segue to profile a crowdsourced t-shirt company that’s a favorite of creatives.

In 2000, student Jake Nickell was feeling the priceless euphoria of having won a t-shirt design competition. Why not let others in on the emotional high? He presented the idea for a t-shirt company based on such a competition to future partner Jacob DeHart, someone he met on an online design forum. Starting with $1000, they held the first competition within months and Threadless (a play on an online discussion ‘thread’ as well as clothing) was born.

Anyone can upload their t-shirt designs to the site, where the community rates them from 0 to 5. Based on the ratings, the staff selects about ten designs among the 700 or so every week. Each winning designer receives $2000, plus $500 for every reprint. At $15 a shirt, the company makes $20 million a year on just 20 employees, and has sold out of every single shirt ever produced.

Now the question is, can this be applied to the creation of places? The short answer is yes, though of course not literally. However, if truly crowdsourced effectively, every square footage of office or retail space would be leased, every residence would be sold before construction was completed. Because shirts can be mass produced and desired buildings aren’t, the analogy works in a scenario where, say only ten exclusive shirts are produced at a much higher price.  In the next entry we’ll look into this in detail.

Read more about Threadless in Inc.

Image: The Threadless store in Chicago, with video displays of its customers paired with the shirts, photo by ozmodiar.

What does the new U.S. administration have to do with creatives? A lot, according to Joel Kotkin, author of the best-sellers The City: A Global History and The New Geography: How the Digital Revolution Is Reshaping the American Landscape, and finishing a book on the American future. In his Forbes article, The Triumph of the Creative Class, Joel states,

“Obama’s triumph reflects a decisive shift in the economic center of gravity away from military contractors, manufacturers, agribusiness, pharmaceuticals, suburban real estate developers, energy companies, old-line remnants on Wall Street and other traditional backers of the GOP. In their place, we can see the rise of a different set of players, predominately drawn from the so-called “creative class“ of Silicon Valley, Hollywood and the younger, go-go set in the financial world.“

He states that a vast majority of both Obama’s financial support and votes came from companies and regions closely tied to creatives… in other words, contributions from companies that build virtual places that attract creatives (ie Google, Hollywood) and people in physical places that attract creatives (ie cities, progressive towns).  Thus, we should prepare to see a culture that further reflects the creative direction the economy is already heading. As Joel writes,

“What will this ascendancy mean in economic terms? Since the creative class deals largely with images, ideas and transactions, it’s not likely to focus much on reviving the tangible parts of the economy: manufacturing, logistics, traditional energy and agribusiness.

The biggest difference between the creative class and the old business types isn’t on cultural issues - few traditional CEOs embraced the religious right’s agenda - but on environmental policy....“

Thanks to Braulio Agnese of Architect magazine for the reference.

Image: Post-election celebration in San Francisco, josmith94701.

It’s a familiar scene - you find housing you can afford near a mass transit line on the outskirts of a city, and the reason it’s affordable is because few people will visit you. There’s no there, there.  For decades, Collingswood, New Jersey, neighborhood of 15,000 just outside of Camden, was just that. It suffered massive downtown vacancies like most other cities, even though it was served by a major transit line to Philadelphia.  It hasn’t helped that many are still averse to living or working in Camden, which sits in between Collingswood and Philly.

However, it has found the magic formula to become a walkable destination with a vibrant downtown, and the window of opportunity to buy attainably-priced homes is still there, but shrinking fast. How’d they do it?

The process is a very familiar one - as this previous entry, Attracting people to emerging main streets, provides in more detail. It starts with visionary entrepreneurs establishing destination local restaurants with great food and atmosphere. A farmers market complements them well, further making people feel comfortable just being in the downtown for longer periods of time, and thoroughly enjoying an entirely unique experience, followed by festivals celebrating the local culture.

Unfortunately, the city leadership seems determined to shift from attracting the creatives that helped the town’s revitalization, and instead focus on wealthier families and those with executive positions. The city is incentivizing owners of duplexes that serve two households to convert them into single-families, and in a neighborhood where the average available home is $216,000, a public private partnership is developing a signature mixed-use project with 120 condominiums that start at $350,000 to $400,000. Of course, these were planned before the economic crisis, and creatives are well aware of how that may have been avoided.

When artist and avid cyclist David Byrne, former lead singer for the band Talking Heads, was asked by the New York City Department of Transportation (no surprise) to help judge a bike rack design contest for New York City, he was so enthusiastic about the opportunity that he submitted his own designs.

With his design prowess and public exposure* however, NYC DOT felt it only fair to distinguish his submissions from the rest. Alas, these particular bike racks will be up for only a year, after which the art gallery that paid to construct them will be allowed to sell them to recoup their costs. Here’s to someone winning those bids to keeping them where they are.

Here’s the best part - each bike rack represents the local character of where it’s placed. Looking at the nine images, left to right, top down…

The MoMA - Museum of Modern Art - modern art, West 54th St./Avenue of the Americas
Mudflap Tammy/The Olde Times Square - the image on truckers’ mudflaps to reflect Times Square’s seedy past, West 44th St./Seventh Avenue
The Villager - the dog friendliness of Greenwich Village, 536 La Guardia Place, West Third/Bleecker St.
The Coffee Cup - the legendary parisian Hungarian Pastry Shop near Columbia University, Amsterdam Ave., West 110th/111th St.
The Wall Street - how ironic - 82 Wall St./Water Street
The Ladies’ Mile - in front of Bergdorf Goodman, a world-renowned luxury goods department store on the equally famous 5th Avenue, at 57th St.
The Hipster - a guitar, Williamsburg, Brooklyn is a home for live music and new bands, Bedford Ave./North Sixth St.
The Chelsea - in front of PaceWildenstein Gallery, perhaps symbolizing the artists, musicians, and writers in the neighborhood of Chelsea, 530 West 25th St./11th Ave.
The Jersey - near the Lincoln Tunnel to NJ - of course, a car. Ninth Ave./39th St.

