"Air conditioning is not an aspect of urbanism whose implications we often consider. What follows is Alison Carafa’s fresh and cheerful journey through some of the unintended uses for, hacks to and consequences of this unloved but, for many, indispensable addition to urban windows."

Joe Moran: "I think we've been here before, skirting the issue of road pricing and using the notion we are 'falling behind' to push privatisation." A longer view.

"Many of the terrace blocks are raised on columns, a device employed to give continuity between different parts of the layout and to avoid what may otherwise have been, in a high density development, blunt and oppressive enclosures by buildings forbidding in scale."

'“The public realm is what we own and control,” he told me the other day when we met to look around Midtown. More than just common property, he added, “the streets, squares, parks, infrastructure and public buildings make up the fundamental element in any community — the framework around which everything else grows.”'

On why the New York skyline isn't a product of bedrock depth, but is a result of various economic, societal and geographical pressures.

"The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011 celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811, the foundational document that established Manhattan’s famous street grid." Closes 15 April, 2012.

Speaking of the High Line, this proposal for a new urban area on the Bay Bridge is somewhat interesting, very Gibsonian, but utterly impractical. Still, that's kind of the Bay Area all over.

From the article: “In the United States, there has been much more of a tendency to adapt cities to accommodate driving,” said Peder Jensen, head of the Energy and Transport Group at the European Environment Agency. “Here there has been more movement to make cities more livable for people, to get cities relatively free of cars.”

"BD revealed last week that bookmaker William Hill was predicting that Hunt would refuse to list Broadgate, thanks to an unpredecented lobbying campaign by the City of London and the wider financial sector in favour of Make’s proposed new building." This is not a surprise at all.

"After marveling at the idea of an endless corridor of offices, and speculating on Twitter about which firm could handle all that curved glass, I realized Apple's ring reminded me of something else. And it wasn't the future. It was 1957." A very good critique of the conceptual framework behind Apple's proposed new Cupertino campus.

"These young idealists were once united around a vision of using science and art to create a city of equal citizens. Their architecture fused William Morris with urban high-rise; ancient parkland with concrete. Utopia London examines the, social and political agendas of the time in which the city was rebuilt. The story goes on to explore how the meaning of these transformative buildings has been radically manipulated over subsequent decades. Inspired by the optimism of the past it poses the question; where do we go from here and now?" I didn't bookmark this before; this rectifies that.

"At the film’s historical center is an analysis of the massive impact of the national urban renewal program of the 1950s and 1960s, which prompted the process of mass suburbanization and emptied American cities of their residents, businesses, and industries. Those left behind in the city faced a destitute, rapidly de-industrializing St. Louis , parceled out to downtown interests and increasingly segregated by class and race. The residents of Pruitt-Igoe were among the hardest hit." A companion piece to Utopian London, of sorts.

"In response to this overcrowding, the city is building more than 50 elevated walkways, dubbed “skywalks”" A good roundup of links and coverage, not just of Mumbai's skywalks, but similar things elsewhere (including Winnipeg and Cinncinnati).

"Once I arrived in the city, I became fascinated by its new system of Skywalks, 36 elevated walkways that are basically extended exits from the urban railroad stations. The city planners’ position was that commuters wanted to be able bypass the swarm of taxis and hawkers that surround the station exits, and have the Skywalks deposit them several kilometers away which would more equally distribute the amount of exiting pedestrians."

Subtitled "Why London Needs to Stop Nobblin' the GOBLIN", this (long) post looks at the container ports in the south east of England, their rail links, and in particular, what the Mayor of London should be doing with the orbital railways in the city to support the new container terminal on the Thames.

"I wanted a nerdy planning-related poster for my wall (other than the periodic table of city planning), so I made one this week. I scoured Google Earth and measured that quintessentially American grid in about fifty downtowns around the country." There's a surprising variation in block sizes across the cities.

"Mitchell Taylor Workshop director Piers Taylor said it had recently received a letter from British Land confirming it had won the Leadenhall site competition but also giving reasons why the developer was now putting its temporary plans on hold. Taylor added: “I think it’s all about [developers] being seeing to be doing rather than actually doing.”

"Bressey didn’t really try to 'kill' London, of course, though parts of his Greater London plan for redirecting and accommodating increasing vehicular traffic certainly would’ve destroyed some great beauty" "Trafalgar Square as a triple-decker parking deck. (What can one say?)" A curiously British pre-war approach.

Chris writes sensible things about the new BT wrap-around screen, currently broadcasting across London.

A review of 'Anthony Flint’s well-carpentered but breezy “Wrestling With Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York’s Master Builder and Transformed the American City.”'

"Greenwich Foot Tunnel, which links south of the Thames with the Isle of Dogs, is likely to close for renovation in the autumn for up to 10 months. With Woolwich Foot Tunnel also due to shut it leaves the nearest viable crossing an awkward detour to Tower Bridge." "One of the options is for the DLR to relinquish its ban on bicycles [but] DLR and Transport for London both say it is against health and safety procedures for bikes to be allowed on board."

"Dunlop's Speedaway applications research has covered a proposed link between commuter train terminals north and south of the Thames. Photomontages, right and opposite, show the Speedaway crossing the new London Bridge."

"A creative city is not goal oriented. Not only does it make little plans, it makes millions of little plans. It is adrift looking for its next opportunity. It is not made by an architect, but cultivated by its people."

"internal walkway around the building, at first floor level" as with many other contemporaneous buildings. All gone now, of course.

"Camden Council has unexpectedly rejected Richard Rogers’ £135 million British Museum extension project."

A 2001 obituary of the author of Traffic in Towns, 1963. "In the larger cities, he proposed underground car parks, as well as the demolition of existing buildings and roads to allow traffic to proceed at ground level with shops - and pedestrians - on a level above."

"London is a low-rise city of of vast area rather like Los Angeles - it’s about the same size. LA built the freeway system, and that’s what we need - a freeway system all over London - roads up in the air, carrying people free of the ground so that the ground is left for local traffic" He's also amusingly scathing about London's housing stock.

A visually striking (but as migusrki points out, somewhat fiddly to use) site about the interaction of London's Elephant and Castle with the post-war rebuilding, whose planning was informed by the advent of mass motoring. There's some interesting interplay with the City's highwalks in here.

"Boris Johnson confirmed that his vision for a new Transport for London would not include the Thames Gateway Bridge, Cross River Tram, Croydon tramlink expansion, Oxford Street tram, East London or Greenwich waterfront transits or the Dagenham Rock DLR extension." Not that you should expect anything different from a Tory.

Jonathan Glancey on the proposed redevelopment of Euston, Waterloo and New Street, and the poverty of ambition that's plagued railway building since the 1950s. I'd quibble with "risk"; for all that St Pancras is a nice station, it's also, frankly, a mall as well (especially compared to Gare du Nord). Generally, though, a good piece.

I hope it does, even if there are Tory idiots in Barnet handing out leaflets campaigning against it. Mind you, it's not even a plan yet, being confined to a "vision document" and being well over a decade away.

"The essential projects for Transport for London include completing the rebuilding of the Tube through the PPP, the building of Crossrail, and expanding the bus network by a further 40 per cent."

subtitled "Transport challenges for a growning city". Apparently Crossrail and the rebuilding of the Tube are vital. Who'd have guessed?

"A new law could see historic buildings being bulldozed should they stand in the path of profit" Jonathan Glancey on the Commonwealth Institute and more

"The project will see the [general market] knocked down and replaced by 350,000 sq ft of office space, with a retail outlet on the ground floor." Been coming for a while, but I'm still not happy.