It's important when implementing physical features, especially when we are outside, to know what kind of weather we are dealing with. Tucson has some pretty extreme temperature differences throughout the day. There is usually about 30 degree difference between highs and lows. We also see about a 40 degree difference from the winter to the summer season. As far as rainfall goes, the average yearly rainfall is 12 inches, but over the last 10 or so years it has been more like 9 or 10 inches. Still, we are prone to big flood storms which means we get a lot of rain at once. It's not spread out evenly. When planning flood water protection and cisterns we have to take this into account.

Below is also a wind rose which shows where the wind comes from throughout the year and how strong the winds are. The strongest winds come in the late spring and early summer from the southwest. A lot of the normal wind comes from the southeast. We rarely get wind from the northeast. Thanks to the National Weather Service for all of this information.


Month Temperature Normals (deg F) Rainfall
Normals
(inches)
High Low Average
January 64.5 38.9 51.7 0.99
February 68.4 41.6 55.0 0.88
March 73.3 45.1 59.2 0.81
April 81.5 50.5 66.0 0.28
May 90.4 58.6 74.5 0.24
June 100.2 68.0 84.1 0.24
July 99.6 73.4 86.5 2.07
August 97.4 72.4 84.9 2.30
September 94.0 67.7 80.9 1.45
October 84.0 57.0 70.5 1.21
November 72.3 45.1 58.7 0.67
December 64.6 39.2 51.9 1.03

ANNUAL 82.5 54.8 68.7 12.17

Date Change!

Looks like we are postponing the workshop scheduled for the 17th of April. There is a lot going on that weekend. When everything is all settled I will give a full report of what the workshop will entail and how to get involved.

Workshop Coming Up!

We are having our first water harvesting workshop at The HangArt on Saturday, April 17th. We will be digging a couple of basins as well as setting up water barrels for the ramada. Afterward we are going to have a bbq and potluck, and maybe set up a show to be played. More info coming soon.

Show Last Night

I stopped by The HangArt last night to see a concert that was happening. I didn't really know who was playing, but Jake let me know that there was a show going on so I showed up. Low and behold, two bands from out of town that I don't know very well, but that play on a compilation CD that I really like were playing that night. It was pretty good live music too. There were four bands from out of town all playing, and only about 10 people there who weren't in a band, all regulars.

Leona and Eric were asking the question, "How to we get more people to come to these things"? Seriously. I think we need to figure that out very soon. Obviously promotion needs to be done to some extent, but we also need to establish ourselves with little niches and perks. There need to be things the HangArt is known for besides lowly attended shows. Leona and Jake, and I'm sure others have talked about food. I've seen it before too at one show they did last year. There was a build your own vegetarian burrito bar and people really liked it.

I think as the place gets cleaned up and seating is available etc, people will start to return more often.

Ideas and Goals

In talking about different ideas and goals Jake has for The HangArt we have come up with some pretty interesting things. Jake is pretty adamant about collecting as much rainwater as possible, maybe some day becoming completely self sufficient on rainwater. He wants to do this as a demonstration that people can collect large amounts, and it should be done in industrial/commercial settings. With all the rainwater we plan on collecting we have to come up with ways to use it as well.

This ties into one of the other goals Jake has. This goal is to provide a space for touring bands to stay and sleep for the night, and to be able to provide them with food while they are in Town. We have this wild idea of being able to give the bands that come through a meal made from freshly grown food that was grown on the HangArt site. I think this is a great goal and would be a really cool perk for bands that come to play at the HangArt.

In providing food and shelter for the bands I also suggested that we offer a fleet of bicycles for bands that come to town. Not only would they get fed and housed, but we could offer them sustainable and fun transportation. I've heard of bigger bands bringing bikes with them on their tour buses, but many smaller bands ride across the country in just a van or even a packed car.

Another all encompassing goal we have is to turn the HangArt space into an active demo site for what a sustainable art and music space could look like. We want to set an example of how different aspects can live intertwined and healthily. We want people to be impressed with the possibilities of what we can create when we really strive for achieving lofty goals.

Flood Prevention

One of the big physical issues on The HangArt property is that of flood control. The property lies on the edge of a FEMA 100 year flood zone and there is a large lot to the north that slopes toward the HangArt lot. At the edge of these two properties there is a 2 foot drop down on to the HangArt lot. Sometimes rainfall floods into the Quonset hut and water gets in from the sides of the building, and most of the stormwater runs straight toward the 100 year old gallery building.

All of the Stormwater On Site Flows to the Corner of the 100 Year Old Gallery


One of our main goals is to address flood control on the lot. This is actually a really complicated situation. On top of the stormwater runoff from the adjacent lot, we also have to deal with the water running off of the Quonset hut, which does not currently have any gutters. There are also two small roofs that make up the sound room and the adjacent ramada (mentioned in the previous post).

In Tucson, it is starting to become popular practice to dig small stormwater basins to help catch runoff and help cultivate native vegetation. These basins catch and slow stormwater and help reduce flooding. They have even done these on neighborhood scales in The Rincon Heights Neighborhood in Central Tucson.

The problem on the HangArt site is that adjacent lot combined with the roofs create more stormwater than the space we have to dig basins can handle. The obvious solution is to install a cistern on the Quonset Hut, but for the time being we don't have the funding to buy a tank.

We also have to figure out how to divert stormwater from the adjacent lot toward the basins we dig. This is tricky situation though because there is only about 6 feet of space between the lot's fence and the Quonset Hut. Ideally we would be able to build a retention berm on the adjacent lot to direct water toward the basins. We don't know if this will be possible though as it would take cooperation from the landowner next door.

The Adjacent Lot Gives A Lot of Its Water To The HangArt


There Isn't Much Space to Direct Stormwater


There is also the careful balance we have to achieve between catching stormwater, and making sure it doesn't pose a threat to flooding in major storms. In designing how we want the water to flow, we have to make sure there is an emergency measure allowing stormwater to flow off of the HangArt site and into the alley. If our basins over flow we don't want to have them flood the buildings. The water must go elsewhere.

One thing we can do fairly soon is catch rainwater off of the smaller roofs, such as the ramada. We are incoperating rain barrels into our design for the ramada/snack/seating area. By catching this rain in barrels it takes some stress off of our basin system. The ramada site design will be discussed in detail in a later post.

Cleaning Up

There is a lot of "Junk" on The HangArt Lot


One of the big issues at The HangArt right now is the clutter all over the lot. So many things have happened here over the years with so few people running it that the junk and clutter can stack up pretty easily. Once places get run down it becomes easy to not take good care of it anymore. Visitors that come to a place that looks junky also assume that they don't have to take care of it either and leave trash around or inflict further damage to the property.

The first big step we need to take at The HangArt is to clean the place up and remove trash and clutter from the lot. Jake and I took the first stab at this last week. We spent a solid six hours cleaning up the Quonset Hut lot, especially under the ramada. The difference in appearance is remarkable after just a few hours of cleaning and raking. I still need to snap a picture of the results, but it looks much nicer now.

Making the lot look nice and more inviting is a key to the HangArt's mission. If we want people to hang out and be comfortable we need a lot that is enjoyable to be in, not just covered in trash and broken debris. After raking up a lot of organic material we moved and stored clutter temporarily. The next step in this area under the ramada will be converting it into a space with benches for seating and flood retention, an area for a snack bar, and a garden space for growing food. I'll go into the details of our plan for the ramada in another post.

I'll also post on building our composts containers. We are going to need to build some big ones considering all the organic material we raked up last week. There is already some pretty good soil forming. This will be great for our plans for a garden.