How can the Hague meeting two million square feet of additional living space? That was the question on March 5 in theaters on Spui was made. A debate, following the successful photo exhibition living in The Hague, had to give an answer. The invited speakers had their opinion. The executive sat with head nodding.

“Living in The Hague” is a cartoon created by the nomadic house that seeks a complete picture of the Hague housing situation. Now, after realizing the three-VINEX locations: Wateringseveld, and Ypenburg Leidschenveen, a clear picture which emerges from the deficiencies of the fourth policy paper, seized the opportunity the current demand for housing in an intelligent way to deal with.

Spectacle Architect Winy Maas of MVRDV launched the debate with a series of ideas about urban development. Cantilevered balconies in all directions he comply with the demand for the polder home-with-the-garden. Romantic images of a steel structure on park walks of 8 to 50 square meters high were his words. Yes, why not? Good ideas loose again as the dust from the correct address, laughter of course. But since you experience that really made living space? A plan that has nothing to do with housing but where MVRDV have missed the boat is the design for the Ministry of Agriculture. Agriculture must ’sexier “, which can with a central park-like paste on the tail of the Utrecht jobs. A beautiful, realistic proposal. Unfortunately playing the new ball by the Architect to the architect who just it does not participate in the procurement, Cees Dam. What is important here now hidden behind? The plan Mecanoo for Agriculture was not bad.

Eric Vreedenburgh Archipelago architects of air shall be bound to attend. Alloy pigeon houses on the roofs landscape. A series of images of their Hague and Scheveningen dakwoningen data and a list made his proposal downright realistic. Whether this is a good buy Archipelago has not yet realized a project answered. Yet remain on the sidewalk and social get the rich candy boxes on the gutter.

Their Leon Atelier Pro hides its architectural prefer. As a prototype model for this ostrich puts the home of his own office in. So much space, half buried and barely visible: Pro’s statement against the sensational architecture? In a series of images and graphics Their took the audience on a journey to hidden places. The Hague 27 linear kilometers of water would still be filled with at least 1500 houseboats? Not considered that to mean precisely the water for other urban hides. Their Leon also states that lost the industrial areas like the Binckhorst a green residential oasis can be. In other words, living on the KPN in the backyard of the Citroën Dealer. Of course you can also kill the Westland City glasses verdiepinkje a lift or two and a suburb the size of all the Hague realize. Your tomatoes are already cultivated on rock wool and voila, the entire infrastructure gift!

Urban Jan de Graaf said then that the serious and credible center of The Hague is a dormitory town. With a plethora of offices and ministries, which use an average of fifteen percent actually have, this area is the most lifeless and empty of all Dutch city centers. He seeks in his image without arguments to other uses of this space. New combinations of living and working according to him the city adventurous and efficient. The Hague to monoculture, as it is to other European cities to measure more on the social changes and new trends.

The debate contained a number of brief questions to Henk Westra city architect Martin Schmitt, already on the threshold of the emergency exit was on the way to a meeting with the Architect (LNV dissatisfaction?). After he had strategically bile spewed on one aspect of each proposal, he nonchalantly that he is working towards it. As things go against him, he is the relationship between Spui and Parliament Buildings, “let the council decide now the government coalition”. The idea of living above shops empty-there is -90% in the last twenty years several times on the table of B & W pushed. And the above ideas of the four readers are not breaking new ground. What’s happening in The Hague that the will is there, but the plans remain idea? The whole Hague utopia lies in multiples to yellowing in the bureaucratic la; opportunities for the taking. But what does one? It encapsulates what rural suburbs and puts it in a broadloom carpet of bricks and pavers, the safe way.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Larkin Building U is now getting closer by the day to a clean slate, a cleared, highly adaptable structure poised for a new economic purpose. While the future of the building is unclear, its potential becomes even more vividly apparent as the building is vacated.

