The BLDGBLOG Book by Geoff Manaugh introduces us to speculation about future architecture and how the present built environment will eventually change. From the first page of the book, the reader gets an idea of what he is about to read as he is presented an illustration of London in A.D. 2109. London seems like [...]
Planners, citizens, and the governing body alike, look to the guidance of the newly adopted Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan to ensure that Austin, Texas grows in an economic, social, and environmentally sustainable manner. The consequences from decisions made, ranging from where to build housing or which business industries to support, must be taken into consideration for [...]
River enjoyment is something that can both bring excitement to a community as well as create great economic opportunities. That is why Richmond, Virginia recently adopted the Richmond Riverfront Plan. The contemporary plan involves revitalizing the James River by adding new access points, creating open public spaces where people can gather and commune, and by [...]
Brownfield remediation is becoming a common process in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul. A few miles from the heart of one of the more successful projects – Mill Ruins Park – lies UMore Park (University of Minnesota Outreach, Research, and Education), a planned 5,000-acre development for 25,000 people in eco-friendly homes and neighborhoods. Sadly there [...]
In September, two coal-burning power plants on the Southwest side of Chicago closed down operations, leaving the nearby communities with the pressing question of how best to re-use the combined 132 acres. The Fisk and Crawford coal plants have been decommissioned by their owner Midwest Generation in response to increasing pressure from community groups and [...]
One of the most iconic viewsheds in Minneapolis – hated by some, loved by others – are any that include the Riverside Plaza apartments. From many places in the city you can see the Brutalist concrete buildings, with their primary-color panels and blockish tower-structure, towering above their surroundings. In 2010, Riverside Plaza was included in [...]
“Free parking is at the root of many urban ills: congestion, sprawl, wasteful energy use and air pollution.” – Donald Shoup, Parking may not be an obvious urban design issue, but it affects the traffic patterns, environmental health, and landscapes of our cities. As the population in Austin, Texas continues to skyrocket, the city certainly [...]
By all accounts, urban sprawl is a problem that has plagued many metropolitan cities throughout the United States. Like many of these cities, Richmond, Virginia has struggled with the concept of how to control the growing population while still possessing the ability to attract new residents to the area. Recently, many of the city’s efforts [...]
An innovative air-filtration system is the central feature of the proposed CO2ngress Gateway Towers, a skyscraper project envisioned by two students at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Situated over the busy Congress Parkway interchange, which serves some 77,000 vehicles a day, the two towers would capture CO2 from the air and feed it to algae [...]
“Rather than being guided, as it should be, by natural systems or human needs, the quality and placement of growth in our regions is largely dependent on the car.“-Peter Calthorpe The newly adopted Austin, Texas city plan, appropriately titled the “Imagine Austin” plan, envisions a less congested and more sustainable city. It turns the conversation [...]
The new wave in social media communication is quickly creating a method for discussing topics relating to urban planning, architecture, and community development. The social media site Twitter is leading the charge in this evolution by creating a way for people from around the world to gather in one centralized location to discuss and solve various [...]
“The water in itself adds quality to this city”, Kim Herforth Nielsen, 3XN The United Nations committee reaches worldwide, currently covering 193 member states. Its foundations were set following the end of the Second World War, when 51 countries committed to invest their power in the welfare organization. The declaration formulated in the Millenium Summit [...]
Many communities go to great extremes to revitalize their cities, like destroying abandoned homes within a one mile radius, or by developing high-speed rails along the center of a neighborhood. However, what has become clear is that most future redevelopment within a city usually involves some sort of urban renewal. Thus, urban renewal is considered [...]
The overall goal of any riverfront plan is to create river accessibility that becomes a major resource to the community; by linking it to nearby communities so that both residents and tourist can enjoy it. While many communities have a neighboring river as a potential asset to their community, most local governments are unable to [...]
An overgrown parking lot clings to the fringe of an urban center. Rundown school buildings wait for a sorely needed upgrade. Somewhere outside of these places, sleekly dressed design students stay up late with their rulers and tricked out software in hand. How about combining the two? This type of collaborative thinking has become increasingly [...]
Spokane, Washington is proud of its enormous waterfalls smack dab in the middle of the urban core, surrounded by Riverfront Park. It’s the only park in Spokane that encourages non-park uses such as movie watching at an almost 50-year-old originalwrap-around style IMAX theatre, riding classic amusement park rides like the tilt-a-whirl and ferris wheel, and [...]
Istanbul, one of the oldest cities in the world, is often considered to be amongst the most beautiful ones. The city served as a capital for Byzantium, East Roman, and Ottoman Emperors, as well as the most popular for the Turkish Republic. All along, Istanbul’s seven hills, serpentine waterside, dark cypress trees, and vertically slender minarets break [...]
Food talk is hot these days. Urban planning councils and governments now implement sustainable food mandates, and city revitalization projects transform old buildings into gourmet mixed-use shopping centers. It’d be easy to assume that food producers have an easy time getting their products to city consumers. Yet even with a growing appetite for their goods, [...]
I am in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for a 6-week long program, and my next two posts will be on the urban planning issues of Rio. Rio de Janeiro is known, among other things, for its urban poverty and squatter settlements (or in the Brazilian case favelas). I have had a chance to visit the [...]
On May 29th, 2012, news about the 3rd bridge project hit Turkish prime time news. According to the news, Turkish construction firm İçtaş and Italian construction group Astaldi, through a joint venture, has won the 3rd Bridge tender by offering the shortest construction and commissioning time. The bridge will be completed by the end of [...]
