flynn050

Transportation experts and environmentalists dream of a future in which vehicles are fleet based and not privately owned, where they are autonomous and not operated by drivers and where they are powered by electric motors instead of gasoline and diesel. But how would such a future become possible? This blog has looked into car sharing and AVs before. This article is about electrification. Transportation electrification: Clean air through clean buses The United States is with 1-2% electric vehicles in the mix far behind global leader Norway (somewhere beyond 30%). People don't know much about electric vehicles but many know the term "range anxiety" and have heard that electric vehicles use at least three different types of "plugs" for charging, making hard to find charging stations even more elusive. They have heard that batteries contain pollutants, are expensive to replace and that the materials that go into them are found in only a few places in the world. Wha...

Of all the European cities Frankfurt on the Main is the most American ("Mainhattan") with its cluster of high-rise towers sprouting downtown, a rarity on a continent that is quite skeptical when it comes to skyscrapers. Now Frankfurt has another American feature, a newly reconstructed "old" town  much like colonial Williamsburg, hardly more authentic than the Eiffel tower in Las Vegas its critics say. Reconstructed Altstadt Frankfurt/Main: Completed in 2018 In a country that puts much stock into "honesty" the architectural masquerade which was completed earlier this year re-ignited  a debate among architects and urban planners which surges in waves starting right after WW II and continues today. The war had left many historic German cities in rubble. The reconstruction debate reached a crescendo with the plans to tear down the east German parliament building and reconstruct "the Stadtschloss" in Berlin. The castle was rebuilt and monarchy followe...

Why abandoned housing isn't affordable housing By some estimates Baltimore has 40,000 abandoned vacant residential buildings, most of single family row homes. But like many other US cities, Baltimore also has a housing crisis, more specifically, an affordable housing crisis. There are as many people on a  waiting list for what used to be called "section 8" vouchers. (Now "Housing Choice"). It is no surprise that many people think that there should be simple ways to reconcile those two numbers. Particularly in Baltimore, people remember fondly a 1970s program called the " Dollar House Program " and suggest that such a program could house the poor and get rid of the vacant houses at the same time. Vacant houses in Baltimore (Vacants to Values) None of this is limited to Baltimore. In fact, although the federal  Department Housing and Urban Development (HUD) still has Dollar House program on the books,  vacant houses are a persistent problem in many Ameri...

Sparrows Point tells the story of America, the story of an industrial nation in the midst of finding a place in a post industrial world. Once home to a steel mill hissing and clanking 24 hours a day and employing 30,000 workers who lived in the surrounding communities or streamed in on streetcars, the 3,200 acre peninsula as big as the entire land area of Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI) the last 2,000 workers had left what had been left of the plant in 2012 when yet another attempt of giving steel a renaissance in the US had failed and RG Steel went bankrupt. No traces of the past: Bethlehem steel facility before demolition (SUN photo) When only six years later Aaron Tomarchio, Senior executive in administration, government relations, communications and public affairs of a company called Tradepoint Atlantic , steers his company SUV to the gate which secures the southern end of one of the country's largest brown-fields, not only have almost all traces of the steel h...

AIA's big topic at this year's convention was equity. This meant, keynote speakers were architects of color, women and sometimes female architects of color, such as Native American architect Tamar Eagle Bull. And then there was Sheela Søgaard. She is a partner in Bjarke Ingels architecture firm BIG, the CFO to be specific, an non architect and a woman. Sheela Søgaard As a woman CEO in architecture, a male-dominated industry where only 18% of licensed architects are women Søgaard certainly is a trail blazer. But she is also a trail blazer with her message that architects should finally behave like real businesses. He talk was, well should one say: macho? Certainly it was tough talk. She clearly thinks that too many design folks are just too glad they can design to worry about the business side of thinks.  She even played a clip from the Dark Knight in which the Joker says “If you are good at something, never do it for free” ( Video Clip ) In a earlier conversation with Quartz sh...