Larkin Building U, constructed in the early 1890s, is a classic industrial loft building constructed in the Romanesque Revival style. At three stories, the structure is a combination of brick masonry, cast iron columns and wood floors held up by thick wooden support beams. Large windows, including a series of fabulous arched windows at its Van Rensselaer Street frontage, flood much of the building with natural light. Tall ceilings create a fantastic sense of openness and space common to this building type.

Emptied, the building has a lonely feeling inside. The quiet after a factory closes is palpable. It’s an experience that has become associated with Rust Belt cities, and is one that is not likely to become less common as the American automotive industry continues to wobble. Par Foam Products may have bitten the dust, but they have been good stewards of the heritage structure. The building endures. And what a great building it is!

Related posts:

1. Doors to the past: the Larkin O Building O, boy, what an amazing door! The Larkin O...
2. Hidden beauty: the Langner Building Hidden remnants of beauty are often revealed in unlikely corners...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Did you know the largest manufacturer of small paper boxes in the world was in Buffalo? Consider yourself now in the know! The F. N. Burt Company, whose sprawling factory complex at Seneca and Hamburg streets churned out upwards of four million boxes a day, was one of the largest employers in the Hydraulics and one of the shining lights of Buffalo industry.

F. N. Burt, an innovator in graphic design, was one of the most respected box manufacturers on the planet. Renowned for the glamour and sophistication of its manufactures, the company experienced tremendous growth in the early 20th century that coincided with, as well as contributed to, the emergence of the stylized box as an advertising vehicle for mass-produced consumer goods. Its prodigious, 400,000 sq. ft. factory complex is entirely intact – every building it ever constructed on Seneca Street from 1901-1927 still stands, a miracle by any standard in industrial heritage preservation.

The company, symbol of Buffalo’s progressive outlook at the early 20th century, made one particularly groundbreaking move in 1909 when it hired a female, Mary R. Cass, to be general manager of the plant – at a time when she was forbidden to vote in national elections and women were unknown in leadership positions at American factories. The fabulous Mary Cass, who almost single-handedly led the transformation of the small printing company to a manufacturing interest of world significance, was for the next twenty-five years one of the country’s leading business executives.

The plant was shuttered in 1959, the year the East Buffalo section of the Niagara Thruway opened and the company moved its factory operations to new facilities in suburban Cheektowaga. The complex, though vacant, is in sound and reusable condition, and is now owned by the Buffalo-based New Era Cap Co., one of the world’s leading baseball cap manufacturers.
A Buffalo Courier Express article printed September 21, 1952, has the plant’s story:
Burt Co. is world’s largest maker of small set-up boxes: Three to four million units a day

By Lee Griggs

Ever think twice about a box? Probably not. Boxes are so common that few people think much about them except the ones who make them. Boxes are everywhere. They’re convenient. There’s a box for every use, but there’s more to boxmaking than meets the eye.

The world’s largest manufacturer of small setup boxes operates right here in Buffalo. The F. N. Burt Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Moore Corp., Ltd., produces between 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 box units in every two-shift day. Burt operates a huge setup plant at Seneca and Hamburg, a folding carton plant at Main and Bryant, and a large warehouse on Babcock St., complete with rail outlet via the Pennsylvania Railroad.

All of Burt’s work is to custom order. Many customers renew their orders year after year, but colors, shapes and styles of boxes change constantly, presenting new problems for the company, which designs all of its own fully automatic boxmaking machinery.

Burt’s setup box volume is divided roughly into three equal parts. These categories are cigaret, cosmetic and pharmaceutical boxes, most of them specially designed. These are the basic types, but Burt boxes contain everything from face powder, mascara, pills and tooth powder to shoe polish, typewriter ribbons, fishing lures and phonograph needles. The variety is astonishing.

Some setup boxes are square or oblong. Others are round or oval. Burt is an extensive maker of oval and odd shaped boxes because no one has the ingenious machinery necessary to do it automatically, the only way it pays. In addition to making boxes directly to customer order, the firm also makes up drug boxes for resale to the stock drug trade.

