Interesting solution in Antwerp by Portugese firm PROAP (João Nunes) and the Belgian architectural planners WIT, to knit the waterfront back into the urban core while protecting the city from 4,000-year floods:

The reestablishment of Antwerp’s connection to its waterfront has been a goal for the city’s planners for more than a decade, but only recently have forces aligned to make that dream not just a practical reality but also a necessity. The 130-year-old bluestone quay wall running along the Scheldt (pronounced “Skel-duh” by locals) has deteriorated to the point where reconstruction is no longer a luxury. At the same time, the entire harbor must be brought into compliance with the state’s Sigma Plan, a regional flood-prevention initiative first implemented in 1977 as a response to massive flooding and then recommissioned in 2004, which requires that the city be fortified to withstand a 4,000-year storm.
…
The PROAP/WIT scheme was more diagrammatic, in both its form of presentation and its design strategy. “Landscape is created by successive processes and not by one action,” Nunes says. “We put together a master plan instead of a project. We decided to present a table of scenarios with approaches and consequences, trying to reduce things to a blank slate where some basic rules—a process—could be developed.”
That process will be governed by a series of ten topographical sections that read from above like the keys of a piano. Each key will address the river in a distinct fashion: one section, resting on pontoons, will rise and fall with the tides; another will slope down gradually from a protective berm; a third will cantilever out over the water. All suitably answer the demands of the Sigma Plan while retaining access—visual and physical—to the river.

• Metropolis: The City and the Stream
• PROAP
• WIT Architecten
• WIT Architecten Antwerpen Master Plan

General view of one of the classification yards of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, Chicago, Ill. (LOC), originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

That’s why it is so exciting to let people know about the launch of a brand-new pilot project the Library of Congress is undertaking with Flickr, the enormously popular photo-sharing site that has been a Web 2.0 innovator. If all goes according to plan, the project will help address at least two major challenges: how to ensure better and better access to our collections, and how to ensure that we have the best possible information about those collections for the benefit of researchers and posterity. In many senses, we are looking to enhance our metadata (one of those Web 2.0 buzzwords that 90 percent of our readers could probably explain better than me).
My Friend Flickr: A Match Made in Photo Heaven

This is amazing. The LOC’s digital collection is amazing and mostly free, as in beer and as in speech. Yet their search page is so horrible it is almost unusable (only the content makes slogging through the interface worthwhile).
More information:

• My Friend Flickr: A Match Made in Photo Heaven
• LOC’s Flickr Page
• Flickr’s announcement: Many hands make light work

I can’t wait to finally see Zankel Hall in person, and if it is as good as the late Herbert Muschamp said it is, then we will be in for a treat:

Zankel Hall may persuade you to rethink your attitude toward underground spaces. Technically, it may be in a sub-subbasement just inches away from hell. Architecturally, the new hall couldn’t feel more privileged. Designed by James Stewart Polshek and Richard M. Olcott of the Polshek Partnership, the Judy and Arthur Zankel Hall is a serene, grown-up place, made for a maximum of 644 listeners who like to concentrate together at the same place and time.
Described by the architects as a mining operation as well as a design project, Carnegie Hall’s new performance space sits within a cavity carved out of Manhattan schist. Parts of the bedrock are exposed, actually, in backstage areas and in a public stairwell. The sense of enclosure within the earth actually enhances the brightness and clarity that the architects have brought to the design.

Why and for what reason is for a forthcoming article.

sydney opera house, originally uploaded by plemeljr

See more Sydney Opera House photos on my Flickr page.

Wood type, originally uploaded by BlueAlgae

This may become a semi-regular feature here on Smogr, where I look at properties for sale in the NYC area and assess their value and if they are good buys or not. I am not affiliated with any realtors, and no one is paying me to “feature” their properties. So, onto the review.
This property is located on 972 Manhattan Ave in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It is a 5 story prewar building with 22 residential (16 2 brs & 8 3 brs) and 5 ground floor retail spaces for a total of 22,000 sf of building space listed for $5,800,000. Taking the standard gross rent multiplier of 160 the average residential unit price needs to be more then $1,500 per unit, which is a bit high for this type and location. The building is 50′-0″ x 90′-0″ on a 50′-0″ x 100′-0″ lot (5,000 sf) with a total area of 22,500 sf (17,500 sf res & 4,500 retail). It is zoned C2-3 and there are no major DOB violations (2 boiler violations from the 1990’s, but those can be removed easily).
Here is a relevant passage from the listing:

Commercial space consists 2000Sf deli, 650SF Hair Salon with 2 years lease $1,800 per month, 650 SF Massage space with 5 years lease $1,800 per month, 400SF pet store $1500 per month and 650SF vacant space ready to be rented. Residential consists of 16x2BR(s) 8x3BR(s).

Greenpoint is a changing neighborhood, but this building will need significant upgrade and rehabilitation in order to command high prices. But, I’m sure that rents in this building run around $1,800 per month as-is. Without seeing the property’s interior, it is hard to make a determination, but at the price and if the condition is better than the famed Astral then it would be a good buy – even if you have to become a quasi-slum lord; especially since there is a listing for a 3 story townhouse where you would have to charge $5,210 a month to recoup the $2.5 million asking price.
Disclaimer:
This is not investment advice. I’m not an your architect or broker – I don’t even own property. Caveat Emptor. When in doubt, consult a doctor and why are you taking free advice from the internet?

DC Streetcar vehicle proposed paint scheme, originally uploaded by rllayman

More Information.

Public & Private Construction Graph by bill rankin of Radical Cartography

• Public & Private Construction Graph (above)
• Public domain photos of Washington Navy Yard and here
• Robocop: The Crisis of Subjectivity (1987) – don’t let the ED-209 hear about this…
• Rob Goodspeed’s Top Urban Planning and Development Websites
• Type Faces – An Interview With Ellen Lupton
• Hot or Not: Volkswagen Passat CC?
• Old book illustrations