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  • Monorails suddenly a thing again

    Futuristic as they look, monorails never really got a toehold outside of airports, Disney World, and I Can Haz Cheezburger. Now elevated single-track trains might be getting a second chance to become the transportation of the future. Part of the problem with monorails is that they’re slow, and part of it is that they’re really […]

    Jess Zimmerman Buildings

  • Cities as software, and hacking the urban landscape

    What if saving a rundown city wasn’t about building expensive new infrastructure — hardware, so to speak — but instead reprogramming the existing infrastructure? Changing the software of the place? That’s the analogy used by Marcus Westbury, founder of Renew Newcastle, an innovative initiative that has breathed life into the vacant downtown of that Australian […]

    Sarah Goodyear Buildings

  • Three Gorges Dam has serious issues, China admits

    When a country commits to any project as monstrous as China's Three Gorges Dam, it is bound to encounter occasional difficulties. The Chinese government, as governments are wont to do, has preferred to gloss over the dam's detriments and emphasize its attributes, like the 84 billion kilowatt hours of electricity it produced last year. But […]

    Sarah Laskow Buildings

  • Making power lines beautiful with the help of a giant reindeer

    Here's the down side of increased renewables: It means an increase in unsightly overhead power lines. And if you can't put them underground (which isn't always feasible), the answer might lie in turning an eyesore into a triumph of design. Germany is abandoning nuclear and embarking on a big renewables push, but to make it […]

    Jess Zimmerman Buildings

  • The man who thinks Manhattan isn’t dense enough

    New York City may not be the best example of a place that hasn’t lived up to its potential for greater density.Photo: Randy von LiskiCross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. New York County, which comprises all of Manhattan, is the densest county in America at 71,166 people per square mile. It is twice as […]

    Kaid Benfield Buildings

  • Fat city: The way your neighborhood is built could be killing you

    Road to ruin.Photo: Alfonso SurrocaCrappy urban development isn’t just ugly and noisy and dirty. It is turning out to be lethal. One Toronto study looked at how the quality of a community’s streets can affect people’s health, factoring into drastically reduced life expectancy. It’s the focus of an article in The Globe and Mail that […]

    Sarah Goodyear Buildings

  • U.S. infrastructure needs a $2 trillion make-over

    Like those bridges and roads and trains tracks you've got there? Want to keep them? That'll be $2 trillion. That's how much the Urban Land Institute estimates the U.S. needs to invest in infrastructure just to keep what's already in place from falling apart. Everybody else in the world gets this. In Europe, countries realize […]

    Sarah Laskow Buildings

  • Watch an entire country lose its sh*t for a bullet train

    This surprisingly emotionally affecting video was shot in Japan right before the recent tsunami. It's a commercial for a new bullet train line, which completed a network running nearly the full length of the country, connecting all of Japan in a way that people clearly found deeply meaningful. The tsunami hit the day before the line […]

    Jess Zimmerman Buildings

  • A green roof grows in Brooklyn

    Crimson clover blooms on the roof at the Linda Tool factory.Photo: Sarah GoodyearStanding on the barren, cracked sidewalk outside the nondescript brick building that houses the Linda Tool factory in Red Hook, Brooklyn, you would have no idea that there is a verdant meadow three stories above your head. Oh, but there is. And on […]

    Sarah Goodyear Buildings

  • Why are we so angry at the pump? Because we have no choice

    Photo: A SiegelEuropeans want to know: “Why are Americans so angry about petrol prices?“ An article on the BBC earlier this week looks at the question from a very high-minded, almost anthropological perspective. You can almost see the reporter screwing in his monocle to observe the colonists’ colorful ways. Aside from a few man-in-the-parking-lot interviews […]

    Sarah Goodyear Buildings