Modi Research Group / Columbia University | click image to access interactive map

MAPPING ENERGY USE IN THE CITY
In an effort to show the ways in which New York City dwellers consume energy, Vijay Modi, professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University, and his student Bianca Howard have generated an interactive map that demonstrates energy consumption throughout the five boroughs at the block level. The map invites its users to explore the differences in energy consumption patterns throughout the city. It’s no surprise that Midtown Manhattan is the biggest consumer in the city that never sleeps. But it is more than a little alarming when Modi explains that Manhattan uses more energy than Kenya, and that the entirety of New York State consumes more than the whole Sub-Saharan region, a statistic that he hopes will change as awareness grows.

STEVEN SIEGEL’S NEW YORK
For more than thirty years, Steven Siegel has photographed and filmed the changing streetscapes of the five boroughs of New York City. The folks at Gothamist have been diligently mining his photo and film archives and interpret his images as documenting a fundamental shift from “from utter destruction to Disneyfication.” Siegel promises to continue recording these changes, and we promise to keep checking out his body of work as it evolves.

Newtown Creek Digester Eggs: The Art of Human Waste | David Leitner from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.

FOCUS / FORWARD
For another series of artful and informative perspectives, check out this collection of short documentaries by leading filmmakers, each one spotlighting innovative people and projects addressing a broad range of challenges — a topic and approach near and dear to the Omnibus’ heart. Gary Hustwit — whom we interviewed about his urban design documentary Urbanized — is among the filmmakers, working with Jessica Edwards on a profile of the Delaware County Landfill in Upstate New York, an extremely efficient facility able to divert 70% of incoming waste through recycling and composting and able to convert the landfill gas it captures into enough electricity to power almost 400 homes. And among the projects featured is the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility, a place we’ve been following since we first visited the Nature Walk designed by George Trakas that rings the facility and provides a generous and beautiful public space as well as access to the water.

AS THE MILLIONTREES PROGRAMS EXPANDS, BURDENS GROW
As one of many PlaNYC initiatives, the MillionTrees program’s goal was to plant and care for more than one million trees across New York City in order to enhance the emotional and physical well being of city dwellers and the health of the urban environment that surrounds them. Although over 500,000 trees have now been planted, severe weather conditions and the challenges of ongoing stewardship have constrained the organization’s budget and plans for the program. Although MillionTrees has been successful in planting, the burden of maintenance has suffered from budget cuts. The New York City administration is preparing to plant another 500,000 and it is relying on many volunteers, community residents and neighborhood non-profit groups to help.

ARCHITECTURE ON SCREEN
This Friday and Saturday, the Center for Architecture in partnership with MUSE Film and Television will be screening international productions on architecture extracted from the 2011 Montreal International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA). Be sure to check out these innovative films filled with historical, political and poetic dimensions. For more information about the event, visit the Center for Architecture’s event page.

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MORE STATE OF THE CITY – Wi-Fi and WASTE-TO-ENERGY
In addition to the familiar Mayoral priorities reported in last week’s Omnibus Roundup (the economic potential of building projects, more jabs at the teachers union, etc.), Bloomberg’s speech last week also mentioned some tech initiatives, including partnering “with AT&T to bring Wi-Fi service to a dozen city parks – so even if you’re enjoying a beautiful day, you can still work or study or play ‘Words with Friends.’” And, as Next American City highlights, he also spoke about new sources of renewable energy, claiming New York City will “become one of the first cities in the country to turn wastewater into renewable energy and we’ll explore the possibility of cleanly converting trash into renewable energy.” Read the full text of the address at NYC.gov.

Undercity on MyBlockNYC

MYBLOCKNYC GOES UNDERGROUND
Before the holidays, we spoke with Alex Kalman and Alex Rickard about their video hosting site MyBlockNYC. Now they’re teaming up with Gothamist to bring viewers an exclusive glimpse at the world below ground with the series “Undercity.” The makers of the Undercity films, Steve Duncan and filmmaker Andrew Wonder, have been taking viewers on adventures into the unknown underground world of New York City, and now those adventures will be geographically located, visually correlating the world beneath our streets with the city above. Check out the series at MyBlockNYC and the coverage at Gothamist.

