Palace of Soviets provides a glimpse into the unrealized plans of the Kremlin

The Palace of Soviets was planned to be the largest building in the world. Its height was to reach 415 meters — higher than the tallest buildings of the time, the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building, The building capital was to be topped by a 100 meter statue of Lenin. The construction of the Palace of Soviets developed into an independent economic and scientific field. This system included special laboratories dealing with optics and acoustics, for the development of special construction materials such as "D.S. steel" and "D.S. brick", mechanical and ceramic-concrete works, The building site was serviced by its own railway branch. By special decrees of the Soviet of People's Commissars and the Council for Labor and Defense, the construction of the Palace of Soviets was designate a priority project in 1934, and by 1939 the foundations of the upper part were completed. Construction was suspended in 1941 because of the war and never resumed. However, work on the Palace of Soviets project continued until the end of the 1940s.

Architecture & Design Film Festival, New York

The inaugural Architecture & Design Film Festival has just concluded its stellar program of screenings in New York. It's hard to believe that this event was the first of its kind in a city famous for its design culture, but in fact the festival was a first in the US. The brainchild of architect Kyle Bergman and design professional Laura Cardello, it brought together filmmakers, design enthusiasts and professionals and industry luminaries for four-days of documentaries, shorts and feature-length films, panel discussions and special events.

Links to a couple of films trailers:

Studio Gang Architects: Aqua Tower

Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight

White Roofs Could Save the U.S. $735,000,000 Per Year

Since being appointed as the Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu has been talking all about the benefits of white roofs. Now he’s going to put his own department where his mouth is by mandating that all new roofs on Energy Department buildings be either white or reflective. In his statement this week he noted the cooling effect that white roofs have on buildings — especially air-conditioned ones — as well as their ability to drastically lower energy costs – $735 million per year to be exact, if 85% of all air-conditioned buildings in the US had white roofs.

Arabs build awesome stuff? Wow, I had no idea!

Qatar, a small Arab country located on a peninsula bordering Saudi Arabia, has unveiled its bid to host the 2022 World Cup.  This video shows concept designs for the first five of the stadiums which would be constructed for the event.

"Matter of Chronic Anger"

“Suppose that you had been commissioned to build a really grand opera house; that after the construction work had nearly been completed and your scheme of decoration fully designed you should be instructed that the building was to be used on Sundays as a Baptist Tabernacle, and that suitable place must be made for a huge organ, a pulpit, and a dipping pool. Then at intervals afterward, you should be advised that it must be so refitted and furnished that parts of it could be used for a court room, a jail, a concert hall, hotel, skating rink, for surgical cliniques, for a circus, dog show, drill room, ball room, railway station and shot tower? That is what is nearly always going on with public parks. Pardon me if I overwhelm you: it is a matter of chronic anger with me.”

Fredrick Law Olmsted
Olmsted Papers, Reel 22. January 22, 1891.

Osaka to me!

In a city with few green spaces, Namba Parks is a welcome swath of green for the inhabitants of Osaka. The complex stands where Osaka’s baseball stadium used to be until 2003, and consists of a 30-floor skyscraper, Parks Tower, and a shopping mall with eight floors of terraced gardens. The sloping park connects to the street, welcoming passers-by to enjoy its groves of trees, clusters of rocks, cliffs, lawn, streams, waterfalls, ponds and outdoor terraces.

Life Imitates Art. Well, maybe.

San Francisco's Bay Bridge is getting a makeover that will leave a large portion of the old bridge unused, but still standing strong. Now two architects are proposing that the city build a neighborhood on it.

Local architects Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello hit upon this idea after considering what was about to happen to the Bay Bridge. Here is an aerial view, showing the abandoned side of the bridge on the right. This span of the bridge is still very sturdy, and could easily bear quite a bit of weight. Why dismantle and waste it when you could turn it into a unique neighborhood?

In a detailed proposal for what they call The Bay Line, the architects suggest the bridge could be a series of public parks with neighborhoods hanging beneath the bridge. This is a more suburban version of what happens in William Gibson's novel Virtual Light, where squatters take up residence on the bridge after it is partly destroyed.

Rael and San Fratello also point out that other cities have successfully built bridge neighborhoods, including Florence, Italy's Ponte Vecchio (pictured below) and the London Bridge in London. Over at BLDG BLOG, Geoff Manaugh meditates on this possible bridge community, and writes:

While, on one level, this simply side-steps the immense financial implications associated with structurally maintaining these bridges . . . it does also kick-start a conversation about what we might be able to do with the massive pieces of civic infrastructure that dot the U.S. and are currently scheduled for replacement and demolition.

Source: FutureMetro.com

Full proposal available here in PDF.