Urbanism News
Friday, October 29, 2004
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Green Building Revolution NowHouse, at SBC Park, points the way to a more affordable, eco-friendly housing industry. |
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An Exile Ascends China's Big Stage Thanks to his work with the Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron on the Olympic stadium being built here for the 2008 Summer Games, the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei suddenly finds himself with a rising profile in the architecture world. |
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'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.' Or for two miles at least Britain's best new public building this year is ... a couple of miles of tarmac painted with dotted white lines. |
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Exhibit merges art with urban planning The exhibit, titled "Urban Life: Housing in the Contemporary City," features mostly European housing models that find innovative architectural methods to solve nagging urban problems. |
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Property Rights and Wrongs If you own a residence on land that could be generating more property-tax revenue for your local government, watch out. The Supreme Court will decide this term whether government can take anyone's private property and give it to a private developer who promises to generate more money from the land. |
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Ontario to curb urban sprawl Province to protect huge swath of land around Toronto from development. |
Thursday, October 28, 2004
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Small observatories on nature The works chosen by Droog Design for Lille European Capital of Culture 2004, address our relationship with nature, celebrating the fusion and the search for points of contact between the arts. |
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Architecture watchdog 'favours developers' The government's architecture watchdog is too eager to approve new developments at the expense of historic buildings, heritage groups warned MPs today. |
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Neutelings Riedijk Architects wins contest music theater Ljubljana The project contains a music theater including 1400 seats, 25.000 m2 offices, 100 apartments, a shopping arcade and an underground parking lot. |
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An Empire Built of Glass Stainless steel architecture can be visually striking, but glass sculptor James Carpenter can make it quite literally glow. |
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Architecture and natural spaces create sense of intimacy in Paris park In the southwest corner of Paris, away from the well-trod tourist paths, Parc André Citroën is an inspiring representation of contemporary landscape design. |
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Legalize Neighborhoods Again! Sometime in the mid-20th century, America forgot how to make cities. The combination of "traffic planning" and single-use zoning that swept the country after WWII erased urban districts and took away from many people the opportunity to work, play or shop where they live. This is not a new idea. It's called a neighborhood, and it's illegal in most U.S. cities. |
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Highways shift to bigger barriers The so-called "Jersey" barriers, named in honor of the state where they first appeared three or four decades ago, are no one's idea of an attractive highway design touch. |
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
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Reshaping the streetwall
Chicago's dramatic cliff of buildings faces a major makeover. And much more is at stake here than architecture. |
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Why Green is the Real Postmodernism In the design world, Postmodernism is still just Modernism. |
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Destiny’s plans sour urban-planning architect Andres Duany dislikes the overall plans for Destiny USA, and he dislikes Destiny’s vision for developing the Syracuse Inner Harbor.
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High-Tech Buildings May Save Energy Buildings are getting smarter - and the next generation of building materials is expected to do even more. Windows could trap the sun's energy to heat hot water. Sensors that measure the carbon dioxide exhaled by people in a room could determine whether the air conditioning needs to be turned up. |
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
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Turning slums into gardens McgGill director leads 3-year project. Objective is to show ways agriculture might be integrated into urban planning. |
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Indian Mounds Mystify Excavators A thousand years ago along the banks of the Mississippi River, in what is currently southeast Illinois, there was a city that now mystifies both archeologists and anthropologists. |
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A tale of two hospitals One is a Kafkaesque monolith with endless echoing corridors. The other is a bright, airy child-friendly haven. |
