RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘Largest’

Abandoned Mine is Now World’s Largest Indoor BMX Bike Park

11 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

underground bmx bike park

Boasting 5 miles of trails, ramps and obstacles, this cavernous subterranean space sits 100 feet underground and totals 320,000 square feet. The wide-open footprint and copious mounds of dirt, able to be endlessly reformed into new types of terrain, lend themselves to this particularly fitting form of adaptive reuse.

underground converted limestone mine copy

Located in Louisville, Kentucky, and open as of yesterday, the Mega Underground Bike Park gains a number of advantages from being far below the surface, including a relatively consistent temperature and protection from wind, rain and other weather (without the typical costs of constructing a building to house these activities).

underground bike park ramps

Originally a limestone mine, there were plans to create a highs-security business park in the space – while there are a few businesses actually occupying other parts of the underground complex of caves, the big idea fell through, replaced by a plan to create zip lines, challenge courses and now the biggest interior bike park on the planet.

Currently the space offers 45 trails with differing degrees of of difficulty as well as clever additions like cargo containers turned into ramps and overpasses. Most of the materials needed, though, were already in place – it was mainly a matter of lighting, accessing and shaping the space.

underground dirt ramp caves

From their website: “Are you ready to experience a one of a kind Underground Bike Park? Over 320,000 square feet including over 45 trails, Jump Lines, Pump Tracks, Dual Slalom, BMX, Cross Country and Single Track all in a former limestone cavern 100 feet sub-surface. Enjoy the comfort of our 60 degree temperature year round. Come experience what the buzz is all about. You simply won’t believe what you see.”

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Tons of Art: Christo Unveils World’s Largest Indoor Sculpture

Well known for grand gestures and huge installations, Christo has outdone himself once again in this latest work made of air, light and wonder.
Click Here to Read More »»


The Desertron: World’s Largest Super Collider Lies Abandoned

Designed to break records held by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the Superconducting Super Collider built (and abandoned) in Texas features fourteen miles …
Click Here to Read More »»


Lowline for NYC: World’s First Underground Park in Manhattan

Using fiber optics as “remote skylights” to pipe illumination down from the surface, this bold plan aims to transform a century-old trolley station …
Click Here to Read More »»


Share on Facebook



[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Abandoned Mine is Now World’s Largest Indoor BMX Bike Park

Posted in Creativity

 

World’s Largest Indoor Farm is 100 Times More Productive

12 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

indoor farm japan interior

The statistics for this incredibly successful indoor farming endeavor in Japan are staggering: 25,000 square feet producing 10,000 heads of lettuce per day (100 times more per square foot than traditional methods) with 40% less power, 80% less food waste and 99% less water usage than outdoor fields.

indoor factory lettuce farm

indoor farm high yield

Customized LED lighting developed with GE helps plants grow up to two and half times faster, one of the many innovations employed in this enterprise by Shigeharu Shimamura, the man who helped turn a former semiconductor factory into the planet’s biggest interior factory farm.

worlds largest indoor farm

Shimamura has shortened the cycle of days and nights in this artificial environment, growing food faster, while optimizing temperature, lighting and humidity and maximizing vertical square footage in this vast interior space (about half the size of a football field).

indoor future led farming

With a long-standing passion for produce production, he “got the idea for his indoor farm as a teenager, when he visited a ‘vegetable factory’ at the Expo ’85 world’s fair in Tsukuba, Japan. He went on to study plant physiology at the Tokyo University of Agriculture, and in 2004 started an indoor farming company called Mirai, which in Japanese means ‘future.’”

indoor farm interview detail

The beauty of this development lies partly in its versatility – since it deals in climate-controlled spaces and replicable conditions, a solution of this sort can be deployed anywhere in the world to address food shortages of the present and future. Saving space, indoor vertical farms are also good candidates for local food production in crowded and high-cost urban areas around the globe. Aforementioned strides in waste and power reduction also make these techniques and approaches far more sustainable and cost-efficient.

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Tons of Art: Christo Unveils World’s Largest Indoor Sculpture

Well known for grand gestures and huge installations, Christo has outdone himself once again in this latest work made of air, light and wonder.
Click Here to Read More »»


Swinging Times: 13 Stylish & Fun Indoor Swings

Why should kids have all the fun? These 13 indoor swing designs range from traditional to modern, to bring swings from the backyard into any interior.
Click Here to Read More »»


Urban Farm Kit: Modular Chicken Coops, Planters & Benches

A solution for all seasons and regions, the premise is simple: every would-be urban farmer has space, weather and other growing constraints, and yet draws from …
Click Here to Read More »»


Share on Facebook



[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on World’s Largest Indoor Farm is 100 Times More Productive

Posted in Creativity

 

The Desertron: World’s Largest Super Collider Lies Abandoned

12 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

super collider tunnel digging

Designed to break records held by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the Superconducting Super Collider built (and abandoned) in Texas features fourteen miles of unseen and unused underground tunnels.

abandoned tunnel surface complex

abandoned super collider complex

Construction on what was to be the largest particle accelerator in the world started in the early 1980s but funding cuts in the early 1990s caused the entire project to be shut down. By that time, billions of dollars were already spent and the expected tag had tripled from 4 to 12 billion, 17 shafts were dug and 14 miles of tunnel excavated (out of a total of 51 planned).

abandoned particle ssc texas

abandoned underground tunnels texas

abandoned tunnels urban exploration

Located on a site near Waxahachie, Texas (south of Dallas, shown on a map below) without existing tunnels (which helped in the building of the LHC), removing millions of tons of soil proved to be a budget-breaking expense for the SSC. The complex has since gained the apt nickname ‘Desertron’ for obvious reasons.

