Archinect - News

New York City previews initial pedestrian-minded ‘Future of Fifth’ redesign proposal

2024-10-21T18:51:00-04:00

The full details for a proposed new pedestrian corridor along Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan designed by Field Operations have been released by the city in anticipation of the first redesign of the famous thoroughfare in its 200-year history.

The plan covers a swath from Central Park South to Bryant Park, expanding sidewalks in the area by 46% and reducing the number of lanes for motor vehicle traffic from five to three.

Arcadis and Sam Schwartz Engineering are joining Field Operations as the co-leads of the design and study. Their work expands on the previous mayoral administration’s Open Streets program. The city says the plan is "projected to pay for itself in less than five years through increased property and sales tax revenue."

Image courtesy of City Hall

Aside from the stated economic benefit the redesign is meant ultimately to solve an existing spatial imbalance, as 70% of Fifth Avenue's current daily traffic is pedestrians.

At this volume—which increases during times wh...

Foster + Partners finishes work on revamped Penn Station entrance

2023-11-20T16:49:00-05:00

A dramatic new makeover of Penn Station’s entrance at 7th Avenue and 32nd Street in Manhattan has been completed by Foster + Partners and AECOM for clients Amtrak and the Vornado Realty Trust.

The rebuilding project expands the entrance’s width by 50 percent while making it safer and fully ADA-accessible for 600,000 daily users of what is considered the nation’s busiest train station.

Image: Fernando Sandoval/MW

A new canopy and LED display were constructed at the entryway, which now features a wider staircase, new interior lighting feature, improved elevator access, and an added third escalator for enhanced circulation. Outside sidewalks and the surrounding plaza were also expanded. The project complements part of Vornado and MdeAS Architects’ redevelopment of the adjacent PENN 2 Tower while creating what Amtrak describes as a “sense of place and civic monumentality.”

Image: Fernando Sandoval/MW

In a press statement, Foster + Partners’ Head of Studio, Nigel Dancey, commented: “We h...

New York City announces major new Harlem River Greenway in the Bronx

2023-03-28T13:47:00-04:00

A new greenway project expected to make over a corridor of the Harlem River between the Bronx and Upper Manhattan was announced recently by New York Mayor Eric Adams, adding an important new cog in his administration’s ‘20-20 Vision Zero’ plan that aims to improve and increase pedestrian access across the city.

The project will take shape over the next decade and will bring better bicycle pathways to several bridges in the seven-mile-long area. The plan calls for nodes at Van Cortlandt Park to the north and Randall’s Island to the south. The city will commence a public engagement process beginning April 18th and says it is an important step in reconnecting communities that have been divided by the Federal highway system since the 1930s.

“This administration continues to deliver for all five boroughs, and expanding the Harlem River Greenway to the Bronx is a huge win for equity and justice,” Mayor Adams said at a press conference. “Our administration is leading the way in undoing the...

Where the sidewalk (ext)ends: Gensler reveals updated plans for Hollywood Walk of Fame pedestrian improvements

2022-08-04T19:28:00-04:00

Two years after its initial announcement, Gensler has shared updated project renderings and new site plan details for its pedestrian enhancement of LA's Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The project entails a number of hastened improvements to the road surface and overall streetscape. Construction is expected to begin next summer and take $7.2 million to complete its first phase through the end of 2024. Gensler is the prime consultant for this segment of the larger $60 million comprehensive plan authored by Los Angeles Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, while full design details are still being finalized.

Image courtesy Gensler

As reported by Time Out, the construction will affect a segment of Hollywood Boulevard between Gower Street and Orange Drive. Among the upgrades, added planters and outdoor dining areas will feature prominently alongside new shade trees, kiosks, and spaces dedicated to temporary art installations. The project will also include a bus stop consolidation and important traffic la...

COVID-19-inspired open streets take root in American cities

2020-04-14T17:50:00-04:00

Around the country, as the COVID-19 shut down enters its second month, cities have demonstrated a variety of responses with regards to access to open space as shelter-in-place initiatives have taken hold.

Some cities, like Los Angeles, have opted to shut down parks and hiking trails for fear of facilitating large groups of people gathering in a single place. Others, like Denver, Minneapolis, and Oakland, have embraced the crisis as an opportunity to make more of the city available to pedestrians. With chronically under-sized sidewalks existing as a norm in many cities, some municipalities are moving to close existing vehicle lanes and entire streets to most vehicle use.

Shot of one of the streets in Oakland that is being temporarily closed to cars. Image courtesy of Oakland Department of Transportation.

