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It would be helpful if there were another word for “infrastructure”: it’s such an earnest and passive word for the blood vessels of this country, the crucial conveyors and connections that get us from here to there (or not) and the ports that facilitate our trade (or don’t), as well as the carriers of information, in particular broadband...
The word “crisis” is also overused, applied to the unimportant as well as the crucial.
But this country has an infrastructure crisis.
— the New York Review of Books
Elizabeth Drew considers several recent books on American infrastructure, with an eye to both the material reality and the political system producing it. She concludes that fixing our infrastructural systems "may require even more widespread paralyzed traffic, the collapse of numerous bridges, and... View full entry
Eventually, Saint Kjelds will be able to withstand — and even welcome — heavy rainfall and flooding. [...]
More parks like it are being built to purposefully turn into small ponds during heavy rains, allowing them to capture and retain water on site until the drainage system has capacity to handle it.
— citiscope.org
More news on cities' response to climate change:"King tides" give a glimpse of what the (near) future's rising seas will look likeJakarta, already 40% below sea level, is building one of the biggest sea walls on EarthUnchecked climate change will make the Gulf uninhabitable, claims new studyMajor... View full entry
Why build a straightforward bridge for an unremarkable sum when the same bridge could be built as a circle for vast amounts of money?
A new bridge spanning (or circumnavigating) Laguna Garzón, a coastal lagoon in southeastern Uruguay, poses just that question. [...] At a glance, it’s the sort of ridiculousness that you might expect of a bridge in London.
In fact, there’s a perfectly good functional explanation for it.
— citylab.com
"The concept of the Puente Laguna Garzón was to transform a traditional vehicular crossing into an event that reduces the speed of the cars, to provide an opportunity to enjoy panoramic views of an amazing landscape and at the same time create a pedestrian place in the center," the architect... View full entry
Sure, the news was all but confirmed, but today the Port Authority made it official: The transit org announced that the World Trade Center Transportation Hub—anchored by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava's Oculus—will officially open in "the first week of March," per a press release. [...]
What that actually means for commuters: There will finally be a link between the World Trade Center PATH station and 11 NYC subway lines, along with the East River ferries.
— ny.curbed.com
Read the Port Authority's announcement in full here. The WTC Transportation Hub previously in the Archinect news: Leaking water delays opening of World Trade Center Transit Hub's luxury shopping mallMassive 'spine' skylight in Calatrava's WTC Oculus nears completionNYMag talks to Santiago... View full entry
The freeway system, which Southern Californians once saw as a ticket to freedom, an emblem of L.A.'s love of individuality and movement, increasingly serves as a landscape of hard luck and a desperate sort of community — a place to hunker down. [...]
As the homeless population grows in a city whose public realm is the haggard product of several decades of neglect, the freeway has taken on a crucial, if often dispiriting, neighborhood role despite itself.
— latimes.com
"The ranks of the chronically homeless in Los Angeles County have grown by more than 50% in the last two years, to more than 12,000 people, according to one study. If you count all the people who are homeless at least part of the time, the figure rises to an estimated 44,000."Related news on... View full entry
NBBJ calls the concept No-Shadow Tower, though it would be more accurate to call it the Smaller-Shadow-From-One-of-Two-Towers, since it depends on a pair of buildings separated by an open space. For that reason, the technique is an awkward fit for New York — NY Magazine
A weeklong series of ideas for improving urban life, ranging from an examination of how Next-Generation Drones Will Save New York City’s Infrastructure, to how new building designs will usher in the Age of Shadowless Skyscrapers. View full entry
House and Senate negotiators on Tuesday announced a bipartisan agreement on a five-year reauthorization of federal transportation programs—the longest such measure that Congress has advanced since 2005. Both chambers are expected to pass the deal in the next two weeks before leaving for the year.
At a cost of $305 billion, the final compromise is a bit smaller than a $340 billion bill passed by the House last month.
— The Atlantic
In related news, Hilary Clinton recently released a $275 billion infrastructure plan. More information on that can be found here.Related coverage:Are raised bikeways enough to make the San Francisco's riders safer?Entrepreneurs look to tackle Austin's traffic woesMilton Keynes invests in... View full entry
You wait years for a new bridge across the Thames then three come along at once. Joining the controversial garden bridge and a plan for a crossing between Nine Elms and Pimlico, both of which have fierce opponents, comes a proposal unveiled today for a new pedestrian and cycle bridge between Rotherhithe and the Isle of Dogs in east London that hasn’t aroused a single objection – yet.
There’s a good reason why: of the three plans, it makes by far the most sense.
