A Sign Can Make It Official: Demarcating Windsor’s New Meadows
Another walk along the riverfront today, this time with Andrew and Barb from Render / DodoLab. Windsor’s meadows are looking incredible, and if this strike ends it’ll be quite disappointing to see so many patches of long grasses and wildflowers cut down.
I can understand that there was a point at which people could have thought that things looked “messy,” but I think we’re well past that now. Windsor is now into a full-on prairie meadow stage and it’s gorgeous.
So, this sign, and this area pictured above, is as the sign says, a Wildflower Garden. It’s official, it was made official by that simple blue sign on a galvanized pole. So, if all it takes is a sign, why don’t we make official some other prime Windsor meadow locations and reclaim some space for “naturalized areas.” I’m going to be on the look out for particularly great locations to formalize as Windsor’s naturalized meadows.
Or if signs aren’t your thing, but you still want to work with these amazingly wondrous meadows, head out with Leesa Bringas at 8am every morning for some grass braiding.
![Courtesy of the always brilliant Steven … There’s now a new submission form that allows you to get a quick preview of what your Text In-Transit panel could look like, along with a fun little colour swatch. If you’ve already submitted, it’s worth submitting more just to try this out, and if you haven’t submitted yet—get [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/bcl_textintransit-submit-150x150.jpg "New Text In-Transit Submission Form!")
![Once again, we gathered at Lebel for another fun Friday full of brainstorming and map making. This particular Friday we met with Mel, a jewelry designer with his BFA from Yugoslavia, to discuss the best design for the CAFKA letters. We are currently deciding whether it would be best to stick with our original plan [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMG_2379-150x150.jpg "BCL Report: March 11, 2011 (Maps & Letters)")
![Starting on January 15, 2013, we’ll be offering a new workshop series for anyone and everyone interested in learning about electronics and physical computing. Hosted by Paul Anderson – a man of too many hobbies who holds the advanced qualification for ham radio in Canada, and has been working with electronics on and off since childhood [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/BEDO-POSTER-150x150.jpg "New Workshop Series Starting in January: Building Electronics / Designing Originally")
![Yesterday, Eric Boucher met with my uncle, Lou Tortola, to interview him for his Micro Residency. Lou immigrated to Windsor from Italy in the seventies, when he was about ten or eleven, and is now a successful entrepreneur, established writer, and CEO of eliquidMEDIA. Over some espresso and biscotti, he talked with Eric about his first impressions [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/DSC05858-150x150.jpg "Eric Boucher Micro-Residency Iteration 5/5")
![We’re back to Friday nights. Someone thought to move the tables outside. In the dimming light, we worked. Many things are on the task list. We’re starting to work on a publication of sorts for How to Forget the Border Completely. It’s been a really clarifying decision to pull the strands of research we’ve been working [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/IMG_9947-150x150.jpg "We’re outside around a table, together. It’s May. How to Forget the Border Completely.")
![We’ll be picking up on this again today as we continue to experiment with cutting stencils of our handwriting on cardstock from our vinyl cutter, the Graphtec ce5000-60. These are very early tests, but will hopefully lay the groundwork for some processes and projects later on in the summer or fall. No big surprise, trying [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/wpid18816-IMG_0170-150x150.jpg "Cardstock Handwriting Stencils from our Vinyl Cutter (test phase)")
![Tom Provost came by a couple weeks ago with an idea for a new collaboration. We’ve work with Tom before on How to Forget the Border Completely — in particular the proposals for 1,000 Pedestrian Walkways and the Windsor-Detroit Portals. In short, the new project is to take the form of a triangular sign, something [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/IMG_8460-150x150.jpg "Pop-Up Possibilities: Sketches")
![While we’re still moving along on our Save the City project in the background, we’re also continuing to look ahead to other projects and deadlines coming up. Tuesday mornings are always a really good productive time, and this week was no exception. While we wait for our ribbons and postcards to arrive for the upcoming Sites of [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/IMG_7135-150x150.jpg "Sometimes Planning Means Drawing")
![This afternoon at CIVIC SPACE started out with a video chat with Jason Sturgill from Portland about a really awesome project we’ll be collaborating with him on in the spring of next year. There is also talk of Homework II happening this fall…stayed tuned for more info on this. Also, our Akimbo ad was released [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_9573-150x150.jpg "Grey Paint Test, Tattoos, and Talk of Homework II")
![Tonight, we are going to perform the first iteration of Cross-Border Communication. Thanks to the generosity from the University of Windsor’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Research Leadership Chair and Spectrodata, we have the equipment we need to realize this project. Cross-Border Communication was initially imagined through a collaborative effort between Broken City Lab [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/IMG_4416-150x150.jpg "Tonight, the first iteration of Cross-Border Communication")
![We did it. With a lot of help, we plowed through the remaining eight letters, finishing the papier maché part of the process towards completing our ongoing large-cardboard letters project. On Friday night, we had ten people around the table, including our dear Cristina for a short while, and it was great!!! Next on the to-do list — get [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/IMG_40091-150x150.jpg "The Letters are Done Phase 2!!!")
