Spotted around town

I noticed that more construction projects have "cleaned up" scaffolding. It's still not beautiful, but is a lot better. I noticed this particularly on "Bling Bond" (a phrase cribbed from a realtor who is "ultra-excited" about my neighborhood.)

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Also in my hood, WaMu, which opened a branch office last year, has decided that it will not put up with sitting anymore. The structure had some benches on the ground floor, which fit well with the root of "bank" being the Italian banco, for bench. Well, you're not allowed to sit anymore.

Latest Economist survey on cities

There's not much new in the latest Economist survey on the world's urbanization effect - except that the moment when the world's population living in cities exceeds 50% is within the next two months - a few years earlier than projections I learned about when I was in grad school a mere five years ago. Acceleration...

Public Space + Sustainability

Design Trust for Public Space releases its latest RFP, due date July 27 2007. The focus is Designining for a Healthy NYC 2030.

Thanks Stephanie!

Good events

A couple of good events this weekend...

Liz Christy Community Garden will be having a fund-raiser in the garden (Houston and Bowery). It's a Hat Party, from 1-4 PM, so come properly attired.

GOOD Magazine is hosting a Garden in Transit kick-off on Mother's Day, May 13, for the public art project that is to take over the city from September through December 2007.

A found green roof

And it's public too! The Elevated Acre

The official site.
A member of the architecture team's flickr set

Lame excuses for not taking care of a park

Gateway National Recreational Area has received the lowest marks in this year's ranking of national parks.

The general superintendent of the National Parks Service lamely shrugs off the criticism by saying that the park "received run-off from eight million people" and that it should not be surprisng that it's not as beautiful as Yosemite or Yellowstone.

It should be surprising! Parks like Gateway, regardless of the number of natural resources it has, would be a welcome respite for the eight million or so people who live in New York City if it is simply well-managed! So at least he gets this part right:

“Most importantly, the park needs an updated general management plan and resource stewardship plan to guide natural and cultural resource management.”

Van Alen Institute is holding a competition for a new Gateway (deadline was May 7...)

Same old struggle with new development

Frédéric Borel’s Paris Val-de-Seine Architecture School in an old factory (NYTimes)

People think of Paris as the quintessential pedestrian city, so what happens to the rich urban experience when it attempts a new infill development along the Seine with mixed-use, institutional, mixed-income, and innovative architecture?

This article in the NYTimes outlines some of the typical issues that occur with new developments in the US - only this time. NYC should pay attention, especially as it looks to develop Willets Point in the Bronx, next to Shea Stadium under PlanYC, or perhaps even more appropriately, downtown Brooklyn where a starchitect is leading the charge.

In particular,

like La Défense, the area lacks the street life and sidewalk-level charm for which Paris is loved. At the moment there are few cafes, restaurants or small shops to speak of. “It looks good on paper as a plan, but at an experience level it leads to the same old thing: well done, well detailed, just dry,” said Brendan MacFarlane of Jakob & MacFarlane, which is building a fashion institute inside an old warehouse. “We need something richer on an urban level.”

Arch events

A couple of big events coming up...

Postopolis...several straight days of architectural discussion May 29 through June 2...sounds kind of heavy but with the dynamic participants, it will probably end up being more fun than heavy.

And a triennial on architecture in Lisbon May 31 through July 31 with a couple of heavy-hitters including Zaha Hadid, Peter Eisenman, Thom Mayne, Mark Wigley, Souto de Moura, Elizabeth Diller, Carrilho da Graça, Felix Claus, Dominique Perrault, Rodolfo Machado, Emilio Tuñón, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Kengo Kuma, Saskia Sassen, Michael Sorkin and Jan Kaplicky, among many others.

BAM , Enrique Norten a No Go

Yes, the arch world is full of chatter this morning about Enrique Norten's design for a building that will house the Brooklyn Public Library in downtown Brooklyn.

Now that we got over the memorable hook "now seems likely to sink, unrealized, into the pavement," did you read through the rest of the NYT article? Namely,

“I always had this crazy vision of Brooklyn being the Left Bank of New York,” [Harvey Lichenstein] added. “It’s not so crazy anymore.”

Will this be a revolving door of potential arts projects? If you throw out enough ideas, maybe one of them will stick.

