UrbDeZine NYC

Urban Planning + Design + Architecture + Historic Preservation

Transportation

Take a Train: The Q – NYC’s new subway extension is airy and full of art

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Vic Muniz’s “Perfect Strangers”
70th St. entrance art: Vic Muniz’s “Perfect Strangers” portray riders you are likely to come across on your travels.

New York City’s new math: 100 years, $4.5 billion, 3 subway stops.

New Year’s Day 2017 saw the ribbon cut on the first phase of the Second Avenue subway, the locally-mythic train touted to alleviate the overburdened east side subways since the late 1920s. A Great Depression, a world war and a City bankruptcy interfered with its execution. After nearly 10 years of actual construction and neighborhood misery, three airy, clean and art-filled stations opened for business. [Read more…] about Take a Train: The Q – NYC’s new subway extension is airy and full of art

Quick peek at the Calatrava’s World Trade Center Transportation Hub

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Calatrava WTC transpo-hum, photo-3
So near and yet so far . . .

The long-anticipated WTC Transportation Hub designed by Santiago Calatrava had a “soft” opening at the beginning of March. Shoe-horned next to the WTC Memorial, the Hub’s steel wingspan has loomed over the active construction site for years, promising big things to come. In fact, the opening was so low-keyed that the main entrance was still unfinished and signs showing how to enter were non-existent. The building itself is surrounded by cyclone fencing with no obvious way of getting inside. Ask a stranger how to enter, and the only response was “I don’t know, but I know it cost $4 billion!” [Read more…] about Quick peek at the Calatrava’s World Trade Center Transportation Hub

When Smart Growth is Not and the NIMBY Is

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Golden Triangle/UTC San Diego, CA“Smart growth,” i.e. the densification of development in both new and established communities, especially along transportation corridors, is not only a worthy objective, it’s a necessity.  Sprawling development has many established negative impacts. The infrastructure to support it is disproportionately expensive to build and maintain. Its environmental footprint is disproportionately large and wasteful. It has been shown to create negative impacts on the social and physical quality of people’s lives. [Read more…] about When Smart Growth is Not and the NIMBY Is

Turn the freeways into Solar Collectors

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Turn the freeways into solar collectors and at the same time mitigate noise, pollution, blight, and open space encroachment.  This is a fascinating idea from architect Måns Tham of Sweden.  He also proposes that the solar canopy capture auto exhaust for feeding algae ponds to create bio fuel.  While it seems at first glance to be ‘pie in the sky,’ upon further reflection it may not be so far fetched.  It could help resolve the controversy regarding solar arrays in the desert and possible effects on  fauna such as the desert tortoise.  Freeways typically involve vast  sun exposed stretches of real estate that would seem ideally suited for solar panels.  Read more on the architect’s blog.

Take Back the Streets, Ch. 1

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This post is the first of a multi-part (but irregular) series about the conflicting relationship between U.S. transportation policy and urban renewal efforts, and what some communities are doing to “take back the streets” from cars for people.  This post features a video by COAnews (published on YouTube), which gives a little history of the rectangular or square street grid patterns so common in U.S. cities, especially in the west.  Then it goes on to talk about a project in Portland, frequently a leader in urban planning, to make neighborhood intersections more community oriented.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVq0exoGySc[/youtube]

Of Bikes and Men

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Pedicab
A “Pedi-Cab” in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter

What is the right balance between freedom and safety (as in regulations) in an urban land use setting?  We travel to see cities with unique and exotic features such as rickshaws, street vendors, open air market places, sidewalk cafes, and so on.  We even think fondly of the cacophony of signage in places like Hong Kong and Times Square.  Yet the U.S., ‘freedom central,’ is relatively restrictive when it comes to municipal ordinances. Perhaps its not so much that we are ‘freedom central’ but that our democracy allows us rather, than a king, the freedom to issue restrictions.  That’s a lot of people creating a lot of restrictions.  As a result, U.S. cities often lean towards uniformity rather than diversity or uniqueness. [Read more…] about Of Bikes and Men