tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28327317357789853402024-03-06T01:40:19.399-05:00Built Environment Blogthoughts on placesjacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-25273794846314997992010-11-13T04:14:00.003-05:002010-11-13T14:48:53.333-05:002010 election cartogramsAlso, election cartograms are fascinating. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www2.imperial.ac.uk/%7Emgastner/cartogram/election10/house_cart2010.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www2.imperial.ac.uk/%7Emgastner/cartogram/election10/house_cart2010.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>This electoral cartogram was made by <a href="http://www2.imperial.ac.uk/%7Emgastner/cartogram/election10/election10.html">Michael Gastner</a>. Here's my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/3024428478/">labeled version</a> of the 2008 election cartogram made by <a href="http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Emejn/election/2008/" id="yui_3_1_0_1_1289639344450724" rel="nofollow">Mark Newman.</a></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-49935787295859358282010-11-13T04:02:00.000-05:002010-11-13T04:02:07.809-05:00not a chicago tatoo<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/2973992788/" title="chicagoskyline by nautical2k, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3159/2973992788_d4edee71c3_b.jpg" width="1024" height="145" alt="chicagoskyline" /></a><br />
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Just came across a mock-up of a design for a Chicago tatoo that a friend requested a few years ago. He didn't end up getting the tatoo, but I still like the sketch.jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-35173815961569780212010-10-28T02:07:00.004-04:002010-10-30T18:08:30.104-04:00link it upI've finally got around to updating the other webpages I link to on the Built Environment Blog and I thought I'd highlight a few of the new additions.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Docks" height="426" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/12/92631643_1e8cddc0ef_z.jpg?zz=1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Guano Loading Infrastructure, Peru. From <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/oliphant/92631643/in/photostream/">Oliver Whiteside</a> via <a href="http://freeassociationdesign.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/islands-and-post-peak-guano/">F.A.D.</a></i></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/oliphant/92631643/" title="Docks by Oliphant, on Flickr"></a><br />
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One of my very favorite reads these days is <a href="http://freeassociationdesign.wordpress.com/">Free Association Design</a>, a tangent-rich blog based in Portland. I can't remember how I came across F.A.D. at first, but I became a regular reader after reading a post on <a href="http://freeassociationdesign.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/reclaiming-the-florida-everglades/">Reclaiming the Florida Everglades</a>. I was impressed by its surefooted explanations of the complex biological, economic and political forces at work in that unique environment. (I like the posts on <a href="http://freeassociationdesign.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/staring-at-goats/">goats</a> and <a href="http://freeassociationdesign.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/islands-and-post-peak-guano/">bird poop</a>, too.)<br />
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Although I've seriously reduced the number of NYC and Brooklyn blogs I read, I've added <a href="http://urbanomnibus.net/">Urban Omnibus</a> to the list of Empire State blogs I follow. This week I'm particularly delighted to link to them as they feature <a href="http://urbanomnibus.net/2010/10/underline-the-culver-viaduct/">Underline</a>, a project by a good friend and UC Berkeley classmate. While Underline is a site-specific intervention suspended in the negative space between the Culver Viaduct and the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, the project makes an important point about how we think about leveraging the structures we already have in cities -- an oft overlooked element of sustainable urban design.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="456" src="http://urbanomnibus.net/main/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/elev1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Underline Section. By John McGill, via <a href="http://urbanomnibus.net/2010/10/underline-the-culver-viaduct/">Urban Omnibus</a></i></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://urbanomnibus.net/main/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/elev1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><br />
I would be very impressed if any of my readers noticed that the link to the defunct <a href="http://polisnyc.wordpress.com/">Polis</a> blog, once written by <a href="http://slackonomics.com/">Slackonomics</a> author and <span id="search" style="visibility: visible;"><a href="http://ffud.org/">Forum for Urban Design</a> executive director Lisa Chamberlain, was replaced with the <a href="http://www.thepolisblog.org/">Polis</a> blog, an international group blog distantly related to the now defunct <a href="http://thewhereblog.blogspot.com/">Where</a> blog, where I was <a href="http://thewhereblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/bringing-soil-back.html">briefly</a> <a href="http://thewhereblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/water-and-power.html">a</a> <a href="http://thewhereblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/sacred-figs_15.html">contributor</a> a couple years ago. </span><br />
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<span id="search" style="visibility: visible;">Moving to San Francisco has brought other new awesome stuff to my attention. Ever since they gave me a free membership after I caught them poaching one of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/222065454/">my flickr photos</a> without credit for their magazine <a href="http://www.spur.org/publications/urbanist/about">Urbanist</a>, I've been a huge fan of <a href="http://www.spur.org/">SPUR</a>. Besides fighting the good fight for San Francisco, the events they put on at their downtown headquarters are lots of fun. (If you haven't seen it yet, you've got two more days to see the <a href="http://www.spur.org/publications/library/article/diy_urbanism">DIY Urbanism</a> exhibition.)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Southern Pacific Diesel Shop" height="424" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4154/5022463578_021cc7f972_z.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Southern Pacific Diesel Shop. Demolished October 2010. Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/5022463578/">Todd Lappin</a>.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/5022463578/" title="Southern Pacific Diesel Shop by Telstar Logistics, on Flickr"></a><br />
<span id="search" style="visibility: visible;">I also have two new favorite San Francisco blogs. I've already posted to a map from <a href="http://burritojustice.com/">Burrito Justice</a>, so it's only fair to link to <a href="http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/">Telstar Logistics</a> now. (Burrito Justice's "<a href="http://burritojustice.com/2009/07/31/know-your-trees/">Know Your Trees</a>" post is my go-to guide for San Francisco tree identification.) I must admit I'm totally incapable of categorizing Telstar Logistics into any specific kind of blog -- but it's great. Sadly, sometimes I learn about things from Telstar only when it's too late -- despite driving past it dozens of times, I never noticed the <a href="http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2010/10/a-last-goodbye-for-the-historic-west-oakland-diesel-shops.html">Southern Pacific Diesel Shop</a>. (</span><span id="search" style="visibility: visible;">Another great San Francisco discovery has been the Flickr photostream of Eric Ficsher. His series of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/sets/72157624812674967/detail/">US city race and ethnicity maps</a> are powerful.)</span><br />
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<span id="search" style="visibility: visible;">I've decided to keep up some of the other links I had on the old blog even though I haven't done the best job keeping up with them. In the process of pruning down the list, for example, I came back across <a href="http://www.fogonazos.es/index.html">Fogonazos</a>, a Spanish blog I was never really able to fully read due to my mediocre language skills. Fortunately, <a href="http://www.fogonazos.es/2010/10/cuando-venga-el-huracan-no-abras-la.html">videos of houses getting blown over</a> in enormous wind tunnels are awesome in any language. </span>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-60557815004218826352010-10-06T01:16:00.002-04:002010-10-06T01:19:27.822-04:00hardly strictly diy wayfindingAnother foggy weekend, another great festival in the bay. This past weekend I went to my third <a href="http://www.strictlybluegrass.com/">Hardly Strictly Bluegrass</a>, a remarkable free annual music festival in Golden Gate Park. Investment banker and banjoist <a href="http://www.sfweekly.com/2010-09-29/music/warren-hellman-talks-about-hardly-strictly-bluegrass/">Warren Hellman</a> foots the bill every year, calling the event "The closest I'll ever get to heaven." <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2010 2010-10-0132" height="332" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4147/5043941808_b06a4be33e.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="500" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Banjo Stage. Photo from <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ari/5043941808/">Steve Rhodes</a></i></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</tbody></table><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ari/5043941808/" title="Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2010 2010-10-0132 by Steve Rhodes, on Flickr"></a><br />
Besides the consistently outstanding acts and the generally groovy vibe, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass offers a great opportunity to observe how large groups of people can organize themselves in interesting ways. In past years, for example, I've marveled at how people use flags, balloons, and other props to make landmarks within the crowd. It's sort of a do-it-yourself wayfinding exercise pursued without official instructions or sanction.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="IMG_7759.JPG" height="333" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3447/3979587980_0fab0a880c.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="500" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>At 2009's HSB, I was only able to find my friends by virtue of their proximity to an osprey kite.</i></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</tbody></table><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/3979587980/" title="IMG_7759.JPG by nautical2k, on Flickr"></a><br />
This year, planning ahead, I brought several lengths of dowels, a roll of duct tape, and a blue handkerchief to Rooster stage, where <a href="http://www.sharonjonesandthedapkings.com/">Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings</a> were due to play at the end of the day. Fashioning a crude flag pole from the dowels and duct-taping it to a steel barricade, I raised my beacon to the crowd and text messaged my friends. By the time Sharon was shimmying across the stage, there were dozens of us dancing under the blue bandana. (Which my phone's auto-spell misleadingly corrected to "blue banana.")<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="IMG_2819.JPG" height="375" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4145/5052962573_16698f6b20.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="500" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Phone calls were impossible due to the noise and dropped calls, despite cell providers' <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/5052956053/">extra coverage</a>. </i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/5052962573/" title="IMG_2819.JPG by nautical2k, on Flickr"></a><br />
While cell phone users now have the ability to georeference themselves and send the location to their friends via <a href="http://foursquare.com/">FourSquare</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/">Twitter</a>, or <a href="http://www.facebook.com/places/">Facebook Places</a>, the combination of a relatively old digital technology, text messaging, and an even old communication method, flags, proved to be a remarkably effective means of marking a specific place among an otherwise anonymous crowd.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Lonely Flag Marker" height="332" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3480/3982289345_d70960b228.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="500" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Photo from <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/scotman/3982289345/in/photostream/">James Mourgos</a></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/scotman/3982289345/" title="Lonely Flag Marker by MourgosPix, on Flickr"></a><br />