F. N. Burt, founder of the company, went into business in August of 1886, but not making boxes. He was printing legal briefs at first and then expanded to include the printing of drug labels. When Burt finally got into boxmaking at 440 Main St. in 1896, his product was brightwood folding boxes, not the present setup type for which the firm is so well known today.

Five years later, the first of the Seneca St. units was built, facing Hamburg. This started a long line of expansions on that site, finally completed in 1927 to provide six floors and 400,000 square feet of space. The Main-Bryant plant, occupied in 1935 to accomodate customer demand for folding cartons, offers another 100,000 square feet.

Miss Cass becomes manager

Burt sold the business to the Moore interests in 1909 and retired the following year. His successor was Mary R. Cass, who served as general manager for 25 years and was considered one of the country’s most able business women.

Prior to World War I the big box item was cigarets. The company devised special machinery to turn out automatically some 250,000,000 of these hardwood boxes before excise taxes and the advent of the cup package killed the market. Now boxes are coming back strong. The public has accepted enthusiastically the Regent and Parliament type of cigaret box, which either opens from the top or slides out. Burt makes millions of boxes for both of these manufacturers.

As the cigaret business fell off in the 20s, cosmetic and pharmaceutical box demand took up the slack. Burt began packaging face powder in solid round and square setup boxes. The cosmetic trade soon supplanted cigaret boxes as the biggest production item. Today Burt is still the largest supplier to the cosmetic industry.

Many modern cosmetic boxes have transparent cellophane exposure panels. Others are decorated with Burt’s extensive lamlac finish. Powder boxes have transparent drums fitting inside the box’s base walls to prevent the powder from shifting, just one of the challenges Burt had to overcome to meet successfully the precise packaging demands of customers.

Materials arrive for processing from all parts of the country in rolls or flat sheets. Stock is then lined to specifications, after which specially designed and built machines for manufacturing do the glueing, labeling, stamping and assembling at tremendous speeds.

Paper, board and glue are the chief boxmaking ingredients. All these are subject to the effects of moisture, but Burt controls the conditions of manufacture so closely that parts can be fitted within a 64th of an inch.

The folding carton business at Main and Bryant comprises from 15 to 20 per cent of the total sales volume, depending on the trends of business. The plant offers a high grade lithographing service for cartons, producing a better quality than the letter-press method used by competitors.

In addition to making boxes, Burt will also furnish any prospective customer with a special consultation service to help work out effective designs, colors, print and type matter for merchandising. Manufacturers for the retail trade know the value of an attractive package as a stimulant to produce sales, and many concerns call on Burt’s know-how, born of long experience in box designing.

Machinegun parts

During World War II, Burt made a direct contribution to the war effort as a sub-contractor producing machinegun parts under government order. The company also produced 1,000,000 special cartons a day for the Medical Corps.

But there was another contribution. If Burt hadn’t come up with wartime paper substitute cartons for metal tins used to carry thousands of products during peacetime, many manufacturers might have been hard pressed to continue in operation.

Burt made jar caps from cardboard to replace metal ones, and even threaded them. Millions of asprin boxes, usually made of tin, were produced from paper. So were tooth powder containers as the Seneca St. plant worked around the clock. Brass was short and millions of paper lipsticks were made.

Pension plan for employes

The company has always prided itself on good labor relations. The product is light, clean and easy to handle, making work more enjoyable. Burt was the first box company to set up a fully funded pension plan for employes. As a result, turnovers have been slowed. Nearly half the Burt workers have been with the company more than 15 years, 15 per cent of them over 25 years and a rugged handful over half a century.

Today the trend is toward ever more efficient machine production. High labor costs have made machine production necessary to profitable operation. Manufacturing speeds have been increased steadily over the last 15 years as Burt continues to improve the quality of its vital service to retail manufacturers throughout the nation.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A 1929 proposal by the Larkin Company to establish a “Larkin Square” at the corner of Seneca and Swan streets was shelved by a reticent Common Council and assailed by the Socialist council president Frank C. Perkins as a corporate give-away that “smelled to the heavens.”

