Carrie Furnace 1, originally uploaded by mknobil

New policy paves way for first Paris inner city tower since 1977:

“The Triangle is conceived as a piece of the city that could be pivoted and positioned vertically. It is carved by a network of vertical and horizontal traffic flows of variable capacities and speeds. Like the boulevards, streets and more intimate passages of a city, these traffic flows carve the construction into islets of varying shapes and sizes.
“This evocation of the urban fabric of Paris, at once classic and coherent in its entirety and varied and intriguing in its details, is encountered in the façade of the Triangle. Like that of a classical building, this one features two levels of interpretation: an easily recognisable overall form and a fine, crystalline silhouette of its façade which allows it to be perceived variously.”

I wonder if Paris has learned at all from La Défense. The renderings are quite sufficiently compelling, but God is in the details. Lukily, this project has a few things going for it:

• Herzog & de Meuron designed the building and they will go down in history as the preeminent designers of the 21st Century.
• While the beauty of Paris undeniably is generated by the boulevard’s and height restrictions, this allows the designer freedom to deviate from the norm. And in the right hands, the solution can be powerful
• The tower is situated far away from the “Centre” and will create an axis with the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe

Prediction: Parisians will hate it for the first twenty years then adore it.
For reference, below is the location map of the proposed tower.

detail"United Nations Postal Administration 1951-1976" Aug. 10th, 1976 detail, originally uploaded by Draplin

Draplin has uploaded a series of “First Day of Issue” United Nation Envelopes. You: go, see, now!

empire state…, originally uploaded by littlehonda.

CMYK, originally uploaded by Makenosound

• What happens if your spaceship’s lights go out: Outer Darkness
• The Flawed Methodology of “Verb-Cities” Lists
• Melbourne’s Complete Streets (check out my photos of Melbourne)
• Melbourne’s Ghost Trams
• A Graph: Population Density vs Transit Ridership
• OMA in NYC and The Subversive High Rise Designs of Rem Koolhaas and OMA
• The totem fridge

Enough said. Here’s Cramer on AIG:

Scary.

Photo by AP

…an employee displays the frontal side of a new 10-yuan banknote for the Beijing Olympic Games at the headquarters of the People’s Bank of China in Beijing Monday, July 7, 2008. To commemorate the Beijing Olympics, China’s central bank is issuing a new 10-yuan (US$1.45) note. Mao is gone from the note, replaced by a sketch of the new National Stadium – the Bird’s Nest – and the emblem of the Beijing Games. Both are set against the backdrop of the Temple of Heaven, one of Beijing’s iconic sites.

You should also check out A Survey of Bank Notes Featuring Architects of the World.