Reflecting on the flag-text combination, I realized that the effectiveness of the endeavor came from the coordination of a physical action in the landscape with a message sent on social media. It was a tiny example "<a href="http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2010/02/emergent-urbanism-or-bottomup-planning.html">emergent urbanism</a>," a term I have adopted loosely from <a href="http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/">Dan Hill</a> to describe coordinated action in cities coordinated through digital networks. Regardless of what sort of urbanism may or may not have emerged at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, it was a fabulous show enhanced by great company. I can promise I'll be back next year to continue my research.jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-40857837926200104372010-09-23T02:26:00.002-04:002010-09-28T18:02:25.850-04:00Doppelstock-ContainertragwagenIt's been a very Teutonic week for me. It all started when I received a copy of the August issue of <a href="https://www.garten-landschaft.de/">Garten+Landschaft</a>, a German landscape architecture journal. Usually I prefer to read about the newest developments in landscape in a language I can understand, but this was different: my Berkeley Master's thesis, <i>Network-Landscape: The Internet and the Urban Site</i>, was featured in the "Campus" section.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Garten+Landschaft_NetworkLandscape" height="352" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4087/5016988918_aa60d8e5b5.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="500" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The August Issue also features what I can only imagine is a wonderful piece by one of my </i><br />
<i>thesis advisers, Professor <a href="http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/ced/people/query.php?id=90&dept=all&title=all&first=Judith&last=Stilgenbauer&ced&berkeley">Judith Stilgenbauer</a>. </i></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</tbody></table><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/5016988918/" title="Garten+Landschaft_NetworkLandscape by nautical2k, on Flickr"></a><br />
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<i>Network-Landscape</i> describes a framework for understanding the relationship between physical places and flows of information over digital networks. In the thesis I describe a typological framework of Network-Landscape interactions that describe how online content can be projected into space or environmental conditions can be sampled and uploaded to the Internet. The graphic featured in Garten+Landschaft illustrates the concept of augmented reality, which is one way that media about a specific place can be projected into mobile network infrastructure. I'm hoping to delve a little more deeply into Network-Landscape in coming posts -- stayed tuned for information about crowdsourcing spatial data, <a href="http://www.benkler.org/CoasesPenguin.html">commons-based peer-production</a>, and <a href="http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2010/02/emergent-urbanism-or-bottomup-planning.html">emergent urbanism</a>.<br />
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The arrival of Oktoberfest also delivered another German flavor to my week: beer. I was fortunate to be a last minute invitee to the <a href="http://www.touristclubsf.org/">Tourist Club</a> in Marin, a cabin and beer garden tucked into the hills near Muir Woods.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="IMG_2567.JPG" height="375" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4113/5007363358_b22b03587f.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="500" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="http://www.touristclubsf.org/">The Tourist Club</a></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/5007363358/" title="IMG_2567.JPG by nautical2k, on Flickr"></a><br />
An intense fog that was initially a bummer ended up being one of the best things about the day. Nearly thick enough to swim through, the mist lent the afternoon a supernatural air -- it seemed that we had found a beer garden in the clouds.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="IMG_2697.JPG" height="375" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4125/5006764561_498f4d14ea.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="500" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">To get to the German beer garden, we had to hike through a forest of Australian eucalyptus.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/5006764561/" title="IMG_2697.JPG by nautical2k, on Flickr"></a><br />
The final German element of my week was a discovery I made as I was checking the traffic on <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/">my flickr photostream</a>. I was getting hits from German Wikipedia -- something I had never noticed before. Upon further investigation, I learned that a photo of a freight train I took in Berkeley several years ago had been uploaded.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="IMG_2545.JPG" height="333" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3037/2969857681_11f465fed9.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="500" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>A double-stack container-train. Or, as they say in Germany, a <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Doppelstock-Containertragwagen.jpg">Doppelstock-Containertragwagen</a>.</i><br />
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</tbody></table><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/2969857681/" title="IMG_2545.JPG by nautical2k, on Flickr"></a><br />
While certainly not my most prominent image on Wikipedia, (someone put my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/252930243/">photo</a> of the Flatiron's interior on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatiron_Building#The_building_today">the building's page</a>,) I was delighted to find it. What a fitting wrap up to my German week! Prost!jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-73271260222399619272010-09-11T14:10:00.003-04:002010-09-11T14:41:31.087-04:00Re-startHeading to Dolores park last week, I noticed parallel marks in the pavement that seemed to be the shadows of an old railroad. As a relatively new resident in the Mission, I commented to my new roommate: "There must have been a streetcar line here."<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/4962488059/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="IMG_2457.JPG by nautical2k, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_2457.JPG" height="375" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4128/4962488059_6df5afc190.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Dolores Street between 17th and 18th</span></i></td></tr>
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"No way." My roommate responded. I pondered San Francisco's urban development, the transformation of the city with the arrival of the automobile, and the history buried under the pavement. I bet her a six-pack there used to be a streetcar on Dolores Street and decided to restart the Built Environment Blog.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://burritojustice.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/mission-streetcars-1943.jpg?w=450&h=534" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://burritojustice.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/mission-streetcars-1943.jpg?w=450&h=534" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This map shows that there was a streetcar on Dolores in 1943 -- but not between 17th and 18th.</i><br />
<i style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Map from <a href="http://cprr.org/Museum/Maps/MSRWY_SFO_1943_BCC.html">Central Pacific RR Museum</a> via <a href="http://burritojustice.com/2009/08/03/streetcars-on-dolores-valencia-and-guerrero/">Burrito Justice</a>, one of my favorite San Francisco blogs. </i><br />
<i style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Bet undecided.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Some things will be the same in this newest phase of the Built Environment Blog. I've still got my independent perspective, and I still take tons of pictures. But after three years of <a href="http://laep.ced.berkeley.edu/">landscape architecture school</a> I'm more into <a href="http://thewhereblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/bringing-soil-back.html">soil</a> and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/sets/72157605132503410/">plants</a> than I used to be. I've also gotten to know some fascinating designers and planners, and I've moved to the Mission in San Francisco. I'm still way into <a href="http://builtenvironmentblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/love-those-mills.html">old buildings</a> and <a href="http://www.lostmag.com/issue14/prospect.php">urban puzzles</a>, though, don't worry.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3333/3578407089_94fbceb8cb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3333/3578407089_94fbceb8cb.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>There may be a post about shrimp farming, at some point.</i><br />
<i>You can view most photos full-size on my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/">flickr</a> just by clicking them.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
I still save an eclectic set of bookmarks at <a href="http://www.delicious.com/Nautical2k">my del.icio.us</a> page and I've also joined <a href="http://twitter.com/joshsjackson">Twitter</a>. I tend to retweet more than I post original content, but I find the whole twitter phenomenon fascinating.<br />
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Please feel free to post critiques and questions in the comments, or e-mail me through the link at the top right of the sidebar. This should be fun!jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-60028600667416287832008-11-02T14:00:00.000-05:002008-11-02T14:01:06.839-05:00where am I<div style="width:500px;font-family:arial;"><a target="_new" href="http://thewhereblog.blogspot.com/" title="POP UP TITLE"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyuf1yWyuwOYrztlhyk7-9JfEgvXTUBAh_QrEkixJ8FB8aaJMF_mBDkbRdU5JfqKKbU6AB-rkh-Wa-m_kKqUblPaVQYlZaX3uyf99QWAvvewFWSt6nQ66J45_gVhrdEix6o7Bd0ny48tU/s400/Where8d.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br />After a roughly year-long break, I've decided to start blogging again. Instead of keeping things going full time here at the Built Environment Blog, though, I'll be contributing several posts a month to <a href="http://thewhereblog.blogspot.com/">Where</a>, which has evolved into an <a href="http://thewhereblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/whole-new-where.html">interdisciplinary forum on urbanism</a> with <a href="http://thewhereblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/about-team.html">11 international writers</a>. Needless to say, I'm thrilled to be involved -- it promises to be an interesting endeavor. (I also got to design the banner!)<br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-28197198578624055662007-10-19T18:36:00.001-04:002010-09-24T00:11:18.624-04:00not so superblock<div style="font-family: arial; width: 500px;">In an <a href="http://www.observer.com/node/36799">interview</a> with the New York Observer several months ago, the Atlantic Yards' landscape architect Laurie Olin dismisses the common stigma against superblocks as clichéd "1960s language." His own arguments for them, however, echo the naïve idealism of planners from that very era. "If I put a street through here," he states, "[then] I have less space for people and I have more cars… When people say 'superblock'— what's wrong with what this is? Because I don't see how adding one car in here is going to make it a better space. I think space on streets is actually useless space." <br />
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<a href="http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2006/05/superblock-that-dares-not-speak-its.html" target="_new" title="An ancient intersection"><img src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3667/1536/1600/FinalScopeLayout.0.gif" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">The current plan for Atlantic Yards involves the demapping of several streets and the creation of a residential superblock. Site Plan via <a href="http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2006/05/superblock-that-dares-not-speak-its.html">Atlantic Yards Report</a>.</span><br />
