A top real estate executive from Brooklyn is proposing a high-speed sky gondola between the Brooklyn waterfront and Manhattan — a back-to-the-future form of mass transit that could ease congestion on ferries, subways and bridges.
The so-called East River Skyway would be comprised of high-speed aerial cable cars, moving New Yorkers to Manhattan in less than four minutes. The cars could accommodate more than 5,000 people per hour in both directions.
— nydailynews.com
An investor group hoping to build a high-speed train capable of cutting the travel time between Baltimore and Washington to 15 minutes says in a filing to state regulators that it has lined up more than $5 billion in financial backing. The commitment is from the Japanese government, which hopes to showcase the technology behind superconducting magnetic levitation or “maglev” trains to an American audience […] — Washington Post
The article notes that the maglev train has detractors, many of whom complain at the cost, which is far higher than other high-speed rails like those currently being built in California. For more information on the California project, check out the Atlantic's coverage here.Meanwhile, Joanna Symons... View full entry
The weeks and months of billable hours and protracted talks can translate to an economic lift for a host city catering to out-of-town investors and their lawyers and support staff, making municipalities worldwide eager to woo bickering parties [...] International locales like London and Paris traditionally have been favored — as well as centers of commerce like Hong Kong and Singapore for Asian disputes — but parties can agree to settle matters elsewhere. — NY Times
it seemed perverse to us that architecture has become all about the aesthetics of a few iconic buildings whose main function is the glorification of those with the money to build them. As one prize after another celebrates the work of a selected band of world famous "starchitects", it seemed like humanity's most pressing problems are how to fold metal into the most obscure shapes, and how implausibly high a building can go. — Al Jazeera
As curated by Daniel Davies on how architecture and design can be used to build a better world, Al Jazeera sheds a light on what really matters as architecture moves into domains of architects and geographies where the works is making difference in people's lives."They are architects not paid by... View full entry
On this 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a shiny new skyscraper towers over what was once a smoldering pile. It’s touted as “an ever-present symbol of renewal and hope,” but the process to build One WTC, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, has been arduous and much-delayed. The project, which has had its share of critics, is finally set to open in early 2015. — qz.com
Public space like the plaza in Al Fawwar is mostly unheard-of in Palestinian camps across the West Bank. Architectural upgrades raise fundamental questions about the Palestinian identity, implying permanence, which refugees here have opposed for generations. [...] Camps were conceived as temporary quarters. The absence of public space was then preserved over the years to fortify residents’ self-identification as refugees, displaced and stateless. — nytimes.com
A new development, 42 Crosby Street, is pushing the limits of New York City real estate to new heights with 10 underground parking spots that will cost more per square foot than the apartments being sold upstairs.
At $250,000 a tire, the parking spaces in the underground garage cost more than four times the national median sales price for a home, which is $217,800, according to Zillow.
— New York Times
The best thing about this article was the NYT pop up ad for luxury condos in Chelsea. View full entry
"Giving the boulevard back to the people... makes the streets habitable again," says Sean O’Malley of SWA. — swa group
How does a 10-block neighborhood intervention of volunteers in Highland Park, Los Angeles link to a $325 million streetscape and storm water infrastructure transformation in Shenzhen, China? “This is about giving the street and the boulevard back to the people,” says Sean O’Malley... View full entry
Though Ulaanbaatar’s sprawling informal ‘ger district’ lacks access to drinking water and sewerage, officials may struggle to coax residents to swap canvas for bricks and mortar — theguardian.com
The idea of the Future Cemetery is to create a place for people to connect with death. What that actually means and looks like is still in development, Troyer says, but in the first stage of the project they did everything from projections to audio installations. Now, they’re working on developing augmented reality experiences in cemeteries—elements that are only visible with certain devices and if you know they’re there. The idea is to allow people to add to their own cemetery experience... — theatlantic.com
“The first thing is to find the identity of Seoul,” he says. “Seoul was created very differently from western cities, with special theories of feng shui and Confucianism, and we kept that for 600 years. We didn’t change anything – even under Japanese colonialism, that was kept. But since the 1960s, under American influence, it has changed very much.”
If Seung has his way, the days of skyscrapers springing up in central Seoul would come to an end.
— ft.com
Our world "classic" will not be destroyed by barbarians. He is destroyed by us every day, eroded, imploded, sabotaged. And the aesthetic result is something that is far short of what art history calls "picturesque" . — ZUM
Powerfully penned by Guilherme Wisnik. Original text is in Portuguese. The ruins of CongonhasWilliam WisnikIn the foreground of the ground, an uneven and cracked asphalt, taken by waste accumulated adrift, as boxes, bags, newspaper sheets, clothes and debris of fallen walls destroyed themselves... View full entry
I really like it. I don't get the hate for the sphere. I think it will be a cool space to enjoy in person, vs. just looking at drawings. - reader comment (NeutraFilmmaker67) — Curbed
Not that LA is so pristine with its architecture, mainly disliked and condemned by the form gendarmerie, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is looking better. It might be the ever so missing link which will tie-in all the disparate parts of LACMA from Fairfax eastward, even Zumthor's blot if... View full entry
... post-conflict response often disregards the potential of shared spaces to foster reconciliation, the importance of urban plans in managing turbulent population dynamics, and the need for a public realm that enables normal life to continue. "The absence of any architect or planner or designer in the negotiating room is something that has to change,"... — foreignpolicy.com
Residents of Beijing can use one of the city’s 34 newly installed recycling machines to trade empty bottles for phone card rebates or free public transit passes.
Those who choose the phone card rebate just need to type in their phone numbers or scan their cards and the rebate will be automatically applied.
The value of the rebate will correspond to the value of the type of bottle that was recycled.
— pangeatoday.com
Read the original Chinese language report here. View full entry
