Sitephocus December 09 update...

Our most recent update featuring New Town at St. Charles near St. Louis went live last week. Many more photos are available at www.sitephocus.com. Next month will feature more of St. Louis with the recently opened urban sculpture park CityGarden, Central West End, Forest Park, plus a few other sites. Here are a few photos from the update:

Mixed-use building in the Town Center

Porous concrete paver pavement

Waterfront park with lawn terrace steps

Church at the town center



Single-family streetscape
Single family homes adjacent one of the many lakes at New Town

Single-family townhomes disguised as a larger single family home.

Townhome streetscape at New Town

Sitephocus November 09 update...

It's been busy of late and didn't realize I missed throwing images of the October update Los Angeles onto the blog. You can check those out on our Flickr page here. November's update is courtesy of Brian and his trip to Barcelona. Next month look for photos from New Town at St. Charles TND near St. Louis.


Miscellaneous street/alley with retail
Parc del Centre del Poblenou plaza
Parc del Centre del Poblenou bike rack (we think)
Parc del Centre del Poblenou trees trained into a series of arbors
Biomedical Research Park (Parc Recerca Biomedica) courtyard

Bicing bike sharing system
Fountain at the Hotel Arts
Waterfront promenade at Carrer de Marina
Mixed use building featuring heavily planted balconies (featured on Veg.itecture)
Torre de Gas Natural headquarters

Nikon iPhone app....

For those out there interested in learning more and applying it to your photography, now there's an app by Nikon for your iPhone or iPod touch. The Learn and Explore app provides example photography as well as helpful tips at home or on the go. Additionally, you can read the latest Nikon World issues right from your phone.

Sitephocus.com Survey results...

Thanks to all of our subscribers and followers for the input into our recent survey. The results are as follows with responses given (as well as a little commentary). If you have any questions, please feel free to email me directly at cwhitis_at_sitephocus.com.

1. How do you utilize sitephocus.com's photo library?

Presentations 76.9%

Idea generation 76.9%

Reports/ Master Plans 23.1% 3

Other 7.7%

Responses - to see whats out there

2. When we cover a particular site, do you feel our photography has provided an in-depth view of that project/ place?

Yes 83.3%

No 16.7%

Responses –

- Try to get more pictures with people in them. Otherwise, great photos.

- need better quality photography - have you guys had any photographic training - maybe bring in someone like Caroline Allison to make suggestions on technique

- Sometimes the photos are a bit "design heavy"; that is, they show the design, building or space but do not show how people inhabit them. I would like to see more people in the pictures. Not always, but sometimes would be good.

A couple of the responses highlighted the need for photos showing people and how they use the space. Different times and days provide different activity levels and photographic opportunities, but we’ll work to provide more user focus in future updates. While we try and capture spaces being used, we’re also very limited on the amount of time we can spend in a place and still allow us to capture other projects in our focus city. To highlight this, Brian and I headed to St. Louis recently for an action packed day of shooting. In the morning, we hit the New Town at St. Charles TND which didn’t have activity happening in public spaces. Had we been there that evening, maybe the central amphitheater or town center would have been more alive. In contrast, we hit the recently opened CityGarden sculpture park downtown after we left New Town, which was buzzing with visitors.

We also invite the criticism of our work in order to better ourselves and our content for our users and would love to hear more as to what we can improve upon - composition, perspectives, color balance? By no means do we consider ourselves true professional photographers, nor could we devote the hours a pro dedicates to setup, etc. to capture that one shot of a space and still provide a great deal of content covering details within a space.

3. What types of sites that we photograph do you enjoy most?

Urban Development/ Cityscapes 66.7%

Landscape Architecture/ Plazas/ Parks 66.7%

Neighborhood Development (TNDs, conservation developments, single family) 25.0%

Retail/ Lifestyle Center 33.3%

Responses - details and close ups

- all

4. What features would you like to see on sitephocus.com to increase efficiency and productivity while utilizing our site?

slideshow 30.0%

email a friend specific photo links 10.0%

ability to hover over thumbnails for larger view 80.0%

ability to leave comments with tagged photos to communicate in-house 0.0%

responses –

- BETTER SEARCH CAPABILITIES

- open source access

- the daily limit sometimes hinder use. can't get to it every day - would like to be able to download 200 images at once for example and miss a couple days.

- individual picture purchase

- better, more precise searching

We had some great suggestions here and these confirm our line of thinking for future sitephocus.com tools and formats that we’re currently exploring. I’ll try and provide some of our thoughts on each response.

In terms of searching, this provides use with an opportunity to highlight the functionality of searching on sitephocus.com. All keywords we use are industry specific to the design professions, and if there’s ever a specific keyword you’re looking for, let us know and we’ll add it to our list. Terms can vary by region and we want to be as accurate for our searchers as possible without having “keyword overload” that you see on some stock sites.

Say you’re searching for a wood gate. If you type in “wood gate” (no quotations), sitephocus search will pull up any photo that’s been tagged with “wood” or “gate.” So, you may get a wood boardwalk or CorTen steel gate. To search more accurately, simply add + to your search: “+wood +gate” (again, no quotations). This will only bring up images with “wood” and “gate.” There may be a few instances where a photo has those and isn’t a wood gate, but it will drastically filter the unwanted results you might get.