Updating "Social Life"

The Social Life of Wireless Urban Spaces : new research project

A green building leads to a green corporation?

View of cafe and atrium, from Hearst web site

Over the last month, I have had one tour of the Hearst Tower and I've heard maybe five presentations about it. The company certainly has something to be proud of, building in the heart of New York City, and building green (LEED Platinum Gold, green).

Being a media company, the inevitable next step is to launch a web site "The Daily Green" whose tagline is "the consumer's guide to a green revolution." All of this to further promoting itself as a responsible, sustainable corporation. The articles in the web site are taken from Hearst media properties, naturally. I never thought of the Hearst Corporation as a green company, but its shift in consumer perception is palpable. Did it all start with building green?

Droog Design: Climate Change

The Dutch collective Droog Design is holding a competition on climate change.

Ranging from ideas about food, heating, music, literature, fashion, architecture...anything you like in any form you wish.

Comments on Bloomberg's sustainability plan

I was away when the NYC sustainability plan was announced, and didn't have a good sense of reactions, other than what was reported by the NYT (blocked article) which was mainly lukewarm diplomatic responses from City Council members.

Here are some more reactions from today's Gotham Gazette.

A wave of green building

Sustainable building practices are no longer new, but the tone in the public consciousness is still one of discovery.

Here's the latest "trend" article from the NY Times.

Carnegie Mellon U and Pittsburgh

I finally put up the photos from Pittsburgh. I focused on Carnegie Mellon University, as it is one of the most "green" campuses in the country. I had a mission: to find out where students gather. I do believe that greening goes hand in hand with creating spaces that people want to use, and I found this effort to have mixed-results on campus.


My tour started at the relatively new building, the University Center, which serves as a kind of student union for the students. It was a beautiful day, but where is everyone? The seating and shading of this courtyard is great, but I think the tall walls around each side of it serves more as a barrier to sitting than it does as a privacy screen.

Some more students here:


here:


and here:

...but not what I would call solid "gathering."

I stumbled onto this spot which had more student concentrated in one spot than I've seen all day:





It was adjacent to a new cafe that was heralded as a "green" cafe, but not many people sitting in here:



Just goes to show that food helps, but doesn't create, a successful public space. I have more pictures of where students sat together, you can check out my Flickr page.

My favorite picture of the bunch is in an adjacent neighborhood, where this couple was waiting for the bus. Apparently Pittsburgh has a really great public transit system with its buses, to the extent that this couple, who appears to be the kind of couple that might care about how they look getting from one place to the next, would ride it. Yes, a gross generalization, but I can only wish that I will look this elegant waiting for the bus.

Bringing sexy back

Lisa got the scoop first.

Thank you!

Thanks to the folks who came out last night to our Jane Jacobs memorial event. We had a full room with a lot of new faces. It was wonderful to meet new people who are doing great things for the city, including folks from the Municipal Art Society, The Next American City, Columbia's Urban Technical Assistance Program, the Center for Architecture, the Council of Senior Centers and Services of New York City, and of course the Rockefeller Foundation and the newly formed Urban Design department at the Department of City Planning. Thanks in particular to Darren Walker (pdf) (who only had two hours of sleep the night before!) and to Alex Washburn for talking about the Jacobsian legacy and the future of New York City. Hope to see all of you at the same time next year.

Good experiences

Magnolia tree in the Clinton Community Garden

I'm pre-occupied this week with the gel 2007 conference and a retail branding breakfast panel. I'm doing a walking tour of public spaces in West Midtown for gel, and I'm most excited about getting to visit Clinton Community Garden. If I were a participant, I would have had a hard time deciding what to do. If you miss the gel conference in New York, head out to Copenhagen this fall. It's always fun to put your common sense back to work.

Jane Jacobs and Other events

Don't forget the Jane Jacobs event next Wednesday, April 25 at 6 PM at the White Horse Tavern.

Plus, there's two interesting events for you on Tuesday, April 24. The third Green Apple Talk at the Strand will feature one of my favorite journalists, Aaron Naparstek, who is currently editor at Streetsblog.

Second is the vowel-less LVHRD GRN event.

I will have to miss both of these events. I'll be at ULI's conference on sustainable development in Pittsburgh. I'm so excited to see Pittsburgh.

