In his 2004 New Yorker article, Paul Goldberger wrote of architect Rem Koolhaas’ downtown Seattle Public Library branch under the moniker of “ennobling public space“, lauding the return of a dignified, people-centric structure to the city center.
Six years later, those depicted below along the library’s Fifth Avenue entrance facade looked within themselves, reflecting with private particularity, while also ironically reflected in the monumental public glass.
Since our six month recap of myurbanist sightings in late April, further recent sightings merit additional thanks.
In particular, thanks to Planetizen for carrying the first Jerusalem urban sustainability piece of our Israel series, to Kaid Benfield for multiple kind references to our backyard cottage articles and initial postcard piece in his NDRC Switchboard blog and reprints in The Huffington Post and the Daily Kos. (See also Kaid’s great new blog post, “Musings on vacation sites, consumption, and resilient communities”, here).
Thanks again to Knute Berger for reference to myurbanist in his May, 2010 Seattle Magazine column.
And a final, special thanks to CH2MHill’s ever-improving Green Growth Cascadia blog (especially Jeanne Acutanza and Wesley Zhao) for reference to our Nord Alley piece and the current “Green Growth Profile” of myurbanist and background pontificator, as embedded below. Seattle’s Great City also provided a nice summary of the profile and the context for myurbanist, here.
In Bath, England, the posture of a street mime inspires inquiry as to his role–is he merely emulating a statue, or is he performing aside a public right of way because he has been denied the opportunity in a private place?
One more, this time in the embedded video below.
Your urbanist friends will not like the Burb Twins, potential antagonists to the new development and consumption patterns which characterize Richard Florida’s The Great Reset.
Enjoy, and for the original “six postcards not to send to an urbanist,” click here.
Artist/environmental sculptor Ran Morin’s “Floating Orange Tree” in Jaffa, Israel: the dawn of “urban forestry” in the ancient port’s historic center.
