How One of the World’s Densest Cities Has Gone Green
Symbol of Singapore, these “Supertrees” belong to a display at the 250-acre Gardens by the Bay. The high-tech structures range from 80 to 160 feet and collect solar energy to power a nightly light show. They have a softer side too: their trunks are vertical gardens, laced with more than 150,000 living plants.
Source: How One of the World’s Densest Cities Has Gone Green
Siemens Shortlisted as World’s Most Sustainable Building | glassonweb.com
The new headquarters was inaugurated in June, 2016. It consumes 90 percent less electricity and uses 75 percent less water than its predecessor.
Source: Siemens Shortlisted as World’s Most Sustainable Building | glassonweb.com
New York’s L Train Closure Effects on Transit, Mapped – CityLab
A useful tool not just for L-Train Hell but understanding commute times from various locations in the City and hopefully additional cities.
Endless train delays and calcifying surface traffic have lately painted the New York City transit experience a deep shade of red. Soon, commuters will unlock a fresh level of hell when the tunnel housing the L train closes for 18 months to address Hurricane Sandy damage. Starting as early as 2019, the shutdown of the tunnel—and all L train stations west of Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn—will directly impact the 250,000 riders who shuttle between Brooklyn and downtown Manhattan every day.
The map isn’t only great for arguing about whose commute is about to suck the most. You can also debate how travel options compare, for better and for worse, as they presently are. Dropping a single pinpoint onto the map reveals, in shaded color, relative access by train and bus from that location to everywhere else in the city. Bed-Stuy is a transit-friendly place to live, with lots of places easily accessible:
Source: New York’s L Train Closure Effects on Transit, Mapped – CityLab
China smashes solar energy records, as coal use and CO2 emissions fall once again
In one sector after another, the US is falling behind. The US isn’t losing its global leadership, its walking away.
We are witnessing a historic passing of the baton of global leadership on technology and climate from the United States to China. The new U.S. administration has said it will abandon climate action, gut clean energy funding, and embrace coal and oil — the dirty energy sources of the past that experts say can’t create a large number of sustainable new jobs. At the same time, China is slashing coal use and betting heavily on clean energy, which is clearly going to be the biggest new source of permanent hig
Source: China smashes solar energy records, as coal use and CO2 emissions fall once again
Designing History: 7 Modern Museums in Portugal – Architizer
Although many Portuguese towns and cities are characterized by well-preserved, historic architecture, some contemporary architects are using modern ideas to advance this traditional language of design. At the same time, Portuguese designers are careful to maintain and honor the legacy of artists and architects who came before them. Museums in particular play a key role in these preservation efforts by containing and exhibiting this history, but just as importantly, by embodying it, and becoming a modern interpretation of the very traditions it investigates. It is not enough for a building to display important cultural histories and artifacts if the museum’s design is not sensitive to this program. This is especially important when a nation’s architecture and urban planning are themselves of great historical significance.
Source: Designing History: 7 Modern Museums in Portugal – Architizer
Amsterdam Central Station’s Bold, Watery Revamp – CityLab
Canals, boats, bikes, trains – what more could you ask for? What is now tarmac and piles of chained up parked bikes will become a great public space.
Widened canals—and underground bike parking—will bring the city’s Central Station a little closer to nature and history.
Source: Amsterdam Central Station’s Bold, Watery Revamp – CityLab
In Shadow of Manhattan, a Long-Neglected City Is Having a Moment
Newark has been “coming back” since I went shopping there with my grandmother. This time it looks like it might actually succeed. Great transportation (PATH, AMTRAK, and NJ Transit train station), some great parks and neighborhoods, a great museum, corporate anchors, legal center, Rutgers University and an administration that wants to learn from Hoboken and Jersey City’s mistakes.
For years, downtown Newark’s Military Park, barren and surrounded by vacant buildings, was a symbol of the despair that set in after the 1967 riots. Now it’s at the center of hope that a long-sought recovery for New Jersey’s biggest city may finally be taking hold.
Source: In Shadow of Manhattan, a Long-Neglected City Is Having a Moment
WAN:: Timber tower by Team V Architecture
With construction due to start in the second half of 2017 HAUT is on track to become the world’s tallest timber tower The municipality of Amsterdam in the Netherlands has selected Team V Architecture with Lingotto, Nicole Maarsen, ARUP and brand partner NLE to develop a building that is a serious contender to become the tallest timber tower in the world.HAUT, will be a 21-storey wooden residential building by the Dutch River Amstel with construction work expected to start in the second half of 2017. HAUT promises to be a prototype of building in an innovative, sustainable and environmentally-friendly manner.
