Urban patterns

Architect Abhinav Bhardwaj has posted some great images on Instagram that illustrate the differences between coarse and fine urban development patterns. While I might quibble with the accuracy of the labels (American vs. European), I think the illustrations are certainly useful in distinguishing between different eras and approaches.

Interestingly, the Streetlife Design Competition has been posted with opportunities that include students and young professionals. 

Finally fixing up that dump

LA+ JOURNAL has a published the winning redesigns for Central Park. It is about time. When NYC first laid it out, they hired a guy that had never designed anything. Maybe this time they can get a licensed professional.

Plus, it looks like some of the winners finally take care of the uneven terrain that makes the park so difficult to get around.

Student-friendly competition

Registration is open for the 30th annual NJDEP GIS Mapping Contest. The event features the best non-commercial mapping in the State of New Jersey. GIS users from federal, state, local government, non-profit agencies, as well as students are eligible to enter the contest.  Attendance is open to all.

Review the rules, categories and register online at the NJDEP GIS web site:
http://www.nj.gov/dep/gis.

New This Year:
Two Internet mapping categories – Best Story Map and Best Analytical Web Map

For Mapping Contest questions contact the Bureau of GIS Help Desk at 609-777-0672 or mailto:gisnet@dep.state.nj.us.

A new life for Pershing Park

The NY  Times reports that the National Park Service is reviewing a proposal to turn Washington DC's downtrodden Pershing Park into a new National World War I Memorial. The current park was a notable late modernist example of the work of M. Paul Freidberg built in the early 1980s with plantings by Oehme van Sweden. The Culutral Landscape Foundation has created a record of the park as it was intended and they note that the park is now eligible to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Watch this story. This could end in a fairly high profile conflict between preservationists and WWI advocates.

EPA Launches Third Annual Campus RainWorks Challenge

EPA Launches Third Annual Campus RainWorks Challenge, Registration Begins Sept. 2
EPA has launched the third annual Campus RainWorks Challenge, a green infrastructure design challenge for college and university students. Student teams, working with a faculty advisor, will submit design boards, a project narrative, and a letter of support describing a proposed green infrastructure project for a location on their campus. Registration opens Sept. 2 and ends Oct. 3. Registrants must submit their entries by Dec. 19. Winning teams will earn a student prize of $1,000-$2,000 to be divided evenly among student team members, and a faculty prize of $2,000-$3,000 to support green infrastructure research or training. More information: www.epa.gov/campusrainworks.

The posts include videos from the winning teams,  like this one from Florida


And another from Michigan State

NJ DEP Map Contest 2014

NJ's latest Map Contest has come and gone and Rutgers, once again , was well represented among the winners, which are posted online. It is hard for me to ever identify all of the former Rutgers students that particpate, like Chuck Colvard with his detailed mapping of Paterson. But I can clearly identify current student Eden Buenaventura, whose coastal resiliency map (below) brought home 3 awards including the 4th Annual Gail Carter Science Award. Outstanding!

A special congratulations goes to the high school students from the Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science in Ocean County. They went toe-to-toe with the professionals and came out great. Who knows, maybe they'll re-enter the competition in a few years as Geomatics students from Rutgers. Great job.

Win a trip to Europe and help the planet

Check out the student entry category in the NASA's World Wind Europa Challenge in which competitors try to develop applications to better the world. Last year's winners are online and included some amazing applications meant to improve the planet. Proposals have to be in by May 31st.

The worst place in the world?

A new geospatial competition for students has them trying to map out where the best or worst places in the world would be for different purposes. The Where in the World Challenge, from NGA, describes it like this:

The Intent for “Where in the World” challenge is to develop anticipatory spatiotemporal analytic skills to create and report “from the future” on the five best and five worst places to live on earth in the year 2025 based on ONE of the following criteria:

• Overall best and worst places for all combined factors
• Overall best and worst places for Water Resources
• Overall best and worst places for Energy Resources
• Overall best and worst places for Food Security
• Overall best and worst places for Health
• Overall best and worst places for Risk for Natural Disaster

A “place” could be a region, a country, a region within a country, or a large city.

 The deadline for registration is soon, so look into ASAP.

An ambitious Sandy design competition

Yesterday HUS Secretary Donovan visited the area and announced an exciting effort to use a design competition to create better solutions for the Jersey Shore. The Atlantic Cities has a great summary.

Great summer competition

Looking for something different to try this summer? How about a Korean design competition?

Seoul Urban Design 2013 is going to be a high visibility competition.  ASLA's The Dirt offers a quick overview.

