“This is a mistake,” said David Rothman, 55, who moved to Crested Butte 20 years ago, of the decision to let Anheuser-Busch take over the town to film a beer commercial. “Frankly, it’s vulgar and it’s cheap.”
On Friday, the company will fly in 1,000 young adults for a weekend of spring-break-style revelry, a stunt designed to publicize Bud Light. [...]
“This town is already built for this exact type of event,” said Nick Kelly, a spokesman for Anheuser-Busch.
— nytimes.com
A couple remarkable gems from the story:Party participants were selected from a pool of more than 150,000 people who submitted videos to Anheuser-Busch demonstrating that they were “up for whatever.”A bridge welcoming visitors to “Whatever, U.S.A.” went up over Elk Avenue, right next to... View full entry
Architecture theorist Jacob Dreyer explains how the Stalinist model of urbanism – a centrally planned component within a national economic unity – is thriving in modern China — theguardian.com
Sean Smith published the first in a series of articles in which "three architects (two designers and one licensed architect) discuss their transition from student to professional, their changed perceptions of the career and the challenges and joys of their current work". The interview with... View full entry
[Calatrava's] at work in the new transit station at the World Trade Center in New York, but that project is massively over budget and behind schedule and it's highlighted some of Calatrava's legal troubles back in Spain. [...]
The architect was supposed to be in Spain this week testifying as a suspect in a fraud case. Prosecutors say he got 3.6 million dollars to design yet another Spanish convention center that was never built, but Calatrava didn't show up for his court date.
— npr.org
Work remains halted at the site of the modular residential tower next to the Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn. The building is part of the 22-acre, mixed-use development formerly known as Atlantic Yards and now branded Pacific Park. [...]
The dispute ... centers on the design and construction of the pre-fabricated units that make up the modular tower. The 34-story residential high-rise was supposed to be completed in July 2014. So far only 10 of the proposed 34 stories are finished
— wnyc.org
The International Architecture Biennale of Rotterdam has announced the appointment of Maarten Hajer as Chief Curator of IABR–2016–. The theme of the seventh edition of the IABR will be “The Next Economy” and it will open in May 2016. — IABR
One of the most prolific and progressive architecture and urban design biennales in existence, IABR announced yet another building block for a better world, better discourse and more meaningful step towards the future of our cities, resources and the environments that are in development. Titled... View full entry
Melbourne is now a more expensive place to live than New York. The increasing cost of living, and in particular, the cost of housing risks seriously undermining the city’s liveability.
Plan Melbourne, the new metropolitan strategy for the city, recognises that housing affordability is one of the pressing issues facing Melburnians. The strategy offers a set of concepts aimed at shaping the city’s future and – the government hopes – addressing housing affordability and choice.
— thisbigcity.net
Related: Melbourne named world’s most liveable city for fourth consecutive year View full entry
Urban densities are not trivial, they severely limit the transport mode choice and change only very slowly. Because of the large differences in densities between Atlanta and Barcelona about the same length of metro line is accessible to 60% of the population in Barcelona but only 4% in Atlanta. The low density of Atlanta render this city improper for rail transit. — usa.streetsblog.org
The National League of Cities announces the formation of a network composed of business, policy leaders and city officials to identify the regulatory challenges posed by the disruptive technologies that power the sharing economy.
The Sharing Economy Advisory Network will create and promote model solutions that can be adopted by communities across the nation ... The Network will also look to identify ways that cities can support and encourage the growth of new businesses in this space.
— nlc.org
City governments aren't often so nimble when it comes to adjusting regulations related to the "sharing economy". Without formal industry precedents, it's difficult for cities to know how to integrate these new services into preexisting policies, or whether they should be outlawed entirely. So in... View full entry
In the U.S., homeless-rights advocates say that in most cities it is difficult to find public toilets — making sanitation an issue that homeless people face on a daily basis [...] Even if there are public bathrooms, many are not open around the clock, leaving the homeless with no other option but to go in public areas — an act that is criminalized in most cities. Critics say such policies unfairly punish homeless people for life-sustaining actions. — Al Jazeera
Often restricted private bathrooms in restaurants or cafes, homeless people have very few options but to defecate in public – a dehumanizing and unsanitary situation. American cities are not particularly well-known for creating infrastructure and urban furniture that accommodates their sizeable... View full entry
Later this month, about 900 of the 1,500 families who live in Vila União will start to move out to make way for the TransOlímpica rapid bus system (BRT) to be built for the 2016 Rio Olympics. It is one of the biggest favela resettlements since Rio was chosen to host the games, with some 500 families also resettled from 2010 to 2011 for the construction of the TransOeste BRT. — Al Jazeera
it is clear that the scale of damage is unprecedented, with approximately 13 percent of the housing stock affected, five percent of the housing stock is uninhabitable – an estimated 18,000 housing units have been either destroyed or severely damaged.
This on top of a shortage of 71,000 housing units before the Israeli attack.
— THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
This is a real challenge for architecture. I urge Architecture for Humanity to directly involve and bring this crisis into their working platform, producing ideas of reconstruction. View full entry
Originally developed at MIT, MindRider is a new helmet that shows, in real time, how your rides, movement, and location engage your mind. The MindRider app maps and tracks your engagement, and allows you to share your maps with others. These maps provide quantified insight that empower you to maximize your riding experience, and they are a great resource for riding communities and street advocacy. — mindriderhelmet.com
Unlike many other biometric monitoring devices, the MindRider helmet isn't just about recording your physical activities; it's about harvesting data from normal routines to better inform public policy. The MindRider "reads" electrical activity between the brain's neurons, but the technology isn't... View full entry
Pittsburgh has done it again! After being named “America’s Most Livable City” by Forbes in 2010 and one of the “Best All-American Vacations” earlier this year by The Travel Channel, it was recently named as the second “most livable city” in the United States by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2014 livability survey [...].
Pittsburgh is ripe for Placemaking [...], making it the perfect host city for this seminal gathering of Placemaking leaders and walking and bicycling professionals.
— Project for Public Spaces
Related: Melbourne named world’s most liveable city for fourth consecutive year View full entry
“The cities we’re working on were neglected by Saddam Hussein, so they have little basic infrastructure,” says Elliot Hartley, 36, a director of Garsdale Design. But why can’t Iraqis redesign their own cities? “There has been a massive brain drain of professionals from Iraq over the years, and a lack of investment in local government planning departments, which means that the skills aren’t there – yet,” [...].
More improbably yet, only one member of the family firm [...] has set foot in Iraq.
— theguardian.com
