Digital Experience

Medialab Prado in Madrid, Spain is a group that is attached to the City Council of Madrid for the Arts. Really cool stuff happening over there. Here is the link to video and images, thanks to ArchDaily.

Chicago 2009

Article here at the Chicago Tribune. Great city, great place, and plenty of architectural beauties.

Township 9 Project

Township 9 is a 65-acre urban mixed-use project, located in the River District, just north of downtown. This is something that the city of Sacramento desperately needs. A flagship project like this for the city will go a long way in helping to encourage people to live in or closer to downtown. Jacobs Engineering (formerly Carter and Burgess) is the lead design and engineering team. Township 9 is an infill project, and this is because of its relationship to the American River. With the development being so close to the river, there would be necessary soil brought in to match the level of the levees that are set back from the river; creating a better viewing experience and connection with the river. The Save the American River organization made the design process difficult for Jacobs, but eventually the development got is way and was allowed to build just outside 400 feet from the river. Ultimately Jacobs hopes that from the mixed-use project that they could build parks attached to Township 9 that run along the river.

Township 9 is broken into several phases, and the first will be the Green Line RT that will run along Richards Boulevard. The Light Rail stop will utilize and mimic the trusses and roofing from a pre-existing fruit cannery that was on-site.

Jacobs has brought the pre-existing hippodamian plan, that Sacramento is built on, north into the Township 9 project. This provides the feeling of living downtown or in midtown.

Here is a link to the article from the Sacramento Bee when the project broke ground on June 11, 2009.

Prospect Green

Located in Rancho Cordova, California, surrounded by corporate offices, Prospect Green is a hidden, quirky space. This Hargreaves Associates design has the innovative idea of incorporating fog into the nook and crannies that the design has made. Angled mounds of plants form the valleys and mountains so to speak.

Below are some photos of the project

Gare de Lyon Saint-Exupéry

Approaching the airport/train station from the highway, you see a giant moth in the distance. You feel as if it begins to take flight. Once within the immediate area of the building, the jaw drops at the sheer amazement that one feels. For someone like myself, finally getting to see Gare de Lyon Saint-Exupéry by Santiago Calatrava, provided me with an amazing jolt of excitement. Located about 20 km outside Lyon, France.

Here is the Wikipedia with some more information.

The project, and much of Calatrava’s work consists of symmetry, geometry, shapes, and elements from nature fabricated into architecture. His artistry may be minimalist at times, monochromatic in others, but his point is widely made and successful. I truly enjoy his work.

Below are some photos of the station and airport.

Phoenix Public Library: Desert Broom Ranch

The Phoenix Public Library’s Desert Broom Ranch is tucked away, a gem of sustainable design.

Conceptually, borrowing from the symbiotic relationship between a young Saguaro and a nurse tree, the building’s large roof creates a nurturing microclimate for growth, providing shelter and protection from the weather. Designed to fit into the desert site with a minimum of disturbance, the facility has been LEED certified by the United States Green Building Council.

Desert Broom Library features a First Five Years/Los Primeros Cinco Años interactive learning space for families with young children, Teen Corner – a special “teen only” area, WiFi and Internet-accessible public computers.  The library’s collection of newspapers and magazines, books, DVDs and CDs is designed to meet community members’ educational and recreational needs.  A multi-purpose room for community meetings as well as library programs seats 50.

Architects: richärd + bauer architecture, llc

Size: 15,000 square feet

Opened: February 2005

Fight for the Bike

This is a wonderful short video, interviewing women on the use of bicycles and why women in the UK generally don’t use them. Then several of the women interviewed take a trip to Bremen, Germany and are pleasantly surprised.

Mesa Art Center

Martha Schwartz is so well know, and each designer seemingly have a defining type or style. Her artistic approach, and colorful designs always make for a great experience. Below are some images of the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona, just outside of Phoenix.

I wish I had a better camera when I was on this trip; still had a point and shoot. Now I am just making excuses.

Project website via Martha Schwartz

Mesa Art Center website

Wikipedia website for Mesa Art Center

As Your New Oprah, I Recommend…

That you read “Dead Cities” by Mike Davis.  Having recently visited Las Vegas and reading about such projects as the City Center, things are looking up in that regard.  But the fact still remains that the city still requires large amounts of resources which have to travel out into the middle of no where.

In response to the segment titled “Las Vegas vs. Nature”, in Mike Davis’ novel:

By far the most enjoyable reading for me so far.  The city has shown poor city planning, lack of resource distribution, and has misdirected sources of money.  Not to forget either the poor relationship that Las Vegas has with southern California.  I think this is because of the fact that we take many products in which Las Vegas needs quite vitally.  But why would cities of importance be located in such an isolated part of the country?  I generally thought that cities would sprout up due to natural resources and where they are located.  Vegas was built without the consideration of resources being pumped to the city, and a serious lack of water and the cost behind it.  “Las Vegas long ago outstripped its own natural-resource infrastructure, and ecological ‘footprint’ now covers all of southern Nevada and adjacent parts of California and Arizona” (pg 87).

The EPA has stamped Las Vegas, which was once a clean air city, is now “supplanted New York City as the fifth highest number of days with ‘unhealthy air.’”  Because of Las Vegas’s resource needs, it has depleted many of the western landscapes which we want to remain pristine and intact.  Unfortunately the city continuously steals water from the Colorado River, causing it to slowly run dry.  Development of cities in the United States have greatly impacted the landscape.  Las Vegas may not be a well planned out city, but it is becoming increasingly more sustainable, and trying to limit its urban sprawl.  The city works because big land developers know that they are able to create an environment, devoid of other large cities near by, and bring the world to a point in the southwest that fulfills people’s hopes of experiencing the world all at one place.

Updating Europe and USA Tabs

I have done some updating of the Europe tab with links of photos. I will continue this over the next couple of weeks. Eventually leading to an interactive map locating all the projects.