Highways in the Sand

I came across an interesting post on the worlds longest highway that goes through a desert and the actions that they are taking to keep the surrounding dunes from migrating across it and burying it. Its an interesting post and bears a reading. Thanks to Dark Roasted Blend for the link and Fogonazos for the article.

Where's Yo Money

Every Urbanite has an opinion about graffitti, some say its is nothing more then vandalism, some say its an artform. Me, I am somewhere in the middle, I detest tagging yet good graffitti, that would be considered a drawing or a doodle if it were on a peice of paper, that I like. I am also a fan of graffitti that makes me smile. Here in my neighbourhood there is an artist with an penchant for phrases. I enjoy them everytime I come accross them.

The Bicycle Vault

New Urbanists, bike enthusiasts and pedestrians would love to see more and more of us switching from private vehicle use to mass transportation and bicycles. In order to cut down on the pollution caused by cars and eliminate so many of the parking lot wastelands that are a part of our cities. One of the problems that can come with this is where do we put all these bikes. Anyone who has walked around a major Japanese city, or even Amsterdam can understand that these multitudes of bicycles can be a bit of a jumble to wade through. Well leave it to the Japanese to come up with a high tech way of dealing with them. Meet the computerised bicycle storage vault, you drop off your bike at the computer valet station and it whisks your bike away until you come back to retrieve it.


While it is definitely not practical for North America where we have way more space, it could be the shape of things to come.

Crosswalks of the future

Hanyoung Lee has come up with an ingenious new crosswalk design which creates a virtual wall using 'plasma lasers.' The lasers are at a low enough strength so as to not burn holes through cars or pedestrians, and project an image of people crossing the street in red. The virtual wall has an increase ability to slow drivers down and stop. The barrier causes what could be called an "I don't want to drive into a wall" effect.

While its definitely going to be a while before we see any thing like this in our cities it is a look at what cross walks of the future could look like.

Anarchy in the City

Life in the city has its hazards, crime, pollution and in some cases rioting. This week in Montreal the down side of city life was on display, the Montreal Canadians won the first round of the Stanley Cup play offs and celebrated long into the night. While they were celebrating the Wu Tang concert let out and those drunken fans met up with the drunken hockey fans and madness ensued.

Evil Gentleman over at citynoise has put together a collection of photos taken in the aftermath of the 'party.' Sometimes Urban life isn't pretty.

For the Citynoise article click here.

Tapestries in Glass

While I have not intention of making this blog simply about real estate I do want to make another apartment post. As I mentioned in the 200 Eleventh Ave post a number of new buildings are springing up in the area around the highline and the new residences by Jean Nouvel are part of the regeneration of this area. The marketing write up for the new residence hails it as, “a vision machine,” while I wouldn’t go so far as to call it that it is a very unique building in that it has over 1,700 different and distinct pieces of glass that make up the façade of the building. The building’s web site explains it as such;

“The buildings gently curving curtain wall of different sized panes of colorless glass – each set in a unique angle and torque – will sheath one of the most meticulously customized, high performance residential addresses in the nation. This dazzling window pattern will frame splendid views from within the tower while producing an exterior texture that serves as a poetic analog for the vibrancy, density and changeability of New York City.” source

The building is designed with a number of staggered terraces and uses large single pane punched through windows to highlight certain areas. Nouvel has designed a six story vertical garden within the core of the building with built in planter boxes designed to allow plants to fill the interior space.

For more information on the building see the site here.

Bio Buildings

Right now in Urbanist circles green roofs are becoming a major plus for new urban design and making our cities more sustainable. Well here we have the next step Bio Buildings, while this firm isn't the only one out there doing this, it is the first firm to have crossed my web wanderings in search of fun urban factoids.
TR Hamzah & Yeang is an Architectural Firm based in Kuala Lumpur and has been around for three decades, they have an interesting portfolio with a couple Bio buildings including the two that you can see here. The firm has a pretty pro sustainability mission statement and is worth a look over to see some of the stuff they have in the hopper.

