Archinect - News

Provencher_Roy uses recycled glass material to complete Darwin Bridges reconstruction in Montreal

2023-11-02T13:45:00-04:00

Provencher_Roy has shared photos following the firm’s completion of a bridge reconstruction project in Nuns’ Island, Montreal.

The new Darwin Bridges makeover represents the first instance of Ground Glass Pozzolan (GGP), a recycled glass product developed with researchers from the Université de Sherbrooke and the City of Montreal, being used in an architectural design worldwide.

The project succeeded in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 44 tons, while using over 88,000 pounds of locally sourced recycled glass (the equivalent of 70,000 wine bottles). A green space was enacted in a void created by removing the existing central median strip, and safety lighting has been installed to prevent tunnel sensation.

Image © Stephane Brugger

“The concept was always there, but the design and construction standards of the time favored the automobile. For this project, we were therefore working in a paradoxical 1960s context, on an innovative urban project to improve the user experience, while a...

The Asphalt Art Initiative expands to more cities as new statistics point to improved pedestrian safety

2022-04-19T20:06:00-04:00

Bloomberg Philanthropies has announced a European expansion of its Asphalt Art Initiative on the heels of a new study from the organization and Sam Schwartz Consulting that revealed some eye-opening statistics about the improvement of blacktop spaces in urban areas. A total of 20 new cities will be given grants of $25,000 each as part of the program’s next round of funding, which has to date gone to fund 45 projects in 41 different locations across the United States.

The joint study of 22 different U.S. test cases revealed that arts-driven transportation projects produce, among other outcomes, a 50% drop in the rate of crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists, a 37% drop in the rate of crashes involving serious injury, another 25% drop in road rage incidents between pedestrian and motorist, and a 27% increase in drivers yielding to pedestrians who have the right-of-way, suggesting tremendous public health and safety benefits overall.

Asphalt Art Initiative, Amsterdam. Lead artist: ...

Seattle eyes its first Barcelona-inspired "superblock"

2019-09-03T13:00:00-04:00

After an extensive renovation, the art nouveau market anchoring the neighborhood returned to its original 19th-century splendor last year. In the area around it, parking was moved underground, newly planted trees and shrubs dot the streets and public plazas, children romp in new play areas, and bicyclists and pedestrians now have ample space to move around freely. In short, public space has increased by thousands of square meters — all because car traffic was deprioritized.

In an effort to improve safety conditions for the city's pedestrians and cyclists, Seattle in considering implementing a series of traffic calming measures along a six-block section its Capitol Hill neighborhood that would create the city's first "superblock" configuration.

The move comes as the number of pedestrian fatalities skyrockets in American cities, and as municipalities continue to struggle to implement successful Vision Zero-related road design improvements.

Is it time to embrace the “slow city”?

2019-08-13T09:42:00-04:00

Imposing tighter limits on leadfoots is a key part of the Vision Zero campaign for reducing traffic deaths and injuries, because of the dramatic safety benefits associated with reducing vehicle velocity. Does this add up to evidence that fast-paced Americans are ready to embrace the virtues of city life in the slow lane?

How fast is too fast? Cities like New York, Portland, Boston, and Washington, D.C. are initiating ways to regulate traffic speeds and install better signage to aid in pedestrian and bicycle safety. With the high number of reported traffic-related deaths and injuries only rising, cities are starting to realize that lowering urban speed limits doesn’t only benefit non-drivers.

In a recent CityLab article, writer Andrew Small provides detailed information communicating the benefits that reducing speed limits can have for non-drivers, drivers, and the built environment, alike. One detail Small points out is how "perhaps urbanists shouldn't demand slow lanes or slow neighborhoods: They should ask for a slow city."

With the rise of fast-paced micro-mobility on our streets and sidewalks, and the promise of zippy autonomous vehicles transporting products and people supposedly in our the future, it can be hard to imagine how a slow city might be a possibly come to be. However, Small points...

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.

Pave paradise? American cities are rethinking parking spaces

2016-10-03T18:28:00-04:00

The US has long been the world leader in building parking spaces. During the mid 20th century, city zoning codes began to include requirements and quotas for most developments to include parking spaces. The supply skyrocketed. A 2011 study by the University of California, estimated there are upwards of 800m parking spaces in the US, covering about 25,000 square miles of land.

Increasingly, cities are rethinking this approach. As cities across the world begin to prioritise walkable urban development and the type of city living that does not require a car for every trip, city officials are beginning to move away from blanket policies of providing abundant parking.

For more on pedestrian-friendly initiatives, follow these links:

Pollution-plagued Paris to ban cars from the side of the Seine

2016-09-27T13:49:00-04:00

In an effort to curb air pollution, the city council of Paris has approved a controversial plan to pedestrianize the 3.3 km road that runs along the Right Bank of the Seine River. Stretching from the Tuileries Gardens to the Henri-IV tunnel near the Bastille, the road is currently used by some 43,000 cars a day. The plan would replace the roadway with wooden walkways and landscaping, and cost an estimated €8 million.