The public square proposal would have seen Van Rensselaer Street cut through Seneca Street to Swan Street to relieve traffic congestion (yes, there was traffic congestion!), setting aside a triangular plot of cleared land for a public space honoring the company’s late founder, John D. Larkin.

The Larkin Company at the time was running the Larkin Department Store and the Larkin Food Market at full tilt, filling the entire ground floor of its massive factory complex at 701 Seneca Street with a shopping wonderland for discount foods and household goods. The company desired to create the square to rationalize traffic flow that had been bottled up as a result of the store’s opening and to establish an attractive gateway at the front lawn of the Larkin District.

While the Socialist council president, first elected in a sweeping victory for the left wing party in the council elections of 1919, was incensed by what he viewed as a gift to capitalists, most of the Council simply did not want to pay the hefty price for private property that stood in the way of the anticipated improvements. The Council, rankled by the cost of the proposed square and refusing to pay what a judge deemed fair market value for the property, was inclined to nix the square proposal despite widespread support in the neighborhood to implement it.

According to a Buffalo Courier Express article of June 3, 1930, the plan “was vigorously attacked at yesterday’s meeting by Councilman Jacob L. Davis, who said it would not benefit the general public, but only one property owner. He left no doubt in the minds of his colleagues that he meant the Larkin Company.”

While other members of the council believed the improvement was necessary to relieve traffic congestion, the proposal appeared all but dead when a reduced price for the property was offered by the Council and rejected by the owners. The Larkin Square proposal was ultimately shelved by the Council Finance Committee in 1930, and the plans were quickly forgotten.

Ironically, the historic retail buildings that would have been cleared to make way for the square are now demolished anyway. A new fire hall built for Engine No. 9 in the 1950s was constructed on part of the footprint of the square over where Van Rensselaer Street would have come through. But a couple thousand square feet of the square site remain, leaving open the possibility that, at some point, the intersection of Swan, Seneca, and Emslie streets could yet have a Larkin Square.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The four-story structure was not constructed at this site in 1900 for no reason. The Buffalo Lounge Co., for which the building was erected, chose this precise location because of the geography of the Hydraulics at the intersection of several rail lines, including the Erie and New York Central. The Buffalo Lounge Co. was directly linked to both lines via a rail bed that once existed behind the building.

The wholesale furniture company, which sold wares in bulk from catalogue to dealer only, was part of a network of rail-connected, large-scale manufacturers that made the Hydraulics an impressive center of industry at the turn of the century. At this site the firm built lounges, couches, adjustable end divans, bed lounges, wardrobes, and bed couches to be shipped by rail to dealers across the United States.

The unique position of the building at one of the country’s largest rail intersections equally benefited the Craver-Dickinson Seed Co., which occupied the building around 1933 and sold seeds worldwide from this location for decades. Today, the building does not serve its original purpose as a traditional manufactory linked by rail, and the building’s adaptability and durable construction have assured its new lease on life. Owned by investor Chris Jacobs of 567 Exchange Street LLC, the building now houses several creative industries tenants, including, as it happens, a few very cool businesses that sell furniture.

Related posts:

1. Urban scene of the week: The fence pier TheHydraulics.com will feature an “urban scene of the week” of...
2. Urban scene of the week: Not so little power house on the prairie “The present is the ever moving shadow that divides yesterday...
3. Urban scene of the week: A snowy sight… Today’s “urban scene of the week” brings us to Eagle...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The Larkin Company’s corporate logo, emblazoned across the late mail-order company’s Larkin Terminal Warehouse for the past 97 years, is still a potent advertising vehicle for the heritage structure, now repurposed as Class-A office space.

