Delays and Improvements

November 2nd, 2012, 9:50 pm

With our deadlines approaching quickly, we are still awaiting an Urban Designer whom we have previously contacted, will be arriving in Windsor over the weekend. If everything goes well, we will start with our design process. Moreover, our team had experienced many setbacks to this project. For one, our urban designer does not reside in Windsor, so future contact may be difficult.

With all the feed back, we went from a generalized idea  to a more narrowed specifics regarding this project. Thus experiencing a lot of changes to ideas. Because of this, we had to reform ideas and change our proposal countless of times and will continue to change as we investigate further.

Since this group is a two person team, both members have to fill in roles required to make this project succeed. We find ourselves multitasking interviews, data collection, animation and work with programs we were not trained for. As a team of two, we find ourselves reaching out discovering and acquiring new skills every week.

Since this project gave us a sense of growth and vast knowledge on alleyways. This is not the only thing the grew. Our friendship and freedom to communicate with each other on a informal level allowed us to be open with each other. So every group has its own problems and so did ours. As responsibility increased with measures, stress built for the both of us. But we were able to problem solve and work around them. We did not let our arguments get the better of us. We found being open is very important especially with the progress of this project.

Picture Source:

Uncertainty trumps Risk in Software Development | Accelerated Development. (n.d.). Do you want faster software development?. Retrieved November 2, 2012, from http://accelerateddevelopment.ca/blog/uncertainty-and-risk-in-software-development-3-of-3/

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Outsourcing for Improvement

October 17th, 2012, 3:15 am

This week started our with a lot of brand new ideas being thrown to the table. Now that our final vision is in mind, the requirement for tools and resources to reach this goal became our top priority. In order to achieve our goal  is to reach beyond our limitations by involve the community and the experts on the project we have set forth. From architects to engineers, to creative art specialists and urban designers, we look to integrate a combination of selected skill sets and ideas to create  improvements to  urbanize alleyways within this city.

During the first half of this week, Sandy came across valuable information about a high school  that also unearthed the issue of alley abandonment. A class at Vincent Massey High School decided that it was necessary to end neglecting alleyways in their city and it was time to speak up. This was a perfect opportunity for our team to collaborate with these eager students who are also looking for a change in their community. We decided it was necessary to contact the civics teacher and pool our ideas!

With our eyes set on a ideal location, and a nifty design in mind, the team kept its foot on the gas and is concurrently preparing for the visual construction of the final product. The team is using a computer program to render a 3D visual of how the final design would look like. We are hoping this will be finalized by the end of this week due to time-constraints.

The images above were taken of sites our project will be focused on. The first two images depict the location within the alley that we would like to transform. The third image provides an insight to what we are currently working on and in the hopes of getting it done before project presentations.

Don’t forget to check back next week for new updates as well as feedback from our class presentation! Thank you!

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A Neglected Corridor

October 3rd, 2012, 1:38 pm

Welcome back to our weekly blogs, we have new updates we would like to share with you and we hope you enjoy it!

(Above) This picture taken by Sandy Chehade, provides insight on some of the alleyways located in Downtown Windsor.

While still keeping our original plan to light up the night with new designs of street lights, we made a slight change as to where our focus should be directed towards for this project. In the early stages we introduced the idea of recreating and improving Windsor’s downtown lighting with the intention of increasing the safety of the pedestrians particularly in areas where lighting is not available. After further analyzing and exploring this idea in depth, it was obvious that the streetlights in alley ways and abandoned parking lots were only a small portion of the bigger issue Windsor faces in its solution for safety.

When you take a look at Windsor’s downtown, many of us notice all the effort made to enhance the city’s appearance and bringing it to life, but the full credits should never go to the actors on a theatrical stage, it is the behind the scenes team that is often forgotten about.  In this case, it is the alleyways of our city that is often overlooked and discarded. Whenever the image of an “alley” is brought up, almost immediately a”negative” reflection follows, hence why our team is diligently working hard to transform that image into a pleasant one.

(Above) This photo, also taken by Sandy Chehade, of a randomly selected location in Downtown Windsor provides us with a night-shot look of several neglected alleys.

As scheduled in our timeline, the team visited several locations this week to gather photos (above) along with information regarding the city’s policy and regulations for alleyways. We have realized that this project will not only depend communicating with the city councils but also with the community and business owners whose shops often lead to the alleys. We are anxious to start transforming and implementing our idea to the world, and we can`t succeed without your help! So stay tuned for more updates from our team through our rapid progress. Thank you.

 

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