Most popular architecture blogs

Bird to the North just found out that it is No. 18 20 - of the 2007 most popular architecture blogs. Thank you Eikongraphia! I'm honored to be in such great company. I always thought BttN was something like No. 637; can't be anything but pleased about being Top 20.

Update: This is a very international crowd - which is terrific! Also, is it a very male crowd? Is BttN one of the few female-authored blogs up here?

Also, to be very frank, I never intended this blog to be about architecture, though of course the built environment is about architecture. So it's interesting to be listed - and I'm still pleased as punch.

UPDATE: April 25 - Jane Jacobs Gathering

A quick reminder to mark your calendars on April 25, for the Jane Jacobs gathering at the White Horse Tavern. Alex Washburn, the newly appointed Chief of Urban Design, will be joining Darren Walker from the Rockefeller Foundation to give us a quick presentation on urban design challenges for New York City and the inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal, respectively. Everyone welcome, no RSVP necessary.

Wednesday, April 25
6PM
White Horse Tavern
567 Hudson St. at W 11th

Words of wisdom

I went to an event yesterday hosted by Interior Design Magazine, all about the business of design. Though the day was packaged with discussions of brand extensions, product development, and business people getting through the design process, the highlight was getting to hear Sergio Palleroni speak. He is the founder of the BaSiC Initiative, which is about building sustainable communities through design. I'm catching onto this late, as he has received so many accolades that they are too numerous to list here. One thing that he said yesterday, which I found to be very emblematic of his work is that "the future depends on millions of small solutions."

I like the concept of bringing design to the people, or the community as designers. I am lukewarm about the business interpretation of it, which sometimes means more products more of the time. Sergio Palleroni's approach is another perspective which shows that more design for the people does not mean more waste, but less waste or even zero waste.

You can catch one piece of his and his student's new furniture, which involved turning reclaimed wood from Katrina into furniture for the New Orleans community at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum next month. You can learn more about his work with his students at BaSiC.

Zero

Everywhere we turn these days, people are talking green this, green that. All the major design and architectural conventions this year have green as the theme. Yet already for a few years now, this trend was accompanied by talk of green as vapid marketing hype, all surface, no sustainable substance, perhaps illustrated by TV catching on. Green sells.

Now we're heading towards zero. No Impact Man has made a significant impact. Our firm is talking about carbon-neutral, living buildings and design, being green is not enough. Seth Godin sums it up: zero is the new black.

Bring back the trikes

Look at these ingenious ways that trikes have been able to cart people and objects around Beijing. via designboom

Shifting art and architecture

I like this interview with Olafur Eliasson, who I have mentioned here. I like his experiments with space and experience. About his work,

Looking into the future, Eliasson sees opportunities for a new kind of practice, that actually looks just like his one: a combination of art and architecture that could attain a ‘new responsive criticality’, working from an engagement with reality. Not socialist, not left wing or right wing, but to provide people with the sense that their lives matters, and that they are part of a community. Social and environmental sustainability. And laughing: ‘Art shows the way’. To finish: ‘I have a dream that content wins over form. I don’t want to kill form completely, because that is what my work is about, but almost.’

Liz Christy Community Garden

The first signs of spring in the Liz Christy Community Garden. It looks like the garden is growing to the end of the block, at 2nd Ave. Hurray if this is true. There is a gate to a private patio at Avalon Bay. Can the community use the patio?

UPDATE: The community cannot use the patio, but the garden is growing! It will stretch from Bowery to Second Ave along Houston.













The whole set...

Proposal for Grand Army Plaza

Images via Streetsblog

I love going to Prospect Park but contending with Grand Army Plaza on the way there is enough to keep me away. There's a great discussion on Streetsblog about recent proposals that are meant to improve the pedestrian and bike experience. The proposal is an improvement on the current experience - there are more stable islands where pedestrians can wait and those holding areas are going to be prettified, but it is also fairly clear that cars continue to have priority in this public space. The improvements seem to be concentrated on what happens to circulation once you enter the vehicular area, and doesn't show the experience from the approach.

Regardless of the many nays, I hope some improvements will be made in the short-term. Still, I can't wait for the day when Grand Army Plaza is conceived as the spectacular entrance to Prospect Park, instead of a roundabout to connect the streets.

via Streetsblog

Save the Date - April 25 - Jane Jacobs

Lisa Chamberlain and I are hosting an event to commemorate Jane Jacobs. It will be on April 25, on the anniversary of her death. It's been so long since we've seen some of our compatriots - that means you urban bloggers, writers, activists, and designers. So come out and remember a lady that continues to inspire us to care for our cities and communities.

