Elisha Otis moved to Yonkers, New York in 1852 to convert an abandoned sawmill into a bed frame factory. Endless trips hauling debris from floor to floor gave the tinkerer a challenge: wasn’t there a better way? With the help of his sons, Otis designed and built the first “safety elevator” to manage the task. Two years later, Otis presented his invention … 
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The founder and the director of an organization that revitalizes neighborhoods by curating exhibitions in empty spaces discuss their process of transforming a Bronx landmark into a temporary venue for contemporary art. |
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Peter Syrett introduces Transparency, an online database of the health effects of building materials, and reflects on architectural responsibility, scientific uncertainty and buildings as instruments of public health. |
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Laurie Hawkinson shares student work and discusses the meanings of ‘speculation’, collaborations between architecture and real estate students, and the return of big ideas. |
HOLIDAY HIATUS
The holidays are upon us. And while we busy ourselves this week with buying urban-themed gifts for loved ones, we are also planning to take a little extra time in the first days of the new year to do some Omnibus brainstorming, housecleaning, and party-planning. So we will be back in full force on January 9th, just in time to celebrate our third birthday, preview an exciting new line-up of features, forum posts and special projects for 2012, and invite you officially to our second annual benefit party, which will take place on February 28th. Mark your calendars! And don’t forget your pens, pencils or…
Before Urban Omnibus went live, we co-hosted a weekend-long event that invited teams to design a project in the public interest and build it from found materials in two days. The event was led by Bryan Bell, on the occasion of the launch of his 2008 book Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism, which surveys the field of “creative design carried out in the service of the greater public and the greater good.” Bell, founder of Design Corps and co-founder of SEED, has been working towards a better understanding…
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Curator Deborah Wye explains how the Orchard Beach Pavilion inspired her to research and present the building’s history, to advocate for its preservation and to explore the city through some of its neglected civic architecture. |
When we spoke to landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh in December 2009 about Brooklyn Bridge Park, just before the first phase of the project opened to the public, he spoke about what it means to design something that continues to live and grow, and how this particular site offered an opportunity…
HUXTABLE LAUDS EMPIRE STATE BUILDING RENOVATION
For her latest installment in The Wall Street Journal, architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable focuses her attention on the extensive renovations of the Empire State Building and where the New York City icon fits in this “age of the superskyscraper,” in which technological innovation and “the timeless incentives of ego and profit”…
Socrates Sculpture Park and the Architectural League invite architects and designers to apply for a new design/build residency leading to an exhibition at Socrates next year.
