If you’re a blogger, you already know that sometimes it’s hard to think of anything to blog about, while at other times you have a surplus of blogging ideas. Right now I’m in overflow mode, which is a good place to be. I’m not finished blogging about poverty, and I also want to blog about my birthday, the artful mud hut building on Pretoria Street, some monumental swap box news, and my brilliant idea for a blog challenge which will include all of you.
And that’s just what I can remember. There’s more! Much, much more!
Today I’m going to blog about the monumental swap box news.
[Insert Drum Roll Here]
The Swap Box Project has been nominated for Ottawa X Press’s “Best of Ottawa 2008”, in the category “Best Architectural Addition to the City.” !!! Congratulations to Elmaks, the original Swap Box artist, on this richly deserved honour.
Last year the Corkstown Bridge won, so you can see this is serious stuff. This year the nominees are:
- The Gladstone Theatre (910 Gladstone)
- New Desmarais Building (University of Ottawa campus)
- Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre (1233 Wellington)
- Somerset footbridge
- Swap Box Project
- War Museum (1 Vimy Place)
- All them new freakin’ condos!
- Orléans’s new art building: Shenkman Arts Centre
Some of these things are pretty impressive additions to the city. But they all cost millions of dollars and they’re anchored in place and they’re finished. The Swap Box Project is free, fluid, and ephemeral. As architecture, it’s light on its feet. It is nowhere and everywhere and it is by its very nature inclusive and participatory. It creates opportunities for serendipitous sharing on the streets of Ottawa. It brightens my day, both visually and conceptually. Of all the nominees, it is by far the greenest. And even though it’s a concept that is catching on around the world, the Swap Box Project originated in Ottawa so it will always be uniquely ours. That’s why I’m voting for the Swap Box Project.
To view a gallery of Swap Boxes, click here.
To read my previous blog posts about Swap Boxes, click here.
To VOTE for the Swap Box Project as the Best Architectural Addition to the City of Ottawa, click here. You have to vote in at least 15 categories for your ballot to count.
(Some of my other votes included: Best Pub – Irene’s; Best Cozy Nook – Aunt Olive’s; Best Deli – Luciano’s; Best Diner: Fil’s Diner; Best All-You-Can-Eat Buffet: East India Company; Best Sandwich: DiRienzo’s; Best Bike Shop: McCrank’s Cycle; Best Video Rentals: Invisible Cinema; Best Sex Shop: Venus Envy; Best Eyesore: American Embassy; Best neighbourhood in which to live: Chinatown; Best reason to jeer the city: Larry O’Brien.)
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I’m on board… I will go vote right now!
I also noticed that there’s a category for “best new idea for the city” whose only entry is “crosswalks that give a ten second countdown for the hard of hearing”.
I mean, come on! How ’bout the talk of more bike paths and bike lanes??
Then again, the countdown could be done with the 10-second countdown voice from LBJ’s famous “Daisy Girl Nuke” attack ad.
Yay Woodsy!
Elmaks, I didn’t even vote in that category because it seemed so lame. If the countdown is the best idea Ottawa has had all year, it’s time for all of us to start brainstorming good ideas for next year!
I really hope you win in your category. I love the swap boxes.