The corporate logo (“LCo”) was actually obscured for years by another sign for Graphic Controls, which leased 4,000 sq. ft. space in the former warehouse in 1940 and later purchased the entire building from the Larkin Warehouse Co. in 1967, the likely year of the original sign’s concealment. (Graphic Controls expanded to the nearby Exchange Street Industrial Park in 2001.) When the mammoth 600,000 sq. ft. structure was purchased by investors Howard Zemsky, Bill Jones, Doug Swift, and Joe Petrella in 2002, the original Larkin sign was revealed, a highly-visible first step in the building’s rehabilitation.

The LCo signs are lit brilliantly at night, particularly at its south facade. Any guess at why? The south side of the building, now dubbed Larkin at Exchange, faces a very large audience: the tens of thousands of vehicles that pass every day on the Niagara Thruway (I-190). The heritage symbols, the most conspicuous aspect of the otherwise spare concrete structure that so elicited the admiration of early Modernist architects, now serve as veritable billboards advertising office space at the building, which identifies closely with its Larkin history.

The project, which essentially saved what many economic development officials believed would become a real estate “white elephant” for the city when Graphic Controls announced its departure from the building in the mid-1990s, is now nearly 100% occupied. History really does sell.

Related posts:

1. Doors to the past: the Larkin O Building O, boy, what an amazing door! The Larkin O...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Today the publication place of the ideas competition for a new town office for Rotterdam. 5 winners from 104 entries were chosen, also the people of Rotterdam also had a voice in the appointment of an audience winner.

“The Butterfly”, Figure Sky

PHE N.Y. Lanin, Head of the city

The jury, consisting of Wiel Arets (Chairman), Stefan Behnisch, Adriaan Geuze, John Körmeling, Michelle Provoost and Harm Tilman, received 104 entries to judge. Besides its task to appoint five winners, the jury asked to select 25 plans for this exhibition.

The 5 winners are: PHENY N.Y. Nine of LA La Lidy Meijers and Helga Fast (Posterholt); Figure of Sky RV Ritoe Architecture, Urbanism and Infrastructure (Delft), The Butterfly Maarten van Tuijl, Tom Berg Foot, Naoko Hikami (Amsterdam), assisted by Peter Farmer, Head of the City of Fountain Head of Christian Müller and Forideas (Amsterdam).

The audience prize went to Plan Mediator of Elastik (Den Haag) consisting of Marc Prince, Igor Kebel and Mika Cimolini.

The 5 winners each received a check for 10,000 euros. The audience winners Marc Prince, Igor Kebel and Mika Cimolini with their plan Mediator left with a bunch of flowers and honor.

Fountain Head, Mediator

The jury selected 25 plans constitute a range of options that will further debate good colors. Yet after the publication appear to have created more questions than when the organization of the contest.

Should the building or at the site of the current stand firm? (For details see the website below) knife for a building presents a municipality in the 21st century must be a high building? Should the program of a city office or interfere with commercial functions? How to create a barrier-town office?

The public debate was between those questions back and forth jumping. Especially the question of what public space in such a situation and how that is shaping remained unanswered.

It is remarkable to see that again in a design competition that focuses on urban planners most of the entries a ‘finished’ building presents. You should to speak with an invitation to this presentation has a contractor could do. Yet the competition has a positive impact on the debate currently occurring. There is thus much opportunity given to the municipality-by-dark aspects Rotterdam reuse of existing buildings and adding a new element to “Moderator” or redefining the plinth with many other entries.

All in all, the issuing of such a competition for young architects a good move from Rotterdam to thinking about the city in many different directions to send. Hope also to be acted.

Mediator of Elastik, the audience winner

PHENY N.Y. L. A. La Nine

An upwards becoming ever more massive volume of 230 meter is high at night the beacon of the city. The form refers to the traditional New York Skyscrapers, but upside down. It gives the air rights back to the urban area on the ground. – “A skyscraper that reverse upwards always be massive – a concept that challenges to further development.”