The 19 most beautiful libraries in the U.S. – Curbed
In honor of their beauty and to underscore their continued relevance in an increasingly digital world, we’ve rounded up 19 architecturally significant museums throughout the United States.
Source: The 19 most beautiful libraries in the U.S. – Curbed
Got wood? Meet Australia’s tallest (proposed) timber building | News | Archinect
Combine cross laminated timber, glue laminated timber, and the desire to connect with nature while providing ample creative working space, and you have the 5 King Tower, a 52-meter timber structure with the strength of concrete and steel (but a much smaller carbon footprint).
Source: Got wood? Meet Australia’s tallest (proposed) timber building | News | Archinect
Looks like stare decisis is about to be deceased.....Justice Alito just wrote the most terrifying sentence to appear in a Supreme Court opinion in years https://t.co/xGsYO8qSDb #news #feedly
The recent crop of luxury gyms arguably makes the social stratification of old country clubs palatable to millennials, writes @seike17.
https://t.co/LfKUoMZJVC
“If you’re walking more than about 45 minutes a day, you’re getting 90% of the physical activity value of training for a marathon." https://t.co/VC2nxnnFAD
New York has approved one of the nation’s most aggressive climate change action plans. https://t.co/Fa628VRePF
And we want to argue over whether to call them concentration camps??!!! https://t.co/0qDaodEj6A
Obscenity
Some of Paris’s most treasured landmarks are set to host the city’s new “urban forests.”
https://t.co/06lA8Ta0wL
@Ilhan I respect and admire you. Keep up the good work and continue to hold the GOP's feet to the fire.
Ugh. As if it weren’t enough that Russia hacked into Florida voter registration systems, Florida has recently changed state law to allow for barcoded summary cards marked by hackable ballot marking devices. The most likely beneficiary of this change is voting machine vendor ES&S. https://t.co/4dzZ1kmM7i
In the 9th century CE, Persian Jewish merchants arrived in Kaifeng as traders. In 1849 their synagogue was destroyed by the 'Yellow River.' 1000 exist in China to this day - confessionally confused, poor, not recognized by Israel & not tolerated.
https://t.co/zlmf3BoaXx
Sophie's Choice, but for governments: How do you decide which cities to save first from climate change? @cflav https://t.co/TUTJlriLcv
Of the 713 top government posts which require Senate confirmation, only 455 are currently filled by confirmed appointees. https://t.co/vjaacHXOJg
🏡 #USCities start to question the American ideal of a house with a yard on every lot!
#Minneapolis is among the cities ending with #singlefamily #zoning, which occupies 70% of residential and 53% of all land.
#UrbanEnvironment #urbanism #housing
https://t.co/fr8YLZZlmI
Trump is replacing a former executive for Boeing, which receives billions in federal contracts, with a former lobbyist for Raytheon, one of the biggest defense contractors in America, to serve as acting Secretary of Defense.
So much for draining the swamp.
Donald Trump, who has been in office for two years and five months, has alternately stated this week that he’s been in office for “three years” and “three and a half years.” The idiot literally can’t count to three.
Mitch McConnell pointed to the civil war as a kind of reparations for black people. But everywhere that freedom came it reflected the prerogatives and interests of powerful white people. Emancipation came 2.5 years late. Equality is 156 years late and counting.
The order also warned them that “idleness” would not be tolerated, reflecting Northern/Federal concerns about what freedom for black people meant practically.
Texas efforts to stall freedom were not unique, they were part of a bigger pattern. There are lots of Juneteenths. Finally it’s worth noting that the order of Emancipation delivered on 6/19/65 also ordered black people to continue to work the same “jobs” they did as slaves.
In other instances slavers simply moved across state lines, taking enslaved people out of a territory where Emancipation was occurring to one where slavery was protected. French slaveholders did the same thing in Haiti during the Revolution, taking slaves to Louisiana.
The Texans were hardly alone in their attempts to stall Emancipation. When Northern states began abolishing slavery after the Revolutionary War, slaveholders would wait until shortly before the last day of legal slavery and then sell their Negroes to buyers in slave states.
The confederate states fought a war for the right to own human beings but Texas fought *two* wars for this reason. Conflict over American whites bringing enslaved black people into Mexico, which had abolished slavery in 1829, was a factor in Texas seceding in 1845.
Some things worth remembering on Juneteenth: Texas’ size and isolation allowed slavers to keep knowledge of Emancipation from the enslaved. Large slaveholders in coastal areas also moved enslaved people around the state to avoid the Union Army & therefore Emancipation.