urban surgery

Draft Submittal of Thesis Prep Book Abstract Submittal Inspiration Board

[humanscalecities]

12 Steps to a Great Public Space

1. Protection from traffic

2. Protection from crime

3. Protection from the elements

4. A place to walk

5. A place to stop and stand

6. A place to sit

7. Things to see

8. Opportunities for conversations

9. Opportunities for play

10. Human-scale

11. Opportunities to enjoy good weather

12. Aesthetic quality

— Jan Gehl & Lars Gemzoe

[smithsonianmag]

Evolution of the New York City Skyline

Spanning 137 years, this image shows how New York City expanded and evolved into what it is today.

Photo: tier1dc

Ed note: In 1950, one magazine depicted what an atomic bomb would do to New York City—in gruesome detail.

h/t Retronaut

[anxiaostudio]

A regular Joe might think it’s easy to change something on the very streets they walk on, but they would be mistaken. Before anything happens, a proposal and a plan has to go through multiple layers of bureaucracy, as graduate planning student Huma Husain’s visual clearly shows above. (via Carren Jao: Notes)

[humanscalecities]

Clever way to show how bureaucracy makes so complex to change streets. Just change the names for the agencies and public departments in your own context!

[hyperuniverse]

[skyscraper]

Rendering of the proposed Dancing Dragons skyscrapers (450 m), by Chicago firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, commissioned for the Yongsan International Business District in Seoul, South Korea.

via hyperuniverse

[skyscraper]

Lower Manhattan from the East River. July 1936

via wirednewyork.com

[mrgreaves-blog-deactivated20190]

Simply beautiful cross-section of Kowloon

[humanscalecities]

The Urban Wisdom of Jane Jacobs Edited by Sonia Hirt, Diane Zahm

[humanscalecities]

Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Place

Sharon Zukin

[meganpritts]

[meganpritts]

[humanscalecities]

Michael Mehaffy refutes the contrarians and clarifies Jacobs’ lasting “Top 10” observations found in the incredibly influential book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

[meganpritts]

[meganpritts]

Northpoint, Cambridge, MA, Office dA

Given a high density, the goal was to make the housing project as small scale as possible as to provide for human scale. This project is majorly sectional in that four different housing typologies are intricately stacked as to create a hybrid condition: loft/live-work, row house with stoop at street level, nyc style walk-up, and double-loaded corridor apartments above. While stacked, each have their own form of entry and circulation.

[meganpritts]

Longrono Cubes, Longrono, MVRDV

A high density residential housing block is redefined in terms of density and streetscape.

[meganpritts]

Las Delicias, Malaga, MVRDV

This is an urban housing, commercial, and cultural infill project to the block. MVRDV identifies the 0 level street system as being turned upside down as the public zone is accessible on rooftops and terraces.

[meganpritts]

Neder-over-heembeek, Belgium, Office dA

One of the goals of this housing project was to redefine the edge of the street. The ground level is given over to "retail spaces at its base to give human activity to the street alongside the church." The center courtyard is preserved as a pedestrian route offering public access to the surrounding context.

[meganpritts]

Residential Urban Design Projects by West 8

West 8 has completed a god amount of urban design projects including new living quarters. Each of these projects shows variation in housing and building type with attention to facade variation. In the Vathorst project especially, the masterplan divides the quarters into areas of low and high density urban living.