The first picture is of their Editt Tower, it has a number of interesting features but my favorite is the 'Vertical Landscaping'

Vegetation from street-level spirals upwards as a continuous ecosystem facilitating species migration, engendering a more diverse ecosystem and greater ecosystem stability and to facilitate ambient cooling of the facades. Species are selected not to compete with others within surroundings. “Vegetation percentages” represent of area’s landscape character. Source


To the right is their 'Elephant & Castle Eco Tower'
This tower seeks to take mixed use development to another level.

The Concept - "City-in-the-Sky".The design takes the model of a general geographical area of a city, with its inherent systems, zoning and social infrastructure and inverts it into skyscraper buildings. The skyscraper and its retail and commercial base is seen as a microcosm of the city, containing within itself the inherent elements of a city block, i.e. parks, shops, entertainment centers, community facilities and housing etc. The "City-in-the Sky" concept provides for:-
•
opportunities for local employment through mixture of use, both on ground and upper levels
•
A healthy mix of residents within the same building. Through "vertical zoning", resident types are grouped according to accommodation preferences (single units, family units, luxury apartments), yet common facilities (e.g. parks, shopping streets etc.) are shared.
•
close proximity to basic amenities, such as the local grocery store, postal boxes, chemist etc. These are all located within the ground development and/or within the tower.
•
a healthy landscaped environment, with spatial progressions of public open spaces (parks in the sky) to semi-private (entrance courts) to private open spaces (balconies). Source

These are the type of dynamic buildings that make me want to paw through their plans, models and whatever other material I can get my hands on.

Stackable Cars

The smarty pants over at MIT have come up with a design for a stackable city car ideal for large scale car sharing programs, or integration into a city's transportation system. The City Car is a stackable two person electric vehicle that they hope will revolutionize the way that urbanites work with personal transportation.

Take a look at the Inhabit Article here.

The Technology Review Article here.

Halifax Seaport Farmers Market

While I was living in Nova Scotia I always enjoyed visiting the weekend farmers market that took place in and around the Alexander Keith's Brewery in downtown Halifax, it has a diverse array of vendors and some of the best samosas I've ever eaten. Public markets are an enjoyable place to buy food and offer their vendors a way to offer their foods at competitive prices, I have loved making use of the local street market and larger public markets both here at home and while living overseas.
The Halifax Farmers Market is out growing its current space and is looking to move a little further down the bay to the warehouse adjoining the historic and recently reopened Pier 21. The Halifax Seaport Farmers Market will be housed in a state of the art facility and be built to high performance sustainable design principles to minimize energy use to 80% of a conventional market, combining day lighting strategies, hyper-efficient envelopes, passive/active ventilation and efficient thermal systems. The market will be built to achieve LEED Gold Certification. The Halifax Seaport Farmers Market will be designed to bring together the land and sea and the rural/urban divide. Reconnecting the city with its waterfront and creating spaces for rural artisans and farmers.Shed 20 will be renovated and serve as the seawall entrance to the Halifax Port Authority's entire seaport development program. The Market will be a cornerstone for the redevelopment of the Seaport area and the adjoining Cruise Ship Terminal will showcase Halifax's goal of being a smart, healthy city with a vibrant economy and culture.The Market will have a number of high efficiency features;

Hyper-efficient envelope and glazing
Green Roof - Coastal Habitat
Daylight Harvesting and control systems
Occupancy Sensors
Passive Ventilation
Displacement delivery
Heat Recovery
Radiant hydronics
Low VOC materials
Rooftop Farming

LEED Certification: LEED Gold
Sustainable strategies:
Recycling current envelope
Reusing existing frame and roof
Storm Water Conservation/rainwater harvesting
Low flow toilets, waterless urinals
FSC certified wood productsOn site Renewables:
Built in Photovotaics BIPV
Micro-turbines
Evacuated tube solar collectors
Geothermal
Harbour Cooling
solar gain, thermal mass

200 Eleventh Ave

Anyone who has spent time in Asia has no doubt encountered the car elevator, due to the lack of available space many buildings have car parks that operate like giant sandwich vending machines, or in some cases send the cars up to higher levels to be parked. The Hyundai department store in the town I lived in operated one of these. The building had a rotating circle outside the entrance to the parking elevator that would allow the valets to turn the car around after getting it on and off its shelf.

