When you think of the definition of a Walking City you automatically think of British architect Ron Herron’s definition of a walking city in 1964. Ron’s definition of a Waling City was “a massive artificially intelligent mobile robotic structures that could freely roam a post-apocalyptic world, moving to wherever the structure, resources or manufactured abilities were needed. Various walking cities could interconnect with each other to form larger walking metropolises and then disperse when their concentrated power was no longer necessary. Individual buildings or structures could also be mobile, moving wherever their owner wanted or needs dictated.” (avant-garde architectural journal Archigram, Ron Herron 1964) In my opinion …show more content…
Studying there specific elements and how these elements work, how they are used by the public and business owners, how they attract tourism to these particular cities and how these elements have an influence on town planning and finally their specific element that gives these cities the title a Walking City. Firstly I will look at the Walking City of Singapore and in particular the Five Foot Way. The Five Foot Ways are walkways for pedestrians which are indented into the front of the building on street level so that the overhang from the buildings upper level provides a cover from the sun and rain for the pedestrians as seen in image (4) on the next page. This first architectural feature which is a prominent design in the architecture of Singapore stets out the city’s aim to facilitate covered walkways for the pedestrians within their buildings. This shows the city of Singapore is proving its title as a Walking City. The name “The Five Foot Way” came from the design as the covered walkway must be five foot in width from the entrance off the street to the foot of the wall within the walkway hence the name. Not all Five Foot Ways are actually five foot wide, the size can vary due to the size, age and function of the building in which the Five Foot Way is incorporated in. The Five Foot Ways date back to the time of 1822, in Singapore …show more content…
I will study how the High Line changed New York from being a busy vehicle city to be an attractive walking city. Focusing on again the advantages of it, how it enhances the city of New York and how it gives New York the title of a Walking City. Although different to the other two as the High Line is purely recreational. When people first think of New York they think of the busy roads, the traffic, the loud noise of cars beeping their horns and they think of the yellow taxis driving around the city, hence once giving New York the title of a vehicle city. But when I think of New York I think of it as a Walking City mainly down to the opening of the New York High Line in 2009. The High Line is purely for pedestrians no vehicles allowed, setting out that this piece of architecture was going to change this city’s title for the better. The High Line before was a piece of obsolete industrial infrastructure in a part of Manhattan that was forsaken. It was built for the sole reason that so many accidents were happen due to trains and the street traffic colliding on 10th avenue. In 1934 lines opened for use, but not long after in the 1950’s the growth of the interstate lead to a drop in rail travel. The High Line became derelict out of use, architects saw it as a ruin sitting there since 1980. But when Ricardo Scofido took it over the change started to happen, the High Line was going to change New York’s
Only the poor, the beggar, and the under-classes are prefer to walk, in the opinion of some Americans. However, one American, the author Antonia Malchik, writes “The End of Walking,” and she argues that in Orwellian fashion, American people not only walk less, but are afforded less opportunity to walk. Undermined pedestrian transit systems encroaches on people’s liberty, instinct, and health. In Malchik’s article, most of the rhetorical strategies are very effective. She strengthens the credibility successfully by citing experts’ words and narrating her own experiences. With facts and statistics, she interprets the logical reasons of walking.
In the capital of financial services, two insurance buildings dominate Boston’s skyline. The Hancock Tower and the Prudential Center are structures that display the uneven change and the urban development that has occurred in this city over the course 19th century. Located in back bay these edifices work with the directionalities of their adjacent streets and the cultural history of the structures that surround them. Boston’s foundation was composed in a manner that designated and organized space. This creates the tension and contrast present in that between the two structures. The iconography that these structures have over the city is important. It represents a sense of the past as well as the purpose that the built environment has with a changing society. Even though these structures dominate so much of the skyline, they interact differently with the public. There is a physical boundary that separates the functionalities and interaction in which society can actively have with them. This essay will focus on the structural purpose in regard to the form following function of these skyscrapers and how they each demonstrate a design aspect that characterizes Boston through a visual perspective.
With the rapid development of the city and tremendous progress of technology in America, gentrification becomes a universal phenomenon in every city, especially in Englewood―the south side of Chicago. As capital begins to flow into the Englewood community, many aspects of daily life are changed for better. The tremendous change brings not only the renovated facilities but arrives with the new retail and service business. Plenty of citizens who live in the Englewood community were benefiting from the gentrification. They also said that gentrification is a commendable change in Englewood to renew and develop. Thus, gentrification is beneficial to local residents because it arrives with the new retail and service business, increases employment opportunities and transform a more beautiful community.
