Results tagged “scientificamerican”

Believe it or not, there was once a time when the subway was celebrated! Channel 13 just launched a video site hosting their visual vault of old shows. The below is from a program that originally aired in 1975, and in part shows the 1870 attempt at an underground transit system. The Beach Pneumatic Transit was a demonstration line secretly built by Scientific American editor Alfred Ely Beach. He constructed the 312-foot tunnel in 58 nights, unbeknownst to those above ground, and once complete it was unveiled to the masses. What they found underground wasn't just a subway, but a ballroom of sorts -- complete with grand piano. Fancy! The glory days didn't last long though, and the program's main focus is on the much less celebrated 2nd Avenue subway, a story that couldn't differ more from the small success of Beach's line.

Last June Scientific American took a look at a human-less New York, a vision that was fairly on par with how the city was portrayed in I Am Legend. Now it's The History Channel's turn to jump on board the post-apocalyptic train, their show Life Without People will premiere this Monday (at 9pm). The scene is eerily similar to how Chernobyl looks after decades without human inhabitants. The show's site tells us: "Abandoned skyscrapers would, after hundreds of years, become 'vertical ecosystems' complete with birds, rodents and even plant life," bridges crumble, subway tunnels transform into watery canals, and...bears take the JMZ?

By 2011, our New York Public Library will have a new face. The building, which looms over Bryant Park and 5th Avenue, has been subject to urban pollution and a whole lot more in the past 96 years. From the press release:

The Library announced that it is undertaking a three-year restoration of the facade of the historic building now formally known as the Humanities and Social Sciences Library. The project will include a complete cleaning of the building's Vermont marble, repair of almost 3,000 cracks, protection and preservation of the many sculptural elements, and repair of the building's roof, stairs, and plazas.

Over the past decade the interior has been restored to its original grandeur, and this is the last step in making the landmark sparkle again. The building is described as a white marble Beaux-Arts revival, and was designed by John Merven Carrère and Thomas Hastings. After 12 years of construction, it was completed in 1911 (at the time it was the largest building in the United States), meaning that the restoration will be final in time for its centennial. Read more about its history here, and this Scientific American issue from May 1911 which profiled the then new building.

Back in June, we looked at a fascinating article from Scientific American titled "An Earth Without People." The article was based on the premises of a book by Alan Weisman called "The World Without Us." Both focus on what would happen to the earth if humans vanished from the planet immediately. The SA article even has some cool animation of what would happen to NYC here. This obviously inspired other artistic renderings of what a post-human world would have in store for the city, like the one above.

Scientific American has an fascinating feature An Earth Without People, not to mention these renderings of what the city might look like sans humans. The drawing above is what Fifth Avenue/St. Patrick's Cathedral would look like and the drawing below is what the subways would look like after just two days.

ART: On the Couch: Cartoons From the New Yorker is a collection of cartoons from the magazine which Bob Mankoff (the cartoon editor) says focuses on “the shrink and the shrunk, the practitioner and the practiced upon.” So we're sure you'll all be able to relate, somehow.

Some new clues about the influences for the design of the new Shea Stadium - and it's all about the past. According to documents, the stadium's "red-brick facade" will recall "historic Ebbets Field and Hell's Gate Bridge." Well, you mention "Ebbets Fields" and everyone's on board! The refernce to ballparks of yore is very much in the tradition of Camden Yards and other new parks made to look more "old-timey." The Hell Gate Bridge mention, though, is cool - there's a great Scientific American article from 1907 that called it the "largest arch bridge in the world." We just hope there's adequate room for Mr. Met.