Scott Page

<p> <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana">Paterson</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana">?<span>  </span>Yeah <a href="http://www.patersonhistory.com/">Paterson</a>, the City 13 miles to the west of NYC.<span>  </span>Birthplace of American industry, the “Silk City” founded by Alexander Hamilton and designed by Washington DC’s master planner Pierre Charles L’Enfant.<span>  </span>Besides textiles, Paterson was home to the first repeating revolver, first submarine and the Rogers Locomotive Works that, at one time, manufactured 80% of the Country’s locomotives.<span>  </span>Paterson is also home to the second largest waterfall in the northern hemisphere (Niagra Falls taking top honors of course) and a collection of foreign born residents so lar

<span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana">One of the perks of my job is getting to know new cities and neighborhoods.<span>  </span>We research, create a lot of graphics and talk with a lot of people.<span>  </span>In the course of those discussions, while people often exhibit pride in where they live, there is also an underlying concern that frequently goes something like this:</span> <ul> <li><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana">“We feel like a last place team – the one that can never get out of the cellar.”</span></li> <li><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana">“There is a real self-image problem here.”</span></li> <li><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana">“You can’t do that in [insert name of place here] because we

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small"><span style="font-family: Calibri">With the Olympics nicely coinciding with my vacation, I think I’ve watched more coverage of the games than the average human should.<span> </span>Prior to the start of the games, I followed with interest the story of how Beijing was re-fashioning itself to host the games.<span> </span>Much has been written on this subject from the loss of the city’s “<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2196883/">hutongs</a>” to the “<a href="http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/2008/08/behind-beijings.html">distorted</a>” messages conveyed by the starchitecture.<span> </span>Some have referred to Beijing as a “Houston on steroids.”<span> </span></span></span>

<p> <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana">I was reading the New York Times Magazine special architecture issue a few weeks ago when something jumped out at me.<span> </span>On the intro page to the issue of the “Mega-Megalopolis” one of the by-line says “How does an architect plan for a city with no history?<span> </span>Or a city that just keeps growing?”<span> </span>Interesting questions particularly given the fact that to charge architects with the task of planning our cities is affording too much power to a profession that simply doesn’t have it.<span> </span></span> </p>

<p> <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana">We’ve all been subject to them – the endless powerpoint presentations that extol the worst aspects of animated text and mind-numbing bullet points.<span> </span>While Edward Tufte has written about the <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html">horrors of powerpoint</a>, I see it as just a tool and like any tool it can be used wisely or poorly.<span> </span>After all, David Byrne, the former Talking Heads front man, makes <a href="http://www.davidbyrne.com/art/eeei/index.php">art with powerpoint</a> so it can’t be all bad.<span> </span>But one thing struck me at the American Planning Association’s (APA) conference two weeks ago:<span> </span>some sessions would have been much better if the powerpoint presentation (or abuse thereof) didn’t get in the way.<span> </span>In actuality, some of the best presentations I attended didn’t use powerpoint at all.