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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Hmmm … this could be LEED Gold and nice for bad weather, but it also seems a bit exclusive. I wonder what kind of effect it will have on street life. With the Olympic Stadium and CCTV building, Beijing has become the place to look for daring international architecture. Local architects are also making their mark, as seen in the “New Architects of China” article in Architecture Week.

Photo by Iwan Baan

Quoted from the article “Beijing’s Skywalk-Linked Megacomplex a City Within a City” in Wired Magazine: Steven Holl and Li Hu designed Linked Hybrid, a city within the city that will minimize forays outside by providing for nearly all of its residents’ needs. Upon completion this summer, Linked will offer 650 luxury apartments to the same go-go Chinese capitalists dropping crisp yuan on Mercedes and Fendi … And, since this is a 21st-century Eden, elaborate water-recycling and geothermal-power systems may rack up enough eco-points for a Gold LEED certification.

ArchitectureWeek’s list of bridges from around the world is a great reminder of the effect bridges have on urban and rural landscapes, blending form and function in an endless variety of ways. Walking bridges can help desegregate neighborhoods and open them to new patterns of use.

Photo by Don Barker