Open-source access has been a goal of ours and we’re currently working out the logistics of how to make that happen. Our vision is to develop an approval process for photos to be added so we can ensure the quality of our content remains high and focused on the design professions. This will also help exponentially expand the content and reach of sitephocus.com for our users as we’re only two guys with so much that we can realistically cover. If you have images and are interested in being a contributor, send us a link to your portfolio, such as a flickr account, so we can see what you have and we’ll have more information for those interested in contributing not long after we roll out the sitephocus.com site updates.

The daily limit we have instituted is by design in order to protect the content of our database. This will be changing slightly when we move to a pay-per-image credit system in the future. While I’m on the pay-per-image subject, our plan is to provide a system that maintains the 1 yr subscription level with unlimited download abilities and for those not looking for the 1 yr level, we’ll be offering a credit option where you can purchase the images you need at the level that fits your budget. We hope to have this in place at the beginning of 2010 along with the survey questions listed above.

5. For our 1 yr subscribers, would a pay-per-image option affect your decision to maintain a 1 yr subscription

(unlimited downloads w/ 1 yr subscription)?

Yes 40.0% No 60.0%

6. As a subscriber, would you be willing to do a testimonial/ blog post for sitephocus.com on our blog, moresitephocus.com?

We’ll be in touch with those who volunteered soon and thank you for the willingness to take time to do that for us!

7. Our last question is less of a question and more of a chance for you to let us know, in your own words, what you think or would like to see on sitephocus.com.

1. Love the site, [firm name omitted] uses this often for presentations images and idea generation. We love the diversity of your images and are always able to find something that inspires our work. Thanks!
2. Need better tagging so that searches can be more targeted
3. a focus on more interesting images/spaces less generic
4. It would be great to have more examples of good suburban development. I know this is hard to find, but oftentimes we need to educate folks on "better" not just "best." Also, I think it would be interesting to have a follies section. Kind of like a "what not to wear" section that shows people what bad design actually is.
5. Slide show, ease of sifting thru search results
6. PHOTOS WITH MORE PEOPLE USING THE SPACE!
7. More images of bad development/examples

Many of these responses were addressed in previous questions, but we’ll also work to do a better job providing images that are more suburban in orientation, as well bad developments. Any leads on places that you’d like to see – good, bad, or ugly – let us know and we’ll get those on a must-see list.

Thanks for taking the time to respond to our survey. It’s been very helpful as we determine our next steps and we’re excited with what lies ahead. Hopefully you will be as well.

Making spaces interesting....

We found this cool video experiment that compared the before and after of activating a set of barely used steps next to a subway escalator. The designers developed a touch system that turned the stairs into an oversized keyboard - think Tom Hanks and Big. Use of the stairs jumped 66% by the simple act of making the experience fun and interesting.



Goes to show that if you make a space or route interesting, sometimes users will take the more difficult path for the fun of it.

Green Roof and Fire Resistance...

Brian stumbled across this video prepared by LiveRoof for their prevegetated modules showing a test to determine flammability of green roof plant material and components. Exposed to flames for 10 minutes, the plant material in direct contact with the fire burned without spreading to adjacent planting.

LiveRoof also has a video on their channel showing a wind test, subjecting the tray system to 110 mph winds for a 2 hr. period with no plant upheaval from the high speed winds.

Making Sprawl cheaper for developers...

Who knew that design fees were a primary reason that developers of sprawl were having such a hard time getting projects off the ground? Now, through SiteOps, civil engineers can cut construction costs and presumably design fees by finding the most efficient way to lay out sprawl!

Maybe instead of trying to figure out which parking layout is the most effective for a limited-use big box store, they should consult designers of mixed use 'places' that provide flexibility, adaptability, and hold their value for the long term. A guy can wish, can't he?

Seattle and stormwater...

High Point HopeIV project in West Seattle with green street/ bioswale planting strips

Seattle is in the process of updating their stormwater code by requiring green infrastructure such as green roofs and bioretention. New regulations as proposed would reduce the square footage of impervious area to 2,000 and any land disturbing activity greater than 7,000 sf "would be required to implement green stormwater infrastructure to the maximum extent feasible."

As is usually the case, the Pacific Northwest is setting the standard for green infrastructure.

New York's Golden Age....

I'm a sucker for historic Black and White photos of cities and stumbled on this gallery at Life that I thought some might enjoy. There are some fantastic images of signature architecture as well as life in the city.

Sitephocus September 09 update...

We uploaded photos from Brian's recent trip to the LA area about a week ago. The following is a batch of images from the full upload.

Sitephocus.com

Mission Meridian Village streetscape view in South Pasadena

Santa Monica
One Colorado streetscape scene with outdoor dining cafes
The Third Street Promenade



Miscellaneous shots in Santa Monica


Pasadena
Old Town Pasadena intersection with cyclist

Del Mar Station, a Transit Oriented Development adjacent (and actually over) a Light Rail line.


Paseo Colorado mixed use development/ lifestyle center