Cities with the worst exposure to coastal flooding in the coming decades are overwhelmingly located in Asia, according to a comprehensive analysis by leading climate scientists, with port cities in India and China particularly vulnerable. — CNBC
An international team of research scientists from the US OECD and UK’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, among others, has found that Asian cities are now disproportionately susceptible to flooding owing to migration patterns and a host of other environmental dangers included in... View full entry
A stalled plan that would have added over 3 million square feet of office space to Downtown LA has gotten a second life thanks to a post-pandemic reimagining that seeks to address a statewide shortage of affordable housing. The updated Civic Center Master Development Plan (CCMDP) proposed by... View full entry
But where cities are succeeding, they’re finding that electrifying public transit can solve more than just climate problems. It can clean the air, reduce traffic jams and, ideally, make getting around town easier for ordinary people, which is why some politicians have staked their reputations on revamping transit. In many cases, city governments have been able to take climate action faster than their national governments. — The New York Times
The effort to reduce car traffic mirrors those taking shape in U.S. cities like New York and San Francisco. The cost of doing so has in a way become its own problem, as the infrastructure required to support expansive EV fleets in large metropolitan areas has proven to be a challenge for many of... View full entry
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the largest U.S. mass-transit provider, is running on borrowed time, facing budget and revenue challenges as federal aid is set to tap out in 2025, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, said in a report Tuesday. — Bloomberg
The announcement comes on the heels of a rough summer for the MTA, which is only now seeing its ridership climb past 50% of pre-pandemic levels as it weighs a controversial congestion pricing plan that would add $1 billion in revenue a year beginning in 2023. Interim boss Sarah Feinberg... View full entry
After a pair of marathon hearings, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission has amended and approved the draft DTLA 2040 plan, sending the proposed rezoning of the city's Downtown core on to the City Council for consideration next. — Urbanize LA
The area has been particularly beset by the pandemic, which is being seen more and more as a potential hub for housing in the city (and state) whose political landscape is increasingly shaped by affordability issues. Ten new land use designations, proposed under the DTLA 2040 plan for... View full entry
What we think of today as “Red Vienna” was, in many respects, a highly fragile, contingent, and audacious effort; it is little short of a minor miracle that so much decommodified housing was built at a time when reactionary Catholicism and fascist politics were ascendant on the national scale in Austria. — PLATFORM
Penned by Joseph Heathcott for Platform, the article takes a closer look into one of the boldest architectural experiments of the twentieth century that can still be seen in Vienna today. Between 1923 and 1934, the socialist-controlled municipal government constructed over four hundred Hofs... View full entry
A friendly fiberglass feline icon is being used as a catalyst for change in one London neighborhood, thanks to the incredible creativity and vision of one local firm. Image courtesy Ståle Eriksen/Tsuruta Architects Tsuruta Architects, recent winner of the RIBA London Small Project... View full entry
New York City is moving forward with its plan to install the country’s first-ever congestion pricing law that would tax vehicles entering Manhattan south of 60th Street in an effort to raise money and reduce traffic in the heart of a city that’s home to more than 8 million people. ... View full entry
Four years removed from one of the worst natural disasters in Mexico’s history, one small city in the state of Morelos is ready to bridge the chasm between past tragedy and future optimism thanks to the efforts of one New York firm. Image courtesy of OMA New York OMA has announced that it... View full entry
Mayor Bill de Blasio is one step closer to realizing his goal of adding tens of thousands of units of affordable housing in New York City, after a key panel passed the city’s plan to rezone a swath of industrial properties surrounding the Gowanus Canal — Commercial Observer
The proposal was approved by nine of the ten New York City Planning Commission members in a vote earlier this week. The plan calls for the rezoning of an 82-block section of Gowanus, along Fourth Avenue, between Atlantic Avenue and 15th Street. It would pave the way for the construction of up to... View full entry
Governor Kathy Hochul has unveiled designs for an elevated pedestrian pathway that will connect the High Line to the recently opened Moynihan Train Hall. The $50 million project will also connect Chelsea with other West Side destinations like Hudson Yards, Manhattan West, Penn Station, and the Javits Center. The pathway is expected to be completed by Spring 2023. — 6sqft
Rendering courtesy of the Governor's Office View full entry
So far, Philly’s proposed wayfinding makeover has won praise from transit advocates around the country. The proposal draws from international best practices for transit navigability, and reflects similar changes in Seattle and San Francisco as big cities grapple with how to lure riders back to mass transportation. — Bloomberg CityLab
Philadelphia's transit system is the country’s seventh-largest and is often the subject of criticism over its wayfinding and disorienting layout. The $40 million redesign is going to be rolled out gradually and will be fully unveiled sometime in 2022. A planned four-mile addition to the... View full entry
Construction has begun on BIG’s CityWave, the building that will complete Milan’s revitalizing CityLife development after previously being announced as a participant in 2019. The Danish studio’s contribution to the €2.5 billion ($2.95 billion) development comes in the form of an East-West... View full entry
A refurbished old factory building in the heart of Santiago will become the site of Foster + Partners' first Chilean project, according to renderings released by the firm yesterday. The newly unveiled La Fabrica master plan takes the former textile factory as its centerpiece and expands to an... View full entry
Artist, educator, and urban planner Theaster Gates has been awarded the Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts by the Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation. The 55,000 Euro ($65,000 USD) prize, awarded every two years by the Republic of Austria and the City... View full entry