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In Downtown Chicago, Architects Return to 'Less Is More' After a decade-long stretch of neo-this and neo-that apartment buildings, the city is returning to its modernist roots. |
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Nouvel Wins Competition to Design Marine Center in Le Havre, France Jean Nouvel beat off finalists MVRDV and Daniel Libeskind in an open competition to build Le Havre's new Marine Center and swimming pool complex. The $39 million project is part of a large-scale investment scheme to turn the city's port into a cultural, leisure and shopping quarter. |
Monday, October 25, 2004
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Urbanites band together to aid in Detroit rebirth Coalitions hope to lift city's stigma, shed light on assets. |
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Raise the Roof: Power Source The shingles that help to protect you from the elements could soon help to keep your lights on. Solar companies have developed light-absorbing roof tiles as a more aesthetically pleasing alternative to solar panels. |
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Design for (Better) Living Forget superheroes and the flame-throwing marionettes of "Team America." Bruce Mau wants you to know that designers are going to save the world. |
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A grand green tower Proposed 37-storey development will generate its own power and have a water recycling system. |
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Human activity is choking the planet Humanity's reliance on fossil fuels, the spread of cities, the destruction of natural habitats for farmland and overexploitation of the oceans are destroying Earth's ability to sustain life, an environmental group warned in a report yesterday. |
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Bridging The Drive The organizers of the Chicago Architecture Foundation's new exhibit about plans for five new pedestrian bridges across Lake Shore Drive apparently forgot Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's famous dictum "God is in the details." |
Saturday, October 23, 2004
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Architecture as Muse and Crucible The lionizing of architecture continues. With a sprawling architecture biennial under way in Venice, this historic port city pays tribute to the profession in an enormous exhibition called "Arts and Architecture." |
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Forget the past, move on and create the marvellous buildings of tomorrow. It's time, says Glenn Murcutt. "It is our time. And a culture that does not embrace its own time but looks always back to the past is a culture that is ignorant and fearful. It is a culture that is afraid." |
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Shanghai sizzling, but still searching for a soul Limousines purr softly outside the city's premiere art showing, disgorging the rich and the famous, the patrons and the powerful. |
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Instant Modernity China's transformation isn't just political and economic -- it's physical. |
Friday, October 22, 2004
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Keeping up with the Dosanjhs: The Rise of North America’s Ethnoburbs Suburbs are bland, right? They’re boring, monotonous, devoid of life and culture: homogeneous. |
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Big-box stores squeeze into Big Apple Big retailers known more for giant stores in suburbs are resizing stores, reformatting layouts and remixing merchandise to make it big in the Big Apple. |
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German Study Links Traffic Jams, Heart Attacks In a study that gives new meaning to the concept of a "killer commute," researchers have concluded that people caught in traffic are three times more likely to suffer a heart attack within the hour than those who aren't tied up on the road. |
Thursday, October 21, 2004
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Raise the curtains! The building show is about to begin. When star architects build. |
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Tune in & Turn on Orbanism stands for a metaphysical and material structuring of the world for the common good, the public interest. Orbanism aims for a dynamic balance between order and chaos, architecture and life, culture and neo-culture. (...) Orbanism denotes solidarity and proper proportions and is eco-centric, balanced and unique; unlike globalisation, which signifies ego-centrism and conflict and is anthropocentric, unbalanced and generic. |
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Roots draw community together as friendships bloom Burst of colour turns Salford streets around. |
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Mad Max architecture
The 4,000-megawatt drama of Drax is a monument of our time. |
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ecoparc 2 I’m trying to find a way to design where there is no residue, where everything is used - like in pig farming. |
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Suddenly America is building some of the world’s most exciting architecture. So what’s happening in the land of the mall?
