2024-12-22T03:08:56-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/149975715/cheezburger-founder-ceo-joins-ycombinator-s-new-cities-project Amelia Taylor-Hochberg 2016-10-28T13:44:00-04:00 >2018-01-30T06:16:04-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/iz/izyg1eod5epi4zjg.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>YCombinator, the Silicon Vallley start-up accelerator and investment firm behind Airbnb and Dropbox, announced its entrepreneurial reach into city-building <a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/149954668/what-s-the-newest-project-for-silicon-valley-investors-building-cities" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this past summer</a>, with the goal to develop "a city for humans" with reduced housing expenses and a simplified planning code.</p><p>Some SV investor-speak aside, YC's so-called "New Cities Project" doesn't sound particularly controversial to anyone who likes cities and wants them to support better lives. But there is a bit of learned defensiveness in YC's blog post announcing the venture:&nbsp;"We&rsquo;re not interested in building 'crazy libertarian utopias for techies.'"</p><p>Now, they might have a bit more explaining to do. Ben Huh&mdash;founder and CEO of <a href="http://icanhas.cheezburger.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">I Can Has Cheezburger?</a>, the meme-generating website that birthed lolcats&mdash;has joined the urban utopian pursuit as an "Explorer", as Huh announced on&nbsp;<a href="https://medium.com/@benhuh/should-i-pursue-my-passion-or-business-76187b6b83fb#.jy9jzryux" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Medium</a>&nbsp;earlier this week:</p><p><em>For the next 6-months, I am joining YCombinator Research&rsquo;s New Cities project as an Explorer. My goal? Create an open, repeatable sy...</em></p> https://archinect.com/news/article/44048559/studio-gang-archi-cats Alexander Walter 2012-04-06T12:40:00-04:00 >2012-04-07T07:54:07-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/s6/s66t8pyzeh3emb9l.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p> Mix the two things we love the most - architecture and cute kittens - and you've got the <em>magic formula</em>. After Michael Bergin's <a href="http://archinect.com/blog/article/43505385/architectural-lolcats" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Architectural LOLCATS blog post</a> blew up big time all over the interweb this week, we're happy to see how much of an inspiring effect it already had on architectural work culture.</p> <p> This morning, we've received this really nice email from Chicago's <a href="http://www.studiogang.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Studio Gang Architects</a>:</p> <p> <em>Michael's archi LOLCats blog post </em><em>was super popular in the office this week (and horrible cat puns were at an all-time high!). So of course we decided to host our own office-wide contest, using SGA cats, SGA architecture, and a 10 min time limit. If you can bear to look at another LOLCat I thought you might want to check out the results: <a href="http://on.fb.me/Hek6vH" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://on.fb.me/Hek6vH</a>.<br><br> Hope you enjoy and happy Friday!<br> Thanks,<br> Alissa</em></p> <p> Thanks Alissa and everyone at Studio Gang!&nbsp; These are purrrfect.</p> <p> Has your firm already branched into archiCATure as well? Let us know in the comment section below.</p>