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The “Renewable Rikers Act,” crafted by Queens Councilmember Costa Constantinides, aims to create a green vision for the 400-acre correctional facility that would keep the island out of the hands of luxury developers, while lessening the burden on communities loaded with city infrastructure. — Curbed NY
A trio of legislative efforts are underway in New York to transform the Rikers Island jail into a green energy powerhouse for the city. Queens Council member Costa Constantinides told Curbed, “Closing Rikers Island, if we do this right, can not only end overpolicing and the atrocities... View full entry
Chances for architectural greatness are rare. When they come around, we best grab them. Such is the opportunity Chicago has before it with one of the five plans for a new global terminal at O’Hare International Airport. — Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune architecture critic, Blair Kamin, comes out in clear support of the Norman Foster-led finalist entry to the $8.5B Chicago O’Hare 21 Terminal Expansion competition: "That plan, from a team led by London-based Foster + Partners architects, promises to be everything an airport... View full entry
New Public Hydrant uses design to overcome public misperceptions of the city’s hydrant water. The design prototypes bring attention to possibilities for improvement of overlooked, local water infrastructures on the one hand, while simultaneously engaging what it means to drink locally...How might publics reimagine these small-scale urban elements to serve in day-to-day situations, rather than solely in the case of emergency? — Urban Omnibus
Inspired by the NY Department of Environmental Protection’s Water on the Go initiative, Tei Carpenter and Christopher Woebken created the New Public Hydrant project, which explores how New York City's fire hydrants can be augmented to provide public access to the city's drinking water supply... 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
After receiving bids from twelve groups that included some of the planet’s top architectural talent, Chicago has narrowed its search down to five teams hoping to design a $8.5 billion terminal expansion of O’Hare International Airport. — Curbed Chicago
The list of five finalist teams includes some of the big-name bidders that responded to Chicago's O’Hare 21 Terminal Expansion Project RFP back in September: Fentress-EXP-Brook-Garza Joint Venture Partners Foster Epstein Moreno JV Joint Venture Partners Santiago Calatrava LLC Skidmore, Owings... View full entry
Local leaders hope the bridge will expand the potential for growth in the area, by easing access to cheaper land on the western side and ports and other infrastructure to the east.
Critics of the project say its goals are more political than economic, aiding efforts by China’s central government to bind the former colonies of Hong Kong and Macau more tightly with the rest of the country.
— The New York Times
Delayed by two years, billions of dollars over budget, and wrought with controversy, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge was officially declared open by China's leader Xi Jinping today. Designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and Aedas with AECOM, the 34-mile structure required over... View full entry
In the language of climate change, “adaptation” refers to ways to blunt the immediate effects of extreme weather, such as building seawalls, conserving drinking water, updating building codes, and helping more people get disaster insurance. [...]
But some researchers are going further, calling for what some call the “deep adaptation agenda.”
— Bloomberg
Bloomberg's Climate & Environment Reporter, Christopher Flavelle, lays out a range of climate change projections—from the general consensus to the more pessimistic—and how an array of 'deep adaptation' measures could help to mitigate the damage. "Rather than simply asking people to water... View full entry
The architect of the unbuilt Chicago Spire is among the designers vying for the massive O’Hare International Airport expansion project.
The Zurich-based firm of Santiago Calatrava, whose projects include an airport in Bilbao, Spain, and the over-budget World Trade Center transportation center in New York, was one of 12 teams that responded to the city’s Thursday deadline to submit qualifications for the $8.7 billion expansion [...].
— Chicago Tribune
According to the Chicago Tribune, the list of teams bidding for the $8.7 billion Chicago O'Hare International Airport expansion includes big-name firms such as SOM, Perkins+Will, Bjarke Ingels Group, Santiago Calatrava, Gensler, HOK, Fentress Architects, JAHN, Epstein, and Studio Fuksas. View full entry
The collapse of the bridge — a signature of the port city, a source of deep civic pride, and an indispensable daily transportation link for thousands — has scarred Genoa and set off a bitter debate in Italy about who bears responsibility for the disaster and precisely what caused it.
Those questions remain under investigation by the chief magistrate of the region, Francesco Cozzi, and a team of engineers, security and government officials.
— The New York Times
The New York Times retraces in detail what led to last month's tragic collapse of the Genoa Bridge in Italy that killed 43 people. View full entry
From ground level, greater Miami looks like any American megacity—a mostly dry expanse of buildings, roads, and lawns, sprinkled with the occasional canal or ornamental lake. But from above, the proportions of water and land are reversed. [...]
Barring a stupendous reversal in greenhouse gas emissions, the rising Atlantic will cover much of Miami by the end of this century. The economic effects will be devastating [...].
— Bloomberg
Bloomberg reporter Christopher Flavelle takes a deep dive into the vast, intricate, and highly fragile network of natural aquifers and man-made infrastructure that has kept Miami (mostly) dry and equipped with fresh drinking water. But for how much longer? View full entry
A motorway bridge, running above houses, streets and railroad tracks in the center of Genoa, Italy, collapsed this morning dropping dozens of vehicles and leaving at least 35 dead and many more injured. Operations remain underway to clear the rubble as at least 30 vehicles sit trapped. Rescuers... View full entry
Melbourne has consistently been ranked the world's #1 most livable city (often sharing the top spot with rival Vienna), and city planners hope to strengthen this position with a new metro tunnel set to open in 2025. Five new stations, along with bicycle facilities, new parks, open spaces, and... View full entry
With the cloud being increasingly lifestyled and infrastructured into a range of everyday social and economic practices and processes, data centres continue to grow in size. Far from a massive database in the sky, it is the planet’s surface and our everyday lives that are gradually being colonised by the cloud. — Failed Architecture
This piece by Alexander Taylor, a social anthropologist at the University of Cambridge, looks back on the evolution of data center infrastructure, which continues to grow larger as our everyday lives become increasingly influenced by cloud computing. View full entry
Chicago’s City Council on Wednesday approved a multibillion-dollar expansion plan for O’Hare International Airport, after an earlier dispute between the airport’s two largest carriers had previously threatened to snarl the project. — Reuters
"The city of Chicago entered into an agreement with carriers United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Spirit Airlines for airport renovations that include expanding the airport’s existing terminals and increasing the number and availability of some gates," Reuters reports. View full entry
The clown king of novelty infrastructure fantasies has once again stolen the limelight with his preposterous plan for a 22-mile bridge across the Channel. [...]
But none of this matters. In a world where Johnson got as far as flushing £37m of public money into the Thames on another fantasy project, the Garden Bridge, a great Channel crossing could easily be conjured into being.
— The Guardian
The Guardian's architecture critic, Oliver Wainwright, responds to the former London Mayor's suggestion to build a 22-mile bridge across the Channel and physically connect the European Union with the brexiting island kingdom (on top of the already existing 31.35-mile Channel tunnel). Let's just... View full entry
