rholmes – mammoth // building nothing out of something

Author Archives: rholmes

June 26, 2009 – 8:23 am

eroded camps at chatham

Summer cottages, despite migrating inland, lose out to the tide and erosion: Thayer, 46, who estimated his family had spent $35,000 to move the camp twice, huddled with his three brothers recently to weigh their options during a 50th birthday celebration. But that was before the storm. The camp had been in the family for […]

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June 25, 2009 – 1:57 pm

readings (3)

1. Fantastic Journal’s post Lines of Defense, which I would cheapen if I summarized it.  More nostalgia, I suppose. 2. The NYTimes on Brussels, “traumatized” by the “dreadful architecture” of the European Union headquarters, and how planners hope to rectify the rift between bureaucrats and residents.  What a direct metaphor for the conflict between the […]

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June 24, 2009 – 9:50 am

elementary school hydrological investigations

While researching the history of the Buffalo Bayou for a forthcoming post, I came across this fascinating series of lesson plans prepared by a Houston elementary school teacher, which would introduce students to the history of flooding, emphasize the dual value and danger of waterways to cities, teach the children to access and utilize real-time […]

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June 23, 2009 – 2:20 pm

anniversary optimism

Yesterday was the fortieth anniversary of the 1969 Cuyahoga River fire.  I had always assumed that fire was notable because it marked the peak of an era of careless industrial polluting, but the truth is apparently that the fire was notable because it demonstrated the persistence of an era that Americans thought they had left […]

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June 22, 2009 – 5:49 pm

sea-based x-band radar

The Sea-Based X-Band Radar, recently deployed to the coast of Hawaii in response to the threat of North Korean ballistic missiles.  National defense as exquisite functionalist sculpture, or the American military’s response to the Statoil advertisements. [see also this older post at eatingbark on the eglin fps-85 radar building]

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June 17, 2009 – 11:52 am

svalbard seed vault

SEED Magazine has a slideshow of images from the recently completed Svalbard Seed Vault, coverage of which is especially timely in light of the rather apocalyptic report (short version: in 2080 DC will feel like South Florida, and might be just as underwater) issued yesterday by the US Global Change Research Program. The accompanying article, […]

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June 17, 2009 – 9:53 am

readings (2)

1. BLDGBLOG on the singing ruins of our suburban fever dream. 2. Lewism links Nokia’s plans for mobile phones that would recharge themselves by harvesting electromagnetic radiation out of the air with Nikola Tesla’s derelict tower. 3. Worldchanging reviews the film Garbage Dreams, which tells the story of the Zabbaleen, a community composed primarily of […]

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June 16, 2009 – 3:45 pm

interstate traveler

Interstate Traveler: proof that you should never let anyone tell you that you can’t build your offbeat megaproject (complete with Equestrian Explorer and Triage Traveler), particularly if you have a friend skilled in the production of vintage Popular Mechanics diagrams.  Or else proof that the Michigan state legislature is completely nutty.  Do watch the video, […]

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June 16, 2009 – 10:01 am

to the heights of the clouds

Wired comments on a topic — high-altitude wind power — that mammoth explored a couple years ago while developing a competition entry: The wind blowing through the streets of Manhattan couldn’t power the city, but wind machines placed thousands of feet above the city theoretically could. The first rigorous, worldwide study of high-altitude wind power […]

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June 13, 2009 – 2:13 pm

bulwarks and flux

Louisiana senator Mary Landrieu, returning from a tour of the Netherlands’ coastal armaments, says America needs to “rethink its entire approach to low-lying coastal areas and adopt an integrated model of water management like that of the Netherlands.” Here at mammoth, we (of course) think that this is a fantastic idea, and not only because […]

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June 12, 2009 – 12:04 pm

field guide to standpipes (infrastructurist)

I’ve mentioned my love for Infrastructurist’s field guides before; the latest, A Field Guide to NYC Standpipes, teaches you to read the relationship between standpipes and the fire control systems embedded in the buildings they serve.  So much fascinating information is encoded on and in the built environment, if we know how to read it […]

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June 10, 2009 – 12:03 pm

tommy manuel interviews harald finster

Tommy Manuel has a very interesting interview with photographer Harald Finster, who specializes in the industrial.  Points of discussion which obviously cross-pollinate landscape/architecture ensue: “Let me give an example: Essen and the Ruhr area will be “Kulturhauptstadt Europa 2010″ (Capital of Culture 2010). The official pamphlet says “Die Identität dieser Metropole ist nicht mehr geprägt […]

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June 9, 2009 – 1:26 pm

recent reading

1. A post on Human Transit points out the “old habits of urbanist thought” that were built into the structure of SimCity. Would be interesting to not only expose the fallacious assumptions embedded in the game, but to ruminate on the ways in which the game, being a particularly late-arriving artifact of modernist urbanism, is […]

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June 8, 2009 – 2:23 pm

interlude: the dovemaster chronicles

I took a bit of the past week off to spend time with my sister, who is back in the states on vacation after completing her first year with the Peace Corps in Sergelen, Mongolia.  Saturday we found ourselves in Baltimore, which gave us the opportunity to check out the Visionary Art Museum, where I […]

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June 3, 2009 – 11:41 am

time-lapse earth observatory

Time-lapse videos of the urbanization of Dubai, the draining of the Aral Sea, deforestation in the Brazilian state of Rondônia, the depletion and replenishment of southern Iraq’s wetlands, and drought in Utah’s Lake Powell, at Wired Science, compiled from NASA Earth Observatory imagery.

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May 29, 2009 – 12:34 pm

below the phreatic level

Pruned asks: “Has there ever been an ideas competition of any kind for Mexico City and its water crisis?”, in response to this post at the Guardian outlining that crisis.  While I’m not aware of a competition, the unrealized project that immediately comes to mind is Kalach and de Leon’s The City and the Lakes, […]

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May 27, 2009 – 9:30 am

field guides to highway interchanges

From the beginning of last week, A Field Guide to Freeway Interchanges (part one // part two) on Infrastructurist. Below, one of my favorite interchanges, the interbreeding of I-95, I-295, and I-395 over the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River in Baltimore.

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May 21, 2009 – 9:26 am

the ambiguity of seamelt and landrise

One of the trends which most observers of global warming warn us could have particularly dire consequences is the rise of sea levels. And not without reason. The recent evacuation of the Cateret islands, chronicled by Dan Box as the tale of the world’s first climate refugees (though perhaps most recent would be more appropriate, […]

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May 20, 2009 – 1:18 pm

puns, endorsable and not

Everything about this project highlighted on Infranet Lab is great, except for the title (“Arctic-tecture”).  Enough with the “archi-” and “-tecture” titles.  On the other hand, both of the research projects that Arctic-tecture’s author, Andrea Brennan, was/is involved in at MIT pair good work with equally good names (both projects were published in Volume, in […]

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May 15, 2009 – 9:55 am

carless again

Another addendum: a dialogue at the New York Times asks various urbanists and authors, including Rybczynski and Hayden, “Is [going carless] a realistic goal in a culture like ours?”, as an extension of the article Stephen mentioned.

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