Being present on the network: buildings=yes presentation by Aaron Straup Cope

buildings=yes

The second paper I presented was about the building=yes project. It is very much a technical paper going over the nuts and bolts of extracting the data (from OpenStreetMap), indexing it and designing custom map tiles to help make sense of the sheer volume of data. Rather than try to cram all that information in to a 15 minute talk I instead talked about the overall value – the purpose – of creating these kinds of registries and tried to highlight the importance of being patient. It’s not always clear what will come out of these kinds of projects but what is clear is that stable, linkable things that can hold hands with one another are the foundation on which all the interesting stuff will be built.

via [this is aaronland] haystack triptychs.

British Rail Corporate Identity, 1965-1994

HST Diesel electric power car Class 253

In 1964 the Design Research Unit—Britain’s first multi-disciplinary design agency founded in 1943 by Misha Black, Milner Gray and Herbert Read—was commissioned to breathe new life into the nation’s neglected railway industry, the corporate image of which had remained largely unchanged after its nationalisation in 1948, a reflection of a largely disjointed and out-of-date transport system. The company name was shortened to British Rail and Gerry Barney of the Design Rearch Unit conceived the famous ‘double-arrow’, a remarkably robust and memorable icon that has far outlasted British Rail itself and continues to be used on traffic signs throughout the United Kingdom as the symbol for the national rail network and more specifically railway stations on that network. The new corporate identity programme was launched in January 1965 with an exhibition at the Design Council, London. The corporate identity consisted of four basic elements: the new symbol, the British Rail logotype, the Rail Alphabet typeface and the house colours.

– British Rail Corporate Identity from 1965–1994

Survey of tallest Buildings in New York City

1 World Trade Center Will Reclaim the Sky in Lower Manhattan:

If the winds are forgiving enough over Lower Manhattan — up where workers can see the whole outline of the island’s tip — a steel column will be hoisted into place Monday afternoon atop the exoskeleton of 1 World Trade Center and New York will have a new tallest building.

More important, downtown will have reclaimed its pole star.

Poking into the sky, the first column of the 100th floor of 1 World Trade Center will bring the tower to a height of 1,271 feet, making it 21 feet higher than the Empire State Building.

Below is a selection of the five tallest buildings in New York City.

1 World Trade Center

1 World Trade Center

Empire from Penn
Empire State Building – 1931

Bank of America Tower (2009), New York
Bank of America Tower – 2009

Happy Birthday Chrysler Building
Chrysler Building – May 27, 1930

40 Wall Street
40 Wall Street (Bank of Manhattan Trust building) – 1930

Woolworth
Woolworth Building – 1913

Michigan Central Station

Ice Roads. (Detroit, MI)

Built in 1913 for the Michigan Central Railroad, Michigan Central Station (also known as Michigan Central Depot or MCS), was Detroit’s passenger rail depot from its opening in 1913, until the cessation of Amtrak service on January 6, 1988. At the time of its construction, it was the tallest rail station in the world.

Escape

Michigan Central Station (HDR)

Michigan Central Station

Los Angeles Union Station Master Plan “Vision Boards”

In April 2011, Metro completed the acquisition of Union Station and the approximately 40 acres surrounding the historic rail passenger terminal. As part of the Los Angeles Union Station Master Plan, the six short-listed teams were required to submit one Vision Board showing a high-concept vision for Union Station in the year 2050. The Vision Boards are not part of the formal evaluation process, but rather a means to begin the public engagement process and ignite inspiration about Union Station as a multi-modal regional transportation hub. The Vision Boards were presented to the public at a viewing event on April 25th, 2012.

The short listed teams all include multiple firms, and are led by the following prime contractors:

  • EE&K a Perkins Eastman Company/UNStudio
  • Gruen Associates/Grimshaw Architects
  • IBI Group/Foster+Partners
  • Moore Ruble Yudell Architect and Planners/Ten Aquitectos/West 8
  • NBBJ/ingenhoven Architects
  • Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW)/ Parsons Transportation Group

All six teams are required to do the following during the master planning phase:

  1. Data Collection and Analysis
  2. Preparation of Draft Alternatives
  3. Final Preferred Plan and Implementation Strategies
  4. Public Outreach (throughout the process)
  5. Project Administration (throughout the process)

Metro is in the evaluation process and will bring a recommendation for the USMP consultant team to the Board of Directors on June 28th, 2012 with public announcement on or around June 17th.

Below are the Vision Boards:

Flyover Farm by Fresh & Local

Flyover Farm Sketch

Via Mumbai Boss, comes the story of Flyover Farm by Fresh & Local which is aiming to add farms on top of existing Mumbai buildings, and they have a Kickstarter:

Fresh & Local is a movement to facilitate urban farming in Mumbai. We started in the spring of 2010, in reaction to the lack of fresh and organic produce, and the lack of resources and support for urban farming in the city. We research and develop best practices, design gardens and garden products, host gardening workshops and work in partnership with NGOs and individuals to set up kitchen gardens across the city.

Fresh and Local’s Flyover Farm project is a natural progression and culmination of the work currently being carried out.

Flyover Farm Existing

This is all really interesting, but seeing the existing building stock which is generally of poor construction and knowing how much soil is required to grow fruit and vegetable plants, I fear that not many building can support the weight of these roof farms. I applaud the project, since we have lots of roof space in Mumbai, and the quality of vegetables will undoubtably be better than the ones grown on the sides of the suburban railways.