Figure Sky

Behind the old building of the City Timmerhuis is a public service a solid square block placed incisions with a light on this square optimal permit. The ground floor of the old building contains desk functions and catering. The sculptural volume office and leisure facilities housed. Flexibility is governed by hanging additional floor areas between the double floors high. “Sometimes no tower, but a beautiful log object, and pronounced that a special outdoor poses.”

“The Butterfly”

On the square behind the old building of the City Timmerhuis is a high round tower on top, as an addition to the skyline of Rotterdam. A butterfly-shaped ring hovers above the adjacent buildings and connect it to the new Office. “An important quality of the concept is that it forces to look beyond just the actual location of the town office.

Head of the City

The site plan is reused for various facilities and office and business space. Most of the required office functions, including City Hall and Post Office, is moved to a more urban location on the Wilhelminaplein on the Kop van Zuid. “The simple but effective concept encourages debate on whether the location of the current town hall is so much must be built.”

Fountainhead

A 192 meter high support construction can be completed in phases. First to 70 meter height with the requested program. The underground parking facility accommodates ten layers of hot and cold water storage tanks for regulating the energy of the building. “A strong architectural design. Even if the building would be lower, the architecture retains its strength. “

Mediator

The current situation is extended through the inside of the Old City Timmerhuis reshape and add a tower on the Square Window. “The draft includes the existing buildings (including the part on the nomination is to be demolished) for a new background. This they won aa

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This just in! The January emergency demolition of the Sacred Heart School at 198 Emslie Street not only broke hearts, it also broke the bank.

The emergency demolition of the landmark building reportedly cost taxpayers a cool $125,000. Economic return on the investment? Zero. While few doubt the necessity of the demolition in light of its collapsing brick facade and the imminent threat the building posed to human safety, fewer still believe the school’s “demolition by neglect” was inevitable.

Buffalo is at the cross-hairs of continuing economic struggle and an invigorated comprehension of the revitalization resource of the city’s historic architecture. The redevelopment of certain historic resources is being realized, but hundreds of opportunities persist in going unnoticed. The Sacred Heart School is one example, one of those buildings that, if only the foresight had been there ten or fifteen years ago, might have been sealed up and saved for a better day, set aside for some future entrepreneur who would have seen what others now see: economic potential. Lofts. Offices. Gallery space. Who knows? Now, we’ll never know what might have been.

Thirty years of neglect is a difficult situation to arrest, particularly in eleventh hour scenarios. When historic landmarks are literally crumbling into the street, which is what occurred in this case, immediate remedies are elusive. As economic opportunities like the Sacred Heart School pass us by, however, others come into greater focus. Hefty demolition tabs are putting a spotlight on the urgent need to preserve now the restoration potential of character buildings far in advance of preservation crises. The threatened Sacred Heart Church (above), which stands tenuously adjacent to the now demolished school, may be a test of the community’s ability to preserve economic value while there is still a fighting chance to reverse the “inevitable.”

Related posts:

1. Sacred Heart: School is out The demolition of the Sacred Heart School on Emslie Street...
2. High winds bring bad news to school building The neglected Sacred Heart School, located at Emslie Street and...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Boundless optimism, since it all turned to the fifth day of IJburg, such as multiplication ARCAM organized by the date of the referendum that the project is not blocked. The merriment began with the sun during the excursions on the Harbor Island afternoon, and ended with the conclusion of the discussion Chairman Martin Kloos evening top the telephone, the only building on IJburg there certainly is.

Apparently surprised Kloos noted after the pep talk of Klaas de Boer (Director Planning Service Amsterdam), Igor Roovers (IJburg project), Han Michel (director of one of those developer consortia) and Vera Yanovshtchinsky (an architect of the first blocks on the Harbor Island) that it all appears to be a lot better than he and many like him these days the media have understood. And it surprised Kloos, who do not like the naiefste known, in turn, a large part of the room, including yours truly.