April 25
6 PM
White Horse Tavern
Hudson at W 11th St

Darren Walker from the Rockefeller Foundation will be on hand to talk for a few minutes about the Jane Jacobs medal, and we're hoping to confirm a couple more speakers who will speak about the City's vision for neighborhood development.

Everyone is welcome, no need to RSVP, pass it along.

Wal-Mart: Impossible to be green

Stacy Mitchell from the Institute of Local Self-Reliance argues that there is no-way that Wal-Mart can be green - it's as basic as its fundamental business model:

In January alone, Wal-Mart opened 70 U.S. stores. At current growth rates, by 2015 Wal-Mart will have enlarged its domestic footprint by 20,000 acres, turning CO2-absorbing fields and forests into stores and parking lots. Big-box stores make incredibly inefficient use of land. While 200,000 square feet of retail spread over several two-story downtown buildings with shared parking takes up about four acres, a single-story Superstore of this size, with its standard 1,000 parking spaces, consumes nearly 20 acres.

Regardless of their ability to cap carbon emissions, big-box stores still eat up way more land than other retail models.

Recycling for the public

The City just announced a public space recycling program. Though I thought at first this meant that we were recycling old tire swings from playgrounds into surfacing, what it really means is that recycling receptacles will be put in public spaces so you can get rid of the newspaper you just finished on the train, or that plastic bottle you just drank out of.

It's about time!

It's still in an experiment mode, but I hope it gets through this stage quickly and rolled out. Recycling bins should be as ubiquitous as trash cans.

You'll find the recycling bins at:
* Bronx: Poe Park
* Brooklyn: Columbus Park
* Manhattan: Union Square Park & Whitehall Ferry Terminal
* Queens: Hoffman Park
* Staten Island: Tappen Park, Cloves Lake Park, St. George Ferry Terminal

The new taxi design

This has been all over the media, so for those who are anxiously following the story, you can watch the exhibit being built with the Design Trust photo journal, Day zero and Day One.

And don't miss Deborah Marton's conversation on WNYC. Here's the Design Trust's info on the exhibit.

Clickies

How can Brasilia be worse? Check out the new secret capital of Myanmar (Burma).

Congestion-pricing a possibility sooner than we think?

Is a green mall an oxymoron? It will be built based on LEED specifications, but LEED does not guarantee that it will be in a place that will be easily accessed by transit and pedestrians, have good public spaces, etc. More at TreeHugger.

Update on those London Toilets

via bubblejam.net

Update

and another article on the loos in London.
Bloomberg

Active retail, active transit

I was walking around Brooklyn Heights a couple weeks ago and noticed this little entrance beckoning me with a flower seller and food vendors. It turns out it was the Clark Street station for the 2/3 line. A lot of retail for subway stations are underground, and I really liked that this one helped make the entrance inviting before you have to go underground. If you look towards at the back, there's the ticket booth. For people who know this station, maybe it's obvious, but then again, maybe it's something you take for granted. It certainly makes a morning commute much more inviting.

The Anti-McMansion

I loved the examples in this BusinessWeek article featuring the Japanese phenomenon of infill development - really really infill, filling the cracks of the city, essentially. Plots of land are between 300-400 square feet, and they still manage to build a home, with space for parents.

Article
Slide show

via Mocoloco

CB9 and Columbia on Manhattanville

This news is a bit old, but last week I attended the New York APA's event on Manhattanville, where Columbia and CB9 both had a chance to update the planning community on the status of the project. I think that majority of the design proposals that have been circulated have not changed significantly since Columbia made its intentions known.

Some elements of note are: Columbia is seeking a change in zoning for 35 acres in this community, though it is directly developing 17 acres; both Columbia Business School and the liberal arts school will be up there; there's going to be a magnet math, science and engineering high school managed by the Board of Ed, which will start accepting students this coming Fall despite the lack of a physical building; a community benefits agreement is in the works; and eminent domain is still in consideration.

