By AARON BERRY
Daily Trojan
Architects need to redefine their
profession by fighting trade-spe-cialization
and training to develop
Renaissance-esque skills that em-brace
new technology, architecture
professor Kara Bartelt said Tuesday
evening to a standing-room-only
crowd in Harris Hall.
“We need to claim ownership of
a larger piece of the pie and allow
ourselves to change,” she said in
her lecture entitled “Design Conver-gence”
that described her work with
the private architecture firm she cre-ated,
Lettuce.
Lettuce is defined by its constant-ly
evolving branding: its logo, web-site
and individually customized
business cards are always changing,
embodying the new technological
and cultural convergence.
The lecture incorporated many
nuanced and intricate tables and
charts to underscore the impact of
convergence and its ability to in-crease
business synergy.
“We have an obsession with
metadata, not the data itself but
what it tells you,” she said as stu-dents
around the room recorded
both spacial designs and business
models broadcast from an overhead
projector.
This unique focus is part of what
has made Lettuce a mechanism of
change.
“Change is the inevitable force
that drives innovation,” Bartelt
said.
The classic business model with
one person in charge has been re-placed
by an organic “wiki model,”
where multiple primary contribu-tors
collectively create one final
product, she said, speaking of one
specific change in the industry.
The lecture also emphasized to
Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | VOL. 162, NO. 27 | www.dailytrojan.com
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2007
Photo courtesy of Lettuce
Convergence | This rendering comes from architect Kara Bartelt’s firm Lettuce, which focuses on combin-ing
technology and culture into designs. She said in her lecture Wednesday that change is innovation.
Felix’s historic status in jeopardy
By LAURA KELLER
Daily Trojan
Felix the Cat, an icon perched above North Univer-sity
Park for decades, might not be prominent enough
to reach landmark status.
A proposal to give protections to the sign and
showroom beneath it, which is located along the
Figueroa Corridor at Jefferson Boulevard, could soon
be voted down by the Los Angeles City Council.
After a two-hour public comment period, the City
of Los Angeles’ Planning and Land Use Manage-ment
Committee could not decide Tuesday whether
to recommend that the city council designate the Fe-lix
Chevrolet sign and showroom a historic cultural
monument. The committee’s three members — Coun-cilmembers
Ed Reyes, Jose Huizar and Jack Weiss —
deadlocked in an unusual 1-1-1 vote.
Reyes, the committee’s president, did not agree
with Huizar, who supported the motion, or Weiss,
who was set against it. Instead, Reyes voted for his
own “split the kitty” proposal, which would designate
the sign, but not the showroom, as a landmark.
The committee’s inability to come to a consensus
underscored the two concerns that divided advocates
and opponents of the proposal: historic preservation
and future economic development.
Advocates said they want to preserve what the
sign and showroom bring to the community’s sense
of identity, but opponents argue designating part of
the property a landmark might deter future business
from developing the property.
Darryl Holter, CEO of the Shammas Group, which
The second vote in a series of three leaves
future uncertain for a proposal to make
Felix the Cat a monument.
| see FELIX, page 14 |
Alix Drawec | Daily Trojan
Curious cat | The status of the famous Felix the Cat sign of the Chevrolet dealership
on Jefferson Boulevard and Figueroa Street is still under review by L.A. City Council.
By KAREN MARCUS
Daily Trojan
You’re about to hit snooze for
the umpteenth time when you real-ize
it’s 7:56 a.m. Class starts in four
minutes. You roll out of bed, throw
on some slippers and log on to the
closest computer. With one minute
to spare, you make a quick detour to
check Facebook before your profes-sor
appears on the screen. Welcome
to class.
Going to class has become a
whole new experience for USC stu-dents
who are registered in online
courses as several university-wide
initiatives seek to improve the effi-cacy
of online learning and promote
virtual classrooms within certain
departments.
The Technology Enhanced Learn-ing
and Distance Learning program
was established by Provost C.L. Max
Nikias to improve distance- and
online-learning at the university, in-
University says it has seen
success in online courses
since 2006 upgrades.
Logging
in to the
classroom
| see Online, page 13 |
Professor Kara Bartelt speaks
to a full lecture hall about
taking full ownership of
designs from start to finish.
‘Lettuce’ architect pitches fresh ideas for industry
| see Design, page 6 |
EYE IN THE SKY
Wide receivers coach John
Morton is key in USC’s play
calling this season 20
CHINA SYNDROME
John Wheeler talks to director
Ang Lee about his latest film,
‘Lust, Caution’ 7
»
OPINION | National
Coming Out
Week gives us an
opportunity to widen
our horizons, writes
columnist Steven
Kwok.
PAGE 4
PIT STOP |
»