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At Design Awards, The Extraordinary That Touches The Everyday Design is moving from an existing condition to a preferred one. |
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
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Suburbs' grass isn't always greener For the first time, the number of poor people in the suburbs almost equals the number in cities at the center of metropolitan areas. |
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France offers U.S. a lesson on roads With apologies to George Bush, who spits out the word "France" as if it were spoiled milk, our country could learn a thing or two from the French when it comes to designing roads. |
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The New, True Spirit Singular glories are a thing of the past, writes Andrew Yang. Architecture firms—big and small, young and established, independent and corporate—are collaborating to create new design models, in project and in practice. |
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In Shanghai suburbs, bigger's better Clusters of cookie-cutter houses stretch as far as the eye can see, joined together by ribbons of asphalt overflowing with traffic. |
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Farm life finds fit with city Rain harvesting, solar panels add to showcase for sustainability. |
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A vision of green in Cairo Can thoughtful urban planning heal deep cultural wounds? That is the question raised by the new Azhar Park, whose luxurious hilltop gardens are meant to spawn a revival of this city's old decaying Islamic quarter. |
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A vision of green in Cairo Can thoughtful urban planning heal deep cultural wounds? That is the question raised by the new Azhar Park, whose luxurious hilltop gardens are meant to spawn a revival of this city's old decaying Islamic quarter. |
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
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Smart Growth's Misunderstood Message In the rancorous political environment of this year's presidential election campaign, American voters seem to be polarized as never before. In the environment of real estate development and land-use planning, opinions about "smart growth" are becoming just as polarized. |
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Double Dutch: Aaron Betsky Aaron Betsky, 46, is the director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam, and one of the most important critics and proponents of architectural discourse today. |
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Redesigning the World An emerging generation of architects in Japan has begun exporting their talents and unique approach to space and materials. |
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Jeff Readies For National Spotlight
Jeffersonville doesn’t need a “Clean Sweep,” and they don’t want to “trade spaces” . . . but they’re ready for an overhaul. A “Town Haul,” that is. |
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Carpool Slug Slugging is a kind of instant carpooling where commuters pick up total strangers from organized stops. The slug rides for free and the driver gets to use the quick-moving HOV lanes. |
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A fine pickle As Norman Foster's Stirling prize-winner demonstrates, some of the most exciting sculpture of our time is being produced by architects. |
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A fine pickle As Norman Foster's Stirling prize-winner demonstrates, some of the most exciting sculpture of our time is being produced by architects. |
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Here Comes the Sun Too few architects see the light about the importance of daylight. |
Friday, October 15, 2004
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Pressure points The climate is changing. But where will we see the devastating effects first? |
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Traffic Light Wars
Out of sight, a war is raging... Secret cameras have allowed us for the first time to see the mighty Traffic Light Wars. |
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One third of amphibians at risk, study finds The world's first census of amphibians has found that nearly one in three species -- 32.5 per cent -- is under threat of extinction, says a new study published yesterday in the on-line edition of the journal Science. |
Thursday, October 14, 2004
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Industrial retreat opens way for a 21st century city It is almost 200 years since a London aristocrat started building a northern new town, after advice from his land agent that local people were "putting off that rudeness which is peculiar to them, enlightened pursuits are more cultivated and the elegancies and comforts of life are sought after". |
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WI joins war on 'cluttered' streets We want streets designed to encourage walking and cycling, which are barrier free, accessible to everyone and pleasant places to be. |
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More mass housing
Red or Dead designers Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway gets to grips with the not-so-archetypal Wimpey home. |
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World's pollution hotspots revealed from space A global map of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere has revealed the most precise view yet of pollution hotspots around the world. |
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Surroundings / Watch this space `Territories, Live' explores spatial expressions of national, economic and social conflicts. |
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Shrinking Cities Addresses Urban Wasteland Issues Winners of the group's international ideas competition have devised non-traditional solutions for urban problems.
