Arts Hound

Postcard from Burning Man: In the Aug. 21 issue, EW covered the “Lost Nomads of Vulcania” — a steampunk steam walker created by Eugenean Joe Mross and his team of 20 for the Nevada art festival.  Despite rains on the Black Rock playa that shut down the fest the first day, the steam walker made it to Burning Man and back with much fanfare. “There was a lot of people who said it was one of their favorite pieces out there, so that was really cool,” Mross tells EW. “It was fairly challenging to put up. They brought out a 30-ton crane to help set up. Then they called for another crane to help lift the legs,” he says of the Burning Man crew. Mross estimates four to five thousand people passed through the structure during the week. 

Mobile matters: designBridge — a UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts student-run organization that offers design and construction services to community members — has left its mark on Eugene from a bike shelter at Roosevelt Middle School to an entryway for the HIV Alliance. Now The Common Good, a subset of designBridge students, has constructed a “mobile tool shop for the grassroots production, repair and maintenance of housing, personal items and wares for houseless folks in Eugene, Oregon.” See the sleek, bronze renovated trailer at the ribbon-cutting ceremony 1 to 4 pm Saturday, Sept. 13, at Opportunity Village Eugene, 111 N. Garfield St. To see images of the design and construction process, visit thecommongood.designbridge.org.