![We had another great Friday night meeting, even though Josh was sick, and even though we underestimated two things. First, we struggled again thinking through this second residency/conference idea, and the letters took way longer than anticipated to papier mâché. At any rate, with the autumn weather firmly setting in, it’s looking like we’ll be [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/IMG_3581-150x150.jpg "Getting Closer Every Week: Big Letters and New Titles")
![Be it resolved that we’ll be a lot more active on here starting now. We’ve been overly involved in communicating on Google Wave while trying to keep our brains together for Save the City. With that project winding down, we’ll be shifting more of our research and communications back on here. We’ve missed it. And [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/howToPostOnBCL-sm-150x150.jpg "Expect More Activity + How Do You Collaborate Online?")
![In order to keep things moving with Eric Boucher’s Micro-Residency project, I invited Eric to interview my oldest (in terms of age) friend Terry Marentette yesterday afternoon. I met Terry two years ago in an Art History class at the School of Visual Arts and was immediately astonished by his immense knowledge of Windsor’s past. [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/042-150x150.jpg "Eric Boucher Micro-Residency Iteration 3/5")
![Danielle painted this today with some bronze spray paint. It’s that horse head from our living room. I was thinking that if we picked up on that plaque / time capsule project we’ve been talking about with a rubber mould and some plaster, we might be able to move it forward? Let’s talk more about [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/IMG_6603-150x150.jpg "Bronze (this will all make sense next week)")
![Though we have a lot more to say about Save the City than I’ll attempt right now, you should know that we put together a toolkit that describes the processes we figured out throughout the last five months. We put together a nice one-page fold up list of instructions, so to speak, for how one [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/IMG_9640-150x150.jpg "A Toolkit for Saving a City")
![As part of FAM Fest 09, we did a projection performance on the roof of Metro Cleaners accessed from Empire Lounge in downtown Windsor. For about an hour and a half, we presented our 100 Ways to Save the City and then asked for ideas from the folks on the ground, at Phog, and on the Twitterverse. After the [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/IMG_1761-150x150.jpg "100 Ways to Save the City Projection")
I’m not sure if you know, but these Wildflower/Naturalization areas already exist all along the riverfront and are labeled. There’s a huge one on the old Ford property along the river just west of Drouillard too. East of Drouillard also, and down by Goose Bay Park, along the riverfront trail…
When the grass was cut, these areas were left as is.
Yes, I’ve seen a number of these patches along the riverfront (though I hadn’t realized it went as far down as Drouillard) and they’re really beautiful, I suppose I’m just wishing that the entirety of the riverfront could be kept as it is now. It’s in that spirit that I’d love to see some of the better stretches of these “meadows” demarcated as such, if that’s what it takes to keep it that way.
I think it’s time to pay FastSigns another visit. I’d be more than happy to chip in.
These would be good in a number of places apart from the riverfront, as well. If you haven’t made the trek down Huron-Church recently, walking the stretch from my place down to the shopping plazas has been made immeasurably more pleasant by the shoulder-high vegetation. There are spots along the way where you can //almost// pretend you don’t hear the truck traffic.
“Naturalization Area,” “Mitigation Area,” or “Conservation Area” would all be good, as they sound plausibly bureaucratic. Any signs would obviously taken down sooner or later, but I think the investment would be worth it in the mean time.
YES! Ok, that’s it, I’m sold. We’re going on Monday. We’ll talk details over the weekend.
Alright. On looking at other companies’ more comprehensive websites, it seems that aluminum signs can be made by fusing vinyl somehow (permanently, they say) to a blank. If that’s the case, the turnaround time should be pretty quick—same day seems doubtful, but maybe by mid-week?
Online prices seem to be in the $25-35 range (presumably not including the pole). Being Canada and being a brick-and-mortar establishment, I would anticipate something in the neighbo[u]rhood of $50-75 per, but I’m kind of making that up. Depending on how much people are able/willing to chip in, I’m guessing we could probably make about four? That seems sufficient: maybe one on the riverfront, one downtown somewhere, one either in Sandwich or the University area, and another on Huron-Church. If need be, I should be able to front the total cost on my MasterCard, and we can work out the details later.
Each company seems to have their own set of blank sizes, but I’m guessing that either we’ll be able to just tell them, say, Helvetica bold in white on blue with a 1/4″ border, or, with laptops in tow, we can work up a file in the lobby in about two minutes.
Thanks for looking into that Steven. I think you’re probably right on in terms of turnaround and pricing. I agree that we should probably bring our laptops if it’ll make it that much quicker for them.
The locations you suggested sound good as well, exact locations can probably be determined with a quick tour around some of those areas on the way back from the shop.
Monday should be fun!!!!