PARKING APP
This week the DOT started testing sensors in 177 parking spaces on both sides of 187th Street in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx. The sensors send information to a smart phone app that tells the user when fewer than two or more than four spaces are available on a given block. So instead of circling the block, searching for the right spot, a driver will know their chances of getting a spot and head towards a block with available space. The app will purportedly save drivers from endless frustration, alleviate traffic in shopping areas and help relieve “pollution associated with those people who are cruising around looking for parking,” according to Janette Sadik-Khan of the DOT. The sensors, bright yellow and about the same diameter as a hockey puck, are being tested over the next three months for how they withstand the weather and street sweepers of New York City streets. If they last the testing period, the city will launch a free app for drivers to try. Read the coverage at the Daily News.

CONGRESS INCENTIVIZES DRIVING TO WORK
For the past two years, commuters taking public transportation and those driving private vehicles have been granted the same pre-tax benefit of up to $230 per month. But starting this year, thanks to Congress, all pre-tax benefits are no longer equal: drivers can now set aside as much as $240 pre-tax per month for commuting costs, while the benefit for commuters taking public transportation has dropped to $125. The change means non-drivers will pay up to $550 more in taxes each year. Read more of the coverage at GOOD or in an editorial from The New York Times.

Manhattan Skyline | Photo by flickr user Marcin Wichary

SKYLINE PEAKS AND TROUGHS
The heights of New York City skyscrapers have long been thought to correspond to the depth of the bedrock beneath them. Conventional wisdom has held that the peaks of the Manhattan skyline, Downtown and Midtown, were situated atop the island’s most solid foundation, and that building high on the spaces in between was too difficult, and thus costly, to be worth the effort. Not so, according to “skyscraper economist” Jason Barr. Taking 173 core samples from the Battery to Central Park South, the study shows no correlation between the likelihood of skyscraper construction and bedrock depth. Read more from Matt Chaban at the Observer.

EVENTS AND TO DOs

Stargazing in Times Square | Courtesy of Ian Cheney

THE CITY DARK AT THE IFC CENTER
Last year we spoke to Ian Cheney about The City Dark, his documentary about the loss of the stars in the night sky to light pollution. The documentary takes a winding journey through the unforeseen repercussions of losing the stars, from Maine and back again. Now, The City Dark is showing at the IFC Center for one week only. More information and show times here.

007 URBAN SONGLINE
How can a space become a musical instrument? And how would one play such an instrument? Answer these questions and many more by visiting 007 Urban Songline at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, a project by Allard van Hoorn that turns Storefront’s iconic façade into an interactive and responsive acoustic device through a network of strings activated by vistors’ bodily movements. Through February 18th, you can play the building yourself, listen to performances the artist has recorded in and with the space, or take part in a series of discussions and events on the relationship between space, sound, tension and materiality. Once you’ve added to the cacophony (or symphony) of New York City, or partaken in the playing of a space, you can revisit Storefront at 5pm to hear the daily concert of the song of the day. You can find more information about the installation here, and prepare for your visit with the “Instructions for 007 Urban Songline” here.

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Paper solar panels | Image via MIT/Patrick Gillooly

PRINTABLE SOLAR PANELS
Solar energy has long been touted as a solution to our unending thirst for cheap energy, but traditional panels have always been difficult and expensive to construct and install. Worse yet, they tend to be ugly. Researchers at MIT have now come up with a way to print solar cells on paper, fabric or plastic, with a process that is easy, cheap and brimming with design potential. Akin to the silver coating inside potato chip bags, the printed cells have impressive endurance, retaining much of their structural integrity in the face of heat and wear. The efficiency of the paper units are still only at 1% (enough to power a small gadget) but the lightweight, printable cells have endless possibilities for practical application.

TIE THE KNOT
Pop Up Chapel, Architizer and The Knot have teamed up to celebrate last month’s historic passage of marriage equality legislation in New York. On July 30, the first weekend after the law takes effect, Pop Up Chapel will host an all-day wedding ceremony in a NYC park. They will provide officiants, photographers, witnesses and wedding cupcakes. What they need now is a wedding chapel. Architizer and TheKnot.com have launched a design competition to create two temporary structures — pop up chapels — for all that nuptial bliss. Submit your designs by July 21st. Read the competition brief here, and visit PopUpChapel.com for news and updates.

WEEKEND RIDE
New York City has used and maintained the same subway system for over a hundred years. MTA repairs have traditionally been done on the weekends, when ridership was at its lightest. But today, the MTA is faced with the heaviest weekend ridership in decades, partially due due to an overall rise in ridership stemming from the unlimited Metrocard, lower crime rates and newer cars. But this increased demand for weekend and late night access to trains is also indicative of changing work patterns as the city turns more towards a service economy and a work week that no longer excludes the weekend. Of course, increased use means heightened frustrations when service is suspended or rerouted. But when can the MTA complete repairs and renovations if not on nights and weekends? Read more about this conundrum in The New York Times.