abandoned subterranean super collider

supercollider particle accelerator map

Except for underground generators, most of the major machinery was removed from the site before it was deed to the local county, which in turn sold it to a private corporation planning to turn it into a data center. With an independent power grid and dedicated fiber optic line it seemed like a good fit, but when its would-be developer died in an accident the plans were scrapped. Since then it has remained empty, but has again been purchased, this time by a chemical company.

super collider exploration

super collider complex interior

super collider abandoned inside

Many factors have been cited as contributors to its abandonment, including the end of the Cold War with Russia and the comparable amounts being budgeted for the United States’ contribution to the International Space Station – at the time, it seemed to many to that spending as much on the SSC as the ISS would be folly (images via Jim Merithew, AmusingPlanet, Wired and Wikipedia).

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

5M SF of Sleek: World’s Largest Subterranean Rail Station

Set to open in 2015, the world’s largest underground train station connecting Hong Kong to the rest of China will measure a whopping 5 million square feet.
Click Here to Read More »»


Abandoned Walmart is Now America’s Largest 1-Floor Library

A sprawling abandoned Walmart in McAllen, Texas has been transformed into the nation’s largest public library, with self-check-out kiosks and an art gallery.
Click Here to Read More »»


Deserted Europe: 20 Hauntingly Abandoned Buildings

From houses and estates to factories, mines, military buildings and prisons here are the explorations of twenty buildings by one daring European urban explorer.
Click Here to Read More »»


Share on Facebook



[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on The Desertron: World’s Largest Super Collider Lies Abandoned

Posted in Creativity

 

Bounce Below: World’s Largest Underground Cave Trampoline

21 Jun

[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

Bounce World Underground Trampoline 1

Deep in a former Welsh slate quarry mining cavern twice the size of St. Paul’s Cathedral, children and adults alike gleefully jump up and down on a system of netting suspended from the walls. Bounce Below, the world’s largest underground trampoline, will open to the public July 3rd in the mining town of Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Bounce World Underground Trampoline 2

Operated by Zip World, the new tourist attraction features three massive trampolines that ascend from twenty feet to 180 feet above the bottom of the cavern, with ten-foot net walls preventing anyone from falling over the edge. Customers get dressed in cotton overalls and put on helmets, then board a train that travels deep into the mountain.

Bounce World Underground Trampoline 4

Bounce World Underground Trampoline 3

They disembark to the sight of the trampolines within the colorfully lit space. Each trampoline is linked by a slide for descending and a net walkway for getting back up. The largest slide is 60 feet long. A spiral staircase leads to the other side of the railway line.

Bounce World Underground Trampoline 5

Workers prepared the space by carrying about 500 tons of rubble out of the cavern, the task illuminated with portable lamps. The mining of slate in Wales dates back to Roman times and the industry peaked in 1898 with 17,000 employees, but by the end of World War II, the introduction of new roofing materials led to many of the mines closing.

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Fast Track: A 557-Foot Trampoline in the Russian Woods

A 557-foot trampoline takes the place of a road in the woods of Russia for a festival, making the journey from one place to another a lot more fun.
Click Here to Read More »»


Secret Spirals: Underground Home Wine Cellar Spaces

Even if you’re not that into wine, seeing these photos of spiral wine cellars with futuristic-looking trap doors will make you want to start a collection.
Click Here to Read More »»


Bigger & Better: The World’s Largest Record-Setting [Blank]

Bigger is better! The time, effort, and expense that goes into something as banal and fantastic as a pencil that has to be moved by a crane is incredible.
Click Here to Read More »»


Share on Facebook



[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Bounce Below: World’s Largest Underground Cave Trampoline

Posted in Creativity

 

World’s Largest LEGO Model: Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter

24 May

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

LEGO Star Wars X-Wing 1

Forty-two times larger than the toy set currently available in stores, this Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter is made of over five million LEGO bricks weighing a whopping 45,000 pounds. Assembled in the LEGO model shop in Kladno, Czech Republic, the model is 43 feet long and 11 feet high with a wing span of 44 feet. It was unveiled in New York City’s Times Square on May 23rd, and will be on display for Memorial Day weekend before reaching its final destination at Legoland in California.

LEGO Star Wars X-Wing 2

The model had to be carefully engineered with a steel framework system in order to withstand all of the travel, breakdown and re-assembly required to transport it across the Atlantic Ocean and from one side of America to the next.

LEGO Star Wars X-Wing 3

It took an international team of designers, builders, engineers, mechanics and logistics experts over a year to devise the plan that brought the massive model from concept sketches to reality. The time it took to construct the model, which is made using the same LEGO bricks sold at retail, was 17,336 hours, or about four months.

LEGO Star Wars X-Wing 4

The model can seat multiple fans in the cockpit for photo opportunities, and its four rear engines light up to a glowing neon red. “We thought it would be a great idea to say ‘What if you took this, scaled it up to the size of what a real X-wing looks like, and here’s the end result,’” LEGO Master Builder Erik Varszegi told MTV Geek.

Share on Facebook

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

    


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on World’s Largest LEGO Model: Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter

Posted in Creativity

 

Tons of Art: Christo Unveils World’s Largest Indoor Sculpture

28 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

christo lighting effect inside

Well known for grand gestures and huge installations, Christo (images by Wolfgang Volz) has outdone himself once again in this latest work – and the first since his wife and partner Jeanne-Claude passed away four years ago.

christo inflatable sculpture interior

Its stