Students and faculty from the University of Virginia created a temporary addition to Thomas Jefferson’s vision for a living and learning community. The final product – a series of interlocking arches made of nontoxic, recyclable polypropylene plastic – is very different from the neoclassical style that Thomas Jefferson admired. However, Jefferson, who had a chemistry lab installed in the Rotunda, likely would have been fascinated by the technology used in its production. — UVA Today
This post is brought to you by Alucobond® The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum had done its duty. Opened in 1972 in Uniondale, N.Y., the Coliseum not only had honored the military sacrifice of local veterans in Long Island’s Nassau County but had served as home to the one-time American... View full entry
Silicon Valley, and the tech industry at large, is known for reinventing the everyday. From buses to vending machines, and from the necessary to the indulgent, each week seems to bring another headline about the tech world's disruptions. Amazon has recently comprised a good sum of this ink with... View full entry
Amazon.com Inc has received 238 proposals from cities and regions across North America vying to host the company’s second headquarters, it said on Monday.
The number of applicants underscores the interest in the contest, which Seattle-based Amazon announced last month. The world’s largest online retailer said it would invest more than $5 billion and create up to 50,000 jobs for “Amazon HQ2”. The deadline for submitting proposals was Thursday.
— Reuters
While most cities, counties, and states eager to host Amazon's new 'HQ2' rolled out the expected tax-incentive red carpet, Reuters reports that the Atlanta suburb of Stonecrest pulled out a trick from the ol' autocracy box and offered land to create a new city called, you guessed it, Amazon, while... View full entry
It’s 2027 (or 2037) and the age of the self-driving car. City-dwellers have traded in their car keys for ride hails. Street parking has been replaced by wider sidewalks and bike lanes, while developers are busy converting garages into much-needed housing.
That’s one vision of how self-driving cars will affect U.S. real estate, laid out in a report by MIT’s Center for Real Estate. But it’s not the only one.
— bloomberg.com
"Even as reclaimed parking spaces fuel a downtown building boom," Bloomberg reports, "autonomous vehicles will encourage builders to push deeper into the exurban fringe, confident that homebuyers will tolerate longer commutes now that they don’t have to drive, according to the report [...]."... View full entry
From glass fiber reinforced concrete to upcycled waste foam, the building blocks of the future are being developed in the research labs of today and a current exhibit at the California College of Arts in San Francisco is putting some of these new methods and techniques on display. Curated by... View full entry
Nicholas Korody published The Amnesias of "Make New History", a reflection on the "broader curatorial failures" of the second Chicago Architecture Biennial, which launched with the theme "Make New History." davvid (and others) were impressed "Wow. Thats an excellent critique." The latest The... View full entry
In his Essai sur l’Architecture, the 18th-century French architecture theorist Marc-Antoine Laugier developed the concept of the Primitive Hut. Exploring the origins of architecture, Laugier described the primitive man as constructing a shelter to protect himself from nature. The iconic... View full entry
While Apple opens the doors to their new campus, and Amazon looks for a location for its second, Microsoft has gone in a different direction, building Wi-Fi tree houses so staff can connect with nature. Microsoft's campus is comprised of 120 buildings spread across Redmond, Washington—a suburb... View full entry
What seemed inevitable for quite some time now, has finally come to pass; Uber has overtaken yellow cabs in average daily ridership figures, the New York Times reports. This past July, Uber witnessed an average of 289,000 rides per day, whereas yellow cabs only managed 277,000. — Curbed New York
More than half of Uber's rides start outside of Manhattan. Yellow and green cabs are not as accessible in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island and users prefer Uber and other ride-share apps. The company capitalized on this market by offering borough-specific promotions and moved its... View full entry
The 10 fastest-growing U.S. solar markets between the second quarters of 2016 and 2017 were Western, Midwestern or Southern states that voted for Trump, with Alabama and Mississippi topping the list. And solar firms are ramping up investments in these regions, signaling their faith that key renewable energy incentives will remain in place for years to come. — Reuters
Despite Trump's disbelief in solar power, the sector is booming in his partisan states. The growth of clean energy, particularly in the regions that showed overwhelming support for Trump, greatly undermines the president's goal of boosting the coal industry. View full entry
On 7 October 2017, almost exactly three years after the ground-breaking ceremony, the visitors‘ platform at the thyssenkrupp test tower in Rottweil will be open to the public for the first time. Located on the top floor of the artfully constructed building, it is Germany’s highest viewing platform. — Thyssenkrupp
Image courtesy of Thyssenkrupp Engineers were using the Rottweil Test Tower to test the Thyssenkrupp elevator, a rope-less high-speed elevator, going up and down but also sideways. The tower was completed three years ago and is now open to the public. The viewing platform and elevator... View full entry
Puerto Rico’s electricity grid was completely knocked out when Hurricane Maria slammed into the island Sept. 20, and repairs are expected to take months. That’s generating interest in microgrids, small-scale systems that combine solar panels and batteries that can be installed quickly to restore power to a few buildings at a time. — Bloomberg
German company Sonnen GmbH will provide 15 solar powered energy storage systems to Puerto Rico's emergency relief centers. Most of the Island is still without power after Hurricane Maria. View full entry
The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a new regulation restricting unauthorized drone operations over 10 Department of Interior sites, including the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore. [...]
The announcement says the action comes at "the request of U.S. national security and law enforcement agencies."
— NPR
These new FAA restrictions will be effective as of October 5 so make sure to keep your drones at least 400 feet away from these ten National Landmarks: Statue of Liberty National Monument, New York, NYBoston National Historical Park (U.S.S. Constitution), Boston, MAIndependence National Historical... View full entry
Musk's talk — which took place Friday afternoon local Adelaide time — served to update the architecture the billionaire entrepreneur revealed at last year's IAC, in Guadalajara, Mexico. That previous presentation introduced a huge, reusable rocket-spaceship combo called the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS), which Musk envisioned helping to establish a million-person city on Mars within the next 50 to 100 years. — Space.com
SpaceX, aerospace manufacturer and space transport service provider, plans to launch its first Mars cargo missions in 2022 and the first crews in 2024. These first flights are meant to initiate the construction of a permanent, sustainable city on Mars. View full entry