Seanna Sharpe performing on Williamsburg Bridge | photo by Flickr user several seconds

AERIALIST ANTICS
On Monday night, aerialist Seanna Sharpe took to the skies, or rather to the upper reaches of the Williamsburg Bridge, for a 15-minute, mid-air performance without safety harnesses of any kind. Sharpe claimed no allegiance to larger political or social movements, but was motivated instead by a wish to “face [her own] fear and to inspire others to face their fears.” Claiming that she chose the Williamsburg Bridge because she would be obscured from the sight of drivers below, and thus would be less likely to cause traffic accidents, Sharpe was surprised to be hit with felony reckless endangerment charges that could leave her with seven years in jail. Read more on this from The Wall Street Journal and watch video of the event here.

TO DOs and EVENTS:

Weightless Pull, Public Summer 2011 | Image via SUPERFRONT

PUBLIC SUMMER 2011: This Sunday, July 17th from 3—6pm, make your way out to Sunset Park to see SUPERFRONT’s Public Summer installation, designed by architectural duo CO (Christina Ciardullo and Naomi Ocko). The installation will occur between two warehouse buildings hosting public art and performance all summer (July 23rd — August 28th) at 2nd Ave between 35th and 36th Streets in Brooklyn. See more info here.

FROM SHOETOWN TO BREWTOWN: On July 19th, Shoe Town to Brew Town: Craft Brewing Meets Green Development, will be held from 7:30-10:00pm at the Brooklyn Brewery in Williamsburg. Over food and drink, Paul Mankiewicz of the Gaia Institute will lead a discussion on how breweries can be the centerpiece of a sustainable regional development plan. Tickets are $40, buy them here.

PUBLIC SPACE POTLUCK: The Design Trust for Public Space is hosting their next Public Space Potluck at West Harlem Piers Park on Wednesday, July 20. A former parking lot, this 2-acre site was transformed into a waterfront oasis in 2009, bringing new open space to West Harlem and providing the final link in the Hudson River greenway. The group will meet at Fountain Plaza at 131st Street. RSVP via Facebook or rsvp@designtrust.org.

MTA APP CHALLENGE: Want to improve your subway ride in a meaningful way? The MTA and Challengepost have just announced a new competition for programmers and designers to create apps that improve travel experience and give the public more and easier access to information. The submission period ends September 24th, so check out MTAAppQuest.com for more information about the competition, or read more of the coverage at 2nd Ave. Sagas.

.MTA App Quest Competition | Image courtesy of MTA/Patrick Cashin

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Manhattan’s density, supported by its mass transit infrastructure, is the principle reason the average New Yorker has a smaller carbon footprint than her counterpart in another large US city. At the urban scale, this density is, of course, enabled by a singular combination of geographic, economic, social and political factors. But at the scale of the city’s individual buildings, high-rise living and working are made possible by technological factors. And some of the technologies developed for lifting people, water, hot and cool air to great heights currently work in much the same way as they did when initially introduced. How often do we stop to consider the systems required to make a building function?

This question bears more urgency than casual wonder. 39% of CO2 emissions derive from building operations, including plumbing, electricity, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (or HVAC) and, in the case of high-rise buildings, the elevator system. To be sure, innovative work in architecture and engineering is improving the performance and efficiency of building operations, yet many people are unaware of the scope of energy intensive activities required for a building to function. So, with this in mind, we spent a day with Jim Ferrari, the chief mechanic of 515 Madison Avenue, a midtown Manhattan office building designed by J.E.R. Carpenter and completed in 1931, to find out more about what exactly goes on behind doors that typically only maintenance workers pass through. What Ferrari revealed was a series of day-to-day systems that many of us — those concerned with the environmental sustainability of our building stock — talk about improving without necessarily being able to visualize.

-C.S.

This Urban Omnibus video is the third in a series called City of Systems, a suite of short videos intended to offer a poetic peek behind the scenes of some of the complex systems that enable New York City to function. This video series is made possible by IBM as part of its commitment to use technology and information to help build more sustainable and intelligent cities.

515 Madison Avenue | Photo courtesy of Newmark Knight Frank

The music in the video, “Mistral” by Loscil, appears courtesy of kranky.