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The superblock, put very simply, is a development form larger than a traditional city block. According to civic-minded urban theorists in the mid-20th century, residents of superblocks would be liberated from cars in their everyday life, living freely as denizens of self-sufficient pedestrian communities. The scale of these superblocks, wrote Bauhaus urban planner <a href="http://eng.archinform.net/arch/1010.htm?scrwdt=1280&scrwdt=1024&ID=aa68ad6f82c2c924a27aee5524c157e3&scrwdt=1440">Ludwig Hilberseimer</a>, would allow them to "preserve an organic community life" in the face of automobile-based cities of the future. (<span style="font-style: italic;">The Nature of Cities</span>, 1955.) <br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/404203489/" title="Yeah, looks like Corbusier"><img alt="hilberseimersuperblock_a.jpg" height="340" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/184/404203489_ded695b04d.jpg" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Concept for Heerstrasse and University of Berlin, 1937. Ludwig Hilberseimer. Scanned from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/American-City-What-Works-Doesnt/dp/0071373675/sr=8-1/qid=1172599573/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-3209814-3209635?ie=UTF8&s=books">The American City: What Works, What Doesn't</a> by <a href="http://www.alexgarvin.net/main.php?ptype=7">Alexander Garvin</a>. Hilberseimer worked with Mies van der Rohe on the United States' most successful superblock project: <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2005/01/book-of-moment_110618638024676993.html">Lafayette Park</a> in Detroit.<br />
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In practice, completed superblock projects rarely approach Hilberseimer's utopian vision: for the most part, superblock projects are boring and institutional. At worst, the designs encourage crime and neglect.<br />
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The NYU Silver Towers project north of Houston between Mercer and LaGuardia demonstrates the detrimental effect that the demapping of streets to create superblocks can have on the public realm. Despite an elegant design by I.M. Pei and a plaza with public art by Picasso, the modest superblock is a dead zone in the Village's otherwise vibrant public realm. Compared to neighboring SoHo – which has streets filled with a jumble of people and uses – the Silver Towers are a public realm failure.<br />
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<a href="http://www.pbase.com/hjsteed/image/68684862" target="_new" title="Deser[ted]"><img src="http://ic2.pbase.com/g6/26/411626/2/68684862.5oGTcPqk.jpg" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">NYU’s Silver Towers, a superblock created by the demapping of Wooster and Greene Streets, lacks the vitality of the smaller blocks that surround it. Photo by <a href="http://www.pbase.com/hjsteed/image/68684862">Hubert Steed</a>.</span><br />
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With the rise of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_urbanism">New Urbanism</a> and the canonization of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Jacobs">Jane Jacobs</a>, superblocks became a sort of urban design taboo – the quintessential example of high-minded architectural theory failing in real world application. Thus of the myriad flaws in the plan for Ratner's Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn, perhaps the most surprising, from a design perspective, is its return to the superblock form. In the words of the Manhattan Institute's <a href="http://www.nyc-architecture.com/SPEC/SPE-003.htm">Julia Vitullo-Martin</a>, "Do we not all agree with Jane Jacobs that the urbane mixtures of buildings of varying age, condition—inevitably swept away by the superblock—are a necessary condition of thriving urban life?" <br />
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Apparently not.<br />
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One dissenter, it seems, is <a href="http://www.olinptr.com/">Olin</a>. In the past, Olin has demonstrated an incredible ability to create beautiful public space enclaves in crowded urban environments. At the <a href="http://www.olinptr.com/project_past_museum1.html">Getty Center</a> in L.A., he worked with <a href="http://www.richardmeier.com/">Richard Meier</a> to create a hilltop oasis for art; at <a href="http://www.pps.org/great_public_spaces/one?public_place_id=26">Bryant Park</a>, he collaborated with <a href="http://www.pps.org/info/placemakingtools/placemakers/wwhyte">William Whyte</a> to carve a cozy community park from the mind-boggling intensity of Midtown Manhattan.<br />
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<a href="http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/bryantpark/bryant.html" target="_new" title="Ahhhhhhh..."><img src="http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/bryantpark/lawn2.jpg" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Bryant Park. Photo from <a href="http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/bryantpark/bryant.html">Forgotten NY</a>.</span><br />
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Unfortunately, Olin's talents do not always translate well into projects meant to integrate into the fabric of the city, rather than stand out from it. At <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Wharf">Canary Wharf</a> in London – like Atlantic Yards, a mixed-use high-rise development on a post-industrial site – the public spaces planned by Olin are impersonal and lack activity. Despite crowds of people working in the area, the wharf's public spaces are often nearly deserted. (It's said that the Radiohead's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_Plastic_Trees">Fake Plastic Trees</a> is about Canary Wharf, even though the trees are real. For more criticism, see the Project for Public Space’s <a href="http://www.pps.org/great_public_spaces/one?public_place_id=641#">Hall of Shame</a>.)<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yumlog2/4630489/" target="_new" title="A green plastic watering can..."><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/3/4630489_daea7efc1d.jpg?v=0" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Canary Wharf Tube Station, London, U.K. Image from <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yumlog2/4630489/">yuki*</a>. </span><br />
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In the chapter of <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_and_Life_of_Great_American_Cities">The Death and Life of Great American Cities</a></span> entitled "The Need for Small Blocks," Jacobs bemoans the "myth that plentiful streets are 'wasteful.'" She argues that it is, in fact, large blocks that lead to wasted space by constricting "economic use [to] only where [people's] long, separated paths meet and come together in one stream." The consolidation of economic activity to confined geographic areas leads to a "depressing predominance of commercial standardization... [and] the Great Blight of Dullness." Ultimately, it is the presence of streets where things can "start up and grow" that lead to economic vitality and vibrant public space.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/404275983/" title="Pretty simple concept"><img alt="needforsmallblocks_2" height="241" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/164/404275983_bd6584a4bf.jpg" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Potential pedestrian paths on large blocks (left) vs. potential pedestrian paths on short blocks (right.) From <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_and_Life_of_Great_American_Cities">The Death and Life of Great American Cities</a>, by Jane Jacobs.</span><br />
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In his defense of the Atlantic Yards superblock, Olin ignores the lessons of Jacobs while also revealing a fundamental misunderstanding of Brooklyn's streets. In vibrant neighborhoods like those surrounding Atlantic Yards, streets are more than a means of reaching a destination: they are the destinations themselves. Besides providing a place for cars to drive, Brooklyn's streets host a diversity of restaurants, stores, and cultural institutions – all of which serve customers arriving via public transportation or on foot. Moreover, the borough often closes its avenues completely to traffic to host festivals and fairs, events that have helped to give Brooklyn the value that Ratner, the Atlantic Yards' developer, is so eager to capitalize on. By asserting that "space on streets is actually useless space," Olin demonstrates a profound ignorance regarding Brooklyn's urban form.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/apollonia666/584863/" target="_new" title="I really miss Brooklyn"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/1/584863_10a98022c9.jpg?v=0" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">The Atlantic Antic, Brooklyn, NY. (This festival takes place on Atlantic Avenue -- the northern limit of the of the Atlantic Yards development.) Photo from <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/apollonia666/584863/">Apollonia666</a>.</span><br />
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Perhaps what is most surprising about the Atlantic Yards' superblock plans isn't the designers' defense of the concept, but the support it has from its developer. Small blocks, Jacobs makes it clear, are better for business. If he knew better, Ratner would be pushing for more streets – not fewer. Indeed, the superblock is neither a pedestrian-friendly design statement nor a wise investment – it's just a mistake.</div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-4359824174887697162007-10-08T04:28:00.000-04:002007-10-08T22:06:02.992-04:00prison payola<div style="width:500px;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a target="_new" href="http://www.americancity.org/index.php">The Next American City</a></span> just released an issue focusing on crime for which I wrote an <a href="http://www.americancity.org/article.php?id_article=304">article on prison privatization</a>. It was a fascinating topic to research, but also incredibly frustrating: there are lots of examples of what doesn't work well and very few of what does.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/us/31prisons.html?hp" title="Do not collect $200"><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/30/us/18952689.JPG" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Photo from <span style="font-style:italic;"><a target="_new" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/us/31prisons.html?hp">NY Times</a></span><br /></span><br />If you haven't seen <a target="_new" href="http://www.americancity.org/index.php"><span style="font-style:italic;">The Next American City</span></a>, check it out -- it's an interesting organization and the magazine has a thoughtful, interdisciplinary approach to urbanism.<br /><br />If you're interested learning more about prison privatization, there's lots out there. <span style="font-style:italic;"><a target="_new" href="http://www.prx.org/pieces/6367">Crime Pays</a></span> is an award-winning radio documentary about private prisons. The New York Times featured a <a target="_new" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/us/31prisons.html?hp">great article</a> on the topic earlier this year. Finally, for a rigorous analysis of the ethics of private prisons, see <a target="_new" href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=890326#PaperDownload"><span style="font-style:italic;">State Punishment and Private Prisons</span></a>, a piece that appeared in the Duke Law Journal in 2005.<br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-39178453086561993942007-08-29T04:32:00.000-04:002007-08-29T05:16:41.121-04:00hiatus<div style="width:500px;font-family:arial;">I had been wondering if grad school would leave me enough time to keep writing the Built Environment Blog, and after one day in the studio I have my answer: no. <br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/shake/ca/STORE/X40200915/ciim_display.html" title="POP UP TITLE"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1433/1264649257_17a8e137a3_o.gif" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Also, an earthquake hit yesterday -- my first! It was apparently a 3.0, but I didn't really feel it, I just heard a big rumble.</span><br /><br />Even though I won't be writing long posts like <a href="http://builtenvironmentblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/fireproof.html"><span style="font-style:italic;">fireproof</span></a> or <a href="http://builtenvironmentblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/grand-army-plaza.html"><span style="font-style:italic;">Grand Army Plaza</span></a>, Built Environment Blog won't be totally static. The links from <a href="http://del.icio.us/Nautical2k">del.icio.us</a> and photos from <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/">flickr</a> will keep updating, and I'll try to share interesting discoveries about the Bay Area as I make them.