In Denver, for example, more than 16 miles of city streets have been optimized for pedestrian use, Denverite reports. In Minneapolis, the figure runs upward of 18 miles of formerly ...

Architecture critic Mark Lamster proposes a new pedestrian memorial park for Dallas

2020-01-29T13:16:00-05:00

In a recent column for The Dallas Morning News, architecture critic Mark Lamster proposes a new pedestrian-oriented vision for the district surrounding Dealey Plaza, where President John F. Kennedy was murdered, and where the Dallas authorities are currently planning a new municipal memorial for the victims of racial violence. The memorial will be set in Martyrs Park, a grassy, triangular knoll surrounded on all sides by highway infrastructure and roads.

"Make no mistake: The geography of Dallas is a geography of race," Lamster writes, highlighting that historically speaking, "systematic discrimination forced African Americans into the least desirable spaces of the city—areas prone to flooding, near industry, caught on the wrong side of train tracks and highways, and always ripe for appropriation if and when the need arose" and that the same logic is currently at play with regards to the location of the proposed Martyrs Park memorial.

Satellite view of Dealey Plaza and Martyrs Park ...

London to regulate wind design for new skyscrapers

2019-08-20T09:00:00-04:00

Tougher building rules for skyscrapers have been drawn up by the City of London because of concerns that a high-rise, urban microclimate will generate winds capable of knocking over cyclists and pedestrians. Developers will have to provide more comprehensive safety assessments of how proposed buildings will affect people on street level, with more robust testing of roadways and pavements using detailed scale models in wind tunnels and computer simulations.

After a series of high-profile skyscraper design controversies, including documented incidents of pedestrians being knocked off their feet and cyclists being pushed sideways into the path of vehicles due to strong skyscraper-generated winds, London is moving to regulate the wind-driven impacts of new high-rise towers in the city.

Moving forward, the city will require tower projects to meet a tougher set of wind regulations at the start of the design development phase, according to The Guardian. Those tests will be coupled with later “micro-level” examinations of a given tower’s design that will test the magnitude and degree of wind generated by the forms of new skyscrapers, as measured from “36 wind directions, using separate consultants for computer and physical simulations,” according to The Guardian.

Under the new rules, the speed of downdrafts created by new towers will be capped at 18 miles per hour. Measured speeds at that level and above will be classified as being “uncomf...

Postwar floating walkways finding a use in modern day London

2018-10-03T12:32:00-04:00

They were planned after the second world war to whisk people above car-choked streets in the financial district, but remained unpopular and half-built. Now, pedestrian walkways are being reimagined for a 21st-century city

The "pedway" made its structural debut as a solution to providing a walkable, streamlined path for pedestrians in London's car stricken streets. However, what was devised as a plan to create an efficient walkway system, turned into an under appreciated and underwhelming concept.

Examples of early pedway systems can be referenced from London's financial centre in the late 1940's. Critiques of the pedway system and its feasibility has been dissected in the documentary, Elevating London, where UCL professor of planning Michael Hebbert discusses the pedway's progression over the years.

However, despite it's enigmatic evolution, architecture firms like Make Architects are finding ways to resurrect these floating walkway systems. Their most recent project on The London Wall Place aims to transform pedways in to playful and functional path way.

America’s Sorriest Bus Stop: Vancouver 'wins' this year's contest

2018-09-19T14:48:00-04:00

It’s official! The sorriest bus stop in America is in … Canada! The horrendous bus stop on the Lougheed Highway in Pitt Meadows, just outside of Vancouver, has won our annual contest, trouncing Cincinnati in a 58%-42% landslide.

Streetsblog has announced the 'winner' of its annual America’s Sorriest Bus Stop tournament, and it's an impressively desolate and pedestrian-inadequate spot on a highway outside of Vancouver, BC that gets to take home the crown this year.

Congrats on the 2nd place: Daly Road in Springfield Township, near Cincinnati. Image via streetsblog.com.

The competition was fierce, and many other contenders across North America stunned with glaringly unsafe conditions right along busy roads, omission of sidewalks, lack of benches and shelter from the elements, and absence of traffic lights or pedestrian crosswalk to reach these bus spots.

This bus stop at 9907 Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills sits in one of the nation's wealthiest ZIP codes, yet the domestic workers taking the bus from here have to run for their lives to reach it. Image via streetsblog.com.

Explore the full list of Sorriest Bus Stop contenders here.

Perkins Eastman reimagines NYC grid for increased pedestrian and shared space

2018-08-31T13:29:00-04:00

The city grid, which once served to organize the development of private real estate by providing access to land parcels, now has a more pressing role to play in making cities livable. Our reimagining of the grid starts from the premise that how we use public rights of way no longer meets the city’s needs, so we should transform the streets radically, dedicating them to pedestrians.

