2013 was a year of transition. After over a decade of running my urban design practice in Calgary, Alberta, I (we) decided to move our family across the continent to Lafayette, Louisiana to take a position as their first Director of Design- a position created by former PlaceMakers partner Nathan Norris. This is a story I'll tell as part of my website project artzydeco.
Meanwhile, Its hard to believe that its already been nearly two years. Having taken a hiatus from PlaceMakers, and with my previous companies Civic Design Group and T-Six Urbanists without a web presence, the portfolio of the last decade of my work is largely out of sight. It was always my intention to get something up within months of showing up to the swamp, but here we are.
I remember some years back picking up my first ebook, "The Lean Startup", a computer programmers take on the now ubiquitous lean movement. One of the things I learned from this book was not to wait until you had a polished product, just get it out there and refine it over time as you receive feedback. So... I sat on my portfolio for almost two years. The truth is that a portfolio (a monograph in the first person) is introspective, somewhat narcissistic, and takes a hell of a lot of time when you have a day job and young kids.
Well screw it, here it is. As I’m on to my next chapter (www.artzydeco), here is my narcissistic not-too-rigourous open for constant fine-tuning mostly complete portfolio of a decade of urban design work. But it won't stop there. Beyond the story I’m helping weave in Lafayette, and for those who care to stop by, I willl continue to add new (and old.. and retrospective) material as I dig deeper into my experience as a contemporary urbanist. Take a look, send me comments, and don’t be afraid to connect!