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/289706715/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/112/289706715_3c40d9deac.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_5129.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.berkeleyheritage.com/berkeley_landmarks/municipal-rose-garden.html">Berkeley Rose Garden</a></span><br /><br />If you're looking for something interesting to read online, there's still no better place than <a href="http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/">BldgBlog</a>. <a href="http://www.thingsmagazine.net/">Things Magazine</a> is another source for awesome stuff, and <a href="http://thewhereblog.blogspot.com/">Where</a> keeps getting better.<br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-91466419207729900252007-08-13T03:29:00.001-04:002007-08-13T17:42:30.736-04:00cross country<div style="width:500px;font-family:arial;">I recently completed a two-month trip across the country. There were two legs of the journey and I took lots of photos on both of them. The first part, from Brooklyn to Chicago by car, took place at the start of the summer. The second part, from Chicago to the Bay Area by plane, took place at the end. Each leg provided a distinct perspective on the American landscape and I had a window seat for both.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/1096942621/" title=""><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1139/1096942621_31a8126c99.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_0659a" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Freight train, Ohio.</span><br /><br />From the car, I saw a thin slice of the country, but from quite close. In addition to hearing the horns of freight trains, I could also smell the chicken coops. (It makes you wonder what they <a target="_new" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmRDjLc-rRY">do in there</a>...)<br /><br />From the airplane, I saw a broad swath of the country from a great distance. On the one hand, I could really appreciate the geography of the American West. (I was particularly drawn to its <a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/1079679458/">dams and reservoirs</a>.) On the other hand, I didn't get to go to any of the places I saw.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/1078910691/" title=""><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1252/1078910691_25ed95339e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_3925_b_b.jpg" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Farmland, California.</span><br /><br />On both segments of the trip I saw farms. There are, I learned, lots of different kinds of farms.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/526849086/" title=""><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1137/526849086_819197c5ed.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_0246.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Farmland, Pennsylvania.</span><br /><br />Some farms are <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_pivot_irrigation">center pivot irrigated</a> -- watered by sprinklers that rotate around a central point. From the ground, these sprinklers look a bit a like a suspension bridge, fork-lift, and garden hose all rolled into one device.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/528165335/" title=""><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1102/528165335_046ef0af95.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_0683.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Center pivot irrigation sprinkler, Ohio.</span><br /><br />The true beauty of center pivot irrigation, however, is only visible from above. By virtue of their radial design, farms using the system have crops arrayed into circles. Sometimes the countryside looks like it's covered in <a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/1078423413/in/set-72157601296786696">pie</a>-<a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/1078730027/in/set-72157601296786696/">charts</a>. <br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/1079556144/" title=""><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1098/1079556144_21b76f2d38.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_3894_b_b.jpg" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Center pivot irrigated farms, Southwestern US. (Central pivot irrigation has been used to grow crops in the <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Irrigation_in_the_Heart_of_the_Sahara.jpg">Sahara</a>!)</span><br /><br />Another kind of 'farm' I saw didn't grow anything at all: it produced power.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/526945935/" title=""><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/235/526945935_5cf898717c.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_0270.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Wind farm, Pennsylvania.</span><br /><br />The first <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_farm">wind farm</a> I saw was in western Pennsylvania. The towering three-bladed turbines were a striking juxtaposition to the traditional dairy farms on the ground. Nonetheless, windmills seemed like a good fit in Amish Country.<br /><br />On the approach to Oakland Airport, I got another look at a wind farm when my plane flew over Altamont Pass. Constructed in response to the 1970s energy crisis, the <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altamont_Pass_Wind_Farm">Altamont Pass Wind Farm</a> was once the largest in the world. From above, it's almost impossible to see the propeller blades move; instead of looking like power plants, the turbine arrays look like battalions of toy soldiers. (Fighting for the environment, of course.)<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/1079784976/" title=""><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1030/1079784976_3bdae27fcc.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_3929_b_b.jpg" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Altamont Pass Wind Farm, California.</span><br /><br />Despite enjoying the journey west -- as well as the two month layover in <a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/sets/72157600326302772/">Chicago</a> -- I'm glad it's over. It's nice to be finally be here in California.<br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-83743645542618355172007-07-07T20:43:00.001-04:002007-07-08T16:43:46.955-04:00sail to the crib<div style="width:500px;font-family:arial;">Last Monday, I decided to have my class sail out to the the Wilson Avenue <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_crib">crib</a>. Sailing to the crib is good practice navigating in large waves -- it also makes the kids more independent and gets them comfortable being further from shore. Getting somewhere on a sailboat is fun, too, instead of just going around buoys.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/718052900/" title="Long way to go"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1145/718052900_d680ea18c1.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_2594.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">A boat practicing trapezing on the way to the crib.</span><br /><br />Accompanying my sailors in a safety boat, the trip also afforded me a close look at a work of historic engineering. Built in early 1900s, the Wilson Avenue crib is part of the <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Water_Reclamation_District_of_Greater_Chicago">massive hydrological infrastructure</a> that gives Chicago its drinking water. (The most famous part of the system is the <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Sanitary_and_Ship_Canal">Sanitary and Shipping Canal</a>, which reversed the flow of the <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_River">Chicago River</a> in 1900.)<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/267470964/" title="Love the old maps"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/108/267470964_f7b62a9b34.jpg" width="500" height="425" alt="Chicago Sanitation District" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">The Chicago Sanitation District, 1925. (Now known as the <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Water_Reclamation_District_of_Greater_Chicago">Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago</a>.)</span><br /><br />When operation began in 1866, the <a target="_new" href="http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10777.html">first crib</a> <a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/748761722/">pulled clean water through pipes from two miles offshore</a> to a <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Water_Tower">water tower</a> at the corner of Michigan and Chicago Avenues. Meant to equalize water pressure, the <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Water_Tower">water tower</a> gained great fame as one of the few structures to survive the <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chicago_Fire">Great Chicago Fire</a> in 1871.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/613123891/" title="The Water Tower at night"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1388/613123891_e55c5ccc5a.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1961.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">To this day, the land between the water tower (above) and the <a target="_new" href="http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10777.html">two-mile crib</a> (which no longer exists) is conspicuously unbuilt -- only the Museum of the Contemporary Art has been built above the old pipes' path.</span><br /><br />Though the original crib is long gone, others, like the Wilson Avenue <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_crib">crib</a>, remain in operation today. These cribs collect lake water and send it ashore to be purified. One of Chicago's chemical purification plants, the <a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/691110864/">Jardine Water Purification Plant</a>, is the largest in the world.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/717507405/" title="Technically, the crib is also a lighthouse"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1094/717507405_1b87a0762c.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_2760.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">The Wilson Avenue crib, from just beyond the restricted area created after 9/11.</span><br /><br />As a place, the crib feels very surreal. In some ways, it's familiar: I see the crib almost every day. At the same time, though, viewing it from the far side -- and from so close -- make being there totally foreign. <br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.geography4kids.com/extras/dtop_space/moonearth.html" title="Outta this world"><img src="http://www.geography4kids.com/extras/dtop_space/moonearth_580.jpg" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Seeing Chicago's skyline from the crib always makes me feel a bit like an astronaut seeing earth from the moon.<br /></span><br />Some of my students call the crib "<a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azkaban">Azkaban</a>," the wizards' prison from Harry Potter. Although the residents weren't prisoners, the cribs were once inhabited by <a target="_new" href="http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/300035.html">tenders</a>. Today, however, the systems are automated: no one has lived on the structures for decades.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/717368453/" title="A 3-hour tour"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1226/717368453_8c27fddb3c.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_2677.JPG" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Chicago from the Wilson Avenue crib.</span><br /><br />As a waypoint, a historic building, and a place, the crib is fascinating. I always love to sail to the crib.<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />(Full photoset of the trip <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/sets/72157600646990602/">here</a>.)</span><br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-47663177506029893972007-06-17T23:44:00.001-04:002007-06-18T00:58:23.672-04:00got the t-shirt<div style="width:500px;font-family:arial;">Before starting landscape architecture school in the fall, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to coach sailing in Chicago this summer.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/535630213/" title="Another Day At the Office"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/244/535630213_a4f1f0ab7f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_0960.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Belmont Harbor.</span><br /><br />Even though the whole plan was to avoid design work for a few months, I couldn't help but get excited when my boss offered $100 to the instructor that designed the best sailing school t-shirt.