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The City That Cut the Cord Sleepy Spokane, Wash., has a secret: it's the wireless hot spot of the future. |
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A New Frontier For Suburban Builders Land scarcity has tract developers tackling blighted urban properties. |
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
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What Has Two Vehicles and Rides the Rails? Commuters are joining a trend to two-car travel, keeping one on each end of their train trip. Officials are adjusting to the parking challenges. |
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Cities of joy Parks, public squares, trees, playgrounds, the world’s longest pedestrian street. As a mayor of Bogotá, Enrique Peñalosa showed us that a city can be designed to serve the citizen’s need for joy and pleasure. |
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Beauty to be in the eye of the planner Ugly buildings may become a less common feature of Northern Ireland in future, according to new planning proposals revealed today. |
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Towering egos It's a disgrace that none of the candidates to run architecture's watchdog has any real knowledge of the subject. |
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University students plan 'park for peace' in South Lebanon Project will be built near site of former prison in Khiam. |
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Toward a Science -- and Art -- of Better Places The challenge for architecture is to be more firmly rooted in the real patterns of human activity. Michael Mehaffy reports on the 'New Science, New Architecture' Conference in London. |
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
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Moving into the mediocre A lack of design flair and the prominence given to car parking are among the things to blame for the uninspiring quality of newly-built houses, says the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE). |
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Older suburbs struggle to erase vacant eyesores Sputtering economy sends retailers packing. |
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Climate fear as carbon levels soar Scientists bewildered by sharp rise of CO2 in atmosphere for second year running. |
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Identical homes create bleak suburbia Architectural body says developers are turning property dreams into suburban nightmares. |
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Z marks the spot for transport museum’s journey into the future Even her harshest critics admire the breathtaking ambition of her architectural style, but all too often her designs are dismissed as "brilliant but unbuildable". |
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Brouhaha over Beijing's buildings Futuristic, 'built-to-thrill' designs by foreign architects are slammedby critics as being costly and impractical. |
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Graphic Details A data-rich Web site that displays GIS-generated maps is now an essential tool for cities seeking to recruit new business. |
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Lifelong friendships built one stop at a time Nobody bothers much with last names on Bus 45. |
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Look who's walking 45% city dwellers walk to office. Walking is making a comeback among downtown dwellers.
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Saturday, October 9, 2004
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Excellence in Highway Design 2004 The Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Excellence in Highway Design Awards Program recognizes outstanding examples of highways, bridges, pedestrian facilities, roadside facilities, and other facets of roadway design. |
Friday, October 8, 2004
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Rome's New Musical Boxes Italian renowned architect Renzo Piano designs Parco della Musica in ancient Faminio. |
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Property scandal A few rich people, many of them aristocrats, own 69 per cent of the land in Britain. As a result, house prices are so high, millions can't afford to buy a home. |
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Fort Lauderdale wants safer downtown for pedestrians and bike riders
Every day, Mark Horowitz takes his life into his own hands. He rides his bike to work in Fort Lauderdale. |
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City planners struggle to reinvent Bellevue In a skyscraper atrium plastered with drawings and slogans -- "Walk it! Live it! Love it!" -- some of the region's top architects are struggling to find "the big idea" that will transform this city. |
Thursday, October 7, 2004
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Following the PLOT Copehagen's new Maritime Youth House, designed by Bjarke Ingels and Julien De Smedt, is a confirmation of the design talent of the co-founders of PLOT. |
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Show to unveil vision for northern 'SuperCity' The controversial architect and urban designer Will Alsop is to set out his vision for a new giant city that stretches from Liverpool to Hull at an exhibition in Manchester. |
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In defence of the suburbs Government should nurture the suburbs, not ignore them. |
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Zen and the art of landscaping Zen monks may have invented the traditional Japanese garden, but they got out of the design business long ago. Now one is back to reclaim the legacy. As if that isn't work enough, he is also updating it with some of the most innovative outdoor spaces being created today. |
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Wright's lofty dreams Exhibit shows the suburban genius had rarefied hopes for the cities, too. |
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It's a Bird; It's a Plane; It's Modernism! Hulking buildings invade Los Angeles. |
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You call this urban? After years of battles in the suburbs, New Urbanists are realizing that the bigger fight may be against the suburbanization of cities. |
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How Communities are Re-Using the Big Box Julia Christensen began investigating how Communties are Re-Using the Big Box in January of 2004. Throughout the spring and summer of 2004, she has been traveling around the country in her car, visiting the sites and meeting the people who are making these transformations possible. |
Tuesday, October 5, 2004
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In Chicago's West Loop, Real Estate Profits Do Grow on Trees When Mayor Richard M. Daley began a tree-planting campaign after winning his first election in 1989, many people here snickered. The mayor of Chicago — a brass-knuckles town if there ever was one — is a tree-hugger?
