Diagonal Parking

Over the past several years planning and development work has been done for the Menominee River Valley east of Miller Park. The industrial park infrastructure includes, if you look closely, diagonal parking. If you reflect a moment one thing should strike you. The parking stalls angle opposed to oncoming traffic, called reverse angle parking.

When I went by earlier on bicycle, on this late summer day, I did not have my camera with me. Though one might conclude that traffic would back into the stall, giving the driver better visibility when leaving, I witnessed the contrary. Even with the median vehicles had crossed over and pulled in front first. How much more so will that occur when there is no median as we see in the photo below? And how dangerous will that will be for traffic when the driver backs out crossing both lanes? Perhaps signage would control man's natural urge to take the path of least resistance and worry about the consequences later, or traffic volume would be such that it is inconsequential.

I had a group project when in school where all three in the group planned to use diagonal parking, at least initially. Though diagonal parking has received a bad rap for being a traffic hazard, according to our then professor studies had shown it is no more dangerous than parallel parking. We had put together a kind of mixed use traditional neighborhood approach that worked it into the scheme with additional parking shielded from view from the street by the buildings.

Anyway... that was the plan we thought we were all following until four weeks into the six week project. At that point, in our group revue with our professor, one member of our team, I'll call 'Pompous One', walked up with three sheets of marker on mylar drawings with a scheme completely contrary to what we had been doing for four weeks. A modern concept with parking lots directly off the street. He really had a problem with diagonal parking. We all looked at him like he was from Mars and he at us like fools for not just falling in line with his obviously superior design.

Of course this didn't sit well with anyone. I certainly was not going to compromise myself by producing (not producing) a group project in which I had no input, even in the final production. The young lady in our team surely didn't recognize his genius and wasn't going to give in to the 'Pompous One.' And the professor wasn't motivated to let him pull this stunt again. The same thing the 'Pompous One' had done on the previous group project, and gotten away with for the most part. (He has blood relations in the profession)

The 'Pompous One' wasn't going to budge either, but it is when we had our individual meetings in our professors office when things really ... Let's just say got interesting. When the young lady in our group was meeting with our professor the conversation became obviously heated. I walked to the far end of the hall wishing nothing to do with petty quibbles that ultimately tear down. Another young man who I knew fairly well was just outside the door waiting for his personal revue. He kept looking back at me with a nervous tension.

A few moments later the young woman yelled, with such force that not only I could hear but most of the building as well,

"I WONT WORK WITH HIM!"

And as she clearly wouldn't give in to the 'Pompous One' it became clear it was not he she was speaking, or screaming, about. I was told we were working together and continuing our original concept and the 'Pompous One' was on his own, but the young lady refused to acknowledge my existence. Whenever I went to speak to her in regards to the project it was as if I wasn't there, and she said, had said, nothing to me.

One of the more charismatic members of our studio who knew her, came to me with a wink wink, nod nod, telling me she was graduating valedictorian. Most likely some other honor like summa cum laude, since I don't believe she gave a speech at our graduation. But the message was clear; 'Why mess up her honors?'

The professor had an entire studio to guide and there was no time for him to get dragged into conflict resolution, beyond his initial attempts, without detriment to the others in the studio. What was done or not done to address the issue, I believe was decided by the larger administration.

The young lady in our group worked on a very detailed and well crafted perspective drawing modeled from a book. A drawing to reflect the residential part of the project. And that was it. And it wasn't a clear match to the design concept. It didn't reflect the street plan that in the end I had to resolve, or the surrounding environment of the real world site we were working with.

We were to produce four sheets of ink on mylar for the final review. As I said the 'Pompous One' brought three sheets of mylar drawings to the week four review. He spent the next two weeks, when he was in the studio, lamenting that he was burdened with producing the entire project himself. He shuffled around his work and then left muttering under his breadth. He had a job in the profession and spent little time, and did little to no work, in the studio. In fact I was nearly the only one in the building Thursday evenings when "Friends" was on. This was 1997. But I digress.

I feel I'm a good judge of people and in fairness I would say the 'Pompous One' was just that, and he didn't care what my religion was. And yes we are talking about religious bigotry. I could have been Jesus Christ, Gandhi or Charles Manson in a blood lust and he would have treated me or anyone he was working with the same. I received several words of sympathy from the two who worked with him on the previous project on more than one occasion.

For the final review the 'Pompous One' put up the three mylars he had at week four and one more he had produced since. The young lady of our group put up her rendering off to the side. I had spent the last two weeks of the six week project developing all the designs and all but one drawing required for the final review. Work that was intended to be dome by three. I also produced a perspective of the commercial buildings to highlight the tower and heavy column feature I had designed to connect the design to the water tower down North Avenue and a church steeple down Humboldt. I was only able to complete one ink on mylar sheet with the remainder of the required drawings (on trace, vellum or paper) taped to sheets of foam core. The Dean shooed away the camera man as he came to our presentations.

At graduation the young lady seemed intent at parading in front of me with multiple chords over her shoulders, much to the chagrin of the dean as we all waited to enter the auditorium. I had spoken with the administration about this and other problems more than once in my time there. One of the Chairs expressed sincere regret on any problems I may have experienced and another simply wanted to know if I had any evidence.

The stark reality is if you are part of any group that may be associated with the label 'cult' you really are a second class citizen, if even that. This is a problem not specific to the Architectural profession, where diversity generally comes with a foreign accent. If the administration had come down on this young lady that would be one more person, with her family and relatives, who would blame Reverend Moon and the Unification Church for the consequences of her actions. Our society is so adverse to so called 'cults' that the University itself very well could have faced ridicule for taking any action against this young lady. While religious discrimination is illegal in employment and enrollment neither were clear as the issue here. I didn't look into it either. And I certainly do not know, or care, what her justifications would have been.

Bigotry was validated. Did I make an impression on anyone with how I handled the controversy? Was just letting it ride the proper approach for the University? Or myself? Of course, as in the profession, most if not all teachers and administrators in the school belong to the AIA, an organization that claims to hold its members to ethical standards. There is a reason I have little to no interest in belonging to a group that makes such claims. On many levels, not just personal but public, of which I will write more when the opportunity presents.

Well ....

So much for diagonal parking.