<br /><br />Living in Chicago for the first time in 7 years, I've found that the Hancock Center has supplanted the Sears Tower as the city's favorite skyscraper. I decided to incorporate the tapered tower into my t-shirt design.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/563133821/" title="Tall"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1129/563133821_227e2b445e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1288.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">The Hancock Tower.</span><br /><br />Pondering the iconic building's distinctive cross-bracing, I couldn't help but think of one of my favorite sights in sailing: two boats crossing tacks upwind. After some online searching, I was able to find a great piece of graphic design from the 1987 America's Cup.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" target="_new" href="http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Duel-87-America-s-Cup-Posters_i116177_.htm"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 351px;" src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/MYS/KLR102~Duel-87-America-s-Cup-Posters.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Duel, by Keith Reynolds. (From <a target="_new" href="http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Duel-87-America-s-Cup-Posters_i116177_.htm">AllPosters</a>)</span><br /><br />Initially, I thought that the graphic would be a bit sparse with only one tower, so I decided to incorporate two other iconic Chicago buildings.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sage/533856/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 375px;" src="http://www.lensimpressions.net/images/20070108160900_lensimpressions-03-46.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">The Sears Tower. (From <a href="http://www.lensimpressions.net/index.php?showimage=521">LensImpressions</a>)</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" target="_new" href="http://www.lensimpressions.net/index.php?showimage=521"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 375px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/1/533856_7fdecbe847.jpg?v=0" border="0" alt="" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">The Smurfit-Stone Building. (From <a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sage/533856/">ChicagoSage</a>)</span><br /><br />When I finished the design, however, I thought it was a bit busy.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/563153853/" title="Take 1"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1262/563153853_1304e9b9c3.jpg" width="500" height="498" alt="cyc shirt_7d.jpg" /></a><br /><br />I took out the Sears Tower and the Smurfit-Stone, but I'm not sure it's better. Which one do you like?<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/563152481/" title="Take 2"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1023/563152481_b73918d09e.jpg" width="500" height="498" alt="cyc shirt_7c.jpg" /></a><br /><br />We'll see what the other instructors come up with...<br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-67025065716367155862007-06-06T02:14:00.000-04:002007-06-06T20:38:02.626-04:00under construction<div style="width: 500px; font-family: arial;">Last year I moved into a new apartment in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. I loved the place, but there was one problem: a new building was under construction next door. When I complained about the noise, however, my dad made a good point: 'At least you can learn how they build apartment buildings.'<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/158334508/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/59/158334508_378b438b10.jpg" alt="IMG_1926.JPG" height="375" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">June 1, 2006.</span><br /><br />When I visited the apartment for the first time, contractors were clearing the remains of old garages that had been demolished on the site.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/372383966/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/98/372383966_6d04739c6c.jpg" alt="IMG_2168.JPG" height="375" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">August 15, 2006.</span><br /><br />Within a few weeks, the builders were digging foundations for the new building.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/242492096/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/90/242492096_1b8c43b4f1.jpg" alt="IMG_3690.JPG" height="375" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">September 13, 2006.</span><br /><br />For about a month, a <a href="http://builtenvironmentblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/concrete-jungle.html">pumping truck</a> poured <a href="http://builtenvironmentblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/concrete-jungle.html">concrete</a> into wooden frames to build the foundation.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/270628322/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/97/270628322_19b040a231.jpg" alt="IMG_4732.JPG" height="375" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">October 14, 2006.</span><br /><br />Once the foundation was finished, prefabricated concrete floor plates were lifted on top. When the floor plates were anchored into place, workers built cinder block walls to support the next level.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/280361262/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/85/280361262_1ade8431d5.jpg" alt="IMG_4812.JPG" height="375" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">October 26, 2006.</span><br /><br />As each set of walls were completed, a new set of floor plates were lifted by a crane into place.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/301268533/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/105/301268533_ff58dfdf97.jpg" alt="IMG_5549.JPG" height="375" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">November 18, 2006.</span><br /><br />And then another level of cinder block walls was added...<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/316162123/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/111/316162123_a6535448f0.jpg" alt="IMG_5851.JPG" height="375" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">December 6, 2006.</span><br /><br />The large crane that lifted the floor plates into place is visible in this photo. On days like this when the floors were being installed, the street was filled with 18-wheelers carrying prefabricated concrete plates.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/388760672/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/148/388760672_808415c5ef.jpg" alt="IMG_6612" height="375" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">February 10, 2007.</span><br /><br />During a powerful windstorm in February, several strips of plastic blew off the roof and over the side of the building. They made a loud whipping sound that kept me up at night -- it was quite annoying. It was the only time that it seemed like anything went awry in the process, though. Overall, I was very impressed with the efficiency of the construction.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/404191945/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/175/404191945_41b4ad58c5.jpg" alt="IMG_6810.JPG" height="375" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">February 26, 2007.</span><br /><br />By the time winter started flexing its muscle, most of the structural elements were finished. As snow fell on the site, the construction workers were installing elements of the building's interior.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/410436396/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/174/410436396_28292fc4ae.jpg" alt="IMG_6868.JPG" height="375" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">March 3, 2007.</span><br /><br />On the night of March 3rd, the construction site was lit by a <a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/410436606/in/set-72157594505197918/">partial lunar eclipse</a>. It was a surreal sight.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/456235391/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/167/456235391_1635536667.jpg" alt="IMG_7721.JPG" height="375" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">April 10, 2007.</span><br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/469449205/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/224/469449205_bde8c93051.jpg" alt="IMG_8051.JPG" height="375" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">April 19, 2007.<br /></span><br />By mid-April, work had begun on the cosmetic elements of the building's exterior. Exposed cinder block walls were covered in brick and the window panes were put in place.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/509763572/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/217/509763572_6a6316b720.jpg" alt="IMG_0437.JPG" height="375" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">May 21, 2007.</span><br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/526881267/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1113/526881267_cc9911cfa5.jpg" alt="IMG_0164.JPG" height="375" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">May 31, 2007.</span><br /><br />365 days after I first photographed the construction site, the lease on my apartment expired. After I finished moving out, I made sure to return one last time to take a final picture. Soon the building will be finished, but I won't get to see it. Nonetheless, my dad was right: now I know how they build apartment buildings.<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />Full construction photoset <a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/sets/72157594505197918/">here</a>.</span><br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-48635271686265995802007-05-25T18:51:00.000-04:002007-05-29T12:14:50.227-04:00ride to the sea<div style="width:500px;font-family:arial;">This week I fulfilled a long-time wish and rode my bike down Ocean Parkway to Coney Island.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/513022384/" title="Une allée. Allez!"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/214/513022384_da5b5a884b.jpg" width="500" height="321" alt="IMG_0302a" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">This tree-lined path starts just south of Prospect Park and continues about 5 miles until reaching the Atlantic Ocean. It's a lovely ride, if a bit bumpy.</span><br /><br />Culturally, the route was dominated by orthodox Jewish communities: it seemed that there was a Hebrew school or Synagogue on every block. The most unique of these buildings, from an architectural perspective, was the <span style="font-style:italic;">Mirrer Yeshiva</span>, which seemed to have been redesigned mid-construction. At first glance, I thought that the school was adding a rooftop addition to take advantage of <a href="http://builtenvironmentblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/unused-far.html">unused FAR</a>, but closer examination revealed that the steel had been exposed for some time. I've never seen a building quite like it.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/509337941/" title="What meshuguna architect made this?"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/211/509337941_3efdb4d76c.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_0429.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">There are basketball courts on the roof of the brick structure below the two steel floors. Oy, what a design!</span><br /><br />Ocean Parkway also passes several unique features of Brooklyn's built environment. In between Avenue H and Avenue I, for instance, the boulevard passes over the Bay Ridge Line, an underutilized freight line that once linked the piers of Sunset Park to a rail hub in western Brooklyn at Broadway Junction.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/509338189/" title="There's no wrong side of the tracks here"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/202/509338189_4d9090171c.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_0430.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">The Bay Ridge Freight Line.</span><br /><br />Several years ago at an old job, I examined the feasibility of re-using the Bay Ridge Line as a cross-Brooklyn light rail route. Adapting the right-of-way for light rail would be a relatively inexpensive way to link areas without transit service to existing subways.<br /><br />Combined with other efforts, such transit improvements could spur substantial economic development in the area. Ultimately, however, the proposal was dropped from the final report I was working on. I still think it's a great idea.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/513032035/" title=""><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/195/513032035_c3125ae3de.jpg" width="500" height="472" alt="bayridgeline_a" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Brooklyn Google map with subways, via <a target="_new" href="http://www.onnyturf.com/subway/">OnNYTurf</a>. The Bay Ridge Line is the hatched double black line curving from east to west. The route of my ride, Ocean Parkway, is between the orange and yellow/orange lines in the center of the map.