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The Divide Between Architecture and Landscape Architecture: Part I
The Western Tradition of Landscape Architecture: Recently, I came across Yale Professor and architect Joel Sander’s book, Ground Work. In it he discusses the divide between the architecture and landscape architecture. According to Sanders, “at least since the late nineteenth century, architecture and landscape architecture have been professionally segregated… more often than not, landscape architects are hired to…
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EVENT: 5/4/2013 OpenUrban Map-a-thon
What: OpenUrban is hosting an urban development map-a-thon as part of the New Museum’s Ideas City Festival When: Saturday, May 4th, 2013 at 10:30 a.m. Where: The New School, 66 W. 12th Street (Orozco Room, 7th Floor), New York, NY For Whom: This should be of interest to urban planners, urban designers, architects, community mapping…
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Monday, yet again…
Last week was awful. So I found it particularly challenging to come up with a topic for today. I am hoping at least one of these shorter topics might be of interest depending on your desire to think about last week or not… The West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion has apparently sparked some controversy…
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New York’s other transit system. Sketches of the PATH.
So I’ve been working recently in Newark. As a lifelong Long Islander (Brooklyn IS Long Island) I hadn’t actually had much of a reason to travel to Newark before (honestly we’re indoctrinated to not think of New Jersey too much), and had never much thought about the PATH. PATH stands for Port Authority Trans Hudson…
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Paolo Soleri Dreamt of Green Architecture Before its Time
Urban innovator Paolo Soleri died at the age of 93 in Scottsdale Arizona, 70 miles south of Arcosanti, a city he started to build overlooking the River Agua Fria. His career was unorthodox, resting somewhere between Lebbeus Wood and Oscar Niemeyer, both of whom also passed away recently. Soleri preached community and conservation. Arcosanti was his experiment in that regard. He called the vision “arcology,”…
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Using art to relieve bicycle congestion
The Dutch city of Utrecht is no stranger to a phenomenon called “bicycle congestion”—a situation where infrastructural facilities for cyclists are used so much that their efficiency starts to suffer and negatively affects the cyclist’s biking experience (much like how congestion on roads affects motorists). Whether the congestion hits suggested bike lanes, seperated bike paths,…
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Simon Garfield’s On the Map
Cartographers, like nature, abhor a vacuum and have traditionally filled the empty spaces on maps with large lettering, descriptive passages, drawings and/or certain labels that many of us may be familiar with, such as terra incognita (“unknown land”) or hic sunt dracones (“here be dragons”). However, as Simon Garfield tells us in his breezy romp…
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Ibn Khaldun: The First Urban Sociologist
Ibn Khaldun belonged to an aristocratic family from Seville, Spain but he was born in 1332 in modern-day Tunisia. In 1362, at the age of 30, he moved back to Spain and entered into the service of the Sultan of Granada where he served as Secretary of State and an Ambassador to the court of Pedro the King of…
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Disaster-proofing transit systems: Tel Aviv’s Red Line
Public transportation systems can be a great source of pride for cities. Places like New York City, London, and Moscow wouldn’t and couldn’t be themselves without their subway systems; their iconic undergrounds help define the identities of these cities. The relatively high ridership of these subway systems (by residents and visitors alike) has undoubtedly contributed…
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