The plan is supported by the Socialist government and faces opposition from the country’s conservative faction, who argue that it will increase traffic in a city already jam-packed with cars. Nearly 55 percent of Parisians support the plan, according to the Independent.

Air pollution in Paris can rival cities like Beijing, and is responsible for over 2,000 deaths per year.

For more urban initiatives intended to combat air pollution, follow these links:

Taking a break from cars in automobile-centric Manhattan

2016-08-16T12:09:00-04:00

Pedestrianism among advocates and urban planners in the new, young century has been on the ascent in global cities far and wide, with many pushing for more restrictions on cars in the interests of bipeds and cyclists. That was part of thinking behind the Shared Streets initiative, a five-hour long event over the weekend. It saw the city demarcate some 60 blocks of Manhattan’s oldest neighbourhood as part of an urban geographical experiment...

Many cities have been trying to go car-less (at least temporarily). For more pedestrian-friendly initiatives, check out these links:

Phoenix may become a lot more green

2016-08-02T13:31:00-04:00

According to the Los Angeles Times, the sunny city of Phoenix, Arizona might become a little cooler, as the city develops a plan to give 25% of the city a tree canopy by 2030. Currently, the city has about half as much shade.

The city plans to use a mix of steel 'trees', native plants like mesquite and palo brea, and non-natives that have proved tough enough to weather the grueling heat. Already known for its high temperatures, Phoenix is trying to prepare for even hotter temperatures as global warming heats the planet up.

The plan is intended to do more than just make for more pleasant strolls. "Aesthetically, it’s quite pleasing," notes forestry supervisor, Richard Atkins. "It can bring commerce to any business that had it out front because, you know, people are drawn to nice vegetation and shade."

For more news from the hot and dry American Southwest, check out these links:

Atlanta struggles to trade parking lots for density

2016-06-02T14:12:00-04:00

"If you design for everyone to drive, then what will you get? Congestion." [...] “We really need to shift now, from a situation like this, where you have a heavy parking load associated with an apartment building in a very urban setting, to way less parking,” [...] "You really have to start with the density and less parking. If you don't, then you've lost your opportunity, because once you've built that infrastructure, it's so difficult to undo that."

More on the parking problem and pedestrian infrastructure:

Editor's Picks #444

2016-04-13T17:48:00-04:00

ICYMI Amelia Taylor-Hochberg published a 3 part interview with Coy Howard, by students in John Southern's “Architectural Media and Publishing” Cultural Studies seminar at SCI-Arc. Ewa Lenart was impressed "Great Work and greatly inspiring teacher!"

Plus, Nicholas Korody explored ‘Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work’ by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams. Chris Teeter thought it was "good work...very interesting...these guys are 100% correct about scale".

News
Dame Zaha Hadid DBE passed on March 31st. Frank Gehry remembered "she was one of the guys...[That’s] sexist in its own way I suppose. I don’t mean it that way...She was undaunted by all the stuff that would be against a woman coming into a field at that level. She didn’t pay attention to it…She was very confident."

Daniel Elmore criticized some of commentary "She deserves to be remembered not as one of the best 'female architects' but one of THE BEST architects of our time...A visionary before her time and a...

Adapting self-driving cars to the world of humans

2015-12-04T11:34:00-05:00

The short history of autonomous vehicles has already shown us that in a closed environmement, cars that drive themselves are pretty great...the problems only begin when you introduce them to real world, non-autonomous environments [...] So Google's new patent makes sense: it contains some new idea on how the cars can communicate with pedestrians on the road as a kind of replacement for all the hand-waving and other non-mechanical signals used by drivers in road situations.

In theory, driving mainly consists of looking through glass, turning a wheel, and putting pressure on one of two pedals. But, as everyone knows, in practice, driving means swerving to avoid tires on freeways, slamming on brakes to escape collisions, waving with your hand to signal to the driver at the stop sign to please, just go first. (I know we both got to the line at the same time. Seriously, you go. No? Not going to go? Fine, I'll go. Oh – nevermind, now you're going. Really?)

So it's not really a surprise that intelligent, rational self-driving cars have difficulty on streets overcrowded with irrational, hubristic humans. Most significantly, self-driving cars will have to be able to drive on city streets teeming with pedestrians. If pedestrian-automotive relations already seem bad, imagine trying to jaywalk in a city filled with robo-cabs.

To deal with this, Google has patented a slew of new ideas, including a "physical signalling system" that would comprise some kind of mechani...

Mayor Eric Garcetti seeks artist to help reduce L.A.'s pedestrian fatalities

2015-10-29T15:49:00-04:00

Spiffing up materials the city puts out to promote safe driving “is definitely not what this is about,” Reynolds said. “It's going much deeper into the way we think about designing the streets. Art has the power to get people to sit up and pay attention and jolt them out of their normal ways of thinking. We can infuse unexpected elements into the design of the streets and the way of moving through the streets.”

For more on the (changing) art of street navigation:

• What Do Pedestrian Traffic Icons Say About Your Culture?

• Los Angeles has Created the Perfect Parking Sign

• Seeking identity through city fonts

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