— Oliver Wainwright
"Do you believe in infrastructure?” asks Norman Foster, with challenge in his voice. He does. Infrastructure, he says, is about “investing not to solve the problems of today but to anticipate the issues of future generations”. [...]
“I have no power as an architect, none whatsoever. I can’t even go on to a building site and tell people what to do.” Advocacy, he says, is the only power an architect ever has.
— theguardian.com
Related news on Archinect:Prairie futurism: designs revealed for the new Chicago Apple storeThe In Crowd: review of "Conversations with Architects: In the Age of Celebrity"The selective amnesia of Foster + Partners' Maspero Triangle District Masterplan View full entry
Pedestrian crossings made up of fragments of famous works of avant-garde art have appeared in a residential area in the Russian city of Khimki, located just northwest of Moscow.
Fragments of the work of Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich and Vasily Kandinsky feature on five pedestrian crossings in the “Gorod Naberezhniy” complex, chosen for their frequent use. Together with the zebra stripes, there are signs which provide information about the artwork and artist.
— calvertjournal.com
Related in the Archinect news:New photo book documents the beautifully outlandish architecture of Soviet bus stopsHumanizing street design with 'shared space'Follow the yellow wooden road into Rotterdam's new Luchtsingel pedestrian park View full entry
Basically, instead of allowing this anarchic development to continue growing over the bed of the lake – which is very expensive, because the quality of the soil is very bad – we wanted to conduct the growth of the city around the lake area, and to recover a huge natural feature that belongs to everyone, which will change the climate of the city. — Guardian
Shumi Bose learns from Alberto Kalach (of Taller de Arquitectura X), why the solution to the capital’s future growth may be found in embracing a pre-Hispanic, lacustrine form of urbanism.To learn more about the "The hydrological balance of the city", read this weeklong report (also from the... View full entry
Smithsonian photographer Carolyn Russo first found herself drawn to air traffic control towers in 2006 on a flight into LaGuardia when she first studied the architectural details and circular windows of that now inactive structure [...]
I viewed each tower as both an essential aviation artifact and a vessel with a powerful presence—watching over the vastness of the airport and sky; a non-judgmental cultural greeter [...] In the presence of the tower, I sensed the complex orchestration of humans
— smithsonianmag.com
↑ Airport Tower at Edinburgh Airport, Scotland. ↑ Airport Tower at Stockholm-Arlanda Airport, Sweden.See more photos from Carolyn Russo's new book The Art of the Airport Tower (Smithsonian Books, 2015) and read an interview with her over at Smithsonian.com.Related on Archinect:Eero... View full entry
This is important for Africa, where despite high urbanisation rates the development focus has been primarily rural. Consider Ghana. The country’s urban population has grown from four million in 1984 to more than 14 million today. Fifty one percent of Ghanaians now live in cities. While urbanisation rates vary across Africa, Ghana reflects an overall global trend towards a predominantly urban future.
Ghana demonstrates how cities can be highly productive in Africa.
— qz.com
Related on Archinect:MASS Design Group to propose "Bauhaus of Africa" at U.N. SummitChinese Urbanism takes root in AfricaA Look at Africa's Modernist Architecture View full entry
For those who assume Los Angeles has the worst traffic in the United States: Not so fast.
Drivers in Southern California spent a whopping 80 hours sitting in traffic in 2014, according to a new report by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and the traffic data company Inrix.
But the city with the dubious distinction of most time lost behind the wheel is Washington, D.C., researchers say, where commuters clocked 82 hours of delays in a single year.
— latimes.com
Other metro areas snatching top spots according to the 2015 Urban Mobility Scorecard report:San Francisco-Oakland CA (78 hours)New York-Newark NY-NJ-CT (74 hours)San Jose CA (67 hours)Boston MA-NH-RI (64 hours) View full entry
In any event, it's as you were for the "haves" at the top of list, with Melbourne taking the top spot for a fifth year running, with Vienna, Vancouver, Toronto and Adelaide/Calgary (tied at 5) completing the top five most livable cities in 2015.
[...] these cities have "relatively few challenges to living standards," and enjoy a good infrastructure, healthcare system and a low murder rate.
Unsurprisingly, Damascus remains the least livable city, with Syria embroiled in a bloody civil war.
— cnn.com
Other articles related to liveability on Archinect:Think you live in a nice county? Find out where it stands on the nationwide Natural Amenities Index.Planning for Local and Liveable Neighbourhoods in MelbourneIs Jan Gehl winning his battle to make our cities liveable?Melbourne named world’s... View full entry