Much progress is being made on my favorite urban green project, New York’s park-in-the-sky, The Highline. Here’s a beautiful set of renders and progress photographs from the site’s slideshow. The blog keeps rolling along, offering related tidbits and news from the project’s ongoing activities.

Here’s a nicely crafted video detailing the design and route layout.

Well, not quite mainstream, maybe, but close to. Design Within Reach is now selling the Kithaus K3 modular dwelling. According to the DWR site, it was designed by Tom Sandonato and Martin Wehmann.

The description says that the “9′x13′ structure redefines conventional prefab with its proprietary clamping system that makes installation quick, economic and practically waste-free” and that “installation is fast, taking only a few days, and Kithaus is built with eco-friendly components.”

I’ve been following the prefab movement since around 2002, when Rocio Romero came out with her LV series. Since then, the movement has taken off, but not soared. Prices can still be unpredictable given land issues, zoning and other unforeseen circumstances. We had considered going this route at one time, but backed off due to those very concerns. All in all, the future is still very bright indeed and I hope to own one of these architectural gems someday.

Photographer Andy Ryan has a comprehensive portfolio, but I was immediately drawn to his world-class collection of architecture projects, ranging from the progressive Beijing Olympic stadium to Disney Hall in Los Angeles to Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in worldly Kansas City.

The site design isn’t much, but functionally it serves its purpose fine, with a curious, but useful feature that shows you the sets you’ve viewed. All in all, an engaging way to travel the architectural wonders of the modern world without leaving your Aeron chair.

Founded in Norway, Snohetta is a hybrid landscape, interior design and architecture firm where designers work in a communal setting.

The work presented is exceptional, but the site itself, designed by compatriots and seminal visual masters, Bleed, is itself a masterwork, fusing a slick interface with a rich visual universe.

The navigation is a thoughtful and dynamic experience, exposing content and inviting exploration through hierarchical trees which dive down deeper into a far-reaching portfolio. Jump in and immerse yourself in this smartly-appointed showcase.

Via Reform & Revolution

If you’re lucky enough, you’ve had a mentor or guru or role model worthy of being a source of inspiration for life. I’m lucky enough and that person is my older sister, Deborah, who with her husband Rudy, have had respective flourishing careers as a graphic designer and architect since the 1970’s.

Having met at WED (later WDI), the “Imagineering” design division of Disney, they helped craft the vision at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Center and then pulled three multi-year stints as an executive design team overseeing the day-to-day creative operations at Tokyo Disneyland, helping to craft that park and the expansion companion DisneySea effort. Post-Disney, they are now continuing to thrive in their own practice, reshaping the global brand for clients like the Tokyo-based restaurant chain Yoshinoya.

Stumbled upon this great link, which is a collection of images documenting the boomtown madness that is Dubai. In the designer’s mind, this looks like a series of renderings of fantastical buildings from the deepest recesses of an architects wildest fantasies and while, in some sense that could be true, the wild part is that virtually all of these projects have been greenlighted.

Leaving us recession(ish)-shaken Americans with gaping jaws at the mere thought of these monstrosities coming to light is a humbling experience. Not since the Post-War era have we even come close, and even that pales in comparison.

According to the link, Dubai is said to currently have 15-25% of all the world’s cranes. As a bourgeoning showcase for the world’s tallest buildings, it has lofty goals of making a name for itself by any means necessary. Also fascinating is the development of Hydropolis, the world’s first underwater hotel, said to be ready by 2009. Found a truly bizarre website which seems to be the corporate entity for this “under”-taking, but be sure to put on your goggles with the UG-LEE filter first.

With their oil reserves dwindling, Dubai has sought to reinvent itself as a tourism mecca for Europe and beyond. The appeal is definitely reaching beyond, as least to the most adventurous of us. Would like to think I will actually make it there someday, as prices seem to be reportedly dropping, due to the onslaught of the tourism industry. Would make for one aesthetically mind-boggling, sensory walloping experience that really shouldn’t be missed.

NYC’s Highline is a defunct elevated train line that runs through a swath of Manhattan’s LES (or Lower East Side to us outsiders). Spanning from Hell’s Kitchen on through West Chelsea and into the Gansevoort Market Historic District, it has been reborn as a park. Yes, a park. Though this news is old to New Yorkers, it has caught the eye of architecture fans due to its unique status and world-class, big city location.

While this idea seemed novel when I first read about it, it also seemed too good to be true, as in it’ll never get built. Fact, on the other hand, has it quite the opposite. It indeed got funded and with some visionary design and planning, it is miraculously under construction. Brilliant, progressive ideas like this so rarely come to fruition.

Seeing the first sets of initial proposals from architectural firms to the final rendering got my imagination and senses going. Designed by Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, it’s a transcendent exercise in how reuse, urban planning and greening can go wildly right. An interesting sidebar is the development of André Balzac’s Standard Hotel rising over it. Part of the design will call for the hotel to act as a bridge, allowing a section of it to run over the uninterrupted park. Should be a landmark event when it launches. I will be making a focused effort to see it in person as soon as I can after it opens.

As a rail/Metro commuter, I am now faced with filling up my time. Books. Check. Newspapers. Check. Magazines. Maybe. Music. Definitely. Video. Yes. While I’m hesitant to watch movies on my iPhone (I’m a purist), I’m OK with watching things educational and even the occasional bite-size morsel of entertainment. YouTube videos are too hard to sift through on the iPhone, so that leaves TED. Perhaps I’m missing some other good sources. Note: If you know of any, please email me or comment below.

TED is the Super Bowl of tech conferences, so who knows if I’ll ever get to attend. They book up way ahead and the tickets are a bit too cost-prohibitive for the average Joe/Jane. So, it’s a good thing TED offers their videos in a Mac-friendly format (yes, they’re available to PC’ers as well) on their website. There are some truly fascinating talks available, which open the senses and engage the mind in ways you may have not thought possible. Once you’ve purused subjects you find interesting, you might start to explore categories you may not have considered before — like, oh, the study of ants, for example. Who knew they had lazy ants who sit around and do nothing? Sounds like the real world.

Ranging from high science to film to music to architecture, TED has something for everyone. A few worth checking out are J.J. Abrams’ “Mystery Box”, Philip Starck’s “Think Deep on Design”, and John Maeda’s “On The Simple Life”, for starters. Get on in there and start watching. It will open your eyes.

No, not because he parades around Africa, adopting babies.

No, not because he scored Angelina Jolie, but he does get big points for that.

No, not because of Fight Club or working with Guy Ritchie in Snatch or because he’s going to play John Dean in the upcoming “Dirty Tricks.”

No, not for any of those reasons, though they certainly help (or hinder, depending upon your perspective). No, Brad Pitt is cool because he is a major architecture fan and that instantly scores points in my book. He went so far as to even get his proverbial hands dirty as an apprentice in Frank Gehry’s L.A. studio. Yeah Gehry, you know, the guy who does all the wavy, metallic buildings. While there, he apparently designed a mixed-use complex in Sussex, England.

Additionally, he is a studied architecture aficionado, fan of Frank Lloyd Wright and supporter of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

In the last year, he’s taken up his own project of building 150 low-cost, sustainable residential housing in New Orleans’ devastated 9th Ward district, in hopes of spearheading a grass-roots effort to encourage a duplicative effect.He’s also cool because he doesn’t seem too full of himself.

Yes, the African baby thing gets mocked, but at least they “innovated” it, no? He does to genuinely care about social issues, which depending upon how raised your eyebrow is, can be good or bad. Nonetheless, he manages to come across as pretty normal, accessible guy.