Skyline Stories: Philly’s Central Delaware Master Plan Wins AIA Award, Casinos, CA’s RDA’s Cut, TIGER Grants

Master Plan for the Central Delaware won the 2012 AIA's Honor Award for Regional & Urban Design / Image via PlanPhilly.

In PHILLY… big day as the City Planning Commission approved the Zoning Map Revision Plan, establishing the city’s first zoning revisions in 50 years, in tandem with a 5-year process of remapping each district (PlanPhilly).

The citizen-designed Central Delaware Master Plan won the American Institute of Architects (AIA)’s Honor Award (PlanPhilly). Philly’s GIS system is one of the top in the country (Technically Philly).

PennDOT archaeologists uncover historic Dyottville Glass Works during I-95 excavations. / Image via PlanPhilly.

Nearly 50 Philly Catholic schools are closing — and developers are salivating (Philly.com) — and the city is hoping for more jobs by dredging the Delaware River another 5 feet (Philly.com). Thought I-95’s expansion will continue to block access to the river, archaeological work has discovered the soon-to-be-demolished Dyotville Glass Works in Kensington (PlanPhilly).

Why do cities continue to bet their futures on casinos? So much competition for decreasing profits. Atlantic City is hoping more casinos will push it forward, while Delaware hopes to protect its casinos. (Philly.com)

Nationwide, cities are pushing neighborhood livability — in Baltimore’s Downtown (Baltimore Sun), Washington D.C.’s The Yards (Atlantic Cities) and even Detroit, and offering housing stipends via the city (Nightly Business Report). Powerful video of Detroit’s scrappers, who melt down copper to sell to China…who sells it back to the U.S. Stayed tuned for the upcoming film “Detropia” (NYT). Cities are also trying to rethink their local and regional economies largely without federal help (Atlantic Cities).

Less than 10 percent of the nation’s metropolitan areas have recovered the jobs they have lost since the recession. Of the largest metro areas, Houston is the only one that has returned to pre-recession levels. / Image via NYT.

But cities are far from positive — less than 10 percent of metropolitan areas have recovered jobs (NYT), and California axed its redevelopment authorities (Atlantic Cities) and lots of departures from its High Speed Rail Authority (Systemic Failure). I’m on the fence about the RDA’s, sure they rebuilt inner cities with affordable housing, but also invested in neighborhood-killers like stadiums; and can’t their activities can be folded into more transparent city or state agencies?

TWA NYC 1960's. / Image via Atlantic Cities.

Improving transit infrastructure is the big theme this week, especially in the Southeast where a study finds the link between driving and obesity (Planetizen). But the new TIGER grants’ only urban project in the South is improving capacity for Charlotte’s light rail line. Chicago is the big winner with $20 million for overhauling the Blue Line tracks and expanding bike share. Philly gets $10 million for traffic signal upgrades (DOT [PDF]). Speaking of bike share, how cool would it be to have a card that could work on any system in the country? (Streetsblog)

Interstate system as a metro map. / Image via Atlantic Cities.

Cool maps and images:

• In New York, its ghost subway system WNYC and The City That Never Was (Untapped Cities), which reminds me of Skyscraper Museum’s 2007 “New York Modern” exhibit with Hugh Ferris drawings (Skyscraper Museum) Plus Project Neon (Untapped Cities) complements the New York Neon Blog (New York Neon).

• Federal highways as a metro (Atlantic Cities) and every tree in the country (Inhabitat). Paris’ RER-B line as the Eiffel Tower (Transit Maps) and the periodic table of city planning elements (Stephens Planning). Plus cool TWA posters from 1960’s — the best is Times Square (Atlantic Cities)

Paris RER B as Eiffel Tower. / Image via Transit Maps.

• Cool uses of citizen cartography (BMW Guggenheim Lab), but navigating the city with mental maps is more complicated than you’d think (Atlantic Cities).

Finally, architecture firm Perkins and Will has a new Transparency database to evaluate the health effects of construction materials (Urban Omnibus) and China is officially urbanized! It was 10 percent only 60 years ago (Atlantic Cities).

Skyline Stories: Philly’s Callowhill NID, Knight Foundation Art, NY Street Grid, California High Speed Rail, End of Exurbs?

Reading Viaduct may take longer to develop without the Callowhill Neighborhood Improvement District. / Image via PlanPhilly.

PHILLY’s big news is that the Callowhill Neighborhood Improvement District is likely killed, putting the Reading Viaduct redevelopment in possible limbo. Businesses were split on raising new taxes for an improvement in basic services — I think it’s shortsighted on their part but understandable with the recession (Plan Philly). Plus the Ben Franklin Bridge’s Camden-side bike ramp is being delayed (BCGP).