NYC SOLAR MAP
A new interactive map was launched by New York City Solar America City Partnership, led by Sustainable CUNY, to show the potential NYC has for solar panel placement. Showing both existing solar photo voltaic (PV) panels and solar thermal installations in NYC, the map also gives an estimate of solar PV potential for every rooftop in the five boroughs. The map allows users to assess any building’s solar panel capacity and estimate a financial payback. Created by gathering imagery and data using LIDAR technology, Inhabitat reports that the map shows that 66.4% of all buildings in the city are suitable for panels, and could generate up to 5,847 megawatts of power. To put this in perspective, the city currently outputs 6.5 megawatts of solar energy. The map represents opportunities for building owners to assess solar capacity on their rooftop for free. See Inhabitat’s piece on the map here, and to find out your building’s solar potential, check out the new NYC Solar Map.

1,000 Nike+ runners in NYC | Image via Cooper Smith

RUNNING IN NEW YORK: MAPS
Graphic design student Cooper Smith developed a striking series to visualize the location, route popularity and time of day people run in New York City. The series was produced for an SVA course with visionary designer Nicholas Felton using the Nike+ GPS-synced mobile app. By geolocating 1,000 runners’ paths, Smith produced beautifully mapped stills and time-lapse videos showing multiple facets of New York runners’ paths. See Infosthetic’s piece on the topic and the full work here.

Underground construction on the 7 Line | Image via MTAPhotos on Flickr

7 TRAIN EXTENSION
Official MTA photographer Patrick Cashin caught some beautiful shots of subterranean work currently underway on the 7 train’s extended line. The extension is expected to be complete in three years, after which passengers will be able to reach 11th Avenue and 34th Street. See the full Patrick Cashin slideshow on Flickr.

9/11 MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM UPDATE
The Architect’s Newspaper reported on developments around the much anticipated opening of the World Trade Center 9/11 Memorial and Museum scheduled for the tenth anniversary of the tragedy this coming September. The new complex will feature a subterranean museum and memorial space, an aboveground museum pavilion and a landscaped plaza with reflecting pools in the footprints of the Twin Towers. However, due to serious security concerns, a temporary ring of chain link fences and concrete barriers will limit public access to 1500 people at a time. After September 12th, visitors will be required to buy a ticket and pass through a series of metal detectors and x-ray machines in order to enter the plaza. Eventually security measures will be moved into the museum itself, but for the time being, security features trump accessible open space.

Artist’s rendering of +Pool | Image via +Pool

SWIM IN THE EAST RIVER?
Brooklyn designers Dong-Ping Wong of Family and Archie Lee Coates IV and Jeffrey Franklin of PlayLab have launched a Kickstarter campgain around their latest project +Pool, a project to build a floating pool in the East River, similar to Berlin’s famed Badeschiff. The designers have developed a comprehensive plan with engineering/design/planning firm ARUP and other experts to help make the pool a reality. The proposed pool will filter river water through its wall to remove bacteria, contaminants and odors, making it swimmable and safe by City standards. Four pools (Children’s pool, Lap pool, Lounge Pool and Sports Pool) will join together to create a giant plus sign in the East River. Their latest round of fundraising will support the physical testing of the proposed filtration system. See the full project description here. To read up on floating pool ideas UO has covered in the past, see Jonathan Kirschenfeld and Ann Buttenweiser’s take on the topic.

NATION’S LARGEST URBAN CAMPSITE IN BROOKLYN
According to a recent press release from the National Parks Service, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has announced that the nation’s largest urban campground will be established at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, a former airport used by Amelia Earhart and Howard Hughes. The park’s current five campsites will be expanded to 90 over the next two years, and may eventually reach 600. Special outreach to underserved communities around the area will introduce families to camping skills and equipment in their home neighborhoods and will facilitate participation in overnight use, complete with campfire programs, kayaking and swimming opportunities.

EVENTS + TO DOs:

New York City in 2040 Image via Interboro Partners (left) and Amsterdam in 2040, Image via Space&Matter (right)

GLIMPSES of New York and Amsterdam: 2040
The Center for Architecture has teamed up with the Amsterdam Center for Architecture (ARCAM) to present “Glimpses of New York and Amsterdam in 2040,” a new exhibit showcasing visions of the future for two cities that share an extensive waterfront and similar climate challenges. The organizations commissioned architects and landscape architects in both cities to conceptualize the “future of the future,” with five basic necessities for living: breathing, eating, making, moving and dwelling. The exhibit features five firms from each city: New York’s dlandstudio, Interboro Partners, Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu (SO-IL), W Architecture & Landscape Architecture, and WORKac, and Amsterdam’s Barcode Architects, DELVA Landscape Architects / Dingeman Deijs Architect, Fabrications, Space & Matter and van Bergen Kolpa. GLIMPSES will be shown through September 10th at the Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place. Read Inhabitat’s coverage of the exhibit or, for more information, see the official site.

