busy april

I just came across this visionary redesign of the New York subway map on Gothamist and wanted to share it with everyone.

Kick Design's new subway map is a dramatic simplification of the existing design. More about the Kick Map in the NY Times.

I haven't been able to contribute much new writing to the Built Environment Blog recently, but that shouldn't suggest there hasn't been a lot going on. Earlier this month, for instance, Chicago was selected as the USOC's bid city for the 2016 Olympics.

Apparently the Hancock has displaced the Sears Tower as Chicago's most recognizable skyscraper.

Based on my experience with the NYC2012 bid, I thought that any US bid for the 2016 Games would have trouble defeating Buenos Aires. (There's never been an Olympics in South America.) As it turns out, however, Buenos Aires isn't even going for 2016. "Madrid, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Rome and Tokyo are expected to be in the mix," says the NY Times. Though it is a South American city, Rio lacks many of Buenos Aires' strengths as a bid city, and all the other cities have issues as well. I think Chicago could really win this.

Bloomberg introducing PlaNYC 2030. Photo from NY Times.

In other news, Mayor Bloomberg just released the PlaNYC 2030 report, a sweeping vision for New York City's future. It's an ambitious and controversial plan that the NY Times calls "an agenda that in some ways resembles the Olympic plan in a green dress." Indeed, there were several key players involved with both efforts. I'm thrilled that the plan has been released, but the initiatives need a powerful political force behind them. Much of the work lies ahead.

I hope to be writing for the blog again soon, perhaps on the 2016 Olympics or on the planning of New York City. In the meantime, feel free to check out Libraries that Matter, an article I helped write for PPS's Libraries and Civic Centers newsletter.

good to go

I wrote an article for this month's issue of Good Magazine: 'Decongestion:
5 innovations in urban transportation that you won't find in America, yet.' Good is different from other magazines in that the $20 from your 'subscription' goes to the non-profit organization of your choice, not the publisher.

You can download a pdf of the article here. (1.5 MB)

Copenhagen, Denmark. Streetsblog's Aaron Naparstek contributed some great photos to the article.

I also scanned a a copy of the article with the cover and table of contents; you can download that here. (3 MB)

lost and found

Lost Magazine has published a new version of 323 Prospect Place, a piece that originally appeared here in the Built Environment Blog. The new version incorporates information from several great comments on the blog post -- many thanks to Showhank, Fakeisthenewreal, Robert Baptista and everyone else who added their thoughts. Special thanks to Paul Proulx who essentially solved the mystery with the map below.

This is my edited version of the original map that explains the orientation of 323 Prospect Place.