As far as status in the City approval process, it still seemed a bit unclear. Is the Environmental Impact Statement pending? And there was a mention of carbon neutral development on the part of CB9. Though the idea may be well known within the advocacy community, and has definitely reached the decision-makers of private development, this was the first time I've heard about the issue within a specific community development context. Are other community's advocating for this with their respective projects?

Also, maybe this is petty, but this is the glossy vision that Columbia is selling:




And this is the place where people debated it last week.




I hope Columbia is hosting some of the discussion in settings that reflect the importance of the issue, as part of its outreach.

Columbia's Manhattanville proposal
Pratt Center's CB 9 initiative

A new public space for Dumbo

Will Dumbo get a new public space in the middle of one of its streets?

The triangle seems to have gotten a whiff of inspiration from the Gansvoort proposal, though there isn't a big blank structure from a bridge there.



There are many intersections like these around New York, and sometimes it does seem that the City has given up making them useful for people and instead turning them over to cars. Now that there's greater community-based interest in reclaiming these space, the challenge is how to make the triangles provide for people without making them all feel the same.

More on Moses

In anticipation of the next week's event about Robert Moses, here's more on Moses from Ada Louise Huxtable of the WSJ, an older article from Phillip Lopate, and the Karrie Jacobs article that seems to have inspired the event.

On Tuesday, March 20, view the museum’s current exhibition, “Robert Moses and the Modern City: Remaking the Metropolis”, and join Metropolis contributing editor Karrie Jacobs as she shares her views in a compelling talk, “Landscape by Moses.” Jacobs will highlight a number of Moses’s peculiar landscapes and discuss whether or not they have been successfully integrated into the daily life of our city. Refreshments and light hors d’oeuvres will be served. Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue, NYC, 6:30 p.m. Space is limited. Please respond to: RSVP@metropolismag.com.

Ending "endless sitting"

I don't know if banning sitting is ever really the answer; that's what Berkeley, CA is thinking about doing.

LBC public market

When you think about Long Beach, CA, you don't think public spaces. But here are some shots of the very popular farmers market held every Sunday in the Alamitos Bay Marina's parking lot. Adjacent is a little flea market.






It's a shame that the easiest way to get there is by car. Judging by how crowded the market was on Sunday, the demand is there.

Away

I'll be traveling to the West Coast for work this week. Any ideas on things to do in Portland and LA? Skin + Bones at MoCA is already on my agenda.

A couple of things to check out: the latest on a small NY public space on This Place Is... and I snapped this shot of the Gehry building at night during the snow last week. It's got nothing to do with public space per se, but I like the building - at least the upper stories. I have to go check it out on the ground floor. It was bit of subdued brightness on this little dirty stretch of 10th Ave; and that made me like it.

Art-itechture in public space

I was fascinated to discover the awareness of temporality and the public realm in this Boston Globe interview with Elizabeth Diller, of Diller + Scofidio. In the world of community-oriented development, D+S have a notorious reputation of being star architects: egoists who seek out object building as an end. While Ms. Diller does not espouse community involvement, she talked a lot about experimenting with space, particularly public space, and the desire to continue working in the public realm, on any scale. What do you think?

Found art

Found Streetsy and Banksy and UrbanCurators and New Life to Boarded Up Homes.



Pretty cozy for this snowy day.

Nominations for the Jane Jacobs Medal

"The creation of a Jane Jacobs Medal to honor the activist, author and urbanist was announced today by the Rockefeller Foundation. Awarded annually, Jane Jacobs Medals will recognize two living individuals whose creative vision for the urban environment has significantly contributed to the vibrancy and variety of New York City. The 2007 Jane Jacobs Medal will be administered by the Municipal Art Society (MAS)."

Full details
Nomination form

Nominations due March 2 2007!

Clickies

Who doesn't love a pillow fight in public...LEED for neighborhoods...exploring branding exactly where you expect to see it, at Logo Cities...the particular success of second story retail...Moses, Moses, Moses...and ah, the days when starchitecture was a glint in one's eye.

UPDATE: and one more, a sewing cafe lives in Berlin, via Springwise.

Story of a Street Corner

A little something Jon sent along, by Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka is called the Walt Disney of Japan. He produced this animation in 1962 with his own money. This is called Story of a Street Corner.

Backyard at twilight

Sustainability and corporations

Old news? It's reached the establishment via IHT.