</span><br /><br />But back to the ride... <br /><br />At Avenue U, in a landscape of single-family homes that bore little resemblance to the <a href="http://builtenvironmentblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/brownstone-brooklyn.html">Brownstone Brooklyn</a> I left at the start of my ride, I passed a mysterious cast-iron tower unlike any I'd ever seen in the city before. I wondered if it was perhaps a remnant of Brooklyn's once <a target="_new" href="http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/caption.pl?/img/maps/bqt_trolley_1924.gif">comprehensive trolley system</a>, but found no evidence that Ocean Parkway ever had streetcars. As it turned out, the tower had a far less romantic origin.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/509298560/" title="Tower of Odor"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/197/509298560_f39ba9df07.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_0308.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Obsolete sewer ventilation tower. Many thanks to <a target="_new" href="http://www.forgotten-ny.com/">Forgotten-NY</a>'s Kevin Walsh for the <a target="_new" href="http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/what/what.html">explanation</a>.</span><br /><br />Finally, I reached Coney Island. The ocean was beautiful.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/509299958/" title="Hell yeah, beaches"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/208/509299958_e62b8c25fe.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_0314.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Coney Island Boardwalk.</span><br /><br />On a whim, I departed from my plans and headed east, away from Coney Island. Before long I reached Brighton Beach, one of New York's classic Russian neighborhoods. The boardwalk wasn't crowded, and the few people I saw certainly weren't speaking English.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/509327101/" title="Red sign"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/192/509327101_83a48c6132.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_0338.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">At least I could understand the URL at the bottom of the sign.</span><br /><br />Eventually I made it to <a target="_new" href="http://www.kbcc.cuny.edu/">Kingsborough Community College</a>, which has a beautiful campus at the entrance to Jamaica Bay. Across the water I saw <a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/509303676/in/set-72157600243454909/">Breezy Point</a>, where I helped plan a marina that would have hosted sailing if New York had won its <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_2012_Olympic_bid">NYC2012</a> Olympic bid. I eyed the shore sadly, thinking about what an amazing venue it would have been.<br /><br />Rounding the tip of the peninsula, I reached Sheepshead Bay, one of my favorite parts of the city. Besides <a target="_new" href="http://www.cityisland.com/">City Island</a> in the Bronx, Sheepshead Bay is the most 'New Englandy' part of New York City with active fishermen and a harbor filled with bobbing sailboats. (Check out the blog <a target="_new" href="http://sail-brooklyn.blogspot.com/">Sail Brooklyn</a> for more about Sheepshead Bay.)<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/509309840/" title="That gull was eyeing me"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/213/509309840_37ae4881d9.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_0386.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">You can just see the top of the Verrazano Bridge in the distance.</span><br /><br />Riding slow to soak in the scenery, I was nonetheless going fast enough that an unseen speed bump flipped me neatly over my handlebars, almost ending my ride. Refusing medical attention from a startled security guard, a quick survey found my bike and body functional enough to continue -- my helmet had spared me a trip to the hospital. Bloodied but not beaten, I headed back to the beach.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/509334383/" title="Hmm"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/232/509334383_ce59b3c7da.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_0398.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">The New York Aquarium. Stupid place for a wall.</span><br /><br />Back on the Coney Island boardwalk, I noticed the sorry state of the New York Aquarium, which was once located at <a target="_new" href="http://www.nps.gov/cacl/historyculture/index.htm">Castle Clinton</a> in Manhattan's Battery Park. Fortunately, the Aquarium is about to be rebuilt with a design by <a target="_new" href="http://www.ruiz-geli.com/">Enrique Ruiz-Geli</a>, my favorite of a <a target="_new" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/arts/design/10ouro.html?ex=1297227600&en=61d484106a6cf6b9&ei=5088">new crop of Catalonian architects</a> transforming Spanish design.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/2007/03/coney-island-2-new-aquarium-design.html" title="Me encanta esta diseño"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/103/285294516_5caf2df7dd_o.jpg" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;"><a target="_new" href="http://www.ruiz-geli.com/">Ruiz-Geli</a>'s design for the New York Aquarium. (Via <a target="_new" href="http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/2007/03/coney-island-2-new-aquarium-design.html">Gowanus Lounge</a>)</span><br /><br />The new plan, which I love, interacts with the boardwalk much more than the existing building and has the potential to create a powerful waterfront-based aesthetic experience like that of the <a target="_new" href="http://www.mam.org/thebuilding/index.htm">Milwaukee Art Museum</a>, which was designed by Ruiz-Geli's Spanish compatriot <a target="_new" href="http://www.calatrava.com/main.htm">Santiago Calatrava</a>.<br /><br />Further down the boardwalk, I felt conflicting emotions as I checked out <a target="_new" href="http://www.astroland.com/">Astroland</a> in its <a target="_new" href="http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/2006/11/breaking-news-coney-islands-astroland.html">final year of operation</a>. On the one hand, I fear that new developments might destroy the kitschy charm that has given Coney Island its unique character for so long. On the other hand, I felt that some aspects of the boardwalk are ready to be retired. '<a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/509311684/in/set-72157600243454909/">Shoot the Freak</a>', for instance, which encourages children to fire paintballs at a 'live human target', is best left in the past.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/509334893/" title="The hot dog was invented at Coney Island"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/197/509334893_95ea1668cc.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_0405.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Astroland Park may be closing, but the world-famous Cyclone roller coaster will survive, thankfully.</span><br /><br />Heading back to Ocean Parkway and concluding my adventure for the day, I reflected that there was nowhere in the world quite like Brooklyn. I had seen but a thin slice of the borough on my bike ride, but witnessed a rich diversity of landmarks created by the people of the city. From temples and trains to roadways and restaurants, the environment of Brooklyn was one truly reflective of the broad range of people that live there.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/509336349/" title="The icon of Coney Island"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/229/509336349_301d95e668.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_0418.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">The Coney Island <a target="_new" href="http://history.amusement-parks.com/parachute.htm">Parachute Jump</a>.</span><br /><br />Sadly, I'm leaving Brooklyn soon to move west. It's tough to leave, but this unique city will always have a place in my heart. Will I miss Brooklyn? Yes. Will I remember it forever? Fugghedaboutit.<br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-35191909710952187832007-05-06T22:29:00.000-04:002007-05-10T14:48:52.769-04:00williamsburg cinco de mayo (in pictures)<div style="width:500px;font-family:arial;">I spent my Cinco de Mayo in Williamsburg. The weather was perfect and I took a lot of photos. (As always on this blog, you can click the photo to go to its source. All photos in this post are from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/sets/72157600184019841/">flickr</a> account.)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/486890826/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/224/486890826_5f07ef5374.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_8948.JPG" /></a><br /><br />I started the day at Peter Luger's where I met some friends for hamburgers. Luger's has some truly delicious burgers.<br /><br />Parting from my buddies, I wandered to the waterfront where I admired the beauty of the Williamsburg Bridge. It differs from NYC's other suspension bridges in two ways. First, its canted towers tilt towards the center of the bridge instead of going straight up. Second, only the center span is suspended by cables -- the approaches are supported from below by steel supports.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/486897364/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/169/486897364_70a2183ecb.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_9012.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/486931613/in/set-72157600184019841/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 375px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/194/486931613_6150fae83e.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/486900324/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/230/486900324_c045398834.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_9038.JPG" /></a><br /><br />Walking north, I soon came to the <a href="http://www.waterfrontalliance.org/2007/02/domino_1.html">Domino Sugar Refinery</a>, an extremely endangered historic building. I'm worried it will meet the same fate as the <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/150061833/">Revere Sugar Refinery</a> that was <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/38117599@N00/412188323/">demolished</a> earlier this year in Red Hook. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/486934779/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/173/486934779_5e6627fcee.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_9061.JPG" /></a><br /><br />I managed to take one picture of the hulking factory as a spandex-clad cyclist zipped by on a recumbent bike.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/486935775/in/set-72157600184019841"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 375px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/179/486935775_d4a5b8aa23.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Past the sugar refinery I was delighted to discover Grand Ferry Park, a tiny spot of public space on the waterfront I'd never been to before. Great people-watching.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/486907588/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/203/486907588_26cbbd5c8d.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_9089.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/486939565/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/178/486939565_a949fec017.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_9096.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/486941991/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/224/486941991_ab873a7541.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_9105.JPG" /></a><br /><br />Sneaking past a chain link fence, I found an abandoned dock on the riverfront side of a big warehouse. I think this crane is great.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/486914866/in/set-72157600184019841/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 375px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/183/486914866_5de6854961.jpg?v=0" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Continuing into Greenpoint, I noticed this rusting contraption on the roof of a building. It reminded me of the <a href="http://www.designboom.com/history/becher.html">Becher</a>'s industrial photography.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/486952351/in/set-72157600184019841/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 375px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/206/486952351_f7ca113b2f.jpg?v=0" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />I made sure to swing by the ruins of the Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/486922918/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/179/486922918_c52d10dec4.