Design Revolution Road Show

We added a stop in Charlottesville recently, after we were contacted by numerous people from the Charlottesville Community Design Center, University of Virginia, and a childhood friend of Matt’s who lives there and is entering the Master of Landscape Architecture program at UVA. Naturally, when we arrive, we chose to squat on said friend’s front lawn.

Our one day in C-ville was a two-fer, with the morning/early afternoon spent at the design center downtown (we parked right on the pedestrian “mall”), and the evening at UVA for a second presentation. The crowd all day long was fantastic- a great mix of professional designers and creatives, with graduate architecture and landscape architecture students who asked a lot of smart questions about business models, how Project H finds projects, and how we are funded.

We should note that the Charlottesville Community Design Center is an awesome place. The group is a node for local innovation, and includes initiatives ranging from exhibitions (on view now is a show about local water issues) to design projects that link nonprofits to teams of professionals and students. Our brownbag lunch presentation from 12-1 is a common occurrence at the design center, pulling folks from all over the city for mid-day discussions around design.

In the afternoon, a class of students from the Village School stopped by after viewing the design center’s water exhibition. They walked through the trailer and were very excited to recognize many of the items, and identify them as well-designed everyday objects (video below). The local news was there to interview the students, as well as Matt and myself (see their coverage here).

At 5pm, we headed to UVA to give a lecture at the School of Architecture. Having given about 20+ presentations on this trip thus far, we’ve gotten fairly good at “reading an audience,” and the folks at UVA were fantastic. There was a great sense of genuine interest (and humor!) in the air as we showed the Stephen Colbert clip and discussed our own backgrounds in coming to this type of work through watershed moments and “ethical evolutions.” We were also excited to see many faculty in attendance! After the lecture, a good chunk of those at the presentation schlepped across town to view the exhibition, which was still parked downtown on the mall.

Among those who attended the evening viewing were professor Julie Bargmann, who runs DIRT (Dump It Right There), a very cool landscape design firm that looks at brownfield remediation and more. We met Julie as she approached the trailer, and on her way out, she handed us a “travel gift” in a brown paper bag, which turned out to be our favorite brand of whiskey. Serendipity strikes again! (See Matt with his oldest friend and entering UVA Landscape student Chris Woods clutching the bottle below)

School of Architecture dean Kim Tanzer came out as well, and even Tweeted the following from her iPhone: “Design Revolution comes to C’ville. The School of Architecture faculty loves it! http://yfrog.com/jumj6oj” (@UVAsarc). Kim was great, and we hope to stay in touch with the department over the coming months and as we move to North Carolina. Apparently she had heard about our visit through a few channels: a mention in the book Glimmer, and also through one of her Landscape students Kate Goodman, who is a childhood friend of mine. A photo of the two of us at age 5 had gone out earlier that day! We gave Kim and her husband a t-shirt and a few books (one for her, one for the library), and she was generous enough to make a donation towards our “food on the road” fund and beyond.

Thank you to everyone who made for such a fun, relaxing, and inspiring day. We’re excited to come back to Charlottesville and potentially collaborate with the design center and/or UVA in the future!!