In typical Robert Moses fashion, when a 1961 urban renewal project added an ice skating rink to a blighted section of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, it came along with an imposing facility and a 250-car parking lot. The change took a chip out of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux’s diamond-shaped masterpiece, cutting off a lake at the southern end of the park from the broad pathway that winds around its perimeter.
This article first appeared on GreenSource. Before: Front Exterior Make It Right, the foundation started by actor Brad Pitt and architect William McDonough to rebuild homes in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, has partnered with BNIM Architects to transform a former school in Kansas City, Missouri, into LEED Platinum-certified affordable housing. The Bancroft School Apartments, which opened last month, are a showcase for high-quality sustainable development and community-driven urban renewal. Located in the long-distressed Manheim Park neighborhood, the complex provides fifty rental units and a host of other services that include job training facilities, a medical center, an auditorium and
In one of his final press appearances as mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg sealed the deal Thursday on one of his most ambitious urban endeavors: Cornell NYC Tech, a $2-billion science and technology campus designed by a cast of architectural heavyweights including Morphosis Architects and Weiss/Manfredi, to put New York City at the forefront of the tech industry. Surrounded by officials in City Hall’s Blue Room, Bloomberg and Cornell president David Skorton signed a 99-year lease agreement for a 12-acre swath of prime real estate on Roosevelt Island, a two-mile-long islet in the East River.“Our goal has been
While museums often opt for big-name architects when designing a new building or expanding, the U.S. market has only a handful of large projects. Since January 2012, just 60 museums valued at $5 million or more have broken ground. Click the image above to view a full presentation of these stats [PDF].
For the first time since the American Institute of Architects (AIA) began giving the prize in 1907, a woman has been awarded the Gold Medal—even though the woman is no longer alive.
This article first appeared on GreenSource. Courtesy Dubai Expo 2020 Last Tuesday officials from Dubai declared they would transform the city into one of the most sustainable municipalities in the world by 2020. Although Dubai has expressed the aspiration before, namely as part of an initiative to expand parkland, this latest statement incorporates multiple kinds of environmental performance. Speaking locally at an event sponsored by the Dubai Chamber, city directors Hussain Nasser Lootah and Mohammad Mashroom laid out strategies for increasing solar production, capturing energy from waste, and mandating more rigorous green building. Dubai’s first photovoltaic plant went online in
“By the time I was 12 or 13 years old, I knew that someday I would have something to do with influencing place,” says Carol Coletta of growing up in South Memphis. From co-developing the first condominium conversion in downtown Memphis to serving as executive director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, Coletta has proven her 12-year-old self right. As CEO of CEOs for Cities, she helped gather ideas for improving the urban realm via text messaging. While director of ArtPlace, a collaboration of 13 national and regional foundations and six banks, Coletta tapped Impresa Consulting to measure economic,
RSS
