Designed to be an autonomous community, the top of the bridge would serve as a pedestrian walkway with a section cordoned off for cars. Below, self-sustaining residences, shops, and leisure centers would be built into the bridges' support structures. The concept imagines residents living comfortably in the neighborhoods created within the upside-down towers, all while enjoying the view of the Calabrian countryside. — theverge.com

When all stages are completed, the 65,000 people daily who pass through the Hudson Yards’ office towers, residences, shops, restaurants, hotel, public school, and public open space will contribute to a massive stream of data intended to help answer the big questions about how cities of the future should be managed. [...]

“It really started from the question: If we could know anything about the city, what would we want to know and how could we do a better job at measuring the pace of life?” — fastcoexist.com

With billions in federal, charity and insurance dollars flowing in after [Hurricane Katrina], there were suddenly resources for change.

“The city essentially got the opportunity to do a do-over,” said Carol Bebelle, a lifelong New Orleanian and executive director of Ashé Cultural Arts Center. [...]

In many ways, it was a top-to-bottom re-imagining of the cityscape.

So, is the city in a better place than it was nearly nine years ago? It depends on how closely you look. — equalvoiceforfamilies.org

Austrian architect and designer Hans Hollein, a winner of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize whose work ranged from big museums through tiny shops to furniture and sunglasses, has died. He was 80. [...]

He won the 1985 Pritzker Prize for his work, which often included touches of fancy, such as bronze-clad palm trees in a Vienna travel agency. — washingtonpost.com

It's the urban planning equivalent of Rinaldo. Except instead of the siege of Jerusalem, it's the battle for Greenwich Village.

The legendary 1960s struggle pitted planning czar Robert Moses against neighborhood activist Jane Jacobs. Moses wanted to make the city easily navigable by car [...]

But the powerful planner met his match when he proposed an expressway through Lower Manhattan. Though she had little institutional support, Jacobs built a citizen coalition that ultimately defeated Moses. — theatlanticcities.com

Philip Johnson was a terrible, hateful human being. And he wasn't just some casual Nazi sympathizer whispering, "maybe Hitler has some good ideas" in shadowy bars, either. He actively campaigned for Nazi causes in the U.S. and around the world.

Johnson visited Germany in the 1930s at the invitation of the government's Propaganda Ministry. He wrote numerous articles for far right publications. He started a fascist organization called the Gray Shirts in the United States... — paleofuture.gizmodo.com

...the little structures will remind you of every last thing: foreclosed houses...the Olympic stadium in Beijing...the Colosseum, the crumbling ruins next door to the Colosseum. Each building maps a path through Tihanyi's mind, and yours. You visit every teeny room...climb every ladder...Then you return to your big self, looking down on layers of sheen and pale color emanating from the surfaces, as if layers of translucent skin have been laid on top of flesh. How could you not love these? — Jen Graves writing for The Stranger

Who knew that architecture could let you perceive poetry in a new angle or two. Currently at Boston Architectural College's 951 Boylston Street Building until May 1, "The Space of Poetry" exhibition reveals the intricate ties between the written art form and architectural history, theory, and design — all by Cara Armstrong, a trained architect and poet who works as an educator, writer, and illustrator. — bustler.net

It was 75 years ago—the year Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz were released and World War II began—that Los Angeles's lovely Union Station first opened for business. There was a big Downtown celebration on May 3, 1939 to mark the opening of what is viewed as the nation's last great rail station, and Ward Kimball, an award-winning Disney animator and part-time rail nerd (one of Disney's Nine Old Men and the man who created Tweedledee/Tweedledum and Jiminy Cricket), filmed the occasion. — la.curbed.com

The NYPD said the balloon would remain aloft for about nine hours Sunday in lower Manhattan and more than 13 hours Monday in Midtown.

Police said the balloon will be about 800 feet in the air as it collects data for a private architecture firm conducting height surveys of Manhattan buildings. — nydailynews.com

If there is any one lesson that I have learned in my life as a city planner, it is that public spaces have power. It's not just the number of people using them, it's the even greater number of people who feel better about their city just knowing that they are there.

Public space can change how you live in a city, how you feel about a city, whether you choose one city over another, and public space is one of the most important reasons why you stay in a city. — TED

Next week in London, The Sincura Group will be holding a similar auction of street pieces formally by Banksy. That’s the same company that last year successfully sold the Banksy “Slave Labour” wall at auction for just over $1 million. They’ve titled their auction Stealing Banksy? and it will include approximately 18 works, at least 7 of which are street pieces formally by Banksy that have been removed from their original locations, some of them specifically removed for this sale. — blog.vandalog.com