COME OUT & PLAY NEW YORK
Come Out and Play, the annual festival of citywide street games, will begin on June 19th and run until July 16th. In years past, the festival has “turned New York City into a playground for a weekend,” with satellite city festivals held in San Francisco and Amsterdam. This year, Come Out and Play will begin in Lower Manhattan in partnership with the River to River Festival. Come Out and Play will run the series over the summer, culminating in a one-day field day in mid-July on Governors Island. For more information, see the official site.

GRANT OPPORTUNITIES
The Awesome Foundation is offering multiple $1,000 grants each month to “people devoted to forwarding the interest of awesomeness in the universe.” Although no New York City projects have been funded as of yet, the NYC Chapter is now accepting applications. To apply, click here.

Sappi has announced a call for entries for grants up to $50,000 with the “Ideas that Matter Grant Program.” Ideas that Matter is open to individual designers, design firms, agencies, in-house corporate design departments, design instructors, and individual design students and design student groups. To apply for an Ideas that Matter Grant, click here. The deadline to apply is July 15th.

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HUMAN IMPACT ON THE EARTH
It’s Earth Day! First up, take a look at this series of maps and graphics from NationalJournal.com that shows the extent of our impact on our land and in our oceans as a result of population density, land transformation, accessibility, electric-power infrastructure, commercial fishing, cargo shipping and more.

NEW BUILDING BENCHMARKING GRADES
A new benchmarking law will take effect on May 1st. According to The Architect’s Newspaper, owners of buildings over 50,000 square feet will be required to report water and energy use through the EPA’s Portfolio Manager Tool; non-compliant owners will get hit with fines. The data submitted will lead to an efficiency grade that tenants — or potential buyers — will be able to check on the Department of Buildings website. The hope is that as owners and tenants begin to understand how their buildings are performing, the market will shift toward efficiency, helping reach broader, zero-emission goals.

2009 Vision for High-Speed Rail via whitehouse.gov

HIGH-SPEED RAIL FUNDING: DE-RAILED
Last weekend marked the official elimination of the original $2.5 Billion set aside for high speed rail. Transportation on the whole was damaged by the cuts — as President Obama said at a DNC event last week, budget cuts do not just fail to include high-speed rail, but is “a vision that says we can’t afford to rebuild our roads and our bridges.” See more on the cuts to transportation in Infrastructurist’s coverage of the news or read a detailed report on the budgetary amendments in this House Appropriations Committee summary PDF.

BLUE URBANISM
“More than half of the U.S. population lives in coastal counties adjacent to the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico and Great Lakes.” Blue Urbanism begs the planning and design world to think about this fact, and see cities through the lens of the open water. As our planet gets bluer, cities are noticing. Traditional borders are moving and port cities are looking at the oceans a new ways. Beyond monitoring water quality or noticing the loss of marine biodiversity, coastal cities across the world are redeveloping plans to include sustainable waterfronts. The Cape Cod Planning Commission recently expanded an Ocean Management Planning District, including a half million acres of open ocean, to evaluate the scale, location and efficacy of offshore wind turbines. New York City just released the Comprehensive Waterfront Plan to increase use of waterways. Rotterdam is practically designing their city around the water. Read more on the growth of Blue Urbanism in Design Observer’s fascinating piece on this growing movement.

PROCRO NO MORE
Sick of hearing neighborhood names like SoBro, ProCro or SoHa — or trying to figure out where they are? The New York Times City Room blog recently reported that Brooklyn Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries is reeling about the realty practice of renaming NYC neighborhoods to feign desirability. Jeffries wants to introduce a new bill that would require a series of approvals for neighborhood renaming from the City Council, the mayor and community boards. “It’s the Wild West in New York City right now,” he said. “Brokers are allowed to essentially pull names out of thin air in order to rebrand a neighborhood and have the effect of raising rents or home prices.”

PRATT CENTER AND BROOKINGS REPORT ON URBAN MANUFACTURING
A report by the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program and the Pratt Center for Community Development, “The Federal Role in Supporting Urban Manufacturing,” points to the changing geography of our nation’s production sector and how federal and municipal government should work to support its growth and development. The report highlights the need for smaller urban manufacturer support. To take a closer look at the recommendations see Pratt Center’s coverage, download the full report or download the case studies. In 2009, Adam Friedman, Director of the Pratt Center, gave Omnibus readers a primer on the importance of manufacturing to New York. Check it out here.

