Lexington vs. Los Angeles

I found a fairly interesting article that is pretty disturbing for me, having lived in Lexington my whole life. This article talks about the incredibly large carbon footprint compared to Los Angeles with one of the smallest carbon footprints in the country. This sounds really messed up to me since Lexington has a much smaller city area than Los Angeles. However, the carbon footprint is due to the lack of efficient public transportation and road system. The majority of Lexington is comprised of subdivisions surrounding the downtown area. Another factor is that Lexington relies mostly on coal for power which increases the carbon footprint a lot.

Vincent Louis

Response to the Message from the President

From the editorial "Get off campus and get to know the rest of Atlanta" by Dr. Peterson, I agree that we as the students should embrace this opportunity to explore the area around this city. Georgia Tech has played an important role in the surrounding community as we have been a part of Atlanta for a long period of time. One of the things that a student can contribute to this area is to get off campus and spend time exploring the area. The students will be able to get a hand on experience of a city life, while supporting the community's economy. There are many places for students to visit:

The city of Atlanta, according to the message, is one of the most important cities in the Southern United States. It has also been the focus on the national and the world's stage. Atlanta is like a free commodity that comes with Georgia Tech. We should take this chance to do at least a little exploration of the city.

Phumthep Bunnak

Future Tallest Building in Bangkok !

For this week's post, I want to talk about a construction project in the middle of Thailand's capital city, Bangkok. The construction of MahaNakohn, a 77 storey-building, is set to begin in the third quarter of 2009 and completed in 2012. The cost of construction is estimated to be 515 million dollars. This building is going to be the tallest building in Bangkok. I believe that this building will be one of the best representation of urbanism. It will contain apartments, a hotel, and a restaurant at the top of the building. The restaurant at the top will definitely provide the diners with uncomparable view of the city. This to be tallest building in Thailand will also include a retail section at the base of the building. The parking will be provided for the residents offsite. MahaNakhon is located in the middle of the city. Therefore there will be a lot of activities for the residents to do. I would say this place is perfect for anyone who seeks an urban experience.

To read more about the construction project, visit click here

Phumthep Bunnak

A new perspective

Just image searching "Urban Sprawl" will bring up a ton of lovely pictures. I found this particular one of "generating a cityscape with images of roads and other city things around the Twin Cities taken from NASA terra server." on Flickr. While living in the subdivisions may be attractive, from this angle it just looks like a horribly tangled road structure clustered together and intertwined with the surroundings. I found it to be a very interesting new perspective from a design angle which gives some insight into some things that we would normally not get a chance to view.


Vincent Louis

A Song about Sprawl !

For this week's post, I want to introduce the song "My City was Gone." This is a song by the group called, The Pretenders. This song's message is about a person coming back home in Ohio. However, the city was changed from what he had remembered. His pictures of his childhood memories are replace by shopping malls, and parking lots.

Phumthep Bunnak

Daily Sprawl's Ideal Community

Today I looked at a blog called Daily Sprawl. The blog content's is about health, real estate industry, current economy crisis, and neighborhoods. In this blog, we can find links to articles from sources as New York Times, and links to videos in the "What Daily Sprawl Is Watching" section. By looking at this blog, we will be able to find implicit evidences on what the blog's position on an ideal community should be.
The author of this blog calls for a community and neighborhoods much like the book, Suburban Nation. From the blog's link to a video in the CNU short film contest, we can see a video that advocates against sprawl. In this video, a picture of a good neighborhood is depicted. This community is made up of mixed used zone. The people in the film are able to go to work, school, and grocery stores by foot in five minutes. No cars are needed for transportation. From another post titled "A Green Commute", there are pictures of several European rail lines. The trams look like they are gliding on grass. This implies that an ideal community not only be independent from cars, but it should be environment friendly as well.

This is the link to the blog: http://dailysprawl.blogspot.com/

Phumthep Bunnak