Today I visited the former subway tunnel in my home town, Rochester, NY. Later I was surprised to find a lot of information about it online, including a Wikipedia page and a documentary. There is also a group called the Rochester Rail Transit Committee (RRTC), which hopes to resurrect the subway to provide light rail service in the city and up to Lake Ontario.

I’ve posted a photo tour of the section that runs below the Rundel Memorial Building and across the Broad Street Bridge. Here are a few related links: map from 1928, map with proposed new lines, historical photos, contemporary photos, additional information.

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The St. Petersburg Guide provides a charmingly unpretentious and informative overview of the city’s history through its distinctive architecture. Maintaining so many historical buildings beside a river prone to flooding must be a great challenge. The conversion of the Winter Palace into a museum is also very interesting. Apparently there are other former palaces and estates in the city that might be transitioned for new uses as well.

Quoted from the St. Petersburg Guide: It’s called The Winter Canal, and this is one of the most poetic corners of the “old St. Petersburg”. It was described in Alexander Pushkin’s famous “Queen of Spades”, and until now is the place for romantic dates of people who are in love. This place is especially lovely when seen from the water - when you sail either along the Moyka or along the Neva river in a boat and cast a look on the beautiful arch that frames the Winter Canal…

In Civic Realism, Peter Rowe discusses the character of “civic places,” which he distinguishes from other public spaces by pointing out the ways in which they “represent, constitute, and enhance the daily lives of citizens” (6). He also explores how civic places come into existence, emphasizing the interplay between the state and civil society.

Interesting examples from Sienna, Barcelona, Paris, Rome, New York, and Ljubljana appear throughout the book. I found the section on the transformation of “space” into “place” especially interesting, as well as the case study of Jože Plečnik’s work in Ljubljana as an example of ways in which the public domain comes to constitute and represent civic life.

I’m not sure of the actual name for these buildings, but basically they have an area in front, below street-level, over which a stairway forms a bridge up to the front door. This picture was taken across from Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow, Scotland.

Stairway bridges seem an ingenious use of space. Instead of having basements with limited lighting, they make room for large windows and a courtyard. These courtyards can be used for many things, including gardens, breakfast patios, and play areas for small kids.

ArchNet contains a wealth of photos, publications, and other resources on architecture and planning. It is produced by the MIT School of Architecture and funded by the Aga Khan Trust. My favorite section is the Digital Library, where you can browse through historical buildings by name, country, style, type, use, and century.

Photo by Joseph Brakhya

Quoted: ArchNet is an international online community for architects, planners, urban designers, landscape architects, conservationists, and scholars, with a focus on Muslim cultures and civilisations.

On the 1st of May a fire broke out in the Dars Salm slum in Sanaa, Yemen. It started from an electrical malfunction and spread quickly through densely packed dwellings made of fabric, cardboard, tin, and tires. The fire destroyed 25 homes, displacing 175 people. Informal settlements are often especially vulnerable to fire.

It would be valuable for architects and developers from around the world to design and provide durable fire-resistant housing for these areas based on the input of residents. Alternatively, fire-resistant materials could be made mandatory and available by the government so that people can upgrade the safety of their own homes in the way that works best for them. Government health and safety standards, coupled with the provision of necessary materials, could significantly improve living conditions in slums.

Quoted from the article “Recent Fire Highlights Plight of Sanaa Slum-Dwellers” on the IRIN website: The slum is known as Dar Salm, and is home to 400 families. They are known as ‘Akhdam’, which means “servants” in Arabic. Most came from the Tehama region, western Yemen, which is one of the poorest and hottest places in the country. Al-Badwi said they had been in the slum for around 22 years.

This book was written by Keith Pezzoli, and has a forward by John Friedmann. I’ve heard really good things about it and am hoping to check it out soon.

The review mentions that residents of the Ajusco area, on the outskirts of Mexico City, fought relocation by proposing to create “productive ecology settlements.” I wonder what these are exactly? It’s interesting to consider the many different ways that the concept of environmental sustainability is used to influence policy.

Quoted from the book description at the MIT Press website: In many areas of the world, environmental degradation in and around human settlements is undermining prospects for both socioeconomic justice and ecological sustainability. To explore the issues involved in this worldwide problem, Keith Pezzoli focuses on a dramatic instance of conflict that grew out of the unauthorized penetration of human settlements into the Ajusco greenbelt zone, a vital part of Mexico City’s ecological reserve.

The Danda gallery contains hundereds of images of distinctive architecture from around the world. There are at least four large pictures of each structure, which provide a good feel for how they look in context.

The Musée d’Orsay is an impressive example of adaptive reuse. Originally a train station built for the the World’s Fair of 1900, the building proved not quite large enough for newer trains and was eventually abandoned. However, it was listed as a historical monument shortly thereafter, and converted into a museum in 1986. The interior design was led by Gae Aulenti, whose diverse body of work I really admire.

Photo by The Flews

Quoted from the Musée d’Orsay website: The history of the museum, of its building is quite unusual. In the centre of Paris on the banks of the Seine, opposite the Tuileries Gardens, the museum was installed in the former Orsay railway station, built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. So the building itself could be seen as the first “work of art” in the Musee d’Orsay, which displays collections of art from the period 1848 to 1914.

City of Walls calls to mind the importance of openness and safety in developing successful urban settings. While it’s difficult to determine why some cities are more violent than others, extreme income disparity tends to be a contributing factor. As people with means move to gated communities and people without become increasingly vulnerable, creating environments where everyone can walk freely and feel secure should be a top priority.

Quoted from the University of California Press website: Teresa Caldeira’s pioneering study of fear, crime, and segregation in São Paulo poses essential questions about citizenship and urban change in contemporary democratic societies. Focusing on São Paulo, and using comparative data on Los Angeles, she identifies new patterns of segregation developing in these cities and suggests that these patterns are appearing in many metropolises.