Architect Magazine has run an interesting piece on a hermitage (yes for hermits) to be built on the gorounds of Mount St. Sepulchre (aka the Franciscian Monestary in Brookland), designed by CUA's Architecture Students. The full article can be found here.
"The process began in 2010. Fourteen students were charged with designing a 350-square-foot cabin to house not just monks, but anybody who wanted to withdraw from this world of perpetual connectedness. (Eventually, the Fransciscans want to build as many as four modern hermitages on their grounds to rent out, for one week at a time.) As a preliminary exercise, instructor Bill Jelen asked the students to turn off their various electronic implements for an hour and just sit by themselves. 'It’s amazing how many people couldn’t do that,' Jelen says."
This Saturday there will be a panel introduction meeting of the design team that is in charge of the final design plan for the McMillian Sand Filtration Site. This is the first of a three part series discussing the project, and will give the neighborhood a chance to voice their comments and concerns, and gain a better understanding of the project's scope. The development of the site has been a point of contention among many groups, so the meeting should be action packed!
Meeting Details:
Date: Saturday, October 16, 2010
Time: 10:00 AM
Where: St. Martin`s Church
1908 North Capitol Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Attendees:
The Deputy Mayor for Planning & Economic Development
Ward 5 Council-member Harry Thomas, Jr.
Vision - McMillan Partners Design Team
If you are planning on attending the meeting here is a brief history of the facility. The McMillan Sand Filtration site is a 25 acre decommissioned water treatment plant located at the intersection of N. Capitol and Michigan Ave, adjacent to the Washington Medical Center. The complex dates back to1905 when it's completion signaled a milestone in DC public health through the use of sand, rather than chemicals, to eliminate communicable diseases. The original design of the site was dual use, also serving the city as a walking pedestrian park. Two paved courts lined by regulator houses, tower-like sand bins, sand washers and the gated entrances to the underground filter cells provided a promenade for citizens enjoying the parks unique beauty. The complex served the city until 1986, and then in 1987 the District of Columbia purchased the site for $9.3M in order to develop the sight. In 1991, the D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board designated McMillan Park a Historic Landmark.
"The site has been described as an imaginative combination of landscaped park, with promenades, sculpture, curving carriage drives, careful grading and the placement of trees planned and personally supervised by Olmsted. The heirs of Senator McMillan personally financed the landscaping. Crowning the park was a pink granite fountain, designed by Adams and Platt and dedicated in 1913 as a memorial to Senator McMillan. Featuring three nymphs representing faith, hope and charity, the monument was funded by contributions from every Michigan county. The fountain has since been removed."**
Also, here is a youtube video we found from BloomingdaleNow regarding the site.
Photo of the 8/2/10 Coronal Mass Ejection From
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory
Departing from our traditional coverage of local events, The Totten Life has decided to take on a global...err...galactic topic. CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS (we are totally nerding out right now). A coronal mass ejection is basically the sun "burping" (for lack of a better word), and violently releasing plasma and other materials from the surface of the sun. Now, this enormous solar storm is not simply a solar event that has little impact on us earthlings. The CME, once initiated travels at speeds close to one million miles per hour and if timed right (as in this case), will impact earth in about 2-3 days.
Now don't go and worry just yet...this isn't Armageddon. The earth's magnetic field acts as a shield to protect us from most of the radiation and magnetic impact. However, for particularly violent CME's and solar storms, we can be impacted...not physically but technologically. The initial signs a CME is impacting earth is the appearance of very intense aurora (like the famous Northern Lights) across the globe. This aurora is basically the visual evidence of the trillions of watts of power created when the CME comes into contact with the magnetosphere (magnetic field surrounding the earth) protecting our delicate bodies. Once the aurora begin, the next impact could be on our telecommunications system. As satellites orbiting earth get bombarded with electromagnetic waves, we could experience temporary comunication loss or even see equipment permanently damaged. For extremely violent CME's, scientists theorize a potential impact on our power grid, causing long term black outs due to power surges overwhelming our aging infrastructure (as many might be unaware our electric gird in the US and Canada is completely integrated, so potentially a massive surge in one area could trickle down the line blowing transformers we don't have replacements for).
Now will this gloom and doom scenario play out in the upcoming days? Most likely not. This is a fairly small CME, and will probably only create an amazing light shows for us in the northern hemisphere. Scientists think that tonight and tomorrow night will be prime viewing time for the Aurora across the Northern United States (mot likely we won't be able to see anything due to the forecasted cloud cover). However, don't go blowing this off just yet! The sun operates on an 11 year cycle of surface activity, in which we are currently heading towards the peak of activity. What this means is these solar flames,storms and CME's may become more common. This doesn't mean the end of the world(or does it), but it does make for some interesting office talk!
