Archinect - News

Downtown Portland says hello to new student-designed public parklet

2015-07-09T15:01:00-04:00

The first public parklet in downtown Portland, the installation is intended to help revitalize this stretch of SW Fourth Avenue in the heart of the SoMa EcoDistrict (for “South of Market Street”), giving students, faculty, and workers from surrounding offices a place to sit and enjoy their food-cart lunches in the sunshine, rather than racing back to their desks to eat.

Downtown Portland is no stranger to green public spaces, but the recently opened Fourth Avenue Parklet has that ideal recipe for a do-good-feel-good collaborative project. Twenty-six architecture students from Portland State University spent 18 months to design and construct the parklet, which also crowdsourced $15,640 in cash and in-kind donations from the local community.

The new parklet flaunts 3,475 pounds of steel, 250 feet of repurposed escalator handrail, 768 linear feet of sustainably harvested juniper, and drought-resistant native plants. It was built as a complementary hangout spot for people to relax and enjoy their grub from the nearby diners and food-cart pod along SW Fourth Avenue in Portland's SoMa EcoDistrict.

Keep doing you, Portland.

Image via.

Editor's Picks #375

2014-07-09T19:31:00-04:00

Inspired by the 2014 Venice Biennale curated by Rem Koolhaas, Esther Sperber penned the Op-Ed in which she argues that contemporary architecture must shift From (EX)CITE to (IN)CITE.

In response Thayer-D wrote "There's no rule that says architects can't stimulate both the senses and the intellect, as many great architects have done in the past, yet it's architecture's public nature that makes it imperative to not lose sight of how most people engage with it, and that is not through words".

News
Justine Testado posted the news, Zaha Hadid wins the D esign Museum’s Designs of the Year Award 2014. Despite (or perhaps due to?) some critics, Donna Sink commented "I think all the criticism Zaha is getting for her stance on human rights is totally appropriate and deserved. And I have very mixed feelings about her body of work. But I find this building in particular hard to resist - it's just gorgeous. Perfectly balanced".

The Creators Project interviewed David Benjamin, creator of MoMA PS1's...

Started from the Bottom: Boston Experiments with Parklets as Place-making Strategy

2014-07-02T18:03:00-04:00

The city of Boston has been the stage for a long history of experiments with public space. Most notably, the Boston Common is the oldest public park in the country – and perhaps the first public urban park in the world. Originally a shared cow pasture until overgrazing led to a real-life example of “the tragedy of the commons”, the 50 acre plot of land later bore witness to the Revolutionary War, public executions, riots, protests, and concerts. Now, Boston will be the most recent in a slew of international cities to adopt parklets as a means of activating and extending sidewalks into revitalized public spaces.

An increasingly popular tactic in urbanism, parklets are small spaces that often replace two or three parking spots to make way for seating, greenery and other amenities. Though often permanent, they tend to be constructed in ways that allow for easy dismantling, either to accommodate winter snows or for emergency situations. Started in San Francisco as unsolicited interventio...

L.A.'s "People St." initiative puts public place-making into the public's hands

2014-02-13T14:27:00-05:00

Communities can transform underused areas of L.A.’s largest public asset—our 7,500 miles of city streets—into active, vibrant, and accessible public space with People St, a program of the City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT). Eligible Community Partners can apply for approval to create projects that enhance the quality of life in this city. Three innovative types of projects are available: Plazas, Parklets, and Bicycle Corrals.

Los Angeles began piloting its "People St." program in 2011, developing spaces designed to reclaim sections of streetspace for public recreation and use, rather than car traffic. The projects were few but popular, including the Sunset Triangle (designed by Rios Clementi Hale Studios) plaza in Silverlake, a couple of parklets in Downtown, and bike corrals in Atwater Village and Highland Park. Led by LA's Department of Transportation and invigorated by LA's current mayor, Eric Garcetti, the program will accept applications for "People St." initiatives by any eligible community group, beginning this March.

The program is designed not only so communities can individualize their surroundings and make their city more livable, but for LADOT to expedite city improvement projects. Initiatives that otherwise would have taken years of planning and hundreds of thousands of dollars become faster and cheaper to execute, led by the people most in touch with the project site, and approved by city of...

Editor's Picks #223

2011-08-07T15:10:39-04:00

Orhan Ayyüce comments "as simple as it is, one of the most beautiful houses i have seen in this age of dwell magazine and ikea type of joint business deals which tend to glorify form and materiality to boredom.."

Archinect's newest Showcase features the House in Geumsan. The project is located in South Korea and designed by Hyungnam Lim, Eunjoo Roh + studio_GAON. With the project the designers tried to highlight the element of Korean architecture that distinguishes it from Japanese or Chinese architecture. What is this distinguishing characteristic?

"the fact that, in Korean architecture, space moves and flows; that is, a space in Korean architecture is not one frozen frame, but rather, different spaces that interact and change. The rooms of this house follow that flow with ease, and both light and wind leave traces of their presence."

Orhan Ayyüce comments "as simple as it is, one of the most beautiful houses i have seen in this age of dwell magazine and ikea type of joint business deals which tend to glorify form and materiality to boredom.."

News
The announcement that Chicago firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is designing Kingdom Tower, which will be the world’s talles...