Jonathan Cohn and Yunyue Chen propose a new pedestrian plan for Manhattan's grid grouping blocks into larger neighborhoods and organizing streets into either thoroughfares or local streets. Cohn leads the transportation and public infrastructure studio of Perkins Eastman, while Chen received the 2017 Perkins Eastman’s Architectural Fellowship for the Public Realm.

Manhattan grid divided into thoroughfare and local streets. Image: Perkins Eastman.

Their plan is a combination of the Dutch shared street idea of woonerf and the Barcelona “superblocks”. Shared, local streets would include continuous, curbless, and textured surfaces with cues that conform drivers to speeds of about 6 miles per hour.

Example of a shared street with less vehicle access and more pedestrian space. Image: Perkins Eastman.

"Superblocks" are limited to local traffic inside and would be sectioned off by thoroughfare streets with local streets in between. Local streets would always be within a 5 minute walk of any...

Design, Bitches lead pedestrian-friendly remodel of a major shopping center in Los Angeles

2018-08-20T16:23:00-04:00

...the center, known as Runway, is being remade as a place where pedestrians will be more inclined to hang out, shop and eat — without having to dodge vehicles. After seeing the closed-off streets packed with people during farmers markets and other special events, manager DJM Capital Partners Inc. concluded that Runway’s autocentric ethos was outdated and has decided to make the ban full time, even though the center was built only three years ago in the recently developed community.

The Runway, a 220,000 square foot retail space in Los Angeles neighborhood Playa Vista, will undergo a $9.1 million renovation lead by local architect team Design, Bitches. The complex is located next to Marina Del Rey, Venice, and Santa Monica making it part of the Westside area known as "Silicon Beach". The new plan for Runway focuses on closing off the streets and creating a more pedestrian friendly space.

The Runway at Playa Vista rendering by Design, Bitches. Image: Design, Bitches.

As shopping centers face major changes to compete with online stores, these spaces are being rebranded as "lifestyle centers" focusing on public space as their main attraction. The Runway renovation is expected to be complete by early 2019.

Foster + Partners transforms 70's government office tower into luxury hotel in Hong Kong

2018-05-16T15:22:00-04:00

Foster + Partners' new Hong Kong luxury hotel, The Murray, is now fully open to the public. Formerly a 1970's government office building, the firm has transformed these 25 stories into a unique urban experience for visitors.

Reception area of the Murray Building, renovated by Foster + Partners, located in Hong Kong. Image: Michael Weber.

Exterior Details of The Murray. Image: Michael Weber.

The Murray Building was originally constructed when urban planning revolved around cars, leaving the structure inaccessible to pedestrians.

Exterior view of the garden terrace at night. Image: Nigel Young / Foster+Partners.

Hotel lobby area of The Murray. Image: Nigel Young / Foster+Partners.

One of the main goals in the building's transformation was to reconnect the structure at ground level with a new street front, transparent and open ground floor space, and enhanced landscaping of the surrounding grounds.

Exterior Details of The Murray. Image: Michael Weber.

Visitors are now greeted by entering...

A new proposal for Miami's collapsed bridge by Dover, Kohl & Partners

2018-04-09T15:43:00-04:00

Last week, street planners Victor Dover and Kenneth García of the Miami firm Dover, Kohl & Partners published a proposal for redesigning the area. The pair criticized not only the “accelerated bridge construction” technique used in the FIU-Sweetwater UniversityCity Bridge, but the fundamental design of the street it once spanned.

Following the Miami FIU bridge collapse three weeks ago, investigations have been conducted on what went wrong. Looking ahead to reconstruction, the Miami based design firm Dover, Kohl & Partners proposes a new pedestrian friendly design for Eighth Street. Focusing on greater harmony between pedestrians, bikers, public transit, and cars, the firm's goal is to make the entire area safer and more appealing.

The design calls for reducing the eight-lanes of traffic down to five, a middle section designated to public transportation, with bike lanes and trees added along the roadway. Rather than rebuilding the pedestrian bridge, multiple street level crosswalks would be added for residents and students. The firm does not expect this design to be pursued, however their aim is to put forth a solution to a problem they see across the country.

William Kaven unveil full proposal for Portland's Broadway Corridor

2018-02-15T13:42:00-05:00

William Kaven Architecture have just released additional renderings of the firm's redevelopment proposal for Portland's Broadway Corridor, giving a more complete picture of their broader scheme.

