If there’s one thing that all New Yorkers can agree on it’s that Penn Station is pretty awful. And if we’re ever going to get a new home for NJ Transit, Amtrak, and the LIRR, Madison Square Garden will have to move (just don’t tell any die-hard Rangers fans that). — 6sqft
The Alliance for a New Penn Station is proposing in a new report that the world-famous venue Madison Square Garden be relocated to the nearby Morgan Post Office and Annex, which occupies the block bound by 9th and 10th avenues and 28th and 30th streets. They say the mail sorting facility site is... View full entry
Clinging to antiquated urban notions, the District’s building height regulations imagine a skyline filled with spires, domes and minarets. — Washington Post
The debate over the Capital's skyline should not pit preservationists against contemporary designers. In fact, regulations that take advantage of the rooftop space would contribute to the monumental character of the city. View full entry
Renderings for the waterfront park to be built alongside the massive housing development Greenpoint Landing have been released. Flooding from Hurricane Sandy ravaged the area only a few years back, so it comes as no surprise that locals were concerned with how developers would protect the area... View full entry
Art should serve the people, Xi Jinping says, and China's weird and wonderful buildings - including a mobile phone building, an excessivley blinged-up hotel, and a penis tower - are evidently not good examples of "morally inspiring art". Duh. — shanghaiist
Is it possible Xi Jinping is using a diplomatic language to break loose from imported architecture? The so called elite star architecture now going to have third tier copies? Don't forget the elite post modernism was finally trickled down to strip mall architecture finally in early 90's. This... View full entry
The massive Beltline and an impressive grid of protected lanes that will connect the trail system to key urban destinations are poised to remake transportation in the city that anchors the country's ninth-largest metro area. [...]
As the video above shows, Atlanta's embrace of active space is part of a psychic shift in a city that's shaking off its old Sprawlville USA image with a combination of bike, transit and affordable housing infrastructure.
— peopleforbikes.org
Similar bike-friendly development is underway in the South's other notorious mega sprawl metro area, Houston: The Bayou Greenways Plan: A Game-Changer for Houston? View full entry
Sean Smith completed the third (and final?) in a series of articles about the The Life of a New Architect, in which Jim Bogle reflected on the best part of the of actually working in architecture "That's an easy one: meeting a deadline. Meeting a deadline is like taking a bite out of your... View full entry
Unesco, which for too long has been silent on the growing environmental threat to Venice and its evident mismanagement, as revealed by the exposure of massive corruption in the construction of its flood barriers, has at last shown its teeth. At the meeting of its World Heritage Committee in Doha this June it passed important resolutions that show that it intends to call the Italian government to account and put Venice on its World Heritage at Risk list if it is not satisfied. — theartnewspaper.com
Previously: Leading museum directors, artists and architects call on Italian government to ban giant ships from Venice View full entry
OMA and OLIN Studio have been selected to design the new 11th Street Bridge Park in Washington D.C. The competition was held as part of the 11th Street Bridge Park project initiative, which will transform an old freeway bridge into D.C.'s first elevated park. From the six shortlisted teams in phase one of the nationwide competition, and down to four finalists, OMA + OLIN won with their proposal, "Anacostia Crossing." — bustler.net
Dig into the details over at Bustler. View full entry
A new proposal called 'Harlem Promenade' developed by the Housing Partnership could bring not only 2,000 additional affordable housing units to Washington Heights, but also an elevated railway park akin to the High Line. The park would be built atop a portion of Amtrak rail lines and would finally offer locals a safe and easy connection to the waterfront parks and recreation along the Hudson. — 6sqft
The Creative City Challenge is a competition for Minnesota-resident architects, landscape architects, urban designers, planners, engineers, scientists, artists, students and individuals of all backgrounds to create and install at the Minneapolis Convention Center Plaza an artwork, which is an innovative use of the space and acts as a sociable and participatory platform for scheduled and impromptu onsite programs throughout the summer. — Minneapolis Convention Center
Ricketts got most of what he wanted. Alderman Tunney was again involved in the negotiations and he said the mayor’s office essentially decided that “one of the most generous sign packages ever” was a reasonable trade-off for the Rickettses’ willingness to spend their own money. He added ruefully: “There will be advertisements coming out of everywhere. We will have our own little Times Square right here at the corner of Clark and Addison.” — NYT
Barry Bearak digs into the Ricketts family, the Cubs and future plans for Wrigley Field. From the "cursed" record of the franchise, to legal battles with the owners of adjacent rooftops, the family faces numerous challenges in turning around their investment. Though the ballpark may soon... View full entry
Julia Ingalls continued her Material Witness. In #5 she analyzed "Wings of Desire", "Billy Elliot" and "In the Mood for Love", for lessons about Cultural Gerrymandering. Olaf Design Ninja_ is appreciative "See Julia Ingalis quote above...there is more beer in the fridge...Enjoying this... View full entry
"In all modern cultures, cleaning up merely involves moving “dirt” from one place to another. Five decades ago, cleaning up may have been easier. It would have meant restoring the predominantly organic and compostable discards in the waste stream to its rightful place – namely, the soil –... View full entry
A wooden catwalk based on a trail bridge, the 450-foot-long structure, which begins north of the Brooklyn promenade in Squibb Park, bounced gently as it was walked upon, delighting residents and park visitors alike. But over time, the subtle bounce — part of the design — became more pronounced, then worrisome... On Friday ... park officials said that Squibb Park Bridge, which cost $5 million, would remain closed until spring as engineers continued to study its movements. — NY Times
In a quiet, shady street in Rijswijk, the Netherlands, Koen Olthuis and the design team at Waterstudio are changing the world. From this deceptively nondescript headquarters, Waterstudio is designing the cities of the future. If Olthuis has his way, they will be safer, more flexible and more resilient than current cities. How will he do this? Olthuis is designing floating cities. — nextcity.org