The island of Manhattan was consolidated into the greater New York City in 1898. Because of this the city was transformed from a nineteenth century seaport with cobblestone streets into a twentieth century metropolis of skyscrapers and subways. The artists of the Ashcan movement saw this changing society in human terms. They saw this in a light which depicted the interaction of so many different cultures which were being thrust together. They documented these changes on a level which the ordinary person could understand. Because of the Ashcan School we have a picture of society which one really cannot understand amidst the overpowering spectacle of overpowering buildings and increasing technology.4
In this paper we will take a closer look at Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York which is currently facing many problems concerning gentrification.
The arrival to Manhattan was like an entry to a whole new world: from the sea, its breezes, color, and landscapes, to the heart of the city beating louder than ever at the Whitehall Terminal. I could smell New York’s bagels in Battery Park with a mixture of the most relaxing scents: the coffee people were holding while walking down the streets, the old walls of Castle Clinton ...
Schlichting, K. C. (2001). Grand Central Terminal : Railroads, Engineering, and Architecture in New York City . Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Colson Whitehead explores this grand and complex city in his collection of essays The Colossus of New York. Whitehead writes about essential elements to New York life. His essays depict the city limits and everyday moments such as the morning and the subway, where “it is hard to escape the suspicion that your train just left... and if you had acted differently everything would be better” (“Subway” 49). Other essays are about more once in a while moments such as going to Central Park or the Port Authority. These divisions are subjective to each person. Some people come to New York and “after the long ride and the tiny brutalities... they enter the Port Authority,” but for others the Port Authority is a stop in their daily commute (“The Port Authority” 22).Nonetheless, each moment is a part of everyone’s life at some point. Many people live these moments together, experiencing similar situations. We have all been in the middle of that “where ...
In his essay, “ Brooklyn Bridge,” the author explores the “appetite” of a particular New Yorker. This woman is described as staring,full of awe,at the New York Skyline from another borough. She is ambitious and sees New York as full of endless possibilities. Throughout the collection he portrays New York transplants or prospective residents as being driven by the longing to grab a piece of the city for themselves.This drive is a pattern that is repeated in these works of Whitehead. In his essay “Port Authority instead of focusing on the New York ideal of one individual Whitehead focuses on a body of people about to move to New York. Througout the collection Whitehead switches back and forth between focusing on an individual and focusing on a crowd. In this essay Whitehead also highlights the sameness within the people hustling and bustling in and out of Port Authority. He implies that the same quality of brokenness has led them all here, “They’re all broken somehow… Otherwise they would have come here differently,”(15). Even though they are all from different places and all have different destinations the essence of New York has drawn them all here. Colson’s account of the passengers shows that they are all feeling the same feelings of hope in regards to coming to New York. Although they all hope for different things the theme regarding the passengers is
Finally, this paper will explore the “end product” that exists today through the works of the various authors outlined in this course and explain how Los Angeles has survived many decades of evolution, breaking new grounds and serving as the catalyst for an urban metropolis.
As I walked down the sidewalk, my nose picked up the salty scent of the sea breeze. I looked ahead and saw the gleaming beach in the far distance. Before me, the tranquil city along with the endless blue sea sandwiched the golden beach that stretched across for miles. Then my eyes were grasped by the incredible beauty of the city skyscrapers that stood hundreds of meters tall, and they probably had also captured the sight of many other tourists. Some people were jogging and others were bike riding Just as the yellow sun rises from behind the buildings. It’s easy for many people t...
When you associate anything with New York City it is usually the extraordinary buildings that pierce the sky or the congested sidewalks with people desperate to shop in the famous stores in which celebrities dwell. Even with my short visit there I found myself lost within the Big Apple. The voices of the never-ending attractions call out and envelop you in their awe. The streets are filled with an atmosphere that is like a young child on a shopping spree in a candy store. Although your feet swelter from the continuous walking, you find yourself pressing on with the yearning to discover the 'New York Experience'.
The original intent of street development in our country appeared to be for the legitimate reasons of postal service and agricultural shipping routes. Not until the automobile industry and economic opportunists got involved did the transportation system in America start to change. The system of buses and streetcars in the cities appeared to be functioning reasonably well. The theory of “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” was not applied here. The auto industry convinced numerous cities to rid their streets of the streetcars and cut back on bus transportation. Overall results were good, for the auto industry. Urban centers started to lose large portions of their downtown populations to urban flight out of the city. The stereotypical suburban style living be...
street in Syracuse, New York (Winders, 2011). It will look at how the built environment of
As previously implied, cities are currently the antithesis of even the barest sense of sustainability. To succinctly define the term “sustainability” would be to say that it represents living within one’s needs. When it comes to the city, with almost zero local sources of food or goods, one’s means is pushed and twisted to include resources originating far beyond the boundaries of the urban landscape. Those within cities paradoxically have both minimal and vast options when it comes to continuing their existence, yet this blurred reality is entirely reliant on the resources that a city can pull in with its constantly active economy.