Well the idea has officially come to North America, for the super wealthy at least. 200 Eleventh Ave NYC is a new 19 story tower designed by architect Annabelle Selldorf with stainless-steel facades that rise above a cast gunmetal-glazed Terra-cotta base.

To use the 'Sky Garage' tenants pull in through the street level gate and then into the car sized elevator. Using an electronic coding system the elevator then takes the tenant and their car up to the appropriate floor so that they can pull into their own garage. No longer will Mr Jones have to cart all his groceries up in the elevator or get the concierge to help him, he can simply unload his groceries straight from the trunk into his own apartment.

The building includes 16 units in multiple configurations including; simplexes, terraces, duplexes, and a couple different penthouse configurations. As illustrated by the photos the units are as swanky as an apartment with in apt garages should be, and they come with the price tag to boot. A cool $14million will give your car a garage that other cars will be jealous of.
Interestingly this development has shot up in the area adjoining the High Line, along with a number of other developments.

Building Security Without the Pervy

Yuri Ivanov of the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories has come up with a comprehensive building monitoring and tracking system that may actually be less invasive of peoples privacy then current CCTV systems. He and his college Christopher Wren outfitted their office with 215 detectors placed at 2 meter intervals. These detectors capture less information in terms of raw data, but they are actually able to generate much more data then a conventional CCTV system. To understand how this is possible one only needs to think of the way that these sensors work.. a motion sensor picks up and relays if and when a person goes by, by having the sensors spaced closely together they are able to track a persons movements through the office. A CCTV on the other hand captures images of the areas they surveil regardless of whether anyone is there or not. Wren explained the difference as such;

"It's not going to catch you picking your nose. You can only tell that some person went by," Wren explains, "maybe this is better than living under thousands of cameras."

The system basically knows that you are in the building but you could be walking around naked and it wouldn't be able to tell. In order to make sense of all the data that these motion sensors capture the pair developed a software package that we have only seen before in Harry Potter of all places, they developed their own version of the marauders map. People on the display show up as bright spots of light with a comet tail that fades away behind them. Giving viewers the ability to both see where they are and what their trajectories are. The program also allows them to compile this movement data over extended periods of time and look for anomalies and patters.

The implications for security and traffic data collection are exciting. The pair was able to analyse data from a fire drill to discover that two out of three of the fire exits went virtually unused. The congregation habits of people and how long they stay at work also have implications for making air conditioning and heating systems more efficient. The system seems like an excellent trade off for better security without compromising personal privacy.

Toronto Waterfront Viaduct

Sweeping elevated highways and expressways are reminders of the modernist era with its dreams of speedy transportation from area to area on elevated right of ways. Le Corbusier and the modern movement glorified automobiles and gave them their own monumental structures upon which to travel so as not to be encumbered by the minor cross streets and other obstacles below. The modernist movement and Le Corbusier himself have in the years following been criticized for their legacy and these elevated freeways and expressways have gone from being glorious examples of the industrial prowess of man to giant eye sores and physiological barriers pretty much universally disliked by all and expensive to maintain. Toronto and Montreal both have extensive elevated systems and both are experiencing major structural issues. In Toronto there has been much debate over what to do about the Gardiner Expressway as many feel that it is a barrier to the successful redevelopment of the waterfront and no longer able to meet the demands placed upon it in terms of carrying capacity. There have been many proposals to deal with the issue of the Gardiner, however, due to both the prohibitive price tags and the question of what to do with existing traffic while these proposals are carried out has stalled the process.

Jose Gutierrez of Seneca College has come up with a new idea the Toronto Waterfront Viaduct, first the idea of a 6km long cable stayed bridge seems ridiculous, however on further consideration it has some advantages that outweigh other proposals; its aesthetic appeal, the freeing up of land currently occupied by the expressway, and lack of interference with the existing expressway while under construction. Its 1.65 billion dollar price tag is also comparable with other proposals for the expressway.

