Carolina Schultz
Living a Designer Life
The Ethics of Pizza
Posted on September 10, 2018
Disclaimer: This post is a rambling of questions, uncertainties, rumor, and overall a search for what happened here. I don’t have the answers. I just know what I have thought and considered since then, whether it is good or bad.
I never thought that this would be a topic I would cover until yesterday. A classmate, hopefully and likely more researched than I am, took a moment to bring to my attention a particular chain’s less than acceptable treatment of people associated with it.
This entire exchange, if that, was prompted by the simple forwarding of a coupon. Who doesn’t love coupons? I basically live off them at this point. However not every coupon is created equal, and it would seem that regardless of the deal ($12 in purchases for a whole large pizza free on top of that!!!) some just won’t go for it.
For those incredibly aware, researched individuals who know more about the ethics of their food, clothes, and million other purchases kudos to you! What I really appreciated about this situation was that in addition to the quick alert about the store/coupon, an alternative location was suggested that is working to help those most vulnerable in our community.
Rosa’s Fresh Pizza, https://www.rosasfreshpizza.com/, which has clearly gotten it’s fair share of publicity if you watch TV regularly, is a $1 a slice pizza place in Center City Philadelphia. The concept by now is common knowledge. You buy your food, you donate x dollars and that waits for someone who can’t pay to cover the stores costs. This stores largest audience for the prepurchased food would be the homeless of Philadelphia.
The taste of the food really isn’t an issue as this is a place of principle. So while I have not yet gone to this location I look forward to trying it soon! It is wonderful when helping yourself also helps others. I need to eat, and if eating some pizza here for cheaper can help another person eat as well I am all for it!
Now for an unresearched tangent. Most of the information in this section is curious questioning, rough theory, and a very small sliver of knowledge about the Starbucks Philadelphia incident of earlier this year.
What happened to the simplicity of I live close to x shop and they provide a quick service/item I need so I will go there? When did an entire place come to blame for a single persons actions? Aren’t stores generally owned/operated by local people who hire other local people? Don’t these people then just pass information along a chain of command til the main organizer gets it? Where in that broken chain do we draw the line of blame and boycott?
I’ve heard money is the greatest boycott. Don’t go there, don’t buy that. Withholding funds from these people is the only way to make them change. But if they changed, or tried would you return? How would you know if everyone boycotted?
Is every place exactly the same? Are those local workers to blame for a single or several instances which occured someplace else?
This is like the Starbucks incident in Philadelphia. Is every Starbucks across the country to blame for that store’s decisions? Should they be boycotted to no end to ensure that never happens again?
I think that ultimately the way people decide to boycott or not is really dependent on the reaction of the company in the week following the incident. The more public the incident the more necessary immediate public action is called for. This is more than just heartfelt letters and press conferences. Starbucks closing all locations for a day to train all their employees on racial bias I believe is the only reason they have kept going. Had they not, at least the city of Philadelphia, or the informed portion, would have gone on a strict boycott.
Now some places never change, they just know how to manipulate their marketing and keep all the less favorable information out of sight.
Ultimately it comes down to what you want to represent in this world and what means you have to do that. If time is crucial to your lifestyle then the closest thing may be what you choose no matter what. If money is crucial, you’re budgeting just to get by, then the cheapest location will be your choice no matter what. If the environment is crucial, then you will only purchase specific products and learn how to make or cope with/without the rest.
So the real question here is how do you want to live and what legacy do you want to leave behind?
For those of you reading, do you know of any other places that operate in a similar way? How have you understood and handled the ethics of your purchases?
Larpers Go Camping!
Posted on September 2, 2018
Thank you to the upperclassmen who organized and hosted the first annual Landscape Architecture Camping trip! This year it was held in Fort Washington, a lovely state park about an hours drive from Meyerson Hall.
I did not stay for the camping portion of the trip for a few reasons: several of my classmates couldn’t go due to getting sick, my sniffles and worries of getting sick(er), the forecast of rain, and the workload handed out to us this past week. That being said there were still three of us who wanted to go on the hikes and meet the upper classmen.
We enjoyed the company and plant knowledge of our classmates. From hiking to volleyball, helping set up tents (a first for me!), and preparing dinner and smores (also a first) over a fire it was a truly amazing experience! I would love to do it again!
This is one of the nicest ways to meet people and really start to feel like a part of the department. I would reccomend it to anyone coming into the program. It may seem like a lot of work that first week but the break it totally worth it! Your heart, mind, and body will all thank you!!
Studio Site Visits
Posted on September 2, 2018
The first site visit is always the most intense. There is a sense of excitment at the reveal of the site location quickly followed by the inquisitive investigation of every corner of the site.
This site visit was made much more intense simply by the weather. The Friday of Labor Day weekend is no time to be traveling on the road. There are so many people traveling to visit family and friends that the drive to the site alone took 40 minutes. Many people were late, surprisingly the professors were the last to arrive.
Their late arrival gave the class a wonderful bonding time in the pouring rain outside the site. Those of us who drove could have stayed in our cars. However when half the class has to uber there it hardly seems fair to leave them out in the rain.
While our site visit may have barely scraped the surface of the site due to weather. The class has arranged a return visit on Monday to scramble around the site measuring, mapping, and documenting it over time.
Hopefully we are as happy as we are in these photos but a lot drier!
Week 1 in Review
Posted on September 2, 2018
I remember my first week of architecture being overwhelming and extremely hectic. Perhaps becuase I am acclimated to the school now I am less overwhelmed. However there is an eerie relaxed feeling to the first week.
I find the classes quite interesting. Theory will definitely challenge my mind much more than it has in the past. Generally I have felt “theory” courses to be more like historical timelines retold. This theory course is much more about the ideas across time rather than a single era retold each week.
My three other classes have already begun to blur together to become a single class with an enormous pile of assignments, of course, with various due dates. I love that the classes feed into one another! However, it would be nice if it didn’t feel like they were one class.
That being said, perhaps they will distinguish themselves more once we are in the semester.
Workshop is what I would call a field trip class. I am super excited to go out every Tuesday and see a different region, understand how it is developed, what occupies it, and how to relates back to design. These field trips contain elements of technical drawing and identification of plants and the elements of the regions we visit.
Media is essentially a drawing tutorial class in which more specific skills are taught. Hand drawing, experimental methods of representation, and digital drawing tools are all taught and explored.
Studio, naturally, is the bulk of the credit load and so the most important. Essentially all the ideas, knowledge, and techniques of the three prior mentioned classes are used to assit students in presenting design ideas in studio. The studio therefore draws on the other classes to help structure some of the deliverables and topics of the class.
Overall I would say these courses value process more than product. The idea of iteration, tests, experiments, and process is really key to success in each class. I am excited to continue to share my progress through this program during the semester!
