De Rotterdam

DE ROTTERDAM is a building being built in the the Kop van Zuid area of Rotterdam in an effort to regenerate the area. Its is being designed by Rem Koolhaas and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2011. The project is made up of three towers that will be multifunctional with plans for corporate offices, residential apartments, a hotel, restaurants, cinema and retail shopping. The project is similar to a number of buildings that I encountered in Japan and seeks to be a bustling vertical city. While I must admit that the architecture doesn't do much for me, its got some odd angles sure but its essentially the classic glass box skyscraper. However I am a big fan of mixed use projects and this definitely fits the bill, plus its got a pretty neat video proposal video. Enjoy!


OMA fact sheet

The First LEED Platinum Museum

There was a bit of a race to the finish for it but the world’s first LEED platinum museum building has been finished. The Water + Life Museums complex in California is the first building to have been awarded the platinum certification. The museum campus is a total of 70,000 square feet and was built to the most exacting green standards. The Center for Water Education Foundation and the Western Center Community Foundation asked Lehrer Architects to design two facilities with a large outdoor connecting terrace. The museum meets the most exacting water and energy consumption standards in the world; which is all the more impressive considering the local climate where temperatures reach the triple digits in the summer and water freezes in the winter.
When the Diamond Valley Lake Reservoir was completed in 1999 by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and is the largest earthworks project on US soil. During the dig out of the reservoir some significant fossils were discovered. These were housed in a much smaller facility until this museum was finished. This new state of the art facility offers the museum the ability to showcase these artifacts in a fantastic building.

Community Gardening

Urban gardening seems to be in the news a bunch lately.. I just came across an article in the gazette this morning over coffee and another article on Spacing Montreal this evening.. enjoy!

New initiative to increase downtown gardening space

Via Spacing Montreal.

Surreal Estate

I came across one of the most interesting property videos today. The Luxury Property Blog has a property video by squint/opera of an Alsop renovated property in London. The Victoria House property is a mixing together of traditional and modern styles. The video is a surrealists trip through the property starting with the more traditional aspects of its architecture an moving to the more modern elements as the video progresses.

Rain City Bikes

The thing with bikes and the city is that it can be hard to haul things. Just because you live in the city and things are all pretty close doesn't make having to carry ten bags, boxes or some other packet of things home. But a company called Rain City Bikes in Vancouver has a solution to that. The Bakfiet or box bike. This puppy is a cargo bike designed to help you move whatever you need to move be it your kids, bricks, or your groceries. The bike has a low stand over and its center of gravity is very low to the ground. With a better ride then a trike and easier pedaling, they are great for lugging anything you need too around.

The bike

• alluminum alloy rims and spokes
• front and rear roller breaks
• a heavy duty rear parcel rack
• built in Axa lock
• internally geared hubs
• a springy gel seat
• a front dynamo powered light
• rear read lights
• a removable box with bench and harnesses
• a cargo cover
• a load capacty of 70kg in the front
• 30 kg capcity in the back

This bike is the answer to how are you going to haul all your stuff around town, in the summer at least.