urbanism

Neon Lights Make These NYC Water Towers Into Inter-Dimensional Portals

Have you ever stuck your head up a water tower? Wait, what? You haven’t? Well, here’s your chance. On display at Madison Square Park in New York right now are three water towers, each illuminated with neon lights and mirrors. Even if you’re not in New York, you can take a look at these trippy…

Animals See Power Lines as Terrifying Bursts of Light

We’ve known that most critters try to avoid power lines, but until recently, scientists were pretty much in the dark when it came to why. Now, it turns out that to animals, power lines and pylons look like terrifying bands of glowing, flashing bursts of light. This revelation came about as the result of a…

Create an Apocalypse in Your Hometown, Using Google Maps

Oh, no! Has San Francisco’s fashionable Mission neighborhood been destroyed by plague and taken over by wildlife? That’s the fantasy you can have by using the awesome Urban Jungle Street View, which converts Google Street View scenes into post-apocalyptic landscapes. Here’s New York: Created by Swedish developer Einar Oberg, the app gives you a lovely…

Bracing for the Next Big Quake With L.A.’s New City Seismologist

The 4.4 jolt that shook Angelenos awake this morning was the latest reminder of our complicated relationship with the ground below us. But I had a different perspective of what was happening under my feet this time: Just before this latest earthquake, I took a walk along Hollywood’s fault lines with Dr. Lucy Jones, Los…

Why Cities Need to Stop Commissioning Calatrava’s Fish Skeletons

I remember the first time I saw a Santiago Calatrava bridge, a spinal column of calcium-white ribs snaking across a Spanish ravine. “That’s cool,” I thought. Then, a few years and a few thousand miles away, I saw another one. And another one. And another one. Why did all these cities have similar structures in…

The Purpose Behind San Francisco’s Weirdest Looking Tower

At 977 feet tall and situated atop the peak of San Francisco’s biggest hill, the three-legged Sutro Tower dominates the city’s skyline. But this isn’t some grand scale art installation like Cupid’s Span; this massive structure acts as a vital part of San Francisco’s communications infrastructure, bouncing radio waves over Twin Peaks and all the…

Would You Go For A Ride On This Massive Slip ‘n Slide On A City Street?

British artist Luke Jerram wants to take over a Bristol high street for an afternoon to set up a massive, 90-meter-long wet and wild joyride. Would you give it a try? Park and Slide is planned as part of the local council’s Make Sunday Special initiative, organizing events for car-free jolly good times, and would…

Smog, Lights, and Measles (Again): What’s Ruining Our Cities This Week

Smog dims the city of lights; our streetlamps might be driving away bats; and everyone’s least favorite infectious disease, measles, has popped up in yet another city. It’s all in this week’s all-Gizmodo look at What’s Ruining Our Cities. Smog is ruining Paris This week’s smog alert is not coming from Beijing… it’s Paris? Due…

The number of Californians who walk, bike, or take transit on an average day has doubled in the last decade, according to a new study by Caltrans. Also notable: More people in their 20s and 30s are not getting their licenses at all. [Los Angeles Times]

Measles Are Back in New York City Thanks to Anti-Vax Absurdity

Everyone should get vaccinated, and, in recent weeks, measles has given us nasty reminder of why: as of last Friday, 16 cases of the highly-contagious respiratory virus had been reported in New York City. Despite having been officially “eliminated” in the United States since 2000, measles can still make its way back into communities when…

London Is Building 230 New Towers and 80 Percent of Them Are Housing

It seems like every big city is facing a major housing crisis. But things are looking up in London: not only is the city planning an astounding 230 new towers that will fundamentally change the skyline, but an impressive 80 percent of those towers will be residential. A survey by GL Hearn for New London…

A 100-Year-Old Emergency Water Supply Put Out A Fire In SF This Week

The five-alarm fire that destroyed a San Francisco apartment building this week put the city’s municipal water supply to the test: When water pressure began to dwindle, firefighters tapped an emergency system that was built below the city—all the way back in 1913. The six-story building under construction in the city’s Mission Bay neighborhood caught…

No, this is not a production still from Bio-Dome: Saudi Arabia, it’s a rendering for the King Abdullah International Gardens in Riyadh. Barton Willmore International designed the crescent-shaped complex which will recreate animal and plant habitats from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods—in the middle of the desert. [designboom]

Is This Ride-Sharing Smart Minivan the Future of Self-Driving Cars?

Autonomous vehicles are likely going to have to do more than just drive themselves: They’re also going to have to organize carpools. GM’s EN-V was cute and all, but this Akka Link & Go 2.0 is more like a tiny bus—which is a much more reasonable proposition for a self-driving, car-sharing fleet. Released this week…

Scenes of San Francisco’s Urban Life Told Through Illustrated Stories

Despite the whimsical nature of her drawings, make no mistake: San Francisco artist Wendy MacNaughton is a gifted urban anthropologist. Her newest book, Meanwhile in San Francisco: The City In Its Own Words, is an insightful, illustrated compendium of contemporary city life. MacNaughton spent hours in San Francisco’s urban institutions, from libraries to farmers markets…

A Whole Year of Taxi Rides in New York City Mapped

New York’s fleet of iconic yellow taxis are still the city’s reliable, non-surge priced transportation backbone. Its 13,500 medallion taxis make 170 million trips a year, every single one of them mapped in this beautiful new visualization from the folks at the MIT Senseable City Lab. The interactive map isn’t just here to be pretty—it’s…

Los Angeles To Launch Nation’s Largest Interactive Urban Trail Network

Los Angeles is a big place—over 400 square miles. Even though it’s home to the country’s largest urban park, many of its residents don’t have easy access to public green space—or they might not know where the nearest one is. A new “interactive interpretive” urban trail system hopes to close that distance, while connecting Angelenos…

City-Dwelling Spiders Build Webs That Don’t Work

In welcome news for urban arachnophobes everywhere, it turns out that certain types of spiders just aren’t cut out for city life. Apparently, spinning webs on concrete and steel kills the vibrations spiders need to sense prey—meaning dinner ain’t coming easy. In order to see how man-made structures affected spiders’ abilities to catch prey, a…

A new movie about Chicago; an unbelievable road diet in Buenos Aires creates 100 blocks of pedestrian space; and a tour of the vibrant city of Accra. Plus, another idea for solving San Francisco’s housing crisis, and everyone’s favorite cokehead mayor hits the late night talk show circuit, all in this week’s Urban Reads. A…

These Gorgeous Screenprints Showcase a City’s Most Famous Structures

As part of a project called “Shapes of Cities,” London-based designer Yoni Alter takes a handful of iconic buildings from various metropolitan areas and silhouettes their shapes in a range of colors, overlapping the forms to create a single abstracted, impossible skyline. While there are plenty of posters that highlight a city’s best buildings, Alter’s…