Fireladders of SoHo
I just learned about a great collection of drawings of fire escapes in SoHo (via Gothamist). They are a good follow-up to the Fireproof post of several weeks ago. Hope you like them as much as I do.82...
View Articlegoing up
One of my favorite comedians, Mitch Hedberg, had a bit about escalators: "An escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. There would never be an 'Escalator temporarily out of order' sign,...
View Articlenew links
This week I finally got around to reorganizing my links. I also added a bunch of new ones.Album cover by Tavet Gillson for Enjoy New York, an upcoming compilation by Premier Cru Music.Of the new links,...
View Articlelost and found
Lost Magazine has published a new version of 323 Prospect Place, a piece that originally appeared here in the Built Environment Blog. The new version incorporates information from several great...
View Articlegood to go
I wrote an article for this month's issue of Good Magazine: 'Decongestion: 5 innovations in urban transportation that you won't find in America, yet.' Good is different from other magazines in that the...
View Articlebusy april
I just came across this visionary redesign of the New York subway map on Gothamist and wanted to share it with everyone.Kick Design's new subway map is a dramatic simplification of the existing design....
View Articleaxiometric tribeca
An e-mail from an old co-worker reminded me how much I love axiometric maps. (I also like axonometric projections. I'm not totally sure what the difference is...)I wonder how different this map would...
View Articlebuzz off
Across America and Europe, honeybee colonies are collapsing from an unknown cause. Some beekeepers in the eastern United States are reporting 70% loses in the past year. Bees are critical for the...
View Articlewilliamsburg cinco de mayo (in pictures)
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...
View Articleride to the sea
This week I fulfilled a long-time wish and rode my bike down Ocean Parkway to Coney Island.This tree-lined path starts just south of Prospect Park and continues about 5 miles until reaching the...
View Articleunder construction
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,...
View Articlegot the t-shirt
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.Belmont Harbor.Even though the whole plan was to avoid...
View Articlesail to the crib
Last Monday, I decided to have my class sail out to the the Wilson Avenue crib. Sailing to the crib is good practice navigating in large waves -- it also makes the kids more independent and gets them...
View Articlecross country
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...
View Articlehiatus
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. Also, an earthquake hit yesterday -- my...
View Articleprison payola
The Next American City just released an issue focusing on crime for which I wrote an article on prison privatization. It was a fascinating topic to research, but also incredibly frustrating: there are...
View Articlenot so superblock
In an interview 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...
View Articlewhere am I
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...
View ArticleRe-start
Heading 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...
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