“I thought about utilizing the existing Lakeshore rail corridor, and merging the Expressway and the rail tracks into one major transportation corridor,” Gutierrez says. “The cable-stayed idea came from the need to provide as few obstacles as possible for train movement and street level traffic (either pedestrian, bicycles, transit or car traffic).” source

Gutierrez's proposal has simply the basic plan for the elevated viaduct and also add ons that could be used to either increase the diversity of uses for the viaduct or even offset the cost of building it. I find the proposal very exciting and it has the potential to integrate well into other projects such as the union station redevelopment and assorted waterfront projects.

Click here to see his proposal in depth.

Links
http://spacing.ca/wire/?page_id=1244
http://www.toviaduct.com/

Elevated Parkways

In New York City an organisation called "Friends of the High Line" are in the process of converting a previously abandoned freight viaduct that runs along the lower west side of Manhattan from a 'lost space' to a new elevated park reserved for pedestrians. The idea is not new, there is currently another elevated park in Paris called The Promenade Plantée. The project is designed to increase the available parkland in the city by turning what some have considered a blight into a unique advantage, looking through some past entries about this online it is clear that there was much debate and a serious push to have the whole structure removed. Link I for one am happy that the friends of the high line have been successful in getting the go ahead to convert the structure to an urban promenade. Unique parks and the maintenance of structures of historical significance is a big plus to me. It is also interesting to see how structures like this begin to make us relate to the city in further levels, most are only used to considering a city from the ground level, sure we have subways and underground structures, and sky walks in some urban areas but most don't really consider them when thinking of the strata of an area. Subways are underground and you don't really see anything so its easy to have no awareness of the city that you pass through on your way between your usual stations and sky walks tend to insulate us from the city by being too much like the interior of the buildings they connect. Elevated walkways like the Promenade and the future high line allow us to experience the city from above while still being in contact with its sights and smells, I have a feeling that once completed this project will become a valued part of the neighbourhoods it connects.
The High line has a specific vision;

The Vision

Friends of the High Line believes the historic High Line rail structure offers New Yorkers the opportunity to create a one-of-a-kind recreational amenity: a grand, public promenade that can be enjoyed by all residents and visitors in New York City. When the High Line is converted to public open space, you will be able to rise up from the streets and step into a place apart, tranquil and green. You will see the Hudson River, the Manhattan skyline, and secret gardens inside city blocks as you've never seen them before. You will move between Penn Station and the Hudson River Park, from the convention center to the Gansevoort Market Historic District, without meeting a car or truck. The High Line will be a promenade—a linear public place where you will see and be seen. You will sense New York's industrial past in the rivets and girders. You will perceive the future unrolling before you in an artfully designed environment of unprecedented innovation. It will be yours—public in the truest sense of the word. Public dollars helped build it in the 1930s. Public legislation empowers us to make it a place anyone can visit. It will be proof New York City no longer casts aside its priceless transportation infrastructure but instead creates bold new uses for these monuments to human power and ambition. source

There is a great collection of pictures of the high line in its current state here

There are three other projects in the works for structures like these; the Bloomingdale Trail in Chicago and on old Reading Viaduct elevated rail in the Callowhill section of Philadelphia Pennsylvania

Link List
http://www.thehighline.org/

http://www.citynoise.org/article/6957

http://www.promenade-plantee.org/

The Threat of Aristocratization

The Onion has this great little article that may help put gentrification into perspective for those of us 'elites' who don't understand what all the fuss is about when people say that gentrification is a problem. Personally I think that gentrification is pretty good... BUT only if there is an concerted effort for the maintenance of affordable housing within the neighbourhood. Either way be sure to check out this Onion Article it made me laugh and I think it will make you laugh too.

Rapid Transit Sytems

Transportation systems are an important city network, an efficient rapid transit system will make a city much more livable by giving its citizens a way to move around without having to rely on their cars. In the world there are currently one hundred and sixty-two rapid transit systems, with more then 8,000 km (4,900 miles) of track and 7,000 stations.

