Paul Buck has spectacular views of downtown Vancouver from the two glass walls of his condo, which wow everyone who walks in. But what really impressed one of Mr. Buck’s friends, in from a town near the Yukon border, is that he lives over a giant Home Depot.
Popularity: 46% [?]
All-in-one projects with retail, residential and office components are attracting attention. But not everyone is onboard.
Popularity: 49% [?]
As part of his presentation at the Creative Places and Spaces conference, David Buckland showed this silent video prepared by global engineering firm Arup. Called Infrastructure in an Ecological Age, at 30 seconds into the video it shows the transformation of a typical city (Manchester in this case) into a green wonderland of rooftop food production, smart bus systems, turning buildings into photovoltaic and algae generators. It is all doable, too: a bright green city.
Popularity: 26% [?]
Gensler’s winning design, co-created with 4240 Architecture, transforms Chicago’s abandoned Bloomingdale rail line into a three mile long greenhouse and hydrogen generator that provides 10 acres of farm land year round, powers city schools, and creates a beacon for the city.
Popularity: 44% [?]
So Chicago lost its bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Rather than brood about what might have been or haggle over alternatives to the massive dose of money the city would have been given to stimulate its limping finances, it should immediately develop a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Since the deadline is less than two weeks away and the bid committee may still be suffering from their Copenhagen hangovers, we’ll help them out.
Popularity: 23% [?]
When I was growing up in New York City, on summer weekends my family would often drive to Jones Beach, the great park that Robert Moses built on the southern shore of Long Island. It wasn’t wilderness by any stretch, but it was cool and open, more than enough to put the stifling city at a distance, if only for an afternoon. But what I remember as clearly was the drive back: Manhattan appearing out of the haze, emitting wavy lines of heat like a cartoon pie. Then being back in the thick of it, with the buzz of hundreds of thousands of air conditioners making the city itself feel like a single massive machine. The contrast was clear: the ocean air and the incredible physical presence of the water were invigorating, literally life-giving in their feeling of connectedness to broader natural processes. The city was hot, dirty, disconnected; nature was hidden.
Popularity: 32% [?]
Grand Central Terminal. Why does it work so well? Listen to Vishaan Chakrabarti tell it like it is. First, he reflects on some design details of the spectacular Main Concourse. Next, he wanders down Park Avenue and shares some of the history of how private sector competition led to a major public amenity and transformed the entire metropolitan region. Then he explores the terminal’s tentacular North-end Access and reflects further on how the terminal has transformed urban and regional economies. Finally, as he delves into the food court, he ponders lessons to be learned from Grand Central that could be applied to Moynihan Station.
Popularity: 21% [?]
The architecture of science fiction has profoundly changed urban design. When building cities of the future, our best guides may be places like comic book megalopolises Mega-City-1 or Transmet.
Popularity: 30% [?]
Maybe this can also ease the American housing crisis: Two brothers in Brazil are literally living on the outside of a building in Rio’s Old Center. Since May, twenty-seven-year-old Tiago Primo and his twenty-year-old brother Gabriel, have been sleeping, working and eating on the side of a building 33 feet up in the air for twelve hours every day. They plan to continue this display until August. Um yes, it’s art.
Popularity: 52% [?]
From Gotham City to Mega City One, the Architects’ Journal presents a selection of the greatest illustrated urban spaces.
Popularity: 56% [?]