Architecture Studies

Also featured in this issue is a brief article discussing the issue of cell phone towers creeping up all over the valley (across the country really). A design charette with several students in the fall focused on the re-design of such towers. Unfortunately, the student work was not pictured in the magazine, but to offer more insight on their efforts the summary offered to Arch L.V. is included:

Below is a list of information regarding the design charette, participants, and outcomes:
• 20 students (16 from Glenn NP Nowak’s AAE280 studio)
o Alemayehu, Jerome
o Brown, Dan
o ‘Caco’
o Chavez, Jose
o Colin, Edwin
o Countey, Pat
o Costache, Julian
o Gutierrez, Angela
o Hanna, Maggie
o Johnson, Norma
o Laster, Dan
o Leonard, Rebecca
o Limpede, Andrea
o Lee, Jason
o Lopez, Myriam
o Martinez, Sam
o Rangel, Jose
o Roche, Lella
o Romero, Jorge
o Rozbitskyy, Volodoymyr
• 4 hour charette on Nevada Day
• 5 main strategies were identified for re-designing the towers
o Sculptural
o Contextual
o Infrastructural
o Environmental
o Economical
• Each of five team outcomes essentially combines 2 or more of the above entities while being infused with an important dose of imagination
• Norma and Angela sought to redistribute old neon signs, merge 1910’s technology with 2010’s vanity (as old fashion becomes new again)… “it embraces Las Vegas culture.” Imagine AT&T buying The Stardust sign for the corner of Town Center and Desert Inn.
• Several students asked about integrating cell phone towers with windmills… the idea kills two stones with one bird (that way nobody gets hurt), while the others noted that 1. People are equally appalled with the thought of a windmill in sight as they are a tower and 2. birds might get hurt.
• Jorge offered that each tower “could act as a memorial to a local figure.”
• Caco was adamant with claims that people will get used to the towers just as, “they’ve gotten used to power-lines.”
• I did not lead the charette in a particular direction so much as I encouraged each group member to explore divergent solutions while considering the ideas of others. The infinite solutions will ultimately be a balance between art and engineering. The current palm tree, flag pole, or church steeple solutions contain both (art and engineering) but at equally unimaginative levels. Just wait till these students hit the ‘real-world.’

1. The Headdress
• The question was posed, ‘Shouldn't form follow function? At the very least,
the result should not be so ersatz.’
• To disguise towers as palm trees first suggests that palm trees are to be regarded as native to our desert climate. This statement argues that the unadorned transmitters can be seen as attractive… especially when design is honest and responds with an acute sense of place.
• The reciprocal might include a tower capped-off with peacock feathers and a boa. Design ought to make people smile!
2. The Parked Cow
• Similar to the ‘cows on parade’ of Chicago and a more practical alternative to Las Vegas’ talk of Desert Tortoises on ‘every’ corner…
• This concept calls for the commissioning of unique structures in each of our city’s parks.
• Tensile shading structures would be integrated with receptive/conductive properties for information transference
3. The Call-Barometer Billboard
• Beyond hiding these towers in existing billboards, this concept redesigns both as one,
• And incorporates real-time call-volume to determine the placement (prominence) of advertisements… (when the big fight is on, Pizza Hut and Dominos surge to the top of the billboard… when the campaign callers go crazy in November, their candidates’ names might actually appear on the tower)
• The spiral form affords 360° legibility from multiple heights.
4. The Sprinkle vs. The Stab
• There is such animosity toward the large towers (yet there would be even more complaints if people didn’t get reception at their home in the outermost suburbs)
• This strategy says reuse what we already have or what people are willing to accept. Small repeaters placed every few hundred feet instead of giants placed every mile.
• Atop lamp posts, street signs, billboards, high school stadium lights, buildings, etc.
5. The Cartesian Network in Motion
• Instead of grounding mobile phone connectivity to the grid, this query looks at inviting flows within the matrix of transmitters.
• Incentives might to be offered to those (from planes and trains to buses and shopping carts) willing to distribute reception.
• With so many people wanted to be connected, each person plays a part in connecting from one person to another. This image investigates roles that might spark economic initiatives.
• Health risks associated with the large towers are diminished as the signal is dissipated through smaller yet more frequent points.