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When Planners Take Vacation Pictures
On a recent trip to Germany, I took exactly ONE picture, and it wasn’t of the Brandenburg Gate or the picturesque Rhine Valley but – of an electric car charging station. Mind you, this picture was not taken in any of the major cities but in a mid-sized town of about 250,000 people, in a…
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Mosques I: Regional Styles – Umayyad Mosque Damascus (705-715)
This is the second installment of the post, Mosque: Form and Function. In the first post I discussed the form and function of a mosque, and highlighted the two most important mosques in Islam, the Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina. This post and the following posts will briefly cover some of the most…
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Summer 2013: Public Art in NYC
Pedro Pablo Silva passed away recently, and it seems only fitting that, in honor of the whimsical art that he created in collaboration with local communities, we highlight art in public spaces… New York City has been supporting art in public places since at least 1967. While some of this art is permanent, there…
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New Street Signs!
Some of you may have read in a recent New Yorker about the new font, Clearview, that is going to be replacing the Gothic all-caps font that is predominantly used for street signs in New York City. You may have already noticed (or not) that highway signs have been changing over to this new…
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Mosque: Form and Function
Mosques are an integral part of any Muslim neighborhood or community. Its primary function is to provide a place for prayer which is compulsory for all Muslims who have reached adulthood. Islam does not prescribe to any architectural model or material except that the front of the mosque face Mecca, in Saudi Arabia. Function: A…
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CSO Resources
So far this June has been pretty rainy, so it seems timely to provide some resources on a problem that New York City and many other municipalities are struggling to deal with: Combined Sewer Overflows or CSOs. Why should this be of interest to you? Well, you don’t swim in your toilet, but do…
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Taksim Square: Istanbul Residents vs Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality
This is our second post about Taksim Square. For city planners and architects looking in from the outside there are two issues; 1) what are the merits of the development proposals for Taksim Square; and 2) did Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality consult civic groups and organizations representing business owners and residents of the area before commencing construction? The answer to both questions is a…
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The Dutch-Belgian High Speed Rail Debacle
We’ve been talking a lot about high speed rail lately here on PlaNYourCity. That’s not just because we like the subject, it’s also because it’s one of those dynamic topics that often seems to be in the news. Last week brought us headlines about a high speed rail debacle over in The Netherlands and Belgium.…
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Taksim Square: To whom does this public space belong?
Taksim Square is a central public space and transit hub located in the European part of Istanbul, Turkey. It is a major tourist attraction with hotels, shops, restaurants, and cultural landmarks. It is also a place where public events, parades, and New Year celebrations take place. Also, one of the largest and most visited pedestrian commercial corridors…
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