A “skyscraper showdown” is in headlines this week, making contentious building projects a recurring theme for the summer. This time we have 15 Penn Plaza vs. the Empire State Building. The City Council has approved plans for a 67-story tower to be built two blocks away from, and just 34 feet shorter than, the iconic Empire… 
Up There from Mekanism on Vimeo.
Yesterday was Earth day. It was also the three-year anniversary of Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement of PlaNYC 2030. Financial and political obstacles have impeded progress on many of the 2009 goals — of the 127 initiatives proposed on Earth Day 2008, only 51 have been…
Yesterday’s protest of the Atlantic Yards groundbreaking seems to have received almost as much media attention as the groundbreaking itself – one eye-witness estimated the press-to-protester ratio outside Freddy’s bar as nearly 1 to 1. And we admit, we were so taken with the bobbleheaded masks that we failed to assess…
To coincide with this afternoon’s groundbreaking ceremony for Atlantic Yards, opponents to the project held their own event: the Groundbreaking to Bury the Soul of Brooklyn. Held outside Freddy’s Bar, which lies in the project’s footprint and has been a focal point for Atlantic Yards protests, members of Develop Don’t Destroy
Urban Omnibus wishes you a happy holiday season with a special Christmas/New Year’s roundup. See you in 2010!
Instead of our usual Wednesday feature, today we wish you a happy Thanksgiving holiday with an early edition of the weekly Omnibus roundup.
Among all the other things this date evokes, it also brings reminders of broken promises, feuds and memorials at the World Trade Center site. Another anniversary we’re remembering these days is… the arrival of the Dutch. Lots of exciting events going on this weekend and beyond. Especially of interest is the Pioneers of Change festival of Dutch design, fashion and architecture going down on Governor’s Island through the 20th. We’re gearing up for a September and
This week we listened to some new strategies to involve community stakeholders in the design of public spaces, strategies tested in the parks of Manhattan’s Chinatown and the Lower East Side. Meanwhile, across the country in LA’s Chinatown, urban planner James Rojas has assembled an interactive city model from legos…
First off, save the date: on Tuesday, July 7th, please come and join us and our friends and neighbors, the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), for a different kind of SUPERFUND conversation called… “Goo Gone: a live talk show about risk, responsibility and toxins in the landscape.” Panelists…
Welcome to a very out-and-about edition of the Roundup. Who says life slows down in the summer?
Tomorrow night come rage with us at the Architectural League’s Beaux Arts Ball at Omnibus home base The Old American Can Factory (tickets still on sale!)…
