UrbanGauge

Engaging and Informing Citizens with Household Indicators

jhwang — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:37:06 +0000

Recent ongoing project conducted by University of Washington related to their renown UrbanSim project and Value Sensitive Design research.

Davis, J. (2008). Engaging and informing citizens with household indicators. Proceedings of the Hawai’i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-41) (p. 190). Waikoloa, Hawaii

Autodesk’s Persepective on Integration of AEC Business with Geo Tech

jhwang — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:51:28 +0000

From O’Reilly Where 2.0 2008 Conference

Geoff Zeiss (Autodesk Inc.), “Convergence of Architectural and Engineering Design and Location Technology: Implications for eGovernment”

Demo movie clip - Kenmore Center Traffic Congestion

jhwang — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:58:18 +0000

Here is a demo movie that shows a simple example of utilization of UrbanGauge using concurrent urban development projects. Kenmore Center with Traffic Congestion Indicator is visualized with design alternatives, and the larger context of Urban Ring will be connected with the local neighborhood’s parameters.

Click below to play the movie.

Google Earth in iPhone

admin — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:27:55 +0000

Google launched mobile google earth plug-in for iphone.

The Boston Indicator Projects

admin — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:31:31 +0000

Boston Indicator Project:

http://www.bostonindicators.org/IndicatorsProject/

Massachusetts Turnpike Air Rights Parcel 7

admin — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:29:38 +0000

< Image Source: “A Civic Vision for Turnpike Air Rights in Bosotn”, BRA >

Massachusetts Turnpike Authority [MTA] has leased air space over the highway. The major air rights properties include Prudential Center and Copley Place in central Boston. In 1998, by perceiving the huge potential of urban development, the city of Boston commissioned a group to investigate a vision for the air rights over the Boston Extension of the Mass Turnpike in order to guide a comprehensive plan for reknitting the urban fabric along the highway. There are 23 individual parcels, each of which will be designated by various functions. Boston Redevelopment Authority [BRA] publication for A Civic Vision for Turnpike Air Rights in Boston (2003) that delivers a Strategic Development Study of potential air rights development.

< Image Source: “A Civic Vision for Turnpike Air Rights in Bosotn”, BRA >

+ Parcel 7

< Image Source: Meredith Management >

Parcel 7 is located in one of the complicated context in Boston. . The project is a complex mixture of three buildings, a transit station, public and private parking, and significant public space. The site is the Air-Rights over the Massachusetts Turnpike between Brookline and Beacon Streets near Kenmore Square. The site also includes several surface parking lots adjacent to the Turnpike. The developer, John Rosenthal, has proposed a smaller, 7-story residential building on the part of the site closest to Audubon Circle, then an 11-story commercial building, and finally a 23-story mixed-use building on the part of the site closest to Kenmore Square. The whole development is tied together by a large 700-car parking garage over the highway, and a regional commuter line rail station and public open space.

+ Real Estate Developer: Meredith Management

+ Citizens Advisory Committee

Introduction

admin — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:01:06 +0000

The Urban Gauge project aims to balance a regional planning agenda with local community concerns, while keeping track of the economic viability of an individual development project. One of the inherent problems in the current planning process is the lack of connection between the local issues that dominate the evaluation of a single project - shadows, parking, congestion, etc. and the larger, regional issues that are so critical to today’s debates about the public interest such as sustainability, energy efficiency, housing affordability and supply, economic competitiveness and jobs.

Urban Gauge is a tool that facilitate three things:
1) It creates a web 2.0-style digital map of the region, and maps specific data relating to regional interests such as housing, energy, jobs, transportation, economics, and even regional form.
2) It divides the region up into a discrete set of neighborhoods, districts, or communities. And within these communities it maps the local interests, which will likely vary considerably from neighborhood to neighborhood.
3) It allows a dynamic three-dimensional model to be inserted into the map.

This means that instead of endless debate about possible effects of a project in the public meeting forum, a well-run meeting can actually evaluate and visualize different possible scenarios- in real time. The regional visualization tool alone will provide a view to the larger public interest that has been lacking in our public debate for almost 100 years.