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The crowded field of competitors who’ve proposed solutions for the ailing Brooklyn-Queens Expressway has gotten another entrant: Bjarke Ingels Group, which has unveiled a proposal that it calls “BQP.”
The “P” stands for park, and in BIG’s plan, green space takes center stage. [...] the vehicles that use the BQE would be moved to a roadway that would be covered and topped with as much as 10 acres of new parkland.
— Curbed NY
"Though a cost and time estimate for BIG’s plan has not yet been made public, the firm claims it will be less expensive, and less time-consuming, than what the DOT has proposed," reports Curbed NY (click here for their detailed explainer of what the massive Brooklyn-Queens... View full entry
Whether you live in San Francisco or New York, [Seiichi] Miyake has shaped the streets that we walk on.
That’s because Miyake invented the tactile squares installed near the edge of subway platforms and street crosswalks. Originally called Tenji blocks and sometimes referred to as braille blocks, the bright yellow tiles have bumps that help visually impaired people navigate potentially dangerous public spaces.
— Curbed
The yellow floor tiles commonly installed in street corners, subway platforms and urban areas in general are one of the most pervasive and effective forms of accessibility design in the modern era (and it was under our noses all along). The subtlety and minimal obstruction of Seiichi's design made... View full entry
This year’s parking crater tournament has us feeling something past contests never did: Hopeful.
We asked readers for the best examples of surface parking lots turned dynamic urban places around the country. We got a great response, with some really exciting transformations.
We had to eliminate a few contestants to whittle it down to the Sweet 16.
— Streetsblog USA
If you've enjoyed the America’s Sorriest Bus Stop contest, organized annually by Streetsblog, and are looking for an alternative 'Madness'-themed tournament this March, then this is for you: Parking Madness 2019 kicked off just a few days ago and pits 16 successful surface parking lot... View full entry
With a 33-15 vote, the Chicago City Council [...] approved the Lincoln Yards planned development, clearing the way for Sterling Bay to move ahead with its $6 billion plan.
The developer faces a final hurdle next month when the City Council considers the creation of the Cortland/Chicago River tax-increment financing district, which would be used to subsidize infrastructure projects that would make Lincoln Yards more accessible.
— Crain's Chicago Business
Lincoln Yards previously in the Archinect news. Image: Lincoln Yards/Sterling Bay View full entry
Urban planners play critical roles in creating and developing the success and feasibility of the built environment. From pioneers like Octavia Hill and Norma Sklarek to women like Amanda Burden and Maya Lin, their work and contributions have shaped cities of our past, present, and future... View full entry
Along the way, the games have introduced millions of players to the joys and frustrations of zoning, street grids and infrastructure funding — and influenced a generation of people who plan cities for a living. For many urban and transit planners, architects, government officials and activists, “SimCity” was their first taste of running a city. — Los Angeles Times
"It was the first time they realized that neighborhoods, towns and cities were things that were planned, and that it was someone's job to decide where streets, schools, bus stops and stores were supposed to go," writes Jessica Roy for the Los Angeles Times. Happen to look for a real life urban... View full entry
Lincoln Yards, one of the most ambitious real estate projects ever proposed for the city’s North Side, was approved Thursday by the Chicago Plan Commission, an important step toward reshaping the city’s skyline and a large swath of land along the Chicago River.
Sterling Bay’s $6 billion plan for about 55 acres of riverfront land was approved during the commission’s monthly meeting.
— Chicago Tribune
The $6 billion master plan for Chicago's North Side, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, CBT Architects, and James Corner Field Operations, was unveiled to the public last summer. Image: Lincoln Yards/Sterling BayView the entire master plan in detail here (PDF, 7 MB). View full entry
Even today, parking garages are typically underused. In the not-too-distant future, car shares, self-driving cars, increased investment in transit, or simple behavioral change could all shift the amount of parking people think they need. And the U.S. also has far more parking than necessary–in Seattle, for example, there are five parking spaces for every resident. Architects and city planners are increasingly realizing that valuable city space could be put to better use than storing cars. — Fast Company
Parking garages run rampant, especially in Los Angeles. According to Gensler's co-CEO Andy Cohen there are 500 million parking spaces in the United States. “Think about all that real estate, all that attention to parking, that could be revitalized and reused for the future of our cities.”... View full entry
...the new property is not to sell products. Instead, Shinola aims for the hotel to be a place where Detroiters and out-of-town visitors can bond with each other, the city, and the brand in an organic way. — Hour Detroit
The Detroit-based watch company is a fundamental entity within the city. Founded in 2011, the humble watch company built its first factory by transforming 30,000 square feet of unused space inside Detroit's historic Argonaut Building. A brand built on quality, hard work, and the spirit of Detroit... View full entry
Researchers from Lanzhou University in China have shown that the slime mold Physarum polycephalum is able to solve the Traveling Salesman Problem, a combinatorial test with exponentially increasing complexity, in linear time. Using focused light stimulus as negative feedback to maintain the criteria of the task, the authors demonstrated that this model was able to reliably output a high-quality solution. — Sci-News.com
Through observing physarum polycephalum, nicknamed the "many-headed slime", researchers have used its natural network formation to help solve many spatial design problems. Slime mold has shown itself capable of recreating rail systems, solving mazes, and now, the Traveling Salesman Problem—a... View full entry
In dire need of urban planning memes on this last Friday of the year? Have we got a link for you: Planning Peeps has compiled 2018's gems trending among city planners and urbanism disciples. Check out some of our favorites below and visit Parts 1 and 2 of the full list. All images via... View full entry
Winston Churchill once observed that we shape the buildings and then the buildings shape us. I have written elsewhere about how architects and planners, albeit unwittingly, are complicit in producing an urban landscape that contributes to an unhealthy mental landscape.
Can we think of different ways to be in the city, of a different architecture that can “cure” loneliness?
— Tanzil Shafique in Fast Company
Tanzil Shafique, a Ph.D. researcher in urban design at the University of Melbourne, conducted a graduate design studio where students came up with potential architectural and urban responses to loneliness. View full entry
Time for a book giveaway! Archinect readers have a chance to win a copy of “Reprogramming the City”. Authored by writer and urban strategist Scott Burnham and designed by Samantha Altieri, this new book presents a collection of real-world examples of how existing urban elements can be... View full entry
Everyone can relate to daily commutes. Whether it's fifteen minutes or an hour, infrastructures in various cities dictate how transportation affects our daily lives. Through the use of data visualization, Craig Taylor, Data Visualization Design Manager at ITO World uses color and form to portray... View full entry
MVRDV has completed 'Future Towers,' a massive residential complex comprised of 1,068 homes, amenities, public facilities, parks and courtyards. Combining strategies from both Europe and India, where the project is located, the ambitious scheme is the Dutch firm's attempt to answer the prevalence... View full entry