The $3.5 billion development covers 12,355 acres and was built to house about 500,000 people, and this is one of "several satellite cities being constructed by Chinese firms around Angola," writes Redvers. — businessinsider.com

...how would you like something that can never crash, is immune to weather, it goes 3 or 4 times faster than the bullet train... it goes an average speed of twice what an aircraft would do. You would go from downtown LA to downtown San Francisco in under 30 minutes. It would cost you much less than an air ticket than any other mode of transport. I think we could actually make it self-powering if you put solar panels on it, you generate more power than you would consume in the system. — theatlantic.com

Pegasus, the company behind the scheme, had originally intended to build the huge, 15-square mile replica town near to Hobbs in the southwestern U.S. state but has postponed building work after struggling to find enough land for the project.

The $1billion city (£643million) with no residents had been billed as a testing ground for researchers developing products ranging from self-flushing toilets, intelligent traffic systems and next-generation wireless networks. — dailymail.co.uk

The 70-foot channel has for years operated as a flood-control channel, wildlife sanctuary and escape valve for treated waste water befouled with chemicals and trash. Now, the soft-bottom swath of weedy islands, dense brush and willows draped with fast-food wrappers, plastic bags and clothes is one of the newest summer attractions in town. — latimes.com

Free parking on an earthquake-cleared Manchester St site is on hold while a life-sized Monopoly square moves in. — The Press

If you're in Los Angeles this weekend, don't miss the opening of UNFINISHED BUSINESS – 25 Years of Discourse in Los Angeles, a major retrospective exhibition by the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design. The exhibition will be on view from July 13 through August 26, 2012 at the WUHO Gallery in Hollywood. — bustler.net

The developer David W. Levinson could have set for himself the simple task of commissioning a better-designed tower for 425 Park Avenue than the one that’s been there since 1957.

But that would have been a very low bar.

He has engaged four of the world’s leading architects to compete for the job: Norman Foster of Foster & Partners, Zaha Hadid of Zaha Hadid Architects, Rem Koolhaas of OMA, and Richard Rogers of Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners. — cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com

In view of recent events, I have found myself asking whether it is a good thing to make a piece of city where rioting is impossible. The Olympic Park, even in legacy mode, seems to be built for this purpose. — ICON

Ai Weiwei has never set foot inside the [Bird's Nest].

He told NPR that the stadium has become entirely divorced from ordinary people.

"We love this building, but we don't like the content they have put in, the kind of propaganda. They dissociated this building [from] citizens' celebration or happiness, [it's] not integrated with the city's life," Ai said. "So I told them I will never go to this building." — npr.org

Danish HAO / Holm Architecture Office has sent us their latest competition entry—designed in collaboration with Archiland Beijing—for an ocean front project near the city of Tianjin, Northern China.

“With the Dongjiang Master Plan we aimed to develop a housing typology that allows for high density while emulating the natural surroundings of the site," said HAO founder Jens Holm. — bustler.net

all are really just a smoke screen for a much deeper set of political and even philosophical issues that will impact urban dwellers in the near future, especially as more than half’s the world’s population will soon be living in cities. That set of issues centers around the delicate dance between public and private ownership of space, both in the cloud and on the ground. — Future Perfect

Another bigger picture repercussion of the Act is the cognitive and cartographic dissonance that occurs in Los Angeles where the Jeffersonian city grid abuts a pre-existing Spanish or French grid. — KCET/Departures

...Sandra Burga, the project’s client and coordinator, gave an introduction on the scope of the design project, discussed her background in Peru, t... and the project directives to be accomplished within the time period for the design charette and the duration of the project (projected to be completed around 2014, 2015)... 'provide sustainable, innovative, and transformational development to various areas in need, building structures, in which people live, work, learn, heal, and gather…' — UrbDeZine

California has grabbed a golden opportunity to build the nation’s first high-speed rail system, create the backbone of a new, clean 21st century transportation system and support our future economic growth. — Washington Post

The canopy can look like a lot of architecture for such a small project, but that’s partly its value: to put Cazucá on the map and create a de facto town square beside the school (made of shipping containers, serving a population in which a quarter of the children are malnourished, I was told by the school’s principal). Now children play soccer under the canopy and clean up the square every day, and there’s a vegetable garden with tomatoes and herbs. — nytimes.com