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_9180.JPG" /></a><br /><br />And I also checked out the <a href="http://www.curbed.com/archives/2007/04/18/will_greenpoints_pencil_be_saved.php">Eberhard Faber Pencil Factory</a>, which looks like it will be designated as a historic landmark soon.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/486955721/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/209/486955721_279d2c50d1.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_9190.JPG" /></a><br /><br />Eventually I made it to the rooftop BBQ I'd been headed to all along. Great views of the city.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/486961559/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/209/486961559_ac69ebbfe3.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_9248.JPG" /></a><br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-46937968595705851082007-05-06T17:05:00.000-04:002007-05-06T17:53:06.631-04:00buzz off<div style="width:500px;font-family:arial;">Across America and Europe, honeybee colonies are collapsing from an unknown cause. Some <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_%28beekeeping%29">beekeepers</a> in the eastern United States are reporting <a target="_new" href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,473166,00.html">70% loses</a> in the past year. Bees are critical for the pollination of many crops including apples, almonds, and tomatoes. The widespread collapse of their hives has serious implications for the world's food supply.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mommamia/127630454/" title="buzz buzz buzz"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/44/127630454_f1c153aea2.jpg?v=0" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">A honeybee laden with pollen. Photo by <a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mommamia/127630454/">mommamia</a></span>.<br /><br />No one is sure of why the bees are vanishing, though there are many theories. Some believe that <a target="_new" href="http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2449968.ece">radiation from cell phones</a> is to blame. Indeed, the industrialized nations suffering from <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_Collapse_Disorder">Colony Collapse Disorder</a> (CCD) are among those with the highest cell phone usage. <br /><br /><a target="_new" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.haynes.tv/90/technology/2006/08/29/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 449px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/206/478913872_64108ac60d_o.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Cell tower in Massachusetts. What are they trying to hide? Photo from <a target="_new" href="http://www.haynes.tv/90/technology/2006/08/29/http://www.haynes.tv/90/technology/2006/08/29/">Haynes.tv</a>. More <a target="_new" href="http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/08/tower/source/1.htm">antenna camouflage</a> <a target="_new" href="http://www.utilitycamo.com/sites.html">here</a>.</span><br /><br />The science behind cell phone radiation is <a target="_new" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=450995&in_page_id=1879">questionable</a>, however, and most apiarists think other factors are to blame. (In fact, the authors of one <a target="_new" href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/22/news/wireless23.php">oft-cited study</a> say their findings were misinterpreted and and they "cannot explain the CCD-phenomenon itself and want to keep from speculation in this case.")<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder" title="A lot of truckin' bees"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5f/Bee_migration_9045.JPG/799px-Bee_migration_9045.JPG" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">An 18-wheeler being loaded with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_%28beekeeping%29">beehives</a> for transport. Photo from <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_%28beekeeping%29">Wikipedia</a>.</span><br /><br />Some believe pesticides are to blame for the current rash of colony collapses. In a <a target="_new" href="http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/06sum/bees1.asp">great article</a> for <a target="_new" href="http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/">OnEarth Magazine</a>, Sharon Levy shadowed beekeeper Jeff Anderson as he travelled across the country with his colonies as a pollinator-for-hire. On his annual transcontinental migration, he rigorously avoided farms in areas where pesticides like Sevin and Penncap-M are used, even though many such chemicals are legal. If just one bee harvests pollen from plants sprayed with these compounds, the poison can spread through the whole hive.<br /><br /><a target="_new" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/06sum/images/bees_slide4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 249px;" src="http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/06sum/images/bees_slide4.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">A healthy colony abuzz with workers, stored pollen, and eggs. Photo by <a target="_new" href="http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/06sum/images/bees_slide.gif">Dan Winters</a>.</span><br /><br />Others believe that some form of parasite is to blame. <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varroa_destructor">Varroa mites</a>, first discovered in the US in <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varroa_destructor#Introduction_around_the_world">1987</a>, have reduced bee populations but they aren't thought to play a large role in the current collapses. Instead, researchers are focusing on <a target="_new" href="http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=FB0910F73C5A0C778EDDAD0894DF404482">bacterial</a>, <a target="_new" href="http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=FB0910F73C5A0C778EDDAD0894DF404482">viral</a> and <a target="_new" href="http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Apr/25/br/br6927458130.html">fungal</a> infections. In some cases, however, so many pathogens are found in the dead bees of collapsed colonies that it suggests the <a target="_new" href="http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=FB0910F73C5A0C778EDDAD0894DF404482">infections</a> are a symptom of weakened defenses, and not a cause.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/04/24/vase-made-by-bees-by-studio-libertiny/" title="Nice vase, honey."><img src="http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/beevase.jpg" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Bee-made vase by Tomas Gabzdil Libertiny of <a target="_new" href="http://www.studiolibertiny.com/">Studio Libertiny</a>. Via <a target="_new" href="http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/04/24/vase-made-by-bees-by-studio-libertiny/">Inhabitat</a>.</span><br /><br />In his <a target="_new" href="http://journal.davidbyrne.com/">journal</a>, <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_Heads">David Byrne</a>, asks: "[could] <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_crops">GM</a> agribusiness could be trying to eliminate bees"? Whether there's a conspiracy against the bees or not, a <a target="_new" href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,473166,00.html">German study</a> found that one variety of genetically modified corn with DNA from bacteria may have "altered the surface of the bee's intestines, sufficiently weakening the bees to allow the parasites to gain entry." At the same time, the director of the study admits, "perhaps it was the other way around. We don't know."<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.inyourpocket.com/lithuania/ignalina/sightseeing/museums/venue/13304-ancient_beekeeping_museum.html" title="An Old-World Apiary"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Lithuania_Stripeikiai_Honeymaking_Museum.jpg/800px-Lithuania_Stripeikiai_Honeymaking_Museum.jpg" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">The Ancient Beekeeping Museum, Stripeikiai, Lithuania. Photo via <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Lithuania_Stripeikiai_Honeymaking_Museum.jpg">Wikipedia</a>.</span><br /><br />Perhaps there is no one reason the bees are disappearing. Maybe we've reached a critical tipping point in the fragile symbiosis of plant, bee, and human. For millennia, beekeepers have worked at the intersection of the built and natural environments. As humans explore new ways to manipulate that boundary with techniques like industrial farming and GM crops, we may be upsetting the balance. As a society finally acknowledging our role in global warming, we know that we can no longer protect nature passively: we must actively manage the relationship between the built and natural environments.<br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-88201367830507380682007-05-02T16:40:00.000-04:002007-05-02T17:40:56.996-04:00axiometric tribeca<div style="width:500px;font-family:arial;">An e-mail from an old co-worker reminded me how much I love <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiometric_projection">axiometric</a> maps. (I also like <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axonometric_projection">axonometric projections</a>. I'm not totally sure what the difference is...)<br /><br /><a target="_new" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.mapposter.com/mptribecafs.html"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 429px;" src="http://www.mapposter.com/gifs/mptribecafs.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">I wonder how different this map would look today with all the new construction. Check out this axiometric comparison of <a target="_new" href="http://dumbonyc.com/2007/04/27/dumbo-then-and-now-two-trees-maps-current-neighborhood/">DUMBO in 2002 and 2005</a>.</span><br /><br />The <a target="_new" href="http://www.mapposter.com/mptribecafs.html">1994 axiometric map</a> above from <a target="_new" href="http://www.mapposter.com/">MapPoster</a> emphasizes a point I made in the Built Environment Blog last year: Tribeca is defined by its edges. (Wish I'd found this image for the <a href="http://builtenvironmentblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/triangle-below-canal.html">original post</a>.)<br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-24764354091610576482007-04-24T23:31:00.000-04:002007-04-26T00:02:34.851-04:00busy april<div style="width:500px;font-family:arial;">I just came across this visionary redesign of the New York subway map on <a target="_new" href="http://www.gothamist.com/2007/04/23/kick_map_finds.php">Gothamist</a> and wanted to share it with everyone.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.kickmap.com/pages/7_wholemap_comparison.html" title="So Clear!"><img src="http://www.kickmap.com/images/1_midmanhattan_comparison.jpg" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Kick Design's <a target="_new" href="http://www.kickmap.com/pages/7_wholemap_comparison.html">new subway map</a> is a dramatic simplification of the existing design. More about the <a target="_new" href="http://www.kickmap.com/">Kick Map</a> in the <a target="_new" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/nyregion/thecity/22map.html?_r=6&ref=thecity&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=logi&oref=login">NY Times</a>.</span><br /><br />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, <a target="_new" href="http://www.usoc.org/117_52102.htm">Chicago was selected</a> as the USOC's bid city for the 2016 Olympics.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://typophile.com/files/Chicago_2016_6227_5912.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://typophile.com/files/Chicago_2016_6227_5912.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Apparently the <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hancock_Center">Hancock</a> has displaced the <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Tower">Sears Tower</a> as Chicago's most recognizable skyscraper.</span><br /><br />Based on my experience with the <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NYC2012">NYC2012</a> 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 <a target="_new" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/sports/othersports/15usoc.html?ex=1177560000&en=a1f8d6a502d154ec&ei=5070">NY Times</a>. 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.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/nyregion/23mayor.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1177327481-8SRBvQs99jcO4dcW9G06ug&oref=slogin" title="Hizzoner"><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/22/nyregion/23mayor-600.jpg" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Bloomberg introducing PlaNYC 2030. Photo from <a target="_new" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/nyregion/23mayor.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1177327481-8SRBvQs99jcO4dcW9G06ug&oref=slogin">NY Times</a>.