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Salvation, one Dane at a time HySociety architects envision urban life without the waste Too Perfect offers. |
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Low-rise Leeds to embrace 'kissing towers' Enthusiasm mixed with caution greets project that could alter perceptions of northern city. |
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Bye-bye, blueprint: 3D modeling catches on You don't have to contemplate the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, or the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles for long to grasp the notion that standard two-dimensional drawings might be inadequate for architect Frank Gehry. |
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Comparing Sprawl In U.S. And Canadian Cities A comparison of American and Canadian cities demonstrates that sprawl in has less to do with the American Dream than with the influence the highway, oil and auto lobby has on US transportation policy. |
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Seniors & the City Affluent, educated retirees are forfeiting a regular tee time in favor of loft living, opera tickets and bistros. |
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Back-seat driver: Sick from suburban sprawl?
Seems you're not alone. |
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Circus works magic on former dump
Montreal's poorest neighbourhood is being revitalized by acrobats, clowns and architects. |
Monday, October 4, 2004
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Recycling, Renewal, and Radicchio Recently Chicago has experienced a surge of architectural hipness, after years of wallowing in mediocrity. International superstars Frank Gehry and Rem Koolhaas have left their mark at Millennium Park and the Illinois Institute of Technology, respectively. Local bad-boy Helmut Jahn has returned from European exile to build an elegant dormitory, also at IIT. But hipper than Gehry, Koolhaas, and Jahn bundled together is sustainability, loosely defined as design that works with the natural environment, considers future generations, and addresses economic, social, and environmental concerns in a sensitive manner. |
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The lightweight champion of the world How soap bubbles and cobwebs helped Frei Otto win architecture's greatest prize. |
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A private grief, a public sign Impromptu shrines to those lost too soon fulfil `an ancient and sacred impulse'. Yet few who create them do so for the sake of viewers. |
Sunday, October 3, 2004
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The revolution according to Mau In his latest exhibit, the designer argues there is a movement afoot in North America that 'dares to imagine the welfare of the entire human race. |
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Too Perfect: Seven New Denmarks Too Perfect: Seven New Denmarks focuses on the future of Danish architecture and design. Curated by Bruce Mau Design and produced in collaboration with PLOT, Kontrapunkt, Nord, Arkitema and SRL, Too Perfect takes architecture beyond the realm of buildings and furniture into other areas of life that we have the capacity to design, from clean water and agricultural reform to energy use and social engineering. |
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The Priciest Room You'll Never Use It's one of the mysteries of New York City life: Why is it that New Yorkers who are lucky enough to have balconies rarely sit on them? In Verona, some Juliet may still call to her Romeo from her balcony, but in New York, from the white-brick high-rises of the Upper East Side to the Mitchell-Lama towers of the Bronx, romance is unlikely to cross that particular threshold. |
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Should historic sites be modernised? A dramatic design that aims to catapult one of the nation's most historic buildings into the 21st century has triggered a debate on the future of Welsh monuments. |
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Vision on skinny houses widened, narrowed In a city of Portland design contest for houses on skinny lots, the public is invited to vote on its favorite ideas. |
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General Motor sparks a big rebound in Detroit We want to be a catalyst for economic development and to provide leadership for the renaissance of the city. We want to bring in retailers and residential people. That's what we're trying to do at the Renaissance Center and in a much broader way along the riverfront. |
Friday, October 1, 2004
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Architectural harmony In anticipation of the influence of architecture to change the face and lifestyle of Beijing, the 1st Architectural Biennial Beijing (ABB 2004) celebrated its opening last Monday in a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People. |
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The man behind Don Mills Macklin Hancock points to his rubber boots. "I'm just a farmer," he says with a chuckle that wrinkles his elfin face. |
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Enlisting road scholars MIT students to suggest ways to improve busy thoroughfare. |
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Having it all in America It would be sad to conclude someday that our leaders sent our soldiers halfway around the world to die for our cars. In the absence of weapons of mass destruction and in the absence of Saddam Hussein being tied to Sept. 11, there is not much left to conclude. |
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