April 22, 2010
This super-tall, 632-meter tower will be sited in the heart of Shanghai’s Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone, adjacent to the Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center. As the most prominent icon on the city’s skyline, Shanghai Tower’s transparent spiral form will showcase cutting-edge sustainable strategies and public spaces that set a new standard for green community. Within its 128-stories, Shanghai Tower contains Class-A office space, entertainment venues, retail, a conference center, a luxury hotel and cultural amenity spaces. The tower will be registered for a high level of building certification from the China Green Building Committee and the U.S. Green Building Council.
–Gensler, Shanghai Tower
For reference: the Burj Khalifa in Dubai is 828m. Wikipedia has more on the Tallest Buildings in the World, if you’re so inclined.
DB
April 20, 2010
» Ratatat – Shempi (3:58) – 5.5MB mp3 @ 192kbps
“Shempi” is easily my favorite track from Ratatat’s LP3 and I’m a sucker for overtly arty, washed-out, high-contrast cinematography and hyperreal hypothetical urbanism/architecture, so this video basically has my name on it.
Archdaily
Bonus pic:
Homemade wildcat stencil
April 7, 2010
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March 29, 2010
The Second Avenue Subway (SAS) is a rapid transit subway line, part of the New York City Subway system, currently under construction underneath Second Avenue in the borough of Manhattan.
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As a consequence of the many “false starts”, the SAS is often cited as an example of bureaucratic red tape and government incompetence. However, the reasons for its delay are numerous and complex. The line is sometimes referred to as “The Line That Time Forgot”.
–Wikipedia, Second Avenue Subway
Over the weekend, he MTA posted photos of excavation for the Second Avenue Subway between 91st and 96th on Facebook. I can only assume that the MTA’s PR department has a dedicated 20-something Social Media Coordinator who decided to try his or her hand at creating the next viral hit.
Here’s a selection of my favorites, tastefully re-touched for dramatic effect—where’s Ryan McGinley when you need him?
Second Avenue Sagas via Curbed. Also on Gothamist.
NYMag featured the “Line That Time Forgot” in a 2004 article; read more about recent SAS-related developments here. The G, on the other hand, is the Line That I Wish I Could Forget.
Try as I might to resist an obvious pun, I can’t help myself: the MTA is boring tunnels.
A couple more pics—plus an indie rock classic, a house and an infant—after the jump.
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March 18, 2010
» Fuck Buttons – Space Mountain (8:45) – 13.2MB mp3 @ 210kbps
» The Flaming Lips – Worm Mountain (5:22) – 6.3MB mp3 @ 160kbps
Zhou Hongjun and Xiong Lu have created Hermit Mountain, a multifaceted, multipurpose skyscraper, drawing inspiration from both traditional Chinese culture and modern design. The design explores a dialogue between rationality and chaos to achieve a refined yet altogether organic aesthetic.
More images at Designboom.
Designer Enrico Dini has developed a 3D printer that makes rocks.
Dini claims the d-shape process is four times faster than conventional building, costs a third to a half as much as using Portland cement, creates little waste and is better for the environment. But its chief selling point may simply be that it makes creating Gaudiesque, curvy structures simple.
Two-dimensional print may be dead, but 3D is on the up-and-up.
Full story at Blueprint (FastCompany via Inhabitat)
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February 16, 2010
Liz O. Baylen for the New York Times
Gothamist reports that Cynthia Wood of Clinton Hill has passed away after a long battle with cancer. She and her husband were known as the creators of the Broken Angel House, a folk art / vernacular architecture piece on the corner of Downing and Quincy.
The Woods and their magnum opus were featured prominently in Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, which was held on that very corner. It also happens to be around the corner from where I live.
I never met her, but apparently she was very nice. Read the full text of the note, which was posted on site a couple of days ago, at Gothamist.
L: The Woods in 2007 via NYT slideshow linked above; R: Sarah Mulligan on Flickr
January 24, 2010
–Pingdom has some web usage stats for 2009, such as:
- 234 million – The number of websites as of December 2009.
- 47 million – Added websites in 2009.
Nice to know that IYK is among 47 million new websites. There’s also numbers for e-mail and social networks. Definitely worth checking out: Internet 2009 in Numbers.
Taking a step that has tempted and terrified much of the newspaper industry, The New York Times announced on Wednesday that it would charge some frequent readers for access to its Web site — news that drew ample reaction from media analysts and consumers, ranging from enthusiastic to withering.
Starting in January 2011, a visitor to NYTimes.com will be allowed to view a certain number of articles free each month; to read more, the reader must pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers to the print newspaper, even those who subscribe only to the Sunday paper, will receive full access to the site without any additional charge.
Executives of The New York Times Company said they wanted to create a system that would have little effect on the millions of occasional visitors to the site, while trying to cash in on the loyalty of more devoted readers. But fundamental features of the plan have not yet been decided, including how much the paper will charge for online subscriptions or how many articles a reader will be allowed to see without paying.
–The New York Times recently announced that it is going to start charging online readers (in 2011) with a ‘paywall’ system. Or, as Gothamist bluntly puts it: “the Gray Lady’s going to start making bitches pay.”
–Apple has announced that it will unveil its “latest creation”—the digital world is certain that it will be an Apple tablet—at an event next Wednesday, January 27th. (Engadget; also on NYT, the Guardian, etc.; rumormongering has also caused a backlash in the world of tech journalism)
–P.S.1 just announced that Brooklyn’s SO-IL (Solid Object Idenburg Liu) is the winner of this year’s Young Architects Program design competition. Arch Daily has more pics and info.
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January 18, 2010
Racked already posted pics last week (as did the Brooklyn Flea itself), but I braved the downpour yesterday and I figured I’d post my photos as well. Just to prove that I went.
It’s worth going just to see the interior of One Hanson Place—a.k.a. the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, a.k.a. Atlantic-Pacific, a.k.a. the clock tower, a.k.a. that one tall building in Brooklyn—and the sweet vault in the basement (pictured after the jump). The whole experience is vaguely like something out of Harry Potter.
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January 13, 2010
Even more assorted links. Info at the bottom (after the jump).