If something does not voted for optimism was the slick but empty talk of the four speakers. IJburg Almost everything was great, ambitious, beautiful, durable and magnificent, and had actually just a bit faster and be more beautiful – but under approach X, Y and not approach the previous speaker, or Z of the environmental movement or the Car lobby or Q of politics. The very fact that the propagandists on four key issues and strongly disagree were sprinkled with water by stabbing made clear that there is something wrong somewhere. That many of these discussions are also attracted much of the political and social realities, it gave a whole declined slightly scary touch: this is after all not Utopia. But it was difficult the presented success stories too seriously, as the ground was already clear in the sometimes cynical comments of co-referent Gert Middelkoop (planner) to the room as half Maarten van Rossem played. The sober but vivid reality, the visionary superficial machismo of the great men and woman are overtaking.

The question that all this came to mind was how well the speakers themselves nou seriously. Klaas de Boer really think that all those spectacular infrastructure that he misses, a bypass tunnel bored under the Gein endless railway bridge to a protected bird area IJmeer, the combined forces of Zalmnorm, environmentalists and distrust in politics will prevail, though the thirty years? Han Michel sincerely hoped that his gay sketch of a piece of ghetto millionaire or perhaps a representative picture of the ideal future IJburg? Vera architect believes in her heart Yanovshtchinsky have someone waiting for those expensive plan chaos resulting population mix of fashionable tendencies and other planning and architectural hype? And project leader Igor Roovers really do not see that affordable housing by making them smaller just more middle-class families to Hoofddorp and Almere hunts?

The answer to these questions will be somewhere in the middle between yes and no lie: without a bit of bureaucratic bluff, what toadyism, a bit of cynicism, a tuft of cosmetics and a dash of opportunism would it IJburg course just boring. And of course the real problems are sometimes picky, and usually fairly banal: partly to discourage car use IJburg has only two real access, and now wants one from Rijkswaterstaat impose an impossible loop. A third of millionaire homes in the first block to yield, already in the pipeline, is not sold, which is difficult when your funding is based on the market hype of recent years, with standard lot from the catalog. And the parking ratio should we adopt for earning two yuppies without subscription tram, which allow cars that fall outside the norm? IJburg is now Amsterdam or region, or Vinex canal? Unfortunately it came a few such problems (finally) addressed in the final discussion, which is all the more frustrating because it was really to talk about and debate proved to be, because the bosses had no ready answers to offer. An hour starting debate was so much more interesting than the extensive hours make good stories.

Intriguing in the discussion was that it appeared that a lot of data are simply not ready. Nobody seemed to know what the IJburgers actually find their new place to live. Or, if coffee is watching, why the people of the Eastern Docklands Amsterdam, the Rotterdam Kop van Zuid Nieuw-Sloten, Floriande or the latest extensions of Almere in place in recent years have ended, how they live and mobile , and what that says about IJburg. The good old days of the AUP, when Van Eesteren first with mathematical precision what Amsterdam stretching all needed, and only then to hit the design also had its attractions.

But let me not to be nostalgic and pessimistic. The AUP has many times been overtaken by reality, and all that on a gedroogzwem Tuesday does not mean that the Port Island has a solid, well thought out plan is, with a clear vision, a plan which also invested heavily in quality which buyers might not be waiting, but of benefit. The homes are environmentally conscious, the look of the street, and is best used in the not too spacious green areas and parks at home and the abundant water. From the way closed and open blocks are combined and even integrated some radical blocks makers in innovation in the postwar housing also much to learn. What remains is a difficult susceptible sand, is actually a real piece of city.

