Tag Archives: planning

Hosting and Boasting

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Winning the bid to be the hosting country for the Olympics is nothing short of outstanding; a gold metal accomplishment.  As Olympic athletes prepare for their competition, the competition is also on for the hosting country to present a spectacular display of their abilities.  As our world has advanced in knowledge and technology so have the Olympics with countries showcasing their leading-edge innovations in architecture, design and construction.  Rio de Janeiro will be hosting the next Summer Olympics in 2016.  Rio is not only the first South American country to be hosting the Summer Olympics but they are also planning to be the first zero-carbon footprint Olympics.  To help Rio achieve this goal, Swiss-based RAFAA Architecture and Design has designed the ‘Solar City Tower’; an eco-architectural solar waterfall.  Solar panels will capture solar energy and falling water will stimulate turbines to produce hydro energy.  The proposed structure is both beautiful and green. 

Solar City Tower built atop the island of Cotonduba.

The view from the air as visitors arrive. 

Solar City Tower will also hold the Olympic flame.

    

Solar City Tower will be the point of reference for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well and the Solar City Tower truly becomes a reality.  Definitely something to boast about!

    Images via RAFAA

My Bathroom Reno

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RENOVATING.  That one single word can bring up a whole variety of emotions.  Frustration, anger, panic, confusion or happy, thrilled, eager, excited.   Frightening words like; gutting, ripping, tearing down, become triumphant words when pertaining to renovations.  I am ‘gutting’ my main floor, ‘ripping’ up the old hardwood and ‘tearing down’ the wall between the kitchen/dining room.  Some people would find the gutting/ripping/tearing down thing very upsetting whereas others may think “OMG, you are so lucky!”   Whatever your situation or the size of your project I find the best way to handle the ‘upheaval’ is to always keep the end point, the ‘after’ picture in sight.  Keep the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ always emblazoned in your mind, even when you are about to lose your mind!   I can say this honestly as I speak from experience, a lot of experience.  My present house has been renovated from top to bottom and front to back.  (Necessary when owning a 100-year-old home.)  Some renovations by choice, some from necessity.  I like to think that at this point I am a pro at dealing with drywall dust, preparing meals on a Workmate, washing in a bucket and quick trips to the neighbour’s toilet late at night!  We recently renovated our bathroom, the only bathroom in the house.  We did not have the benefit of living somewhere else during the 6 week project and therefore we had to be very ‘inventive’.  We took much-needed space from the adjacent bedroom so the bathroom and the bedroom were both turned upside-down.  But I did not care; I was getting a new bathroom.   This was going to be my first new bathroom and one that did not have pink or blue or mint green or brown fixtures!  I have had all of those colours at one point but had never had a white toilet/tub/sink.  The room was gutted and the wall between the bathroom/bedroom was torn down.  The sink and toilet were left in place for as long as possible. (See 1st photo)  The bathtub was removed each day (see 2nd photo) and then put back in place at night. 

Everything went along okay until the one time the bathtub drain was not connected properly for the night and my entire bath water ended up on the kitchen floor below!  I can laugh about it now but back then…. #@!!  After that incident bathing was done at the local rec centre or kind friends’ homes.  Finally the light at the end of the tunnel shined real bright and the bathroom was finished.  I now have a lovely new bathroom.  And guess what?  We installed the second bathroom soon after!

NYC Skyscrapers

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A city is not just a place or a group of people; it is also about the physical structures.  The buildings, roads, transit lines and the entire infrastructure intertwine to create the most wonderful artwork, a canvas painted by millions of artists.  And so it is with New York City.  NYC is defined by its skyscrapers; it has more tall buildings than any other city in the world, and pioneered many of the construction techniques necessary to build them.  Some of the well-known skyscrapers are the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, 40 Wall Street, the G. E. Building (Rockefeller Center), and up until 2001 The World Trade Center Twin Towers.  I had a chance to visit Ground Zero where the former World Trade Center once stood.  Times Square has always been an iconic landmark and a symbol of NYC that draws thousands of people each day but after visiting Ground Zero and seeing the masses of people visiting this site and paying homage, one can feel that there is now a huge heartfelt pull of the masses to Lower Manhattan.  The feeling I got while walking around Ground Zero was that of unity and togetherness; a sense of closeness.  You talked to people not strangers.  It was like bumping into a relative or an old friend.  Everyone on the street shared in the same loss.   I heard peoples’ stories and also learned interesting things such as the master plan architect for One World Trade site’s redesign is Studio Daniel Libeskind.  (Same architect as the recent renovation of the ROM)  The new ‘Freedom Tower’ will rise to the symbolic height of 1,776 feet, the year in which the United States Declaration of Independence was signed.  I also learned that the Empire State Building in 1945 and 40 Wall Street Building in 1946 were both accidentally hit by planes.  

WORLD TRADE CENTER RE-BUILD

       ROCKEFELLER CENTER

          ONE WALL STREET

 

Walkable Weekend

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This weekend is the Jane’s Walk Weekend; a festival of walking tours.  The event is in tribute to one of Toronto’s most visionary urban strategists Jane Jacobs, who died in 2006 at 89 years old.  Jane’s Walk honours the legacy of Jane Jacobs who defended the interests of local residents and pedestrians over a car-centered approach to planning.  As Jane Jacobs stated in her 1961 book titled ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’, “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody”.  The Jane’s Walk Vision is: Walkable neighbourhoods, urban literacy, cities planned for and by people.  Since its inception on May 5th, 2007 in Toronto by Jane Jacobs’s friends and colleagues, Jane’s Walk has quickly grown to include over 400 walks in 9 countries in 68 cities.  The free guided walking tours take place as far away as India, Zambia, Uruguay, Berlin and over 32 U.S. cities and as close as a neighborhood near you.  So check out www.janeswalk.net, put on some comfortable walking shoes and get out and explore your neighborhood and meet your neighbours.  Let me know what walk you went on!

TD Centre

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I am home from Chicago.  It was a ‘whirlwind’ trip as there is so much to see and do (and eat) in Chicago.   Chicago to me is all about the architecture and the food.  The variety of restaurants/food in Chicago is incredible.  And for a very large city Chicago is quite affordable.   Back in Toronto one must not forget that Toronto too has great architecture.  The Toronto-Dominion Centre, designed in the International style by Mies van der Rohe, consists of six towers (TD Tower, Royal Trust Tower, Canadian Pacific Tower, TD Waterhouse Tower, Ernst & Young Tower, 95 Wellington Tower) and a pavilion (TD Banking).  The original TD Centre designed by Mies consisted of two skyscrapers (TD Tower, Royal Trust Tower) plus the banking hall.  The TD Tower was the first phase to open and symbolically dedicated on July 1st, 1967, Canada’s 100th birthday.  The TD Centre were the skyscrapers that put Toronto on the architectural map and changed the city’s skyline forever.   At 56 stories, the TD Tower is the tallest Mies van der Rohe building in the world!  It was Mies’s last major work before his death in 1969.  The TD Tower had an observation deck on its top floor but it was closed to the public when the CN Tower was built in 1976.  I love walking around the financial district in Toronto and looking (looking way up) at these tall and impressive buildings made of steel and glass that reflect the skyline from them.  Sometimes it takes a trip away to realize what is right in front of you!

      Toronto – Mies van der Rohe