Hold the date

26^th Annual NJDEP GIS Mapping Contest!

GIS users from federal, state, county, municipal, local government, and non-profit agencies, as well as students are eligible to enter the contest.  Attendance is open to all.

Theme:                Hurricane Sandy - Response & Recovery

When:                  Thursday April 18, 2013

Time:                    10:00 a.m. - 12:00 Noon

                                   (Contestants please arrive by 9:15)

Where:                First Floor - Public Hearing Room

                                NJDEP Building, 401 E State St, Trenton, NJ          

Please join NJDEP for the Annual Mapping Contest. The event features the best non-commercial mapping in the State of New Jersey. Review the rules, categories and register online at the NJDEP GIS web site: http://www.nj.gov/dep/gis. We ask that all contestants pre-register (registration will open in mid-March) and submit a digital copy of their map after registration is confirmed.   

This year we expect to see many maps generated as a result of Hurricane Sandy but any map that pertains to New Jersey is eligible (see the contest rules on the web site).

For Mapping Contest questions contact the Bureau of GIS Help Desk at 609-777-0672 or gisnet@dep.state.nj.us.

www.nj.gov/dep/gis

2012 NJDEP Mapping Contest

Get your Maps Ready!

25th Annual NJDEP Mapping Contest -
http://www.nj.gov/dep/gis/mapcon2012.htm

April 25, 2012

Chair Design Competition

The Battery Park movable chair design competition has been announced.

La Segrera

In 2007 I taught a studio in Barcelona, Spain during which the students designed new developments that would cover up an old train yard while preserving a nearby Calatrava bridge.  At the time there were plans for a Frank Gehry building on the site.  Now a design competition has been run to design the same site, La Segrera.  The winning team was Team Camí Comtal (AldayJover, RCR and West 8) which created a plan for an urban hub at this central spot what will become a 4 km long green corridor.

Streetscapes in design competitions

In class we've been talking about how design competitions bring out some of the wilder solutions.  But the winning entries in "Designing the 21st Century Street" seemed to emphasize how realistic solutions that already exist (in some form) can be applied in a careful and coordinated manner to transform an existing street in New York City into something that is safer and more livable.  A common theme was making the city streets work for as many users as possible, often resorting to different kinds of traffic calming devices to make the streets safer.

For example, while Rogers Marvel Architects used some of the same elements as other entrants (bike lane in the middle, better pedestrian connections, reaching out beyond the street, etc.) their Streets for Everyone! design employed paving patterns in ways that emphasized their design concept.  "Shared Space" lives up to its name by altering the boundaries between sidewalks, bike lanes and car lanes to make the entire street space feel shared by all users.
If you want something wilder, you might have to look to Di Magazine's competition for a Beijing streetscape.  You can only get a tiny peek at the results of the Sunset Junction Competition.  And I don't see the entries, but you can check out the results of the Syracuse Connective Corridor process that began with a competition.

Who needs winners?  If we can look past streetscapes, the Rising Waters competition posted ALL of their entrants online.  So you can see the realistic, the visionary, the colorful and the wacky.

If all else fails, you should at least look over the ASLA Student Design Awards.

Solar Decathlon is moving ahead

With several folks from Environmental Planning and Design participating, it is great to see that the solar decathlon project is moving ahead.  The Star-Ledger just wrote up the project, with photos of the concrete solar house being constructed, and there is both a video walk-through and a Facebook page so you can learn more.

24th Annual NJDEP Mapping Contest

If you aren't pursuing the DeBoer Travel Prize you could spend your free time during spring break cleaning up an old map for the NJ DEP Mapping Contest.  This year's contest is on April 28th, 2011.

another design competition

If you are still holding out for a design competition, maybe you should look into the Downtown Fargo Urban Infill Competition.  Deadline: October 29, 2010.

Another interesting competition

A National Ideas Competition for the Washington Monument Grounds is being run to generate ideas for making the grounds more inviting to visitors.  Does that mean that the recent design of the grounds isn't inviting?  Our guided tour of the grounds seems to suggest otherwise.

Crossing over

As much as its residents like to act a world apart, New York City is inescapably connected to New Jersey.  But that connection isn't easy for pedestrians or cyclists.  Jersey City's bike enthusiasts, Bike JC, have created a competition for bridge proposals that help make this idea seem a little more tangible.  Since it encourages fanciful ideas more than buildable bridges, our students might not find the November deadline so hard to meet.  Details are online at: http://hudsonriverbridge.com/