The afternoon walks on the Harbor Island also voted only really optimistic: the endless sand, the pounding pile drivers, the racing trucks, the architect only with some difficulty his own block in the void can post, but then comes a heartwarming picture of his piece IJburg called, everything came down together in one hour excursion a perfect idyll of diligent effort, exactly what the night would be so lacking. Perhaps the speakers for next year are plucked from their offices, but are selected to wear their boots, the emptiness of their political agenda, and the amount of graphs and maps into their PowerPoint free speech. If the organization also have some great weather for “survival kit” full of snacks and drinks will, this pathfinder is happy again, and get those trees the sky perhaps once true.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Under the prosaic title “Infrastructure as a showcase for the ingenuity” was the Dutch Architecture Institute (NAI) its second Major Projects debate. The stakes were clear: “The infrastructure can play a leading role in organizing the rest of the country.” What should have been a fierce debate among politicians, critics and designers turned into a private chat between developers and officials. Nieuw Amerongen Frido of reports.

Construction of the Betuwelijn

The discussion has already crippled by the initial absence of the two speakers. Michelle Provoost critic (author of Asphalt) let sickness turn up and Minister of Transport Tineke Netelenbos was absent because of construction fraud investigations. She had a duty of confidentiality.

Netelenbos was still virtually present. Her custom and partly censored story was read and commented by van Schaik, project leader at Rijkswaterstaat. He was not always agree with Netelenbos. So he told it her appreciation for the French Grand Projects, but the lack of comparable Dutch projects he fervently denied, referring to the 19th century Dutch tradition of canals, polders and stations. Van Schaik agree that RWS had directed the design has lost the last decades. A rapid improvement he foresees no. In the integrated approach of the A12 motorway Rijkswaterstaat must start all over again. “There is still trying to analyze the design task is”

Joost Schrijnen of the board space and mobility, South Holland province, finds a second introductory speaker in recent years architects infrastructure contracts storm. “What do civil engineers themselves?” he asks. “Nothing!” The TU Delft is no attention to the civil design and the players have no interest. If it fails to establish a connection between spatial designers and civil engineers, then all effort useless and design changes nothing. ” He joins Van Schaik Netherlands in the art of making disappeared. “We must learn this art all over again. And in a society where infrastructure is not autonomous, it will not be an easy task. “

Links: Körmeling designs on the A12 (from: Taste 05, photo: Janine Writer). Right: Mobility Aesthetics, proposal Mecanoo architects.

Problems in education and the authorities, unclear and fragmented responsibilities, and a decreasing autonomy, the speakers do not hopeful picture for the future of infrastructure design. The other panelists did not make it better. Paul van der Ree, architect in Holland Rail Consult, tells of his difficult task as the creator of the HSL Zuid. “Coming up with a consistent design for the entire route has not been easy. But economic and political arguments, dilutes as a concept ever. ” He says. “The tunnel under the Green Heart was for him the last bloodletting. “From an ambiguous route design is no longer. Remaining are few delights, including the bridge over the Moerdijk van Benthem Crouwel Architekten. ”
Also increasingly used “Design and construct” contract method (where the government the project to the constructing Party) impedes a good design according to the panelists because usually the economic motives prevail.

The absence of the reply of political outsiders and creates a sort of old-boys-currant atmosphere. John Körmeling defends his ’social’ eight-lane highway, open to all traffic. ‘Racing left and right foot step “and Rein Jansma Zwarts & Jansma Architects know of a solution to the proliferation of noise barriers to counter:” Give all assignments to our office “The facts remains with pins and exchange, a fundamental discussion on the use of Infrastructure is hard to find.

Proposal for three Mecanoo snelwegtracees.

From the audience prick Aaron Betsky, director of NAI, the balloon of crippling unity:”All the panelists are, unconsciously, one aspect of all in agreement: The desire for big and clear. Why anyone looking for less unambiguous, but more varied solutions? ”
Most panelists not to seek such a solution. Their gaze is focused on the greatness of the French project, but without the associated powerful driver. Whether and how this can then in Holland with its ambiguous cultural consulting responsibilities, it segmented bodies and its emphasis on economic considerations, no one could answer. Maybe Betsky’s suggestion to seek variety in the design to be played by teams in the next debate on Thursday, March 28 to defend their views.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.