I'm famous (and more important, I'm apparently kind of effective)

[sabotabby]

It seems that my little rant about the accessibility fail at the AGO has garnered some attention. It was apparently discussed at a conference (that I'd heard about through other means, and wanted to attend because it looked amazing) and then mentioned in the Ottawa Citizen!

"I'm so thankful that they put that out into the world, and that they put it in writing," said Syrus Marcus Ware, the program co-ordinator for youth at AGO.

She [sic] said the gallery has gone through a massive re-thinking of its existence, beginning as the new design was being planned, and has poured its efforts into trying to serve a wider population. This includes free nights for people who can't afford to pay admission, and better access for disabled visitors.

But she [sic] said there are always staff who feel defensive and resist change. The outside criticism, she [sic] said, "gave us a great push."

You guys. You guys. They are actually doing something about this, maybe. Words effecting concrete change that makes people's lives better and such.

Thanks a million to writer_grrrrl for passing said post around to the right people and for sending me the article.

EDIT: It is a lot dismaying to have learned that the article on accessibility!fail committed gender!fail. We have such a long way to go.

Comments

[flummoxicated.livejournal.com]

That is way cool. You made a difference!

[funnel101.livejournal.com]

Yay! :) (And yay to you for writing about it in the first place.)

[springheel-jack.livejournal.com]

Awesome.

I also found the cute little mistakes in the article funny. Your blog is "called" "frank gehry hates disabled people."

But there's an upside. His clipping service will probably forward it to him.

You know, I was once talking to a guy who helped design nuclear subs for the navy back in the day. Now, on a nuclear sub, they don't call it architecture, but clearly the way the space is designed must be functional, and that's a challenge because space is tight. If two knobs collide in their normal range of motion, that's right out. If people going to their duty stations can't get by each other at a hatch, that's out.

So they would build a mockup of all the sub's key areas in wood to see if it worked. Moving control levers and everything.

This is before CAD, obviously. But that makes one wonder - in THIS day and age, can't they be bothered to model their space to see if it _works_? Like Koolhhaaaaaaaas' new library in Seattle. Some cool ideas there. Did anyone test them to see if they worked, at any scale, before building them? No? OH MY GOD.

Everyone says postmodernism destroyed architecture. Or Modernism or some other 'ism'. But what really destroyed it is the cult of the celebrity architect, who must have a sculptural 'look' to their buildings, a brand, and fuck whether the space works for its users or not. What matters is whether the plan is cool enough to get the commission and the exterior interesting enough to show up on postcards.

IM Pei is another one whose museum designs are suspect, to me. His galleries are usually plain rectangular rooms, but all the Grand Spaces contain at least one central staircase whose steps are canted at least thirty degrees out of the frontal plane of the user's body. I have to close my eyes when I'm climbing them or I feel like I'll fall. Steps that aren't even accessible to completely able-bodied people! Now that's a feat.

They look cool, though.

[sabotabby]

Can you imagine? A blog about why Frank Gehry sucks? Someone should do it. I really miss the anti-Margaret Wente blog. It could be like that, but about celebrity architects.

Some po-mo architecture strikes me as more accessible, at least potentially. There was the whole revival of the vernacular thing, which is butt-ugly but mostly functional.

His galleries are usually plain rectangular rooms, but all the Grand Spaces contain at least one central staircase whose steps are canted at least thirty degrees out of the frontal plane of the user's body. I have to close my eyes when I'm climbing them or I feel like I'll fall. Steps that aren't even accessible to completely able-bodied people! Now that's a feat.

I'm completely able-bodied and that sounds like an utter nightmare. I don't want to look at stairs from the ground and think, "hey, I could easily fall off of that."

[springheel-jack.livejournal.com]

I bet it seemed like a good idea at the time - a symptom of this drive for coolness and novelty. But that requires you to reject the accumulated experience of generations. Stairs aren't made perpendicular to the side rails for no reason. Roofs in rainy/snowy climates aren't gabled for no reason. Library stacks aren't arranged in parallel ranks in big rooms, rather than being mounted to the central pillar of a crazy spiral, for NO REASON, REM.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Library stacks aren't arranged in parallel ranks in big rooms, rather than being mounted to the central pillar of a crazy spiral

Have you ever seen a picture of the Central library's first floor? There are, like, ALMOST NO BOOKS in there. A few scattered sad little shelves. LOTS of floor space, huge skylights. It's whack. It would make a great studio or art gallery or something. Not a library.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Oh my God, the new Seattle Central library fucking sucks, and everyone I know creams over it. 'So avant-garde! So modern! So colorful!' They built it for the goddamned tourists. So yeah, it's a great tourist attraction, but an utter FAIL as an actual LIBRARY, you ask me. ....meanwhile, the non-touristy libraries are still enduring budget cuts and weeks of closures.

