Viewing NYC Articles Categorized Under City Planning

[WATCH] NYC's Former Chief Urban Designer Answers City Planning Questions

2024-11-18T12:00:00-05:00

Former Chief Urban Designer of The City of New York Alex Washburn returns to WIRED to answer another round of the internet's burning questions about city planning. How should cities accommodate electric bikes? Can urban planning mitigate over-gentrification? How can urban planning prevent crimes? What does the future of public transportation in urban centers look like? Can a city ever reach population capacity? How's it possible for a city to run out of water? Alex Washburn answers these questions and many more on City Planning Support, Vol. 2.

0:00 City Planning Support Rd. 2
0:15 How to accommodate electric bikes in cities
1:05 Gentrification
2:29 Living in the sprawl
3:43 Can urban planning reduce crime?
4:08 Booooring
4:58 Trees
5:51 If you build it will they come?
6:42 The future of public transportation
7:25 The Big Dig was a Big Dub
8:24 Sustainable cities
8:59 Why do taxpayers subsidize stadiums?
9:59 Hyperloop/Maglev
11:02 Concrete was a poor choice
12:23 Windmills on every building
13:08 Superblocks/Tartan Grid
14:40 Looks familiar!
15:31 Can a city reach capacity?
16:14 Favelas
17:12 please bro, just one more parking lot
18:22 NYC housing costs
19:25 Congestion pricing
19:58 Hall of Fame: Brasilia
20:55 Running out of water

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[REPOST] A 1925 Proposal on What the City Transportation Infrastructure Should Look Like

2023-04-06T12:00:00-04:00

Architect Harvey Wiley Corbett is perhaps best known for Bush Tower in Midtown, but he also designed some important City structures such as the massive New York City Criminal Courts Building.

In 1925, Corbett was interviewed by Popular Science magazine, and his thoughts on where the City's transportation infrastructure would be in 25 years (1950) were made into this great little animated cross-section.

Unlike many other experts, Mr. Corbett does not believe that the future will bring the "decentralization" of our big cities. On the contrary, long study of modern trends in architecture, city planning, and business and social life has convinced him that our cities will become more and more crowded.

Facing this contingency, he believes, we of this generation should begin now to plan buildings and highways with an eye on the problem of handling people and traffic of the future. The streetcar and elevated railway, Mr. Corbett says, will disappear.

Streets will consist of four or more levels, respectively for pedestrians, slow motor traffic, fast motor traffic, and electric trains, the uppermost level being raised above the present street level.

Check out the full article for more on Corbett and his original predictions.

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1930 Architectural Concept of Manhattan From Renzo Picasso

2021-12-28T16:00:00-05:00

Renzo Picasso was an Italian architect, engineer, and urban planner of the 20th century. In this blueprint from 1929, titled American Multiple Highway, Picasso proposes a stacked roadway system running along the length of Manhattan.

It was intended to have seven levels: six for automobiles and pedestrians, and one underground for the subway. As can be seen in the image, the criss-cross pattern is the intersection of the "Super Streets," three of which go from North to South and the other three from East to West. All the levels would have connected between them and with the ground by means of ramps, and to the corresponding buildings via catwalks.

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[REPOST] Check Out This 1930 Architectural Concept of Manhattan From Renzo Picasso

2021-03-12T16:00:00-05:00

It was intended to have seven levels: six for automobiles and pedestrians, and one underground for the subway. As can be seen in the image, the criss-cross pattern is the intersection of the "Super Streets," three of which go from North to South and the other three from East to West. All the levels would have connected between them and with the ground by means of ramps, and to the corresponding buildings via catwalks.

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[VIDEO] How and Why New York City's Public Steam System Helps to Run the City's Buildings

2020-10-11T16:00:00-04:00

Steam seen rising from the streets is nothing new in New York City, but do you know exactly why we have steam in the first place? In this short informative video made back in 2014 by the New York Times, see how and why our unique system of underground steam helped the City grow into what it is today.

With more than 100 miles of steam piping and nearly 2,000 buildings served, New York’s steam system is the largest in the world.

Check out the accompanying article for more on the New York City steam network.

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[WATCH] How and Why New York City's Public Steam System Helps to Run the City's Buildings

2020-09-17T16:00:00-04:00

With more than 100 miles of steam piping and nearly 2,000 buildings served, New York’s steam system is the largest in the world.

Check out the accompanying article for more on the New York City steam network.

The post [WATCH] How and Why New York City's Public Steam System Helps to Run the City's Buildings appeared first on Viewing NYC

1925 Proposal on What New York City Transportation Infrastructure Should Look Like

2020-06-23T12:00:00-04:00

Architect Harvey Wiley Corbett is perhaps best known for Bush Tower in Midtown, but he also designed some important City structures such as the massive New York City Criminal Courts Building.

Unlike many other experts, Mr. Corbett does not believe that the future will bring the "decentralization" of our big cities. On the contrary, long study of modern trends in architecture, city planning, and business and social life has convinced him that our cities will become more and more crowded.

Facing this contingency, he believes, we of this generation should begin now to plan buildings and highways with an eye on the problem of handling people and traffic of the future. The streetcar and elevated railway, Mr. Corbett says, will disappear.

Streets will consist of four or more levels, respectively for pedestrians, slow motor traffic, fast motor traffic, and electric trains, the uppermost level being raised above the present street level.

Check out the full article for more on Corbett and his original predictions.

The post 1925 Proposal on What New York City Transportation Infrastructure Should Look Like appeared first on Viewing NYC

Take a Peek at This 1930 Architectural Concept of Manhattan From Renzo Picasso

2020-06-22T16:00:00-04:00

It was intended to have seven levels: six for automobiles and pedestrians, and one underground for the subway. As can be seen in the image, the criss-cross pattern is the intersection of the "Super Streets," three of which go from North to South and the other three from East to West. All the levels would have connected between them and with the ground by means of ramps, and to the corresponding buildings via catwalks.

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[VIDEO] Architect Frank Lloyd Wright Explains How Arrogance and Greed Literally Built New York City

2020-05-04T12:00:00-04:00

The team at Blank on Blank recently uncovered a 1957 audio interview with iconic architect Frank Lloyd Wright in which he discusses how arrogance and greed built the NYC skyline, then turned the audio into a great animated short.

As part of our special series, The Experimenters, where we’re uncovering interviews with the icons of science, technology, and innovation, we found this 1957 interview with Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s part of a collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin celebrating The Mike Wallace Interview, a TV program that ran back in the late ‘50s. Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs and style seem very nice, very clean now, but at the time, he was a controversial personality. And like most famous architects, his work was as much hated as respected. And that’s what Mike Wallace wanted to talk about.

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[WATCH] Documentary Covers New York City's Urban Fight of the Century: Jane Jacobs vs Robert Moses

2020-03-26T12:00:00-04:00

From Ric Burns' masterful PBS documentary about New York City comes this inspiring David and Goliath story of the battle for human scale neighborhoods.

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