Preliminary renderings of our Green Cafe from a location inside the front door

We hope to have have a series of final renderings to help visualization of the space we hope to create. The above class tables have been changed in response to the model Ryley produced.

After discussing the space restraints in the exhibition we decided our table (built by Ryley) out of recycled materials needed some adjustments in order to make it the most effective for our uses. Ryley has changed the height of the table to now eliminate the need for chairs, making the table a comfortable standing height.

After discussing the space restraints in the exhibition we decided our table (built by Ryley) out of recycled materials needed some adjustments in order to make it the most effective for our uses. Ryley has changed the height of the table to now eliminate the need for chairs, making the table a comfortable standing height.

New variation to table made of reclaimed wood from palettes.

Secondly, in terms of our prints, we have to decide whether we want a raster style print (many photos coming together to make a big picture) or, 1 large print. We have also spoken about making our display mimic our café environment by attempting to take the perspective from inside the café and superimposing that feel and perspective into our demonstration.

A possible stool idea, we hope to explore for the cafe space. Finally, we have taken the time to analyze what minor details we have failed to cover. This includes write ups, added and advised menu options, a detailed business plan, health and safety regulations and finally, a legacy report. By mimicking a miniature version of a cafe study space in the upcoming exhibition, we hope to translate the inviting environment, and make obvious the values of our business. We hope to see you there!

The next step of assembly was to fill some spots with zebra mussels. Thanks to Rod, we had an abundance of them! Most of our time this week was spent elbows deep in zebra mussels! After a long, smelly day of cleaning and sorting, we finally had the zebra mussels ready to put into the unit.

…and thats only half of them!

And, voila! They’re in!

We also started putting the sand in the “aquarium” part of our unit. Mixing the sand with some glue we got the first layer down, and it stuck better than we thought! We also finalized all our research that we are putting on the display and our next step is to get it all printed and put it on the unit!

We are going “all in” for this project! By the end of every day spent working on this, we were covered head to toe in everything from sawdust, to paint, to fishy smelling water! We had a very productive week and continue to work hard up until the exhibition on Thursday! Come out and see our completed display!!

Come see us at the exhibition

Hello again,

Team Windsor Revivers are back one last time with our final blog.

   The semester is almost over and it has been fantastic! As a group we have been conquering all the ups and downs and realizing the challenges we face in order to achieve our goals.  This week we tried something new on the Facebook page. We decided to make our survey questions available one question a day as a status update open to your feedback. This step allows us to ask the necessary questions needed to finalize our statistical report. Although the course is almost at end, the Facebook page will continue to be up and running. We will be keeping our open-ended research active until sometime in December.

   The team has been meeting outside class time more frequently in order to prepare our display for the Green Corridor Exhibition that will take place between the 27^th of November and the 7^th of December. The Exhibition will feature our research in an artistic way and we are excited to share it with everyone. We invite our readers to join us, as well as all the other teams in our class, in the event. Another major point to mention this week, regarding the exhibition, is that we have been working diligently on a model representation of some of the more popular ideas that were shared with us.  The model has proven to be quite a task and we have gone from one idea of it being encased in a cardboard box to the next idea of putting it on the wall somehow. We had the pleasure of discussing our display in great detail with our wonderful and encouraging instructors on Thursday this week and it really helped us to conceptualize what we wish to express to you. Their contributions started us on a path that, hopefully, will amount to a very exciting display. We are meeting over the weekend to make the final plans and put it all together.

   Finally, we would like to thank you for coming back each week to read our blog. We also thank you for visiting us on our Facebook page and sharing your ideas and opinions. Our research has taken us on an unforgettable journey that has helped us to truly understand what appeals to the citizens of Windsor, Ontario and we have learned many new skills, not only from each other but also from the many different processes we have gone through to get to the end results.

If you would like to continue to share with us after this point you can always visit our Facebook page at : https://www.facebook.com/WhatDoesWIndsorWant .

It has been a very stressful week for our group due to unfortunate turn of events. As we have announced in our last few blogs, we are at the final steps of completing the rough work before starting construction on our exhibition area. During our last meeting with our urban designer Erin, we shared our ideas of what the transformation of the selected alley would look like. Since she currently resides in Toronto, we emailed her several photos of the section of the alleyway we chose to focus on and agreed that she will implement these ideas using her expertise onto a hard copy. We are hoping Erin can send this hard copy by this weekend so we can move forward in our legacy report of the project.

After meeting with Sandy’s father, a construction worker, he agreed to lend us a hand in building the brick wall that sits in the center of our station. But to make matters worse, his schedule does not give him enough free time to assist in the construction but he is willing to bring the materials needed to finish the job for us to use. With time running short before the exhibition reception opens, extreme measures will be taken to complete this task and the help of friends and family will be necessary. Also, the draft design of our exhibition station will be adjusted to accommodate this change.

Our goal for this weekend is to finish the design we have in mind and immediately begin construction on our station using the materials Sandy’s father will have ready for us. In the meantime, we are hoping Erin would come through with our agreement and send us her finalized projection of our ideas so they could be prepared for printing next week. We have high hopes in reaching our goals for this project before the deadline and we are looking forward for the opening day next week!