In addition to the initial release of Portland's tallest towers last November, the firm has now fleshed out what the rest of the 5 million square foot development will entail.

Portland Broadway Corridor conceptual plan by William Kaven Architecture. Image: William Kaven Architecture.

Their concept of reconnecting Union Station to the Pearl District involves removing the Broadway ramp and creating a pedestrian-centric district organized around an extension of the North Park Blocks.

The firm also plans major shifts to public transportation, integrating a central hub for a high-speed rail and underground mass public transit next to Amtrack's Union Station.

Portland Broadway Corridor conceptual plan by William Kaven Architecture. Image: William Kaven Architecture.

This pedestrian friendly pla...

Killer commute? Job hunt in the US’s top public transportation cities

2017-12-13T11:50:00-05:00

Traveling to and from work should be easy, efficient, and allow you to focus on what matters: your job. While hunting for the next opportunity, take commute into account and start searching in the US's top cities with the best transportation. Scoring is based on The AllTransit Performance Score, which looks at connectivity, access to jobs, and frequency of service. We have rounded up some current job opportunities in these top cities from Archinect’s Job Board.

New York, NY

New York City’s vast public transportation network provides access to the highest number of jobs and moves by far the greatest number of people with a total ridership of more than 2.5 billion including buses.

NYC map of jobs reached in half an hour using public transportation, dark red is one million plus. Photo: University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies.

COOKFOX is currently hiring an Intermediate Architect.

The right candidate will possess excellent design skills, 4-7 years of professional exper...

No more personal cars will be allowed in Madrid's city center

2017-01-10T19:03:00-05:00

Madrid's mayor, Manuela Carmena, is serious about kicking personal cars off the road in the city center. On a November 5 show on Spanish radio networkCadena Ser, she confirmed that Madrid's main avenue, the Gran Vía, will only allow access to bikes, buses, and taxis before she leaves office in May 2019, as noted by CityLab.

Are people in love with not having to drive to dense urban locales? (Answer: for the most part, yes.) Following the lead of numerous cities that are seeking either to reduce car traffic or obliterate it altogether, Madrid's mayor actually outlawed personal vehicles from the city's main thoroughfare during the crucial days before Christmas (and later discovered that merchant profits were up over the previous year).

The latest updates in global car culture:

America’s Sorriest Bus Stop tournament enters final round: it's Kansas City, MO vs. Silver Spring, MD

2016-08-05T14:28:00-04:00

Each of the 16 bus stops that competed this year — and the agencies who oversee them — deserved a thorough shaming. No transit rider should ever have to wait in the rain for a bus with no posted schedule, or walk in a ditch along an eight-lane highway after disembarking. These conditions are deplorable but all too common in American cities. The two bus stops facing off today — in Kansas City and Silver Spring [...]— had some extra dreadful quality that sets them apart in the eyes of our voters.

Gruen Associates, Mia Lehrer, Oyler Wu appointed to design L.A. River Greenway in San Fernando Valley

2016-07-20T20:27:00-04:00

Mayor Eric Garcetti's office released a statement yesterday announcing that Gruen Associates, Mia Lehrer + Associates, Oyler Wu Collaborative, and civil and structural engineering firm Psomas will design the final 12 miles of the San Fernando Valley portion of the Los Angeles River Greenway. The Greenway would allow Angelenos to walk or bike from Canoga Park to Elysian Valley.

No project renderings for now, as the designers will begin conducting a feasibility study over the next nine months. According to the press release, the Greenway “will address important objectives” in both the City’s/Frank Gehry's (still yet to be revealed) Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan as well as L.A. County’s River Master Plan, their Bicycle Plans, and Mayor Garcetti's Sustainable City pLAn.

The mayor and County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl will jointly fund the project, along with additional support from City Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield, Paul Krekorian, Nury Martinez and David Ryu, and the Depart...

A bridge 57 years in the making, designed by Steven Holl

2016-07-20T13:32:00-04:00

In 1959, Edward Durell Stone had envisioned a pedestrian walkway connecting his unbuilt design for the Kennedy Center to the Potomac River, but it was not until this year that Steven Holl Architects gained approval for the bridge, which is part of the firm's larger expansion design for the center. The bridge will not only provide a tangible connection between the facility and the landscape, but allow opportunities to visit a cafe and view outdoor art events, including an exterior wall which will double as a site for broadcasts and simulcast performances.

“This is a joyful moment for a public space which will be shared and enjoyed by many in the future,” said Steven Holl in a press release. “After thoughtful review by these regulatory agencies, we have achieved complete approval for our Kennedy Center Expansion project and its public access to the Potomac Riverfront.”

