The Happiest Medium » Stephen Tortora-Lee

State of (The Art): Sentient City

Stephen Tortora-Lee — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:59:36 +0000

Sentient City almost sounds like science fiction, but it is the opposite actually. These are actual techniques and devices to help the system of the city (through the people that live within it) become more aware of the processes within itself through mobile technology and designed in feedback systems in order to make cities more sustainable as well as more interesting. Last Friday I went up with my friends Tom and Jason to 51st St and 6th to check out the Sentient City exhibit. The space isn’t huge, but what you see are prototypes and new possibilities of design ideas created to change or allow new behaviors in people.

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Post tags: Amphibious Architecture, Break Out! Festival, Natural Fuse, Sentient City, Sentient City Hub Exhibition, The Urban Center, Too Smart City, Trash Track

I Think That I Shall Never See . . .

Stephen Tortora-Lee — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:14:33 +0000

An interesting social interactivity experiment is happening in the Bronx right now.

Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone? Well, thanks to the folks behind this Tree Museum, we don’t have to pave paradise, we can discover it in the Bronx where it’s free (they don’t even charge people a dollar and a half just to see ‘em).

Events of the last 100 years have been distilled in stories by people in the community and connected through interweaving matrices of local ecology, the internet, social commentary and interactive mobile technology. It winds through the first divided lane highway system in the US and highlights green technology past and present.

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Post tags: grand concourse, joyce kilmer park, katie holten, The Bronx, The Bronx Museum of Arts, Tree Museum, Wave Hill Public Gardens and Cultural Center

The High Line Lives Again!

Stephen Tortora-Lee — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 04:05:05 +0000

Article by Stephen Tortora-Lee

After more than 20 years of being out of commission the High Line is “back on track” in New York’s collective consciousness. The High Line has been transformed from an abandoned elevated freight railroad track into a beautiful aerial park with plenty of room for New Yorkers to relax and enjoy native greenery, rolling benches, an outdoor auditorium, outdoor art installations and an interactive water cooled sidewalk (All photos courtesy of Inhabitat’s story on the High Line’s opening). One of the most significant aspects of this new development is that community activism helped create and shape this unique re-use of abandoned industrial infrastructure; helping to give easy access to this sprawling, comforting greenway in New York.

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Post tags: Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen, High Line, Meatpacking District, urban renewal

The Truth About Convenience: How Urban Ergonomics Leads to Higher Standards of Living

Stephen Tortora-Lee — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 03:53:59 +0000

Recently, a friend of mine who is quite well connected, suggested I go to an interesting event featuring an amazing movie called A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil. The movie covered 4 areas of innovation in the city of Curitiba:

Transportation
Recycling
Parks
Affordable Housing

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Post tags: A Convenient Truth, Curitiba, Future Visions Film/Discussion Series, sierra Club NYC Group, Sustainable Flatbush