John Glassco Resume

John Glassco's partial Résumé

Here is a project from 1982 and published in the New Leaf, a local magazine at the time. It is one of my early designs for a walking city. The design problem was to solve the concern of astronauts that muscles and bones deteriorate in the weightless environment of space without vigorous exercise. The standard approach to this problem is to design space stations with artificial gravity by building huge hollow wheels with a spinning motion creating artificial gravity. This is the approach in "2001 A Space Odyssey for their space station. I believe the International Space Station straps the astronauts to treadmills like gerbils. The approach here with the G0 Space Station using a spherical design to maximize the inside space of the station based on the weight of the materials. To get from place to place in the station, the colonists would fly through the air with artificial wings strapped to their arms and legs. Like swim fins in the ocean, getting around in the G0 Space Station would require a lot of work. Muscle mass and bone density would be preserved through this vigorous exercise. Some of the ideas like the solar/steam power and the sheep may not be that practical but I wanted the idea of going to space to be seen as kind-of a low tech experience for a change.

Below is another spherical project; the Dodecahedron Speaker. In 1985 and 1986 the angular geometry and construction method for an omni directional speaker assembly was developed based on the shape of the dodecahedron and the other regular geometric solids. In 1987 this study led to my successful application for patent number 4673057 http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4673057.pdf. Although many designs have been produced lately for this truly surround sound design, my patent expired before the idea of dodecahedral or dodecahedron shaped speakers became popular. The prototype of the sound grenade was also known as the sound bomb, the dode and many other names, particularly by my neighbors during the testing of the prototypes.

Below is a progression of three images from a project in Calgary called Shawnessy. The project was designed while in the employ of the Genstar Development Company. My place on the team was as the designer of the street layouts and land use configurations under the head of planning Anthony Young. The project was the largest of several being developed by the largest land developer in Calgary at the time. The time was the late 70's during a historic growth spurt in Western Canada due to the oil boom of the 1970s. On the left is a preliminary rendering of the overall layout covering much of the 640 acre site. I worked closely with Kevin Smith, senior Engineer in charge of underground utilities and storm water management. The second image is a portion of the preliminary plan application to the city for phase 1. The last image on the right below shows the subdivision as it looks now in Google Earth. I also created plans for portions of the Calgary subdivisions of Deer Run and Silver Springs and preliminary approaches to the next development effort, Calgary North.

For Shawnessy, a somewhat unique feature aside from preserving the existing green belt and drainage between major neighborhoods, was the successful attempt to face all perimeter house lots onto major streets and freeways. The common practice at the time and even today is to face the rear yards of the houses onto major roads. This practice saves on the length of interior streets (a very important cost) but the private and often cluttered rear yards of house lots are then exposed to the traffic corridors. The experience of both home owners and drivers is improved if the front yards and frontage roads are used as a buffer between the traffic and the houses. The fronts of houses lend a better visual appearance of the subdivision to the major roads than the rears. Genstar had the reputation and still does of building higher quality neighborhoods than the average. It was a pleasure to see my design ideas accepted and built. Any designer would agree.

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