[roter-terror.livejournal.com]

Apparently the main San Francisco library built about a decade ago was also a major debacle. "The architects won" and the librarians and public got a library with so little room for books that hundreds of thousands (if not more) were apparently discarded, with some supposedly going straight to the landfill.

Bastard god damn concrete-artists.

[turandot.livejournal.com]

I've only visited that library once (not a tourist, just haven't gotten a chance to go again yet), and while I can see your point of view, I would still call it a mixed bag.

Some features are obviously touristy, yes. I was bothered by the fact that stacks were only fully visible on one floor, and while the windows on the top floor are very attractive architecturally, I wouldn't visit a library to get a view of the skyline in general, being just there for the books. There are better free and open spaces to get a spectacular view in Seattle anyway (Kerry Park comes to mind).

But the children's library wing (and here a caveat: I used to be a teacher, so I was mostly interested in seeing that) was great: wide spaces, very accessible, very inviting. It was probably the first full scale children section of a central public library (and I have visited about 3 or 4 in different parts of the country, btw) that I could see kids loving and never wanting to leave it. It's too bad that the ideas behind it were not used as a model for the rest of the building. :(

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Oh god, Pei steps are the worst. My university art museum is a Pei building and it's pretty, but trying to run up the stairs to get to your class on time is a recipe for DEATH.

[troubleinchina.livejournal.com]

Yayes!

[shelestel.livejournal.com]

Great, now the crippled will have the option of being as pretentious and snobbish as the rest of us.

[courtly.livejournal.com]

Smirkage. :)

[realcdaae.livejournal.com]

Great rant, and great response/result. Yay you!

[krinndnz.livejournal.com]

Awesome! Go Sabo!

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

It's weird, for some reason, to hear you described as "anonymous". I mean, you have a clear net name and presence. There's nothing anonymous about that.

[sabotabby]

Old media does not understand the blogosphere. Or gender, going by what writer_grrrrl said below.

I mean, sabotabby is probably tied with [Miss Tabby] for the name people know me as the most.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

This is so very cool. I'm glad.

[writer-grrrrl.livejournal.com]

Hooray!

P.S. -- my conference organizer friend tells me that the reporter was a jerk and refused to use Syrus' pronoun of choice, which is "he."

But go, Sabo, go! I wouldn't be surprised if Gehry ends up reading your post soon enough. It is a small, small world ...

[sabotabby]

P.S. -- my conference organizer friend tells me that the reporter was a jerk and refused to use Syrus' pronoun of choice, which is "he."

Gah.

I think I met Syrus once; it's an uncommon name, and if it's the same Syrus, he was really cool.

But go, Sabo, go! I wouldn't be surprised if Gehry ends up reading your post soon enough. It is a small, small world ...

Hahahaha. I hope so. I think someone was talking about mailing it to him.

[mr-flabulous.livejournal.com]

Ya, Syrus is extremely cool (perhaps I'm biased, as he is a best friend). I think I'd also mentioned your post to him in one of our discussions about his workplace...hilarious and wonderful to see it mentioned in the paper (and argh to that douchebag reporter!).

[sabotabby]

He was involved in 81 Reasons, y/y?

*Sabs realizes she should go back and edit with [sic]s*

[mr-flabulous.livejournal.com]

Yep, totally.

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

Kudos!

[ironed_orchid]

That is so awesome!

[on-se-dit-tu.livejournal.com]

That's awesome! Go Miss Tabby!

[frippy.livejournal.com]

I liked that post because it wasn't just the usual griping about overrated starchitects making fugly or counterintuitive buildings but it showed what happens when people actually try to make use of a modern public building, only to discover that a portion of the public is unable to use it due to the particulars of its design. I'm glad to see it was read by someone not as a rant but as an architectural bug report.

[sabotabby]

Hah. I like the idea of architectural bug reports. And rants-as-bug-reports in general.

[culpster.livejournal.com]

You rock

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Go Action!Sabs! You rock!

[roter-terror.livejournal.com]

Frank Gehry Hates Disabled People is totally my favorite blog.

[cyborg-kitty100.livejournal.com]

You deserve cake!

[stoneself.livejournal.com]

yay you!

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

WOW!!!!!
Something actually made a change for good in the world!!!
You are ever restoring my faith, countering my twisted bitterness with your shining example of courageous ummm, lost for words, but I am so pleased, hooray! I mean, hooray, as I was feeling nowt is worth doing owt about, and now I feel like hooray maybe doing things can help make a difference.

[trias-cube.livejournal.com]

That's really wonderful that you made an impact. Way to go!

[auralarua.livejournal.com]

Awesomeeee

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, I hope Gehry reads it! It probably be too much to ask that he actually consider it, but I hope he at least reads it.