I have been fortunate enough to travel on a number of these systems and experience the joys and horrors that can come with them, from the super clean and efficient lines of Fukoka, to what we English teachers termed the ‘refugee line’ in Seoul. Rapid transit systems are one of the most important circulatory systems in the urban area and come in many different configurations and capacities.

Before we take a look at a selection of the different rapid transit systems around the world lets first define what makes up a rapid transit system;

Rapid transit is a term that is used to describe transit systems that are rail-based and used within urban areas to transport people.

The term also can include more specific systems, such as metro or heavy rail systems, in which the transit system also must meet the following criteria: an urban, electric mass transit railway system completely independent from other traffic with high capacity and service frequency. Rapid transit systems are either elevated, on ground or underground. In most systems the central business district CBD portion of the system is underground, and the outside of center parts of the system vary.

Systems that are termed as subway and underground are usually used on systems that are based solely or primarily underground. The word subway can apply to the entire system, or only to those parts that are actually underground, the most common term used internationally is metro. Rapid transit systems that are above street level may be called "elevated" systems in the US (often shortened to El or L, as Chicago's system is popularly referred to). In the UK, elevated systems are generally classified as light railways such as the Docklands Light Railway in east London, although not all British light railways are elevated.

Subway systems and subway maps give an interesting perspective on the city. While many subway maps are altered and do not follow the geographic contours of the city, they do trace out the major circulatory routes as they spread out from the central city and form a mental perspective in their passengers minds of what the city looks like. It is also interesting to note how the patterns of the sytems change depending on the surrounding geography of the city, can you tell if it is a coastal city just by looking at the map.

Selected Transit Systems;
Beijing

Lines: 5 Daily Trips: 3.51 million

Home Page: http://www.bjsubway.com/cns/index.html

Boston

Lines: 5 Daily Trips: 598,200
Home Page: http://www.mbta.com/

Brussels

Lines: 3 Daily Trips: 700,000
Home Page: http://www.mivb.be/index.htm?guest_user=guest_en

Bucharest

Lines: 4 Daily Trips: 750,000
Home Page: http://www.metrorex.ro/

Buenos Aries

Lines: 5 Daily Trips: N/A
Home Page: http://www.metrovias.com.ar/

Glasgow

Lines: 1 Daily Trips: 36,055
Home Page: http://www.spt.co.uk/Subway/index.html

Milano

Lines: 3 Daily Trips: N/A
Home Page: http://www.atm-mi.it/ATM/eng

Montreal

Lines: 4 Daily Trips: 835,000
Home Page: http://www.stm.info/English/a-somm.htm

Moscow

Lines: 12 Daily Trips: 6.8 million
Home Page: http://www.mosmetro.ru/

Osaka

Lines: 8 Daily Trips: 2.3 million
Home Page: http://www.kotsu.city.osaka.jp/foreign/english/index.html

Prague

Lines: 3 Daily Trips: 1.4 million
Home Page: http://www.dp-praha.cz/index.php?q=en

Seoul

Lines: 10 Daily Trips: 8 million
Home Page: http://www.smrt.co.kr/english_smrt/index.jsp

Shanghai

Lines: 8 Daily Trips: 2.18 million
Home Page: http://www.shtmetro.com/

Stockholm

Lines: 7 Daily Trips: 1.07 million
Home Page: http://www.sl.se/Templates/SubStart.aspx?id=1906

Taipai

Lines: 8 Daily Trips: 1,211 million
Home Page: http://www.trtc.com.tw/e/

Tokyo

Lines: 14 Daily Trips: 7.8 million
Home Page: http://www.kotsu.metro.tokyo.jp/english/index.html

Toronto

Lines: 4 Daily Trips: 1.2 million
Home Page: http://www.toronto.ca/ttc/

Washington DC

Lines: 5 Daily Trips: 702,171
Home Page: http://www.wmata.com/

The Comprehensive Wiki List

World Rapid Transit Systems