Tour Zaha Hadid's "stacked vases" tower in Australia

2016-07-14T12:49:00-04:00

Imagine blending the veiny facade of 8 Spruce Street and the jaunty offset of the New Museum with Zaha Hadid's signature grace, and you might get something like the 54-story, 70,000 square meter 600 Collins Street, a tower that is reminiscent of a stacked series of ridged vases. The four principal segments of the tower each denote a different part of the program while simultaneously integrating access to public transit and creating civic space.

“The design has been defined by Melbourne’s rich and diverse urban landscape, reinterpreted in a contemporary solution driven by the logical division of its overall volume that will enhance the city’s public realm with generous communal spaces,” said Zaha Hadid Architects’ Michele Pasca di Magliano. “We are honored to be working with our partners in Melbourne to deliver this project for the city.”

Here's a video showing site context:

Vancouver's unused railway to become public greenway

2016-03-10T13:07:00-05:00

The City of Vancouver has reached an agreement with Canadian Pacific Railway that will transform a contentious stretch of old rail corridor into a public greenway. Under the deal, the city will pay $55 million to purchase the land on the railway route, which extends for nine kilometres from False Creek near Downtown Vancouver to Marpole on the city's south side.

Once the unofficial home to community gardens and in situ artworks, under the city's plan the Vancouver's Arbutus Corridor will become a place for cyclists and walkers. It's not the High Line (although much like that project, Vancouver city officials would like to continue thinking that the rail tracks could be still be used for transportation after the corridor is developed).

What else is going on in Vancouver? Creative, intriguing things:

A bicyclist's perspective on the dangers and joys of riding in L.A.

2015-09-23T15:49:00-04:00

While you’re hypertensive in traffic listening to NPR, I have seen dolphins frolicking (and homeless men fighting over a shopping cart); I’ve smelled the taco trucks and heard all the languages of kids playing at morning recess. I sweat and shiver; I feel elation and real fear. In short, I feel alive. And so I ride.

Despite its annoyances, difficulties, and outright dangers, Peter Flax's take on bicycle riding in L.A.—prompted in part by the city's recent decision "to create hundreds of miles of new protected bike lanes, shrinking some streets in the process"—combines a reporter's clear-eyed sensibility with an enthusiast's joy. In what is apparently an all-too typical encounter, he describes an incident with a dangerous driver: "Once, on Curson near Pico, a black Mercedes swerved into my path and the side mirror grazed my hip. I rolled up to the guy’s driver’s side window at a red light; he had his phone on his lap, watching a video. Without saying a word, I just rode away, bewildered and angry."

Want to read more on bicycling developments in L.A. and beyond? Click below:

• LA Gets its First Parking-Protected Bike Lanes

• From California to Texas, car culture is losing its monopoly

• Protected bike lanes strengthen city economy, report finds

...

Google Street View captures beautiful public space transformations

2015-09-02T20:02:00-04:00

A Brazilian urban planning collective called Urb-i...scoured Google Street View images to find the most stunning public space transformations from around the world. The results give us hope that our cities are becoming more beautiful places to live.

Cheer up: not everything is getting worse, at least not if you check out these comparison shots of real places from around the globe captured on Google Street View. Compiled by Urb-i, these 41 intersections and urban streets are studies in pedestrian-friendliness; as the years melt by, many of the municipalities and cities strip away traffic lanes and replace them with sidewalk planters, pavers, and other traffic-calming elements. In some cases, cars are removed entirely, letting people (and greenery) retake the streets. Here's a view of Hungary:

A street in Detroit:

Also in Montreal:

Frank Gehry's renderings for L.A.'s Sunset Strip revealed

2015-08-26T15:00:00-04:00

Initial renderings of the $300 million development depict a cluster of five architecturally distinct buildings distributed across the 2.6- acre site around a central plaza. In total, the project will comprise 333,600 square feet, and have 249 residential units. One of the architects’ primary goals was to make the site as approachable as possible to invite the surrounding community in to shop, dine, or simply relax in the plaza.

Renderings and model photos were released today of Frank Gehry's proposed design for the 8150 Sunset Boulevard project. Positioned at the so-called Gateway to the Sunset Strip at the curving intersection of Crescent Heights Boulevard, Havenhurst Drive and Sunset Boulevard, Gehry's mixed-use, three-story retail center and 11-story residential tower (which is expected to achieve LEED silver status) emphasizes pedestrian access and preserving Sunset's relatively low streetscape:

Gehry reportedly said of the project, “[Residents and future visitors] should feel that they are part of L.A., a part of L.A. that has a culture that comes with it.”