In 2019, New York City's Hurricane Sandy-damaged L Train tunnel will shut down for repairs, making it tricky to get across the East River without a new form of transport. In a competition sponsored by the Van Alen Institute to find alternatives, AECOM suggested building a fiber-glass fabric tunnel for pedestrians that could also double as a projection space.
The tunnel, which an AECOM designer likened to an inflatable condom in this DNA info article, would have segments above and below the water line in order to enable river traffic to pass over it.
However, the super-sized prophylactic ended up being a hard sell, losing out to the docking ferry proposal "Transient Transit" (pictured above) designed by BuroHappold Engineering and Kohn Pederson Fox Associates for the competition's $1,000 prize.
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3 Comments
What's one more condom in the East River, at least you can actually reuse this one.
Seriously BAD reporting archinect! The winners were two professionals who were competing independently of the companies they worked for. Plus you could've said more about the winning designs than mocking the futuristic one that didn't even make the cut!
The futuristic one is more interesting.
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