Since the dawn of time cities have tried to institute some sort of public transportation system. Until the advent of the electric trains and motorized buses public transportation was horse or mule drawn. Cities are just too crowded for everyone to have their own vehicle. It is for this reason that cities ignore and disdain their public transportation systems. It is equally funny to hear people stuck in traffice complain about paying for buses and trains: do they think about the traffic they would face if everyone drove their own car?
There is also some simple math that people don't realize affects traffic: the amount of traffic is the relation between the amount of cars (they take up x amount of square feet) and the surface area of streets (there is just x amount of square feet of road). When the relation comes closer together there is more traffic.
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Every city should carefully consider putting, in a at minimum, a light rail system around and through it's downtown. It should be designed to encourage growth along certain corridors and into certain edges of the current downtown. If there are several commercial centers, then connecting them with similar systems should be done. At the end of the line, and at points alongside the line, there should be parking facilties. This would ease downtown traffic, and provide a safer, healthier atmosphere in the densest part of the city. This cherry red tower has a facade that twists from one side to the next in a mobius strip manner. It would make a signature addition to any city, on the order of the Transamerica Tower in San Francisco. |
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People can ignore and deny what they want, but there is no doubt that the population will continue to rise. More cities will enact legislation and zoning akin to Portland, Oregon, which works to preserve green space around the core city. But it thus necessarily adds to the denisty inside the core. And thus some sort of light rail and trolley system would seem best to lessen traffic and pollution. Since the people are coming the sooner we get on to the business of designing, assembling the rights of way and building the new transit systems the better off we will be. Of course, this runs counter to the American propensity for reacting when the crisis hits, even as we are complacent as we watch it build in ferocity. I had Phoenix in mind when I designed this rather boxy structure, so perfect for large corporations, yet with a coloring scheme that recalls Southwest crafts and styles in an almost childlike way. . |
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Cities should be scrapping all of their diesel and gasoline powered buses in favor of electric and alternative fuel buses. And on many lines cities would be better served if they ran more frequent smaller buses instead of infrequent 60 passenger behemoths. The air quality would benefit, and people could use the transit system with more assurance that a bus is really coming; not the sometimes hour long wait on many bus lines in many cities. The hexagonal base rises to the squared crown of this white opaque glass tower by utilizing overhanging triangular translucent glass elements, the whole being outlined in charcoal grey aluminum trin and spandrels. . |
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If we build any more highways we will do nothing but encourage the elimination of more open space and increase the driving time to above the half hour average now faced by Americans. Better to pave the existing roads and work on a more efficient traffic patterns through the use of one way streets and timed lights. By encouraging multi-tower office, residential, hotel and commerical space centers at the intersections of major highways and city streets cities can avoid having to build more roads. Cities already enjoy zoning rights, it may as well use them to virtually force developers into major construction at locations conducive to less traffic, better mass transit and easier access to emergency services. Frankly, I've never seen a purple glass skyscraper. And even though this one leans towards the traditional square box, it's bold color with jet-black corner trim would be a major skyline statement. By adding the overhangs, in the stacked-box style the mass of the tower is made more tolerable. . |
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With city budgets stretched thin and ever increasing demands on services it behooves cities to revamp their zoning and planning strategies and ordinances to encourage a number of multiple 'downtowns' at the fringes of the city. This would make for suburban attraction to the city as a whole. Suburbanites driving to the 'downtowns' at the edge of the city from their far flung homes, and then using light rail or monorails to travel through the city would greatly enhance the city experience, as well as ease traffic. Tying mass tranist to sporting and entertainment facilities and districts would increase attendance and make it more pleasureable. Skewed angles and multiple facade treatments for the different sections of this tower bring a respected form of an ever-thining rising tower into the modern vernacular. A combination of various shades of grey, from pale to dark, trimmed in jet-black aluminum and dramatic red glass triangles and vertical lines keep the eye busy in contemplation. |
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