Courtesy of http://www.vanalen.org
Last night I had the great fortune to be in my under-rated hometown of St. Louis at the Contemporary Art Museum (a wonderful gallery with great events) at the Life at the Speed of Rail event. Put on by the Van Alen Institute and a host of several other organizations, the night consisted of a viewing winning entries from the recent competition of the same name and a panel discussion, featuring none other than our very own regional planning expert and corridor creator, Mark Vogl. Along with him was the incredibly impressive Petra Todorovich, director of America 2050, Carol Coletta of CEOs for Cities fame and ArtPlace, and last but not least St. Louisan Tom Shrout, from Avvantt Partners. A thank you also goes out to Alex Ihnen–check out his nextstl.com blog–who invited Mark to participate and suggested him to KWMU. The session was well-facilitated by Andrew Colopy & Diana Lind, two Van Alen Fellows.
The dialogue was great and achieved its intentions to raise awareness and in many ways inspire new thinking around high speed rail and the role of design. You can see all the winning entries here. You can also listen to a podcast from St. Louis Public Radio here.
Courtesy of http://www.vanalen.org
My favorite and most whimsical had to be the Animal Farmitures, by Stewart Hicks, Allison Newmeyer (Design With Company), which even inspired my two youngins, grudgingly in tow, to look up from their DSIs and take note. I think one of the most compelling cases discussed is just the wonderful contradiction of high speed rail in today’s society. You get to walk on board, sit back and relax – connect with the scenery, get up and get some dinner, stretch your legs, use your laptop whenever you want, no fasten seatbelt signs or ear popping cramping your style and a few hours later you arrive at your destination, most likely in an urban center. No shuttle buses and no baggage claim. You never leave mother earth, you get to do your own thing and you still get there faster than you could on the highway. One of the entries even illustrates disco and exercise cars – watch out Orient Express. Tell me, what could be more modern and yet so old-fashioned…so slow.
Anyway, congratulations and thanks to everyone who brought the conversation to our town. Next stops on their tour are Houston and LA. Check it out.