</span><br /><br />In other news, Mayor Bloomberg just released the <a target="_new" href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc2030/html/plan/download.shtml">PlaNYC 2030</a> report, a sweeping vision for New York City's future. It's an <a target="_new" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/nyregion/23mayor.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1177327481-8SRBvQs99jcO4dcW9G06ug&oref=slogin">ambitious and controversial plan</a> that the <a target="_new" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/20/nyregion/20speech.html?hp">NY Times</a> 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.<br /><br />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 <span style="font-style:italic;"><a target="_new" href="http://www.pps.org/info/newsletter/april2007/libraries_that_matter">Libraries that Matter</a></span>, an article I helped write for <a target="_new" href="http://www.pps.org/">PPS</a>'s Libraries and Civic Centers <a target="_new" href="http://www.pps.org/info/newsletter/april2007/">newsletter</a>.<br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-65338962505167635082007-04-12T00:19:00.000-04:002007-04-20T16:24:03.431-04:00good to go<div style="width:500px;font-family:arial;">I wrote an article for this month's issue of <a href="http://www.goodmagazine.com/section/Features/decongestion"><span style="font-style:italic;">Good Magazine</span></a>: 'Decongestion: <br />5 innovations in urban transportation that you won't find in America, yet.' <span style="font-style:italic;">Good</span> is different from other magazines in that the $20 from your 'subscription' goes to the <a href="http://www.goodmagazine.com/subscribe/">non-profit organization</a> of your choice, not the publisher.<br /><br />You can download a pdf of the article <a target="_new" href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/4/15/987614/gd004-Decongestion.pdf">here</a>. (1.5 MB)<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.streetsblog.org/2006/10/04/notes-on-bicycling-in-copenhagen/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/IMG_0540_lane_inside_parkedcars.jpg" width="500" alt="IMG_7695.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Copenhagen, Denmark. <a href="http://www.streetsblog.org/">Streetsblog</a><span style="font-style:italic;">'s Aaron Naparstek contributed some great photos to the article.</span></span><br /><br />I also scanned a a copy of the article with the cover and table of contents; you can download that <a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/4/15/987614/Good%20004%20--%20Decongestion.pdf">here</a>. (3 MB)<br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-69491988780268092682007-04-02T17:55:00.000-04:002007-04-03T02:33:02.823-04:00lost and found<div style="width:500px;font-family:arial;"><a href="http://www.lostmag.com/issue14/prospect.php">Lost Magazine</a> has published a new version of <a href="http://www.lostmag.com/issue14/prospect.php">323 Prospect Place</a>, a piece that originally appeared here in the Built Environment Blog. The new version incorporates information from several great comments on the <a href="http://builtenvironmentblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/321-prospect-place.html">blog post</a> -- many thanks to Showhank, <a href="http://www.fakeisthenewreal.org/">Fakeisthenewreal</a>, Robert Baptista and everyone else who added their thoughts. Special thanks to <a href="http://www.wolfblock.com/wbroot/attorney.asp?id=634">Paul Proulx</a> who essentially solved the mystery with the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/79315049@N00/83919145/in/set-1541182/">map</a> below.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/434158339/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/43/434158339_dcca1e80f5.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="flatbush turnpike red_2" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">This is my edited version of the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/79315049@N00/83919145/in/set-1541182">original map</a> that explains the orientation of <a href="http://www.lostmag.com/issue14/prospect.php">323 Prospect Place</a>.</span><br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-70979874978946045172007-03-29T10:51:00.000-04:002007-03-29T12:56:44.128-04:00new links<div style="width:500px;font-family:arial;">This week I finally got around to reorganizing my links. I also added a bunch of new ones.<br /><br /><a href="http://tavetgillson.com/" title="Enjoy New York"><img src="http://tavetgillson.com/stills/enj_ny.jpg" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Album cover by <a href="http://tavetgillson.com/">Tavet Gillson</a> for </span>Enjoy New York<span style="font-style:italic;">, an upcoming compilation by <a href="http://www.premiercrumusic.com/">Premier Cru Music</a>.</span><br /><br />Of the new links, here are some of my favorites:<br /><br /><a href="http://fogonazos.blogspot.com/index.html">Fogonazos</a> is a bilingual blog with a unique perspective on the built and natural environment. I really like the post on the <a href="http://fogonazos.blogspot.com/2007/02/baikonur-cosmodrome-fascinating-tour.html">Baikonur Cosmodrome</a> in Kazakhstan.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.papress.com/">Princeton Architectural Press</a> publishes well-written and visually stunning books. For folks fascinated by materials, like me, <a href="http://www.papress.com/bookpage.tpl?isbn=1568985703&cart=1175180378180964">Liquid Stone</a> is a must-read.<br /><br /><a href="http://fabprefab.com/">Fab Prefab</a> is a resource for modern prefabricated design. <a href="http://fabprefab.com/fabfiles/containerbayhome.htm">Container Bay</a>, one section of the site, is an incredible index of designs for habitable shipping containers. <br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-51576607880046253302007-03-29T08:54:00.000-04:002007-03-29T08:58:24.705-04:00fire in the slope<div style="width:500px;font-family:arial;"><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/434569485/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/163/434569485_60fcef0ade.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_7048.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">March 25, 2007.</span><br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/e-liz/437785396/" title="POP UP TITLE"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/179/437785396_70fc70be85.jpg" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">March 28, 2007. Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/e-liz/437785396/">E-Liz</a>.</span><br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-69744652876957320402007-03-27T16:42:00.000-04:002007-03-28T11:01:40.095-04:00going up<div style="width:500px;font-family:arial;">One of my favorite comedians, <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Hedberg">Mitch Hedberg</a>, had a bit about escalators: <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">"An escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. There would never be an 'Escalator temporarily out of order' sign, only an 'Escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience.'"</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" target="_new" href="http://www.vvork.com/?p=2965"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://www.vvork.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/ulrichvogl.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a> Escalator <span style="font-style:italic;">(permanent marker on escalator, 2003) by <a target="_new" href="http://ulrich-vogl.de/">Ulrich Vogl</a>. Via <a target="_new" href="http://northbird.blogspot.com/2007/01/graffitiart.html">Bird to the North</a>.</span><br /><br />Escalators are, in fact, incredible machines. They give their users a status somewhere between pedestrian and passenger, providing a remarkably public mode of personal transportation. Ubiquitous in the world's subway stations and department stores, new escalators continue to shape both transit and retail. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" target="_new" href="http://www.theelevatormuseum.org/f/f_4.htm"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 360px;" src="http://www.theelevatormuseum.org/f/f-4-14.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Jesse Reno's 1891 design for the moving stairwell at Coney Island. Ladies were expected to ride 'sidesaddle.' Via <a target="_new" href="http://www.theelevatormuseum.org/f/f_4.htm">The Elevator Museum</a>.</span><br /><br />Escalators as we know them today were introduced at the <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposition_Universelle_(1900)">Exposition Universelle of 1900</a> in Paris, an event better remembered for the introduction of 'Talking Films'. Built by the <a target="_new" href="http://www.otisworldwide.com/">Otis elevator company</a>, this escalator improved on several earlier versions of inclined people-movers, including one at Coney Island that used seats like a bicycle's.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.exhibitoronline.com/exhibitormagazine/exhibitorquiz/history.asp" title="Some things change, some things stay the same"><img src="http://www.exhibitoronline.com/exhibitormagazine/exhibitorquiz/images/history/photos/8_large.jpg" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">The Otis moving stairway at the Exposition Universelle, 1900.</span><br /><br />Though materials, safety, and efficiency have improved throughout the history of the escalator, the fundamental method of operation remains the same. Rather, the innovation in escalators has emerged in their application.<br /><br />Hong Kong is home to the world's longest and most innovative escalator system, the <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central-Mid-Levels_escalator">Central-Mid-Levels Escalator</a>. Linking <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Des_Voeux_Road_Central">Des Voeux Road</a> in Central Hong Kong with <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conduit_Road">Conduit Road</a> in the Mid-Levels, the escalator winds 800 meters above crowded streets, dramatically bridging the two neighborhoods. Opened in 1994, the introduction of the escalator has spurred economic development on cross streets where people can disembark, revitalizing <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staunton_Street">commercial districts</a>. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/132987157/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 375px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/52/132987157_6b727a29b6.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">It's also lots of fun to ride. You can see the platform I took this picture from <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:HK_Mid-Level_Escalators.jpg">here</a>.</span><br /><br />In New York City, innovative escalators are playing a central role in the introduction of <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_box">big box retail</a>, until now a distinctly suburban phenomena. At stores like the 23rd Street Home Depot and the Atlantic Terminal Target, special escalators allow shopping carts to move between floors. The urbanization of big box retailers represents a new direction in commercial development. Indeed, the phenomena is a challenge to both existing urban retailers and the sprawling superstores of the suburbs -- a challenge manifest in escalators.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsjackson/372275690/" title="Targét"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/170/372275690_52875b5ae8.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_6407.JPG" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Target. Brooklyn, 2007.<br /></span><br />When escalators break, they 'become stairs.' When they work, they can change how people live.<br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832731735778985340.post-37100063624325259062007-03-21T16:33:00.000-04:002007-03-21T16:46:05.423-04:00Fireladders of SoHo<div style="width:500px;font-family:arial;">I just learned about a great collection of <a href="http://december7th.org/thefireladdersofsoho/index.html">drawings of fire escapes in SoHo</a> (via <a target="_new" href="http://www.gothamist.com/2007/03/20/every_fire_esca.php">Gothamist</a>). They are a good follow-up to the <a href="http://builtenvironmentblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/fireproof.html">Fireproof</a> post of several weeks ago. Hope you like them as much as I do.<br /><br /><a target="_new" href="http://december7th.org/thefireladdersofsoho/index.html" title="Nice"><img src="http://december7th.org/thefireladdersofsoho/imagesdraw/greenedraw/greene82-drawhov.jpg" width="500" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">82 Greene. From <a href="http://december7th.org/">Greg Martin's</a> <a href="http://december7th.org/thefireladdersofsoho/index.html">Fireladders of SoHo</a>.</span><br /></div>jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06797874900158390843noreply@blogger.com0