The Roosevelt Island Ventilation Tube is a brightly colored, cylindrical metal shaft installed as part of the original Roosevelt Island WIRE development in the 1970s to provide fresh air and exhaust. They come in various bright colors.
All posts by Randy
Why studying street furniture is important
Street furniture is where public policy meets our bodies. Topics like zoning and land use are fascinating, and I can speak or read books about these topics all day. But, it’s really really hard to understand zoning – and really difficult to hold zoning in our minds eye without scrambling a bit. We can kind…
Primary source in process: The Plan for Welfare Island
Primary sources are incredibly important to decipher the decision making process. Especially when it comes to procurement, and other government decision making. I found out there is a Municipal Library at City Hall (well, adjacent), part of the New York City Department of Records and Information Services. Searching their records, I found this handy primary…
Jane’s Walk NYC 2021 Starts
Happy Monday, friends of tiny urban devices, and those who were waiting for Jane’s Walk NYC 2021! A happy reminder that starting today thousands of New Yorkers and visitors alike will take to the streets and tune in online for Jane’s Walk, which lasts between May 3-9. We are hosting our own Jane’s Walk 2021…
Other Roosevelt Island Jane’s Walk 2021 Talks
We know everyone will join us for our virtual stroll around Roosevelt Island: Jane’s Walk 2021 – Street Furniture: Where Policy Meets our Bodies (sign up!). We see by our visitor logs that the internet is excited about Roosevelt Island by all the visitors to our entry about the Roosevelt Island Urban Plan. That’s awesome.…
Roosevelt Island Red Bins
Red Island Bins carrum insula Description Red trash bin on Roosevelt Island, complete with tram logo. Identification Boxy in form, with vertical perforations running up and down the main body; spherical removable top with two opposing openings; trashcan inside. Aerial Tram logo near bottom. Red in color. Powder-coated recycled cast iron. Manufacturer Columbia Cascade Company…
Jane’s Walk 2021 – Street Furniture: Where Policy Meets our Bodies
Jane’s Walk is just around the corner, and we are hosting a session! Join me on a virtual self-guided tour of your neighborhood where we’ll explore different examples of NYC street furniture during Jane’s Walk 2021, on May 5th. WE’re going to start live-streaming from Roosevelt Island – please follow along at home or work.…
Roosevelt Island Master Plan
I spent the weekend playing around Roosevelt Island, the tiny island in the East River between Manhattan and Queens. It’s an amazing place, which feels like another world. Accessible by the F train, Tram, ferry, and car you can get to it, but it isn’t easy. At the southern end is the Franklin D. Roosevelt…
Observed: Parc Vue bin
Observed in Roosevelt Island, NYC the Parc Vue by Landscape Forms.
Increments of Neighborhood by Brian O’Looney
Neighborhood and building typology are a scale higher than we deal with here. So I’ve been having a great time reading Increments of Neighborhood by Brian O’Looney, recently released by Oro Editions. I’ll have a full review on the website soon, but this is a great book for those interested in urban typologies – both…