EVENTS + TODOs
The Skyscraper as Citizen: A Lecture by Henry N. Cobb. Center for Architecture is hosting an event to discuss “Reflections on the Public Life of Private Buildings,” with special attention to Boston’s John Hancock Tower. Monday, April 25, 6-8 PM, Monday, April 25th.

MAS Walking Tour: Rethinking the Sheridan: From Bronx River to Hunts Point Explore the impact of the Sheridan Expressway on the neighborhoods that border it from a pedestrian vantage point, Saturday, April 23, 11:00 a.m. Register here.

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CRUISE SHIPS TO PLUG-IN AT RED HOOK
The New York Times City Room reports that the Queen Mary 2 and other large ships will be required to plug in to giant electrical sockets in the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal starting in 2012. This marks a major win for the residents of Red Hook, who have been fighting to stop air and water pollution caused by standing vessels. The power used for the ships will be provided by the City and the New York Power Authority in what Mayor Bloomberg calls “Shore Power,” a product of negotiations spanning more than two years. Seth W. Pinksy, President of the NYC Economic Development Corporation, one of the agencies involved, said that the environmental benefits of the new program “will be the equivalent of removing 5,000 cars per year from the road annually.”
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Before and After look at Times Square Pedestrian Plaza | Image nymag.com

TIMES SQUARE AIR QUALITY IMPROVED FROM PEDESTRIAN PLAZA
A new Health Department report was released this week documenting information from the New York City Community Air Survey (NYCCAS), a comprehensive survey of street-level air quality in the five boroughs created as part of PlaNYC. The report shows that since the installation of the pedestrian friendly areas in Times Square air quality has skyrocketed and “concentrations of traffic-related pollutants were substantially lower than measurements from the year before and were less than in other midtown locations.”
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SPRING IN THE CITY
In the spirit of spring, check out New Yorkers for Parks’ 2011 Blooming Map, a charming resource to find where daffodils are blooming in over 55 parks across the New York. On a not-so-cheery note, plant diversity is down this year, with only 778 of the once 1,357 native plant species in New York City still in existence. See some of the most beautiful specimens we’ve lost here.
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La Monte Young’s Dreamhouse | Photo: Marian Zazeela, © 1993, Mela Foundation

DREAMHOUSE
We’ve recently been introduced to the work of artist/composer La Monte Young, considered by many to be the first minimalist composer of all time, and Dreamhouse, his curious spatial installation in Tribeca. Presented in conjunction with the Mela Foundation, Dreamhouse is open to the public Thursday, Friday and Saturdays from 2pm to midnight. Once arriving at a quiet residential entrance, the installation space on the second floor reveals a fully-carpeted, neon-lit environment guaranteed to leave an impression. The experience is magical and mysterious — an encompassing light and sound environment, womb-like and filled with surprisingly soothing white noise and light. Its a spatial and sensory experience to discover — check it out for yourself at 275 Church Street between Franklin St & White St.
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Burple Bup rendering by Bittertang

BITTERTANG ON GOVERNORS ISLAND
2010 Architectural League Prize winners Bittertang have been selected to build the 2011 City of Dreams Pavilion. Their winning design will be constructed and on exhibition on Governors Island this June. The contest asked designers to “imagine a socially and ecologically-sustainable public meeting space” to which Bittertang responded with Burble Bup. Their playful and sustainable pavilion combines materials like soil and grass with a colorful inflatable roof, anticipating that the inflatables will be recycled as pool toys around NYC following their use on the Island this summer.
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EVENTS AND TO-DOs:
For Talking Books: Aerotropolis, Greg Lindsay will sit down for a conversation with Andrew Blum to discuss his new book Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next. The book explores how air travel and transportation have affected the shape and scope of globalization (the good and the ugly). This installment of the League’s Talking Books series promises to be of particular interest to Omnibus readers. Wednesday, April 20, 7:00pm at the McNally Jackson Bookstore, 52 Prince St. For more info, see here.

AIANY is presenting Architecture on the Brink at Cooper Union’s Great Hall. Ed Mazria, architect, energy expert and CEO of Architecture 2030, will talk about climate change, regional adaptation strategies and the role of the building sector in both creating and alleviating many of the crises plaguing us today. Wednesday, April 20, 6:30-8pm at the Great Hall of Cooper Union, 7 E. 7th St.

