Archiculture

Click and zoom into each Borough for finer details:

Slowly but steadily this city is learning to return to its water. We have such a long way to go especially in contrast to my former home of San Francisco. Enjoy clicking around the waterfronts of NYC.

Thanks for the tip David.

via: good.is

This is for that 50% of architects who don’t completely believe Global Warming is a critical component to the future of the planet and the future of the profession. See stats below from an article in October 2009, Architect Magazine:

Over the summer, 960 readers of Architect participated in a survey about their green beliefs. In it, we asked participants to select from four statements the one that best characterizes their attitude toward sustainability. Fewer than half (46.4 percent) chose the statement, “It’s vital that we design and build sustainably, in order to conserve scarce resources and prevent further global warming.”

One group (12.8 percent) dismissed the issue outright: “Global warming is a myth perpetuated by the media, and green building is a fad—it’ll be forgotten in 20 years’ time.” Yikes. Others (6.7 percent) doubted that green-building efforts in America could offset the damage caused by industrialization in China and India.

The largest (and to me, most interesting) group of naysayers (34.1 percent) fell somewhere in the middle, subscribing to the following statement: “I’m not sure that global warming is caused by man, but energy conservation makes economic sense if we’ll be less dependent on other countries’ oil.”
- Ned Cramer, Architect Magazine

via: 8-Bit City

Be sure to follow the link above to check out other cities such as San Francisco, London, Berlin, or Paris.

Thanks for the tip Leslie!

via: Discovery News

TanDEM-X is scheduled to meet up in orbit with its larger “twin” satellite TerraSAR-X and fly in a tight helix around it. As the two image the same section of Earth from slightly different angles, they will produce the first high-resolution 3-D pictures of the planet’s surface. The first such images are expected in January.

New maps generated this way will allow military jets to fly extremely low to the ground. Images will also be useful to disaster response, allowing workers to quickly determine which part of a region has been hit hardest by an earthquake or flood.

Of course this was developed first for military use. What happened to our investment in innovation that it only occurs for destruction?

via: MoMA Multimedia

While doing research for a Waterfront Park design summer camp (spots still available) that I’m leading in late July with Junior High students at the Center for Architecture, I came across all these great videos for the Rising Currents exhibition. I’ve seen this exhibition in person and went on a private boat tour a month back which had each design team present their concepts at their sites around the harbor. Some very inspiring ideas to engage the inevitable sea level rise and use it as a benefit for human and natural health. Definitely well worth the time to check out these videos in your leisure at home, work, or across the globe. Be sure to watch all five team videos.

1968

1972 - Vignelli’s Classic

1979

1998

Drum roll please…

2010

via: NYtimes

The new subway maps have started going up throughout the city. The island of Manhattan continues to get fatter while Staten Island has been downsized. Other changes are  a deeper blue water, a greener and lighter land color, parks have turned a more olive shade of green, and the subway lines now have shadows.

It also seems like they’ve simplified or eliminated a lot the bus, rail and ferry information which I think is a shame. Not sure why in this age you would dumb down a transit map. I would prefer them to continue illustrating the diversify in modes of transit available. I guess it is visual overload to the tourists if they can’t cleverly design these layers of information to recede into the map.

 
via: Fast Company

This tweet by BLDGBLOG started it all:
“On the terrifying possibility that the Gulf oil spill might now be unstoppable: http://is.gd/cRWNX (via @stevesilberman)”

Then I read the above linked article which blew me away:

“Sharon Astyk at ScienceBlogs points the way to a seriously scary comment thread at The Oil Drum, a sounding board for, among others, many petroleum geologists and oil professionals. The comment in question is from a seemingly very knowledgable “dougr.” Some of it follows verbatim below. I’ve highlighted the parts that frightened me the most”
Is the BP Gusher Unstoppable? - Mother Jones

Then I started researching further:

“According to Sagalevich’s report, the oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico is not just coming from the 22 inch well bore site being shown on American television, but from at least 18 other sites on the “fractured seafloor” with the largest being nearly 11 kilometers (7 miles) from where the Deepwater Horizon sank and is spewing into these precious waters an estimated 2 million gallons of oil a day.”
Scientists Warn Gulf Of Mexico Sea Floor Fractured Beyond Repair - Before It’s News

“Predictions by analysts of the overall cost of the spill to BP, when criminal penalties are included, have been rising. On Wednesday, Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James, estimated the total legal cost, including criminal fines, at $62.9 billion, which would dwarf the $20 billion escrow account to be used to pay claims of economic loss.”
With Criminal Charges for Oil Spill, Costs to BP Could Soar - NYtimes

“The well bore structure is compromised “Down hole”. That is something which is a “Worst nightmare” conclusion to reach. While many have been saying this for some time as with any complex disaster of this proportion many have “said” a lot of things with no real sound reasons or evidence for jumping to such conclusions, well this time it appears that they may have jumped into the right place…”
Deepwater Oil Spill - A Longer Term Problem, Personnel - and Open Thread 2 - The Oil Drum

Then I went to video:

And finally interactive to bring it home:

Click here, to map the spill on your city.

I now can’t sleep and feel completely helpless.

via: Forbes

This is insanely valuable information to anyone. For more details click on the map above to go to the interactive version. Click on any county in the US and see the inward and outward flow of people (look at the difference between Detroit and Atlanta). This is crucial because it tells us which places are attracting and/or loosing people, workers, tax-bases, and talent now that the economy has reset our spatial values. For more info about the geospatial ramifications of today’s and past recessions/depressions then check out Richard Florida’s Great Reset.

via: Jenn Ski Studio Blog

A playful take on the Manifest Destiny land grid seen out any plane window crossing the US.

Thanks for the tip Mari.

via: Fresh Geologic Froth

This is amazing! Follow the link above to see the image in higher resolution.

Thanks for the tip Geoff.