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Tech NewsLA Residents Try to Hide Hollywood Sign From Tourists, Except on Airbnb
Last year, a group of homeowners who live in the Hollywood Hills had directions to the Hollywood Sign changed on Google Maps to keep tourists away from their streets. All the tourists, that is, except for the ones who rent their properties on Airbnb. They want those tourists to know exactly where the Hollywood Sign … Continued
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ScienceBiologyHow Cities Are Adapting to More Coyotes, Cougars and Urban Wildlife
Several times this spring, coyotes made national headlines when spotted roaming the streets of New York, from Manhattan to Queens. In recent years, a host of charismatic wild species, the coyote being only the most famous, have returned to American cities in numbers not seen for generations. Yet the official response in many areas has … Continued
Peter Alagona -
Tech News
The Incredible Housing Value Across the U.S., Mapped
The cost of housing in New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area is cripplingly expensive. But what does housing value look like across the whole of the country? This animated map wascreated by Max Galka. It breaks down the total housing value held within each country across the U.S. using data taken from … Continued
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Tech News
Find Out How Loud Your Neighborhood Is With These Sound Maps
People choose where to live based on all sorts of data: Price, public transit, proximity to pizza chains. But noise is tougher to measure. And since sound is pretty much invisible, you might not know about the nightly clanking from the local concrete recycling plant until you’re all moved in. A new mapping app can … Continued
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Tech News
The Manhole Covers in Japan Are Absolutely Beautiful
Manhole covers don’t have to be ugly sewer lids. In Japan, they can be astoundingly intricate, colorful, museum-worthy feats of urban design. Photographer S. Morita (Flickr name MRSY) has snapped over a thousand manhole covers around Japan over the years. In a country renowned for its attention to detail and rich artistic heritage, it’s pretty … Continued
By Bryan Lufkin -
Tech News
Abandoned Golf Courses Are Being Transformed into Solar Farms
Golf is a dying sport, and country club memberships are seen as an elitist relicof the past. But cultural changes are only one reason golf courses are falling out of favor: The chemical-laden, water-guzzling greens are especially irresponsible for areas hit by drought. Here’s an idea from Japan for those sunny green fairways: Use them … Continued
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Tech News
The Dramatic Architecture of Opera Houses That Only the Singers See
Designed to make audiences gasp even before the performance begins, opera houses are perhaps the most architecturally opulent spaces on Earth. A new book by photographer David Leventi attempts to document the grand interiors where civilization’s most celebrated musical acts come to life. Over eight years Leventi visited 40 opera houses in 19 countries, from … Continued
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Tech NewsRIP Donald Wexler: The Midcentury Architect Who Made Palm Springs Cool
The city of Palm Springs, California, wasn’t always known for its sleek, spare residential design. During the 1950s and 60s, architect Donald Wexler designed a particular style of building for the growing town that became known as Palm Springs Modernism—a look that’s become synonymous with the desert region and that’s seeing a resurgence today. Wexler, … Continued
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Tech News
4 Droughts Happening Right Now That Are Worse Than California’s
California and the American West are not the only places suffering from drought—in fact, there are several places in the world right now where overtaxed aquifers, severe pollution, and lack of rainfall are creating extreme water insecurity for residents. In some places, water is so scarce that municipal supplies are being rationed or shut off … Continued
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Tech News
Someone Smuggled This Teahouse Into an LA Park Without Anyone Noticing
Los Angeles’s Griffith Park is home to miles of hiking trails, the Hollywood Sign, and at least one mountain lion. Now, suddenly, the park has a teahouse, secretly installed by a group of anonymous artists on a hillside overlooking the city. Los Angeles Times columnist Carolina Miranda was one of a handful of journalists invited … Continued
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Tech News
How NYC’s Underground Park Is Piping in Real, Live Sunshine
We’re living in an age of extremely ambitious urban technology. Floating pools that filter dirty river water. Artificial eco-habitats. And even green parks that sit under cities, nourished by actual sunlight literally piped down from above. At least, that’s the idea. The Lowline, an underground park in New York City, was first proposed in 2011—a … Continued
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io9
Beijing Has Literally Quadrupled in Size Over Just the Last Decade
A group of researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Stanford University used NASA’s satellite images to chart the growth of the Chinese capital city, and one of their more interesting findings was the astounding rate at which Beijing has grown during the last 10 years. The study, which also looked at some of the … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech News
Go Now, These 11 Historic Places May Soon Be Gone Forever
It’s that time of year again: The National Trust For Historic Preservation has published is annual list of of the most endangered places in the country. And as always, it’s pretty damn depressing. The list is a way for the National Trust to call attention to buildings and places that are close to being demolished, … Continued
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Tech News
I’d Live In These Apartments Built In the Middle of an Extra-Wide Street
Most American streets are far too wide, which uses up valuable urban space, is dangerous for pedestrians, and actually makes traffic worse. That’s why many cities are trying to hand over more street space to transit, biking and walking. But what if we took the lanes devoted to cars and turned it into housing? It … Continued
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Tech News
Google Wants to Help Bring NYC’s New Public Wi-Fi Hotspots to Your City
Last year, New York City introduced LinkNYC, its innovative plan to turn the city’s ailing payphone infrastructure into a network of 10,000 gigabit Wi-Fi hotspots. Google just bought into the key players behind the plan, and hopes to help scale the model to more cities. OK, brace yourself, you’re about to hear a lot of … Continued
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Tech News
RIP Designer of the Pink Flamingo, Plastic Symbol of American Life
Cheap? Definitely. Garish? Perhaps. But also pure, unqualified Americana. The plastic pink flamingo has graced the grass of hundreds of thousands of residences throughout the years and become a fixture in neighborhoods throughout the US. The designer of the iconic lawn ornament has died at age 79. Unsurprisingly, Donald Featherstone (YES HIS REAL NAME) led … Continued
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Tech News
Now Let’s Take Down the Confederate Flag That Flies Over Mississippi
Yesterday’s announcement that the Confederate flag will be removed from outside South Carolina’s state house is a good step forward for the country. But there are also plenty of other flags that should come down as well. For example, the Confederate battle flag is hidden in this state’s flag design. Can you find it? This … Continued
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Tech News
Will the Confederate Flag Ever Truly Go Away?
Before he shot nine black Americans at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, 21-year-old Dylann Roof posed for photos holding a symbol of racial hatred. The same symbol that’s worn on t-shirts, wrapped around beer coozies, intertwined with American pop culture. Even if the flag is removed from South Carolina’s capitol, as leaders called for … Continued
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Tech NewsHow LA Used Big Data to Build a Smart City in the 1970s
The concept of “smart cities” seems like a contemporary urbanism trend. But as early as the 1960s, cities were using technology to gather, interpret, and visualize civic data. Here’s how a 1974 report by Los Angeles’s Community Analysis Bureau used computer databases, cluster analysis, and infrared aerial photography to help them to make decisions about … Continued
Mark Vallianatos - Boom -
Tech NewsThis Pavilion Is Made From… Cardboard?
This cubic pavilion was constructed in the heart of Valencia in March. With its crisp, straight geometric lines and lustrous silver finish, it looks like it’s made of metal: aluminum? Some kind of steel? Or maybe, just maybe, it’s cardboard. The structure, known as the Ekklesia pavilion, was built by the art collective Pink Intrude, … Continued