SUPERFRONT and 3rd Ward are lauching their Archi-Film Mashup with a kick-off event on Saturday. This will be the first of a three-part series of screenings, lectures and workshops investigating the cross-breeding of architecture and mass media. Mashup 1 presenters include John Szot of Brooklyn Digital Foundry, Evan Tribus of p*g5ive, and Richard Joon Yoo of h-a-h-a.us. Saturday, April 16, 4:30pm screening & presentations, 5:30pm workshop. 3rd Ward, 195 Morgan Avenue, Brooklyn.

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Tokyo, 2010 | Photos by Vishaan Chakrabarti

This, my tenth and final entry for a Country of Cities on Urban Omnibus, is in essence a highly personal love letter to Japan. For over a year, the wonderful readers of the Omnibus have cheered and jeered as I have relentlessly argued that the United States faces a series of deeply connected challenges: economic decline, energy dependence, oil wars, terrorism, xenophobia, protectionism, mounting debt, and spiraling health care costs. These challenges, while vexing when taken together, are surmountable with the silver bullet of the city. The combined growth of the skyscraper and the subway, I continue to posit, is the best path to keep our nation and our developing planet economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable. The recent catastrophe in Japan has shaken me into remembering, however, that the real trailblazers in truly dense urban living have been the Japanese, for which they have largely prospered, and because of which they will overcome the unthinkable triple tragedy they now face.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, 2010, during the annual ceremony marking the anniversary of the atomic bombing | AFP/ Getty Images / Kazuhiro Nogi

Twenty years ago this August, a group of us went to Japan as graduate students fresh from two months of study in China (where skyscrapers were under construction on the then dirt roads of Shenzen, next to its new train station). I was enthralled by and enamored of a Japan whose towers and trains redefined the West as the underdeveloped world. We rode Tokyo’s surface rail for two days before realizing we hadn’t even been on the subway system yet. Knowing my time in Japan was limited, my father gave me the lifelong gift of a two-week rail pass on the Shinkansen, the world’s first bullet train, which unbelievably had opened in 1964. August 6th would be the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, and we were inspired to see a memorial service that included the coming together of school children from all over the country. Every hotel in Hiroshima was booked, but we discovered that the bullet train made the journey from a distant farming village with an inexpensive, immaculate ryokan in mere minutes. To witness the service was a privilege, as we three were the only gaijin in sight in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park that morning. At 8:16am, the time of the bombing, thousands around us young and old dropped to the ground, essentially playing dead. The city went silent. An ambulance wailed in the distance. Minutes passed like hours, drums started to beat, the people rose from the sidewalks and went about their day, as we, dazed, found ourselves wandering shopping streets replete with American flags and statuettes of Liberty. We would go on to Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, and ultimately, with a larger group from MIT, to Tokyo to study the densification of Marunouchi.

The lessons from that trip — the lessons of atrocity morphed into forgiveness, of farm juxtaposed with city, of park transformed to memorial, of verticality imbued with life, of hyper-density enabled by hyper-infrastructure, and ultimately of adversity repurposed for prosperity — would go on to color all that I know and feel about cities, all that I have advocated on these pages, and all that would form my own approach to the memorial at the World Trade Center, to the High Line, to the Hudson Yards and #7 line, and now to both of my ongoing professional passions, urban development pedagogy and the rebuilding of Pennsylvania Station.

Recently and on short notice, I was asked to be the host for a Columbia conference on building technology in Tokyo. Remarkably, because of the tightness of the schedule, I was afforded a helicopter ride from distant Narita Airport to the top of a skyscraper near the conference. During that heavenly twenty-minute joyride I sat gobsmacked by a Tokyo transformed. Twenty years earlier, while smaller towers abounded, skyscrapers were still a controversy, but today they define the morphology of the city. As so exquisitely described in Ian Buruma’s recent article for the Wall Street Journal, the permanence of skyscrapers is a relatively new development in a country so susceptible to natural disaster. Buruma points to traditional construction of wood and paper, and of course to the periodic twenty-year reconstruction of the Ise shrine, as embodying the premise that for Japanese architecture, “the only permanence is its impermanence.”

Farmland, Japan, 2010 | Photo by Vishaan Chakrabarti

Yet, in a mountainous country the approximate size of California but with the arable land area only twice the size of Massachusetts, Japan houses some 127 million people in a condition that is roughly ten times denser than the United States. In this situation, skyscrapers became inevitable given Japan’s prowess in manufacturing, shipping, information technology, financial services and the arts. Beyond economic rationale, however, density is a way of life in Japan. It is commonplace to find a bar on the eighth floor of a sliver building. In farming communities, freed from the moralizing madness of the Jeffersonian grid, housing is clustered together into tight communities with crop fields dispersed on the perimeter. Urbane society is the glue that holds the entire nation together.

