Green Lights for Broadway, Janette Sadik-Kahn, New York
Sustainability champion and New York City transportation head, Janette Sadik-Kahn, is winning public votes with her plan to green New York’s city streets by redefining car lanes as public space.
The honks and fumes of New York’s iconic streets may become a thing of the past as Sadik-Kahn plans to pedestrianize Broadway and reduce traffic congestions through Midtown. Broadway is the only Manhattan street that is off the grid plan and causes significant traffic problems, disrupting the grid of avenues and streets, creating complicated intersections and negatively impacting traffic flow throughout Midtown Manhattan.
In another initiative, Sadik-Kahn is aiming for all New Yorkers to live within a 10-minute walk of a park. Called the Plaza Program, the plan involves reinventing streets thoughout the city as pubic space, for example at Madison Square Park where 4,180m2 of public space was added to the middle of Madison Avenue.
The Ocean Emerald, Norman Foster, Italy
Norman Foster has designed the first yacht for fractional ownership company YachtPlus. Light and space are integral to the 41-metre contemporary yacht, which has five suites for up to 12 guests and a highly-trained crew of seven.
Furnishings and fittings are provided by the Italian manufacturer Cassina, with the kitchen and galley equipment created by Schiffini.
The yacht will be the first of four identical Foster-designed super-yachts to be launched by the company over the next two years. The second yacht, Ocean Pearl will enter service in autumn 2009 and the third, Ocean sapphire in the early part of 2010. The fourth yacht, as yet unnamed, is scheduled to launch in the latter part of 2010.
So if you fancy owning a part share in a Foster-designed yacht, what is it going to set you back? An eighth share in one of the four yachts would buy you 30 nights’ a year onboard, split between the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, and lighten your wallet by just $3,454,000 (€1,875,000).
The term of the contract will be for eight years, after which the yachts will be sold and the owners will receive full pro-rated proceeds from the sale. The yachts are estimated to hold 60 per cent of their value.
The yacht will be launched in La Spezia, Italy, on 25 April.
Glasgow Museum of Transport, Zaha Hadid Architects, Scotland
The competition-winning design for the Glasgow Museum of Transport will be a channel-like design that opens as both ends in a wall of glass and light.
Conceived as a sectional extrusion, open at both ends, the design represents the notion of “inside out” — the outside being of importance to both the building and the exhibits.
The project is currently 54 weeks into its 129-week building programme and costs have escalated from $103 (£50) million to $153 (£74) million.
While the original stainless steel shingle roof was canned in favour of a zinc standing seam, the building retains its concept of an unobstructed roofline, which means that all servicing had to be accommodated within the roof or under ground.
