Category: Uncategorized

A stronger, more resilient NYC — a year after the flood, designing for the next disaster

A stronger, more resilient NYC — a year after the flood, designing for the next disaster

The next challenge to NYC infrastructure is likely to be heatwaves, not water, and our next mayor will do well if he adopts the lessons from Sandy, as articulated in the SIRR report.

How IKEA practices sustainablity to help save the planet — TED Talk

http://www.ted.com/speakers/steve_howard.html

Mega-retailer IKEA, selling $30 billion worth of products worldwide to more than 690 million customers in 300 stores, is in a good position to make a huge impact and lead the way toward a more sustainable planet. In this TED talk, Steve Howard explains how: helping farmers grow more-sustainable cotton around the world, remaking classic products to use fewer, more easily recylable parts, and investing €1.5 billion through 2015 in renewable energy sources, notably wind and solar.

As he says: “… sustainability is going to shape society and the business landscape over the next couple of decades….”

More here: http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/about_ikea/people_and_planet/

Save Tin Pan Alley!

Save Tin Pan Alley!

From Irving Berlin to Scott Joplin, Fats Waller to Cole Porter, the composers and lyricists of New York’s “Tin Pan Alley” wrote the songs that defined American popular culture from the late-1880s to the mid-1950s.  A number of the structures where classic songs were written and published still remain in a stretch of buildings along 28th Street west of Broadway. Yet despite their undeniable significance, these properties sit unprotected and vulnerable, with no legal protection.  Some of the most significant buildings are currently on the market as a “huge development site” of  prime Manhattan real estate.

This is no way to treat America’s irreplaceable cultural history. The preservation of these row houses is long overdue and now it’s time for the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to preserve these important structures for generations to come.

Please cilck the link and sign the petition, and encourage the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission to save Tin Pan Alley.