Byrne is writing a nonfiction book called “Cycling Diaries,” scheduled to appear in 2009. Read more about his involvement in the bike rack installation in the NY Times article, David Byrne, Cultural Omnivore, Raises Cycling Rack to an Art Form.

This site is by no means a political platform, so understanding that, one had to be there in the streets of downtowns across the U.S. after the final voting results to understand that this was more than just another election. The joyous dancing, the spirited cheering and chanting, the intense hugging, the endless laughter and tears, a generosity of love in the air… you’d think you were either in Berlin when the Wall had just fallen, or for sports fans, your country had just won the World Cup.

Why are they so infused with enthusiasm and happiness?  If you’re skeptical about whether or not this article describing these scenes across the country isn’t partisan, you’ll want to read the nonpartisan business articles from Fast Company magazine, How Obama Won It With the Web and The Brand Called Obama: Win or lose, Barack Obama’s rise changes business as usual for everyone. Here’s why.  The stated fundamentals for success are strikingly similar to the tenets of why crowdsourcing generates so much passion and enthusiasm. Some of the lessons…

Lose control - Trust and let the people message what you’re about.
Embrace the modern internet - Every Web 2.0 tool was used, and even pioneering new ones, such as a micro-funding tool to raise money among your own friends and constituents.  This will be an invaluable tool in crowdsourcing.
Cast a wide social net - Build communities of support with other online social networks, not just your own.
Let fans be real - Many of the most effective messages were created by supporters, not the campaign itself.
Be open (but not totally) - Open source means people are allowed to know what’s going on, but of course, not everything.
Lead, don’t boss around - Get people to do things on their own, not because they have a contract, known as ‘adaptive leadership’.

As an example of the above, here’s a message from the campaign after the results were announced, “We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.“ Since when does a president-elect care what individuals think once they’re elected? Wouldn’t you like to get a similar message from the organization or company you work for, or even your government? We’ll see…

Update: Within 24 hours of the election, Obama launches web site to reach public.

No one in their creative right mind (no pun intended) would wear a tourist souvenir t-shirt displaying their city name, but what if you really did want to display your love for your own unique, authentic neighborhood? If you live in Queens, New York, the answer for many is to buy a shirt from local artist Ciara Elend’s Queensbound collection. Think of it as when you wear your ol’ college alma mater, except it’s in real time and anything but generic.

What inspired Ciara to create the Queensbound line? As she says, “I heart Queens. I really do, and its obvious from all my propaganda. I am making up for those who don’t appreciate this kick-ass borough. Queens gets no respect and I’m trying to change that one t-shirt at a time.“
A sampling of her descriptions for her creations, going from left to right at the top of the image above:
- “DO U HEART QUEENS? Of course you do. Prove it by wearing this shirt.“
- “1964 World’s Fair Pavillion, one of the best known structures in Queens. I made a mixed-media collage where I had cut these structure out of two different colors of paper.“
- “Inspired by my absolute favorite place, Sunnyside. I drew this font based on those found on a saloon.“ What she refers to as her ‘neighborhoody’, it also comes in other flavors - Forest Hills, Jackson Heights, Long Island City, Astoria and Woodside.
- The image on the shirt in the bottom middle is of a landmark arch.

What makes this work is that it’s one artist for one borough. It just wouldn’t work if she started doing Brooklyn and The Bronx because it wouldn’t be authentic, a key attribute for creatives. The real question is, ‘Who’s your neighborhood’s Ciara Elend?‘

Presently, few visitors venture north of Baltimore’s Pennsylvania Station into what is known as Charles North, a 100-acre arts and entertainment district characterized by boarded up buildings. On October 30, 2008, Mayor Sheila Dixon (pictured) unveiled the Charles North Vision Plan to transform the area into more of a knowledge economy oriented natural cultural district (local businesses, human-scaled buildings, multiple developers) rather than the typical industrial economy corporate cultural district (national chains, block-sized buildings, one or two major developers).

The scope: Integrated into the existing historic urban fabric and active destinations (such as the popular Charles Theater pictured to the left) 1900 residences, 557,000 s.f. of retail, 300,000 s.f. of office space, 4700 parking spaces in automated garages, in an area bounded by St. Paul Street on the east, 20th and 21st streets on the north, Howard Street and Falls Road on the west and the Jones Falls Valley on the south.

The main components of the plan seem promising on paper:
- Residences for college students and professionals;
- A ‘Creative/Design Zone’ for artists, designers and architects. The Maryland Institute College of Art, Morgan State University and University of Maryland officials are discussing a shared center for design students working on urban projects.
- An Asia Town
- Redevelopment of historic landmarks such as the Parkway Theater, North Avenue Market and former Chesapeake Restaurant building; and a park along the Jones Falls Valley.

Read more about this in the Baltimore Sun’s A new vision for arts district.

The top image is what the city released, though unfortunately, asphalt takes up most of the pan. Hopefully this doesn’t reflect a plan that promises to emphasize places for people rather than cars - such as these examples.

Photo: Charles Theater by mreid0183.