Did you know that the blocks are arranged in a spiral?!
Via Kottke
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Do relatively poorer people join the military?
The short answer is no.
A key quote:
Link
A key quote:
But still, this much is clear: when discussing the U.S. military in the aggregate, the common notion that the military is a stop of last resort, increasingly staffed by low-income desperadoes with slim future prospects, cannot be right.
Link
Architecture and Interface
This is an interesting article from one of my favorite blogs about the parallels between the process of designing a building and the process of designing an interface. What could be more perfect for HB&A, since we do both every day!
One quote:
Link
One quote:
Good design supports intuitive pathways within the structure. The design accounts for the most common use cases and makes solving these use cases obvious. In our work, we always want users to have a sense of where they are and where they can go.
Link
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Great Exploration Maps
Military Installations are Pretty Walkable
Streetsblog has an interesting post analyzing census data to list the places that house the highest percentage of people who walk to work. On the list:
Naval Academy, Maryland
West Point, NY
Air Force Academy, Colorado
Lackland AFB, TX
These are all relatively low-population places, but even if you increase the total population threshold to 20,000, Fort Bragg and Fort Hood are both on the top ten list.
So, the moral of the story is that military installations have good conditions for a pedestrian environment to thrive, they just need the planning to encourage it.
Link
Via Planetizen
Naval Academy, Maryland
West Point, NY
Air Force Academy, Colorado
Lackland AFB, TX
These are all relatively low-population places, but even if you increase the total population threshold to 20,000, Fort Bragg and Fort Hood are both on the top ten list.
So, the moral of the story is that military installations have good conditions for a pedestrian environment to thrive, they just need the planning to encourage it.
Link
Via Planetizen
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Clever Wayfinding
This parking garage is painted so that you can see which way to go if you're looking at it from the right angle.
Link
Thanks, Doug
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Walmart's Spread
Doug sent this out to everyone, but it's worth putting up here too. Some smart person has put together a really cool looking visualization of the spread of Walmart stores across the country.
Link
Thanks Doug
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Brad Pitt Wants to be an Architect
In the tradition of aspiring architects, Brad takes his turn building architectural models with Frank Gehry.
More here
More here
Microsoft Trying to Compete With Sketchup
Microsoft has purchased a 3-D modeling program called trueSpace and released it for free. You can build models and place them in Microsofts Virtual Earth.
You can get trueSpace here.
via Digital Urban
You can get trueSpace here.
via Digital Urban
Walking Directions in Google Maps
Now you can get walking directions from Google Maps. It looks like they're still not aware of all of the walking paths available, but still cool.
See below:
View Larger Map
via Google LatLong
See below:
View Larger Map
via Google LatLong
Friday, July 18, 2008
"Planners waste architects' time"
An article from Ireland.
Eighty percent of architects believe that planning decisions made by local authorities do not support good quality design.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Energy Modeling
In doing a little bit of research, I ran across this Sketchup application for doing basic energy modeling at the conceptual stage. I love the idea of this. It would be awesome to be able to compare area-wide energy performance of different alternatives at the early planning stages.
It's called Demeter
It's called Demeter
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Las Vegas CityCenter
"At 18 million square feet, the new sustainable spot on the strip called CityCenter boasts a square footage that is bigger than all current LEED certified buildings combined."
Link
Economics Blogs
How long should you wait for an elevator?
The incentives for violence in hockey
The wisdom of crowds
Time travel back to 1000 A.D.: Survival tips
Singularity Special
Happiness and redistribution
Ballerinas and Information Asymmetry
Safety dog
Commodity meat
These are just some titles of recent posts on economics blogs.
The world of academic economists keeping blogs is one of the most vibrant parts of the internet. For whatever reason, reading these economists exercising their considerable intellects while discussing everyday topics in a non-academic mode is fascinating. Anybody who's looked through Freakonomics knows that the way economists think can be a great way to dig into non-economics topics.
Here are my favorites:
Marginal Revolution
Free Exchange
Growthology
Freakonomics
Assymetrical Information
Edward Glaeser's Academic Papers (thanks Matt P.)
The incentives for violence in hockey
The wisdom of crowds
Time travel back to 1000 A.D.: Survival tips
Singularity Special
Happiness and redistribution
Ballerinas and Information Asymmetry
Safety dog
Commodity meat
These are just some titles of recent posts on economics blogs.
The world of academic economists keeping blogs is one of the most vibrant parts of the internet. For whatever reason, reading these economists exercising their considerable intellects while discussing everyday topics in a non-academic mode is fascinating. Anybody who's looked through Freakonomics knows that the way economists think can be a great way to dig into non-economics topics.
Here are my favorites:
Marginal Revolution
Free Exchange
Growthology
Freakonomics
Assymetrical Information
Edward Glaeser's Academic Papers (thanks Matt P.)
Friday, May 23, 2008
Dubai
Underwater hotels, 25% of the world's cranes, a building 40% taller than the current tallest building in the world, another building that will be 3X the height of the empire state building, indoor skiing, etc.
http://view.break.com/506730 - Watch more free videos
Thanks to Orsillo for the tip.
http://view.break.com/506730 - Watch more free videos
Thanks to Orsillo for the tip.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Paths
"Collect all the paths you can think of in a pile, pull out the 8 paths that 80% of your visitors come looking for, and that’s your home page."
A lot of planning is about information design, and it is very important to separate out how we experience data from how the user of a plan experiences it. We may think it hierarchies, but the user thinks in paths.
A good short blog post about the difference between paths and hierarchies. Could be important in the way that we think about our website or our plans.
Link
Via 37Signals: Signal Vs. Noise
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Greensburg, KS
The two Kansas architecture schools are making lemonade out of lemons in Greensburg, Kansas, and using the tornado-destroyed town's rebuilding effort as a laboratory for sustainable building ideas.
Link
Thanks Matt for the tip!
Link
Thanks Matt for the tip!
Monday, May 5, 2008
Saturday, May 3, 2008
County Surveyor Remains Humble, Despite Awesome Power
"While it does not affect me in the slightest, I can understand how some might find being sole protector of more than 900 miles of county-regulated drains impressive. Sexy, even."Link
via Planetizen
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Non-automobile streets
New York Times article on making streets friendlier. Best word: Woonerf.
Link
Bonus: Commuting pictures
Via Kottke
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Desire Paths
Desire Paths: Those worn-down pathways in the grass where informal routing has created trails that don't match the designed paved paths.
Here are a whole bunch of pictures of them: Link
Friday, March 14, 2008
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