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(Not) for Sale: Get Paid $5K to Haul Away ‘Skyway to Nowhere’

25 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

skyway as lake superior retreat

280,000 pounds of glass, steel and concrete spanning over 80 feet, this remarkable structure was built to span city streets and sidewalks in Minneapolis but has storied history that goes well beyond its original usage. Today, this historic wonder can be yours for a remarkable sum of negative $ 5,000 – indeed, its owners will pay you to take it away (and hopefully put it to good use).

skyway to nowhere

skyway current condition wheels

buy a skyway

An incredibly robust work of engineering, the structure originally connected two downtown buildings in Minnesota’s biggest city, but when one of the pair it bridged was demolished it became a kind of “skyway to nowhere” that was more liability than asset. Ideas to turn it into a bridge or use it again as a skyway in another location all failed to materialize, but many others have been dreamed up since – a mobile nightclub, kiosk for Nicollet Mall and so forth.

skyway on nicolet mall

skyway interior cabin design

skyway floor plan design

skyway as walkway

It was subsequently listed for sale and bought for $ 1 by the University of Minnesota, which then sold it at blind auction by CityDeskStudio for $ 5,000. Plans to turn it into a modern cabin overlooking Lake Superior have since fallen through, hence its being once again up for grabs. CDS originally relisted the bridge in the early 2000s for close to $ 100,000 – the price was dropped repeatedly before the company decided to not only give away the behemoth but to pay for its relocation.

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Chinese Homeowner’s Illegal Skyway Bridges 2 Highrise Condos

19 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

china condo bridge connector

Sky bridges are a common sight in many cities, but are generally used to create a semi-public pathway from one building to the next, not to illicitly join two private highrise units in midair.

china illicit private sky bridge

In Nanning, China, one resident apparently purchased two apartment units situated nearly across from (and facing) one another with a novel plan in mind: connect them via a slightly-sloped extension to expand his interior space. As a local paper reports, the raised structure is raising concerns for pedestrians passing below.

skyway illegal bridge china

The makeshift metal-roofed-and-clad addition is supported by a system of somewhat rickety-looking steel trusses forming a spaceframe below – given their elevation (and lack of planning permission), it is unclear whether these will survive natural disasters like serious storms or earthquakes.

penthouse top

It also remains uncertain how this development got so far in the first place, but given other precedents in the region (like the illegal ooftop penthouse mountain shown above) this kind of rogue building project is not entirely shocking.

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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NYC Skyway: From Brooklyn to Manhattan in 4 Minutes by Air

17 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

east river skyway tram

Building on the strategy of the Roosevelt Island Tramway (connecting to Manhattan over the East River), this proposal promises record commuting times, bypassing subways, streets and ferries to use the sky instead.

east river skyway above

The East River Skyway project aims to make the jump between Boroughs faster, cleaner, safer and cheaper, all while reducing the load on the subway system, already packed to more than capacity under the ground below.

east river skyway cars

The design proposal calls for an initial connection between Williamsburg and and Lower Manhattan, followed by extensions deeper into Brooklyn and, ultimately, links to Queens and Long Island City as well.

east river skyway diagram

skyway project high speeds

Beyond the ultra-fast transit time boasted by the system there are some non-financial considerations as well: tourists and locals alike can also take the tram (as they already do to and from Roosevelt Island) in part simply to get a better view of the city from above.

hovering skyway project design

east river skyway design

Its designers cite other major international cities deploying and contemplating similar initiatives, from Singapore to London, England and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

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Invisible Skyway: Urban Optical Illusions Conceal & Distort

30 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

illusion artist bridge

New Zealand artist, illusionist and urbanist Mark Hewson has a good many tricks up his sleeve involving spatial deception, convincing citizens there is less (or more) to their city than can ordinarily be seen.

illusion fake sky bridge

His first trick in this series: disguising an ordinary street-crossing skyway from a series of key vantage points. But even from alternate angles where the lines do not sync up, the effect is dizzying. Our pattern-seeking brains keep looking for transparency or reflection where there is just a solid painting.

optical urban illusion art

Other illusions in his repertoire involve mirroring or warping unseen elements behind solid surfaces or sheets of material. Again, this toying with voids and our structural expectations induces odd forms of visual vertigo.

optical trick magic photois

In previous projects, like the Lost Space Installation, he has worked with gaps and openings, filling them in with imaginary scenes that range from plausible to impossible. While these may be more obviously fake on the surface, they create a nonetheless potent sense of spatial distortion and disorientation.

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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