Cooling the City, Circa 1934

Forget about leaving doors open to attract customers with air conditioning and heat, back in 1934 there was a vision of having air-conditioned sidewalks! In another article from the past, the idea is explored.

Dr. Eglov believes that huge refrigeration plants built at intervals of a mile and a half along city streets would rid the canyons between sky scrapers of humid hot air. Giant blowers in the plants would force the cooled air into the streets through ducts. The cold air would hug the streets and walks, displacing the warm air, which would be forced upward. The plan could also call for piping into skyscrapers so as to provide office buildings with air conditioning. A practical street cooling system would be welcomed by store owners in crowded districts, it is believed. The increased patronage would be expected to more than pay for operation of the plants.

Wonder what Gale Brewer would think of this.

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By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on March 14, 2008 2:38 PM

Comments [rss]

pete

Considering how they DON'T plow the streets here in Ft Wayne, why not invent some kind of radiant heating system for city streets?

Its been invented, except there is a pretty bad stigma against nuclear power in the USA.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/23/dubious-1980s-in-home-nuclear-reactor-ad-from-japan/comments/5589538/

My opinion for looking the streets is, its time to make all the sidewalks of NYC one big underground city, just enclose all the sidewalks with glass ceilings and glass walls. That way you can walk from your apartment to work in your PJs in January. NYC is sorely in need of a underground city, the closest NYC has is rockafeller center, but thats a joke in size compared to any other city.

This is what should have been done many years ago.

http://secondavenuesagas.com/2008/02/21/planning-for-a-second-ave-subway-75-years-ago/

Karen

Considering how they DON'T plow the streets here in Ft Wayne, why not invent some kind of radiant heating system for city streets?

bxGagger

i'm all up for pennies in assholes.

i do it long time.

call me

1900-EMPERORS (we might be busy servicing members of government, so leave a message, we'll get back to you as soon as their checks clear)

Guest

"why not put penny whistles in our assholes and conduct a symphony?"

I'll be in the kazoo section.

Rocknrope

zodak, damn you, you beat me to it. Mine was gonna be:

Where's my jetpack?

Barbj8

People back in those days were so naive and had no idea how screwed up our environment would be today. I'd like to go forward with the penny whistles, though!

zodak

where are the flying cars?

bxbrian

why not put penny whistles in our assholes and conduct a symphony?

Guest

Why would you come up with a way to cool them off during the summer in Chicago? Why not figure out a way to warm them up in winter? Or even better, install huge wind machines to blow all of the wind away from the Windy City directing it towards Detroit (might help in cleaning it up).

Wordier

Like Seinfeld, I'd think I'd rather start with adding those moving airport sidewalks to our city sidewalks, if we are talking about something completely impractical.