Also, a reminder for next week, our Exhibition opening day is on November 27th, 2012. It is open for the public so anyone is welcome. We hope to see you there. Thank you!

Careful measurements had to be made on the tires to pin point the location where holes needed to be drilled. We used bolts to hold the painted tires firmly together so that it remains stable when people sits on them. In order to build the second bench with a back-rest feature, we pushed rebar through the drilled holes and used bolts to support the structure. In the beginning, things were progressing quite slowly, mainly because of the difficulty in making measurements amongst other things. Once we sorted out by trial and error process, work was divided accordingly and it went pretty smooth and fast. There are still a few finishing touches that have to be done in order to fully complete our project. This includes making the planter and putting in the potted flower we have purchased. Rosina has kindly put together a video to show at the exhibition, and we have begun to work together to write our legacy report.

Portia and Sajid are sitting in the ‘Public Bench’ made of tires.

Overall, it has been an enduring and exuberating journey and we are looking forward to sharing our experiences about this project with the class and special guests next week at the exhibition.

At the end of the day’s work on Tuesday: Exhausted Portia sits in the ‘Public Bench’ with the back-rest feature.

This is a rendering of what the store part of the centre would look like. This is from the perspective of what a costumer would see as they walk in the front door.

We are currently putting together the legacy report so we can pass our idea on to the next group of students. It will include information about our group members, all the research we have done, all our maps and images, our business plan, and the rest of the information that we will incorporate into the final exhibition presentation.

We wanted to take the time to thank you for reading our blogs every week. We hope we have peaked your interest in to the issue of recycling in the downtown area. We hope that by proposing gREenCYCLE, we have been able to at least change a few people opinions of recycling, and change the way in which people think about disposing recyclables in the future.

See you at the final exhibition!

Palette Table, by Ryley

It is important that when running this business we maintain a clean and organized atmosphere to ensure health and comfort for our customers. We also need to consider increasing our awareness of the different food sources we plan to use; it has been proven that foods (especially fruits and vegetables) loose nutrition value when they have undergone an immense amount of processing. “The Green Room” will strive to use ingredients that have not gone through these ‘nutrition wearing’ processes; if possible, we plan to obtain locally grown/processed foods such as tomatoes, bread, and meats for the benefit of out customers.

Simon has been working steadily on pictures for the upcoming installation and has been able to provide the group with some examples:

One of the important regulations the group has researched consists of “Misleading Claims” in advertising. This section summarizes the significance of avoiding false advertisement strategies. All statements that are made regarding the business must be truthful.

Examples of claims, provided by “canadabusiness.ca”, that may be misleading consist of:

1)     “Fresh vegetables” – “Canned or frozen vegetables cannot be advertised as fresh.

2)     “We serve only the best”, “finest”, etc. – “If any food so advertised is less than the highest quality available, this claim becomes misleading. For example, serving beef of Canada B grade quality rather than Canada A grade.”

3)     “Made fresh every day” - “This claim suggests to the customer that the food being served is freshly made daily. If a prepared product is carried over from one day to the next, a claim of this kind would be misleading.”

Ultimately, “The Green Room” seems to be on the right track toward solidifying the business and its necessary elements. Stay tuned next week for reports on our progress!

Windsor, you will rise…

Hi again!

Team Windsor Revivers are here and as always we have exciting news. The semester is almost over and our research will coming to a close in December, however we have been extremely busy gathering our research and planning out how we will be presenting our findings to our class and the public. We have been narrowing our research every chance we get and have been noticing that in each category we have hundreds of ideas to account for. We are in the early stages of creating a visual representation to show the top 3 to 5 wanted environmental, family and business ideas. It is proving to be a difficult thing, but we have some really great ideas starting to form and have decided the first thing to do is go shopping for supplies!

We thank everyone who helped us in providing us with useful and positive information and ideas. We are truly gaining a really good understanding of what Windsor wants. From November 27 till December 7, we will be having an exhibition along with the other groups in our class. We will all be show casing the information about our projects and hope that we can make it as appealing as possible to you all. It is open to everyone, so we encourage you to come by to see what the people of Windsor want to see in our downtown.

We will be updating Facebook again very soon and we are hoping that by doing so we can hear more from you! The page is gaining more likes, comments and ideas every day and we would not have done it without your help in sharing the word. Each and every like, comment or idea counts toward our goals and is continually a motivation for us to help you to get them heard.

So please don’t be shy and visit us at Facebook.com/WhatDoesWindsorWant

This is some of the merchandise that we were experimenting with, including earrings made of bottle caps and a necklace make of pop can tabs.

We also visited Windsor Disposal Services Ltd (WDS) who is the private recycling company that picks up the waste and recyclables from businesses downtown. We went to their sorting centre to learn more about how their business runs and see if they had any advice for our much smaller scale recycling centre. Unfortunately, the women who normally answers these types of inquiries was not there, so we were given her number to contact her directly. We are working on setting up a time next week to have her answer some questions either over the phone or in person.

We can’t believe that the semester is almost over! We are in the final stages of our project, and are looking forward to setting up the final exhibition to show everyone what we have come up!

It took us several hours to sand down our mobile unit by hand.

Caleigh leaves no angle unsanded.

Almost ready to be painted.

Tomorrow we will be meeting up at Lebel for final touches and will begin painting!