NEW YORK DESIGN WEEK 2009
MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2009
PICTOPIA FESTIVAL 2009
HOME AND HOUSEWARES SHOW 2009
TRANSVERSALE 2009
NEW YORK CITY TOY FAIR 2009
IMM COLOGNE INTERNATIONAL FURNISHING SHOW
NORTH AMERICAN INT'L AUTO SHOW '09
TOKYO DESIGN WEEK 2008
LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL 2008
BICYCLE
100 PERCENT DESIGN SHANGHAI
Summer's coming, and while all of us are looking forward to getting outdoors, New Yorkers will, as usual, dread having to take the subway. Poor ventilation makes temperatures on some of the underground platforms feel something like being in the center of the sun. A notable exception to this is last year's unveiling of air-conditioned platforms at Grand Central, but the coolness could only be felt if you stood directly underneath the huge (and hugely inefficient) blowers.
Now there's hope! Well, sort of; folks at the MTA are talking about installing glass-edged platforms on the upcoming 2nd Avenue line, like they kind they currently have on the Airtrain to JFK platforms and in Hong Kong's Kowloon, pictured above. This would enable air conditioning to be "locked in" to the platforms.
The reason we say "sort of" is because city officials have been talking about building a 2nd Avenue subway line since, wait for it...1929. The original schematics were probably drawn on a piece of slate with a rock.
In the meantime, we broil.
NeoCon 2009
MD&M East and ATX 2009
Nidecker Snowboard Design Competition
Tools of Engagement
Comments
I loved Hong Kong's subway system! It was beautiful and safe. No chance of falling onto tracks with sliding glass barriers that only open once the train arrives.
Singapore was the first mass transit system to close off the platforms so that the air conditoning would be most efficient in the year-round tropical climate. The first section of the Singapore MRT was completed in 1987.
Those panels also stop would-be suicides, which, while not a large problem in New York, would save more than a few lives in Tokyo.