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September 20, 2005
Nibbles & Bits & Bits
Appears London is suffering from the same white/middle class flight that has scourged American cities for some time, with "the white population of London falling by nearly 400,000 in the 1990s...[Richard] Rogers said that the mayor’s programme to create or improve 100 public spaces, the third phase of which was announced this week, would encourage white middle class Londoners to stay." But not without valid criticism, "Elsie Owusu, of the Society of Black Architects, said: “People of all races should be encouraged in the making of public spaces.” Read more at Building Design.
On that note, check a dismal but engaging slide show of London's Council Estates - read - Public Housing Projects. California sprawl shots from Matt Jalbert. Photographs of the building of an adobe - in Gobi - from Earth Architecture. And finally, photographs of Los Angeles' vast concrete river beds...
In related news, Richard Rogers' Welsh Assembly is complete, The Guardian takes stock, of what appears to an environmental triumph - with an array of fantastic green strategies. And in related related news, blog Land+Living points us to a great new reference guide, Green Building Products.
Architecture Week features the work of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, worth the look see... And Steve Holl's new winning Belgian commission...
New York's infrastructure report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers. Data chunks outlining the challenge of our aging outfit...
-38% of New York's bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
-New York's drinking water infrastructure needs $13.15 billion over the next 20 years.
-New York recycles 17.1% of the state's solid waste.
-Congestion in the NYC metropolitan area costs commuters $893 per person per year in excess fuel and lost time.
Blogger Starts and Fits details the ways New York's bridge infrastructure has changed - for the worse - over time. Why does Flushing Queens need a boost? Revealing Q&A with planner Wellington Chen. Trump continues to unleash his locusts on the banks of the Hudson River.
The third annual Open House New York is set to take place Oct 8th & 9th, and in order to build some excitement - for an already wonderfully exciting event - my favorite London blogger, Diamond Geezer, has some photos and three entries musing on last weekend's London Open House. If you haven't, I highly recommend taking Diamond Geezer's trip down the River Fleet. Fantastic.
East Village rezoning that might stop the communities facilities height bonus that brought you the fabled "Dorm", that piss ass building on Third st. Speaking of which, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) keeps the recent West Village zoning meeting hot & heavy - the planning commission votes Sept 28.
Most of the news emanating from China speaks of enormous environmental catastrophe. Here, a dust particle of good news in the stream of bad. Seems William McDonough is in the trenches, "He's co-chair—together with Deng Xiaoping's daughter, Deng Nan—of the China-U.S. Center for Sustainable Development." Promising.
More Katrina fall out, with Baton Rouge's population doubled - 400.000 to 800.000 - big questions face planners and architects in the region.
A cool new blog, Pruned: on landscape architecture and related fields... and another blog, new to me, but not the web - Exuberance.
And... For any family reading this, from the Bldg Blog, all about Icelands Soil Bombing Campaign... and some lovely antique maps of Iceland.
Posted by jmarston at September 20, 2005 10:16 AM