Paint & Typography, originally uploaded by plemeljr

The woman whose voice can be heard across the Underground has been axed after recording a series of spoof messages revealing what she really thought of Tube travellers.
Emma Clarke, the voice of the Underground who has been advising people to ‘Mind the Gap’ since 1999, recorded a series of spoof messages in her trademark soft and clear style.
The professional voiceover artist lets rip at the type of people she thinks sum up the misery of Tube travel.
But now the parent company of the Tube, TfL, has made an announcement of its own, calling Ms Clarke ‘silly’ and cutting future contracts with her.

Read more and listen to the spoof announcements.
Amazing how the character of a space and place can be defined by a voice.

Turkey Hangover Links

London: A city built on chaos
Unreast on the West Side? A play in Two Acts: The Hudson Yards hustle and West Side Rail Yards Proposals Depress NY Times Critic
Architecture by Accident
For those with Brazil fantasies: Automatic City Builder – Gamr7
Accordion-Shaped Building to be Squeezed into City of London
On Choices – at the city, state & Federal level, especially considering our Federal government has quite the unenlightened view on land use and transportation
Columbia’s expansion into Manhattanville is approved at the City Planning Commission. Is it bad form to support expansion of a vaunted university?
Does Washington Need a Planning Commission?

CCTV Building Development Construction

CCTV Building Development Construction, originally uploaded by Dutch Tom // www.vandillen.net

New York Manhole Covers, Forged Barefoot in India

sewertwo, originally uploaded by niznoz

Eight thousand miles from Manhattan, barefoot, shirtless, whip-thin men rippled with muscle were forging prosaic pieces of the urban jigsaw puzzle: manhole covers.
Seemingly impervious to the heat from the metal, the workers at one of West Bengal’s many foundries relied on strength and bare hands rather than machinery. Safety precautions were barely in evidence; just a few pairs of eye goggles were seen in use on a recent visit. The foundry, Shakti Industries in Haora, produces manhole covers for Con Edison and New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection, as well as for departments in New Orleans and Syracuse.