While it’s been widely known for at least a decade that Frank Gehry is the world’s worst living architect, it’s not entirely clear why some people—mostly very rich clients—haven’t picked up on this yet. The utterly god awful Biomuseo in Panama, an eco-discovery center that cost at least $60 million and took a decade to construct, is only the most recent case in point.
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"I want to set some ground rules for what I think we all should do in L.A., which is to really resist cliché," stated Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti last night during a future-focused public event at Occidental College. While "certain publications"—which the mayor did not name, but we all know who they are—like to make L.A. into a story of density vs. sprawl, pedestrian vs. car, he said, it’s never that easy to define us.
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Most of us think of Germany as one of the most energy-progressive countries in the world. But in recent years, it’s also increased its dependence on a form of energy that’s anything but clean: coal. And it’s demolishing or relocating entire towns to get at it.
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If a catastrophic event cut off the food supply to New York, odds are you’d have to do without you triple vegan chia slaw and assorted trend vegetables. But would you go hungry?
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New skyscrapers will do anything for attention—which is why an under-construction supertall in Los Angeles, soon to be the tallest building on the West Coast, is trying to break another record, too. Starting Saturday, construction crews will pump 21,200 cubic yards of concrete onto the Wilshire Grand site, which might make it the largest continuous foundation pour in the world.
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The news that measles might be spreading through San Francisco’s BART network not only triggered a warning from the transit authority itself, it is also a particularly alarming reminder that public transportation can be, well, disgusting. Winter’s runny noses, summer’s sweat, spring’s sneezing allergies—it doesn’t really matter the season. When you ride the bus or subway, often the last thing you want to do is touch the straps or hang on. Could a new line of clothing help protect you from the germs?
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So it’s Valentine’s Day (again) and you’re single (again). Even though you’ve been right-swiping your heart out on Tinder, you’ve failed to find love nearby. So what can you do? Try a new activity? Maybe meet some new people? Nah. Just move to another city where your chances are better.
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On a particularly cold, sunny day recently, thousands of people arriving in Lower Manhattan were forced to reroute their commute—because huge slivers of ice were cracking off of the One World Trade Center and plunging hundreds of feet down onto the street. And the WTC isn’t alone.
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OK, it didn’t win the design competition, so this proposed radio tower will never be broadcasting over a city near you, but its harp-like cables and rings sure do make a cool structure in the sky. Designed by the London-based firm Architects of Invention for a site in Santiago de Chile, the tower would have included a circular walkway suspended above the city below. For other entries in the call for a landmark radio tower, stop by Plataforma Arquitectura. [Architects of Invention]
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If you could build your own High Line, what would it look like? That’s the question the QueensWay Project, an effort to turn an abandoned stretch of railway in Queens into an elevated pedestrian and bike path, recently asked designers to answer. Some of the winners announced today are truly wild.
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
