Friday night... And thinking of you guys. Awww. Anyway I just saw this project by EDAW and in addition to dreams of moving to London I found it to be one of the best examples of what this studio is about. The graphics are a little corny to say the least but it captures the whole idea: a dramatic strategy with imagery that sells it from the human scale.  

Reinvening America's Cities

Includes a look at New Orleans, Buffalo, LA and The Bronx.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/arts/design/29ouro.html?ref=design

Real Life Regreening -from ArchitectureWeek

i do not know how long this will be up since it is a "free sample" kind of article, but it provides a lot of great precedents for our projects.

http://www.architectureweek.com/2009/0304/culture_1-2.html

the ArchWkly article is excerpted from Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs by Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson

goodbye mall

Here is a brief article about the decline of the shopping mall and the ensuing redevelopment.


Dead Malls - Sustainable Industries, 2009.0302
http://www.sustainableindustries.com/greenbuilding/40449337.html

Only three enclosed shopping malls have been built in the United States since 2005...

"...there is still a lot of opportunity to blaze a trail toward more sustainable mixed-use developments. Good designs today integrate site use and walkability, locate near transit centers and connect with nearby street grids making them much more sustainable than suburbs of yore, she says. But she says there is still room for improvement, including incorporating greater access to transit and reducing parking ratios."

Mexico City BRT

Here is a link for a video about the bus system in Mexico city. We are exploring some similar options for Fl Blvd and I would love any input. Just watch for 2 minutes starting at abt 5min 30 sec.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVRriKqXaIs

Shared Spaces

This links to 3 interesting articles discussing traffic, pedestrians, the street and who is it's rightful owner.

http://www.landliving.com/articles/0000001142.aspx

Following up on Tom's discussion of the closing of Times Square in NY to car traffic here is an interesting debate from the New York Times. 

This is an interesting little piece on taking the master out of plan and allowing urban space to be less defined and more flexible.

elemental

some of you might know of this project, it is a housing project in chile that sets up a partial infrastructure, allowing communities to fill in the spaces between. this creates a richer, unique urban fabric that has a better sense of place.

not quite sure yet how this might apply to landscape infill or at the scale of florida... but something to think about.

Blurring the lines

Here a few projects. More eye candy than anything but some interesting ideas about softening the line between the city and landscape, and was to weave landscape with infrastructure.

RedStick FreeUse

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RedStickFreeUse/?yguid=64413602

or redstickfree.org

Similar to Freecycle, this group allows you to post and search listings for free stuff. Interesting that there was a big takeoff in 2005 and it has since tapered off...

Portland vs. Europe

This reminded me of yesterdays discussion of questioning what exactly we are striving for when we attempt to build a functioning community.

Mapping the flight paths of birds...ideas for pedestrians or transport

I recently went to this exhibition at the Barbara Davis Gallery in Houston. He maps various things, picture to left is of the flight paths of birds. See below for more info:

Internationally known Italian artist Andrea Bianconi was born in Arzignano, Italy and works and lives in New York and Milan. This is the second one person show with Barbara Davis Gallery.

The exhibition on view will explore Bianconi's personal 'geography'. Using his inventive and symbolic imagery, that takes the viewer to an unexpected and imaginary place.

On view will be a central large wall installation using various materials made from leather, foam, fabric and other found objects.

The installation will be supported by a series of map collages that are densely layered with the same mythology providing a journey into Bianconi's mind.

Upcoming featured articles on Andrea Bianconi include Double Magazine (France), September/2008 issue and Nylon Magazine (New York), Winter/2008

I found a blog site that is dedicated to creative mapping and has some beautiful and some intriguing work. If anyone knows why Finland's roads are all in a petri dish please let me know.
http://creativemapping.blogspot.com/


oh, and this guy has some really sweet work...
http://www.joshdorman.net/
check out the video about his mapping Alzheimer's patient's lives - it is very short.

From his site:
Josh Dorman is currently working with the Memory Bridge Foundation in Chicago on a project involving the "mapping" of the internal geographies and memories of Alzheimers and Dementia patients.

Post Suburbia

A response to the article I posted last week. Radical, cynical, happening?

3D Photomontages

Photosynth is a pretty incredible tool for photomontages. It's not completely free of bugs but I was able to get it working on my mac though I had to download firefox to do it.

Theory of The Dérive

Guy Debord in 1958

What Will Save the Suburbs?

Allison Arieff's New York Times piece on what happens when we foreclose on the suburbs.