And today, it is that glue that we are witnessing. In their fine nightly reporting, Anderson Cooper, Sanjay Gupta and Soledad O’Brien continually comment on the civility with which the populace responds to water running out at shelters, or long waits for transport, or caring for the elderly. To be sure, this civility can also be linked to an unwillingness to confront bad news at the institutional level, as witnessed by baffling statements from the government, by obfuscation from Tokyo Electric Power, and by the general bureaucratic malaise that has stagnated Japan’s economy for well over a decade.

But it is at the individual level that we will witness the rebirth of a nation. It is individual workers who hopefully will return power to the cooling systems at Fukushima Daiichi. It is individuals who will rebuild the coastline, the retirement communities, and the country’s sense of self-confidence and pride.

To be sure, we should pause to give the Japanese, particularly their architects and engineers, some praise in this calamity. For all the failures of seawalls and power plants, little is said about the fact that most engineered buildings seem to have withstood the massive temblor and tsunami. With some of the strictest building codes in the world, Japanese skyscrapers were not weaponized in this disaster. Astonishing video of Tokyo skyscrapers swaying “like trees in the breeze,” as one onlooker noted, did their job by swaying as designed. In the extraordinary before-after photos of Sendai airport, amidst the flood damage, it is remarkable to see the air traffic control tower and terminal still standing. One can only hope our cities can boast the same in a similar consequence.

Sendai Airport Terminal after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami | Top: Roberto De Vido, Yokosuka, Japan. Bottom: AFP/HO/NHK

It is natural, in the face of this tragedy, to question density and infrastructure. After all, it is one thing to see the horror of earthquakes and tsunamis ravage largely rural nations, yet it is another to see them ravage a nation that in many ways is more technologically advanced than our own. But it is critical to remember that Tokyo rebuilt after both a major earthquake in 1923 and the bombings of World War II. New York is rebuilding after 9/11. Beirut has rebuilt a stunning city on the Mediterranean. Bahrain will hopefully someday rebuild Pearl Square. In their excellent book The Resilient City, Campanella and Vale reveal the capacity of dense modern cities to rebuild.

Density has served Japan well and will continue to do so. One could argue that if their population were spread out, fewer would be susceptible to disaster. Similar arguments were waged during the Cold War in the US, when the Federal government subsidized the sprawling girth of the American middle class to flee both the arms race and race riots. But, as I have attempted to illuminate in these pages, spreading out only leads to oil dependence and further environmental degradation, which in turn leads to sea level rise and fiercer storm surges.

Admittedly, the alternative of densification leaves many questions unanswered. Cities may use less petrol per person, but they require vast amounts of electricity that must be generated efficiently, and with the advent of electric buses and taxis, this demand will only grow. Many hoped that nuclear energy was a partial solution, or at least a bridge to truly renewable energy, but this is an assertion that must be fully scrutinized, with the question of how to store spent fuel again at the forefront. To read that active reactors in California like Diablo Canyon were built to withstand earthquakes of magnitude 7.5 is cold comfort. Perhaps hope can be found in burgeoning waste-to-energy technology.

This earthquake, even at magnitude 9.0, cannot shake our resolve. To the contrary, with the oil fields of the Middle East in ever deepening turmoil, we must extend our hands, heads and hearts to our dear friends across the Pacific, and learn to be more like them in their civility, to live as they do in their density, to build our world much as they have, in Japan, the ultimate Country of Cities.

"In a mountainous country the approximate size of California but with the arable land area only twice the size of Massachusetts, Japan houses some 127 million people in a condition that is roughly ten times denser than the United States." Photo by Vishaan Chakrabarti

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This is the tenth and final installment in a series of opinion pieces in which Vishaan Chakrabarti casts key current events as rallying cries in his evolving argument for urban density, for a Country of Cities. The views expressed here are those of the author only and do not reflect the position of Urban Omnibus editorial staff or the Architectural League of New York.

Vishaan Chakrabarti, AIA, is the Marc Holliday Professor of Real Estate and the Director of the Real Estate Development program in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University and the founding principal of Vishaan Chakrabarti Design Collaborative (VCDC, llc), an urban design, planning, and strategic advisory firm based in Manhattan. He is a registered architect in the State of New York and lives in Tribeca. Read more…