In better news, the Knight Foundation is funding cool news arts and culture projects — my favorites are Nuit Blanche (all-night arts festival) and the urban drive-in on the Parkway! (Philly.com)

Meanwhile the country’s? first net-zero energy apartment is coming to Philly — for affordable housing, no less, by Philly architects Onion Flats. (Philly.com) And the Storefront for Urban Innovation is coming to Brewerytown (Next American City).

"The Greatest Grid" sheds new light on the 200th anniversary of Manhattan's street grid. / Image via MCNY.

IN NEW YORK, two great exhibits on the Manhattan street grid are at the MCNY and Architecture League. Could it be extended to Governor’s Island? One proposal for a LoLoMa (Architect’s Newspaper).

MTA’s new head Joe Lhota may be able to extend transit to LaGuardia Airport as it undergoes a $4 billion upgrade (Second Ave Sagas). Meanwhile, the city plans on doubling recycling in five years (NYLCV) and the city’s Bike Share bikes will have GPS trackers to help plan bike lanes (Streetsblog).

NATIONWIDE, the focus is on California and Detroit.

California is getting killed in urban projects — the high-speed line may not be profitable (Washington Post) though it would capture about half of the leisure travelers who currently fly (The Atlantic: Cities). Why can’t there be the push like the UK for high-speed rail with its $50 billion HS2 plan to halve travel times by 2033? (The Guardian)

Meanwhile the state’s redevelopment authorities have been abolished — they’ve had a mixed bag of funding affordable housing and stadiums (Daily KOS). And a fascinating read on the history of city-killing parking lots that envelop LA (Los Angeles Magazine).

Detroit's proposed, shortened light rail line / Image via Transport Politic.

In Detroit, there are faint hopes that the shortened light rail will be built (Streetsblog), and a great piece about destruction and nostalgia in Detroit (Design Observer).

Is it the end of the ex-urban single-family home? Grim news as more poor Americans live in suburbs than cities (Business Insider) and American rental rates are at a 10-year-low (Bloomberg). But McMansions could be subdivided for multifamilies (Philly.com), and there are innovative new ways to redevelop marking lots and dead malls (NYT).

Public housing project crime (here in blue waves) disappears when towers are torn down! / Image via Atlantic Cities, Urban Institute.

Turns out that bridge tolls don’t impact the poor or very poor, probably because most don’t own cars (Publicola), giving more fuel to congestion pricing (DC Streetsblog).

Congestion pricing is only one way to make healthy cities — good neighborhoods need walkable and well-connected streets (Atlantic Cities), tear down public housing project towers because crime simply disappears (Atlantic Cities) and D.C.’s bike share data could lead to traffic analysis and solutions (Greater Greater Washington).

WORLDWIDE, urban and suburban sprawl is a big problem — failure in the state and urban planning (UN Habitat), but cities can become “smarter” with technology and sustainability (Fast Company’s Co.Exist). Finally, sad news as Infrastructurist signed off (Infrastructurist).

Skyline Stories: AbuDhabi ‘s massive projects, Yas Island water park, U.S. suburbanization & poverty and Times Sq. redesign.

Abu Dhabi’s waterpark, opening 2013. Photo via The National.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Abu Dhabi is not immune from the financial crisis — construction and infrastructure contracts are down 81 percent — but there are still massive projects underway. There are airport/port/industrial zones expansion, redeveloping suburbs Shahama and Bahia and Saadiyat Island. (Gulf Construction) Plus major investment in green space. (The National)

Abu Dhabi’s “green” market could be worth nearly USD 3 trillion in 10 years. (Zawya) Apparently the proposed Yas Island water park is going to be sustainable, as the UPC awarded it a “one pearl” rating for “for its efforts to reduce water consumption on the site.” (The National)

Hopefully Abu Dhabi’s rapidly developing suburbs are going to model American ones built before the 1930s, when the FHA required cul-de-sacs in suburban planning. Connectivity with a street grid also helps against foreclosure. (The Atlantic: Cities) Now poverty is spreading to inner-ring suburbs. (Pedestrian Observations) And the U.S. South, often dominated by cul-de-sac suburbs, is hit hardest by the recession. (NYT)

But besides Detroit, maybe urban downtowns aren’t booming? Suburban office space and taxes are still cheaper. (The Atlantic: Cities)

Lightsaber Battle. Photo via Gothamist.

Why is the developing world’s middle class stuck in the car-centric mindset of 1950s America? (NYT) At least the industrialized world has hit “peak travel.” (Miller-McCune)

First MTA CEO Jay Walder announced he’s leaving, now Port Authority’s Executive Director Christopher Ward, too. (NYT) The new MTA head may be able to coordinate light rail on Staten Island’s North Shore. (Second Ave Sagas)

Times Square’s pedestrian plazas (do they have a name yet?) are going to be rebuilt from the ground up (first time in 50 years!) for pedestrians and cyclists. (Streetsblog) In another iconic public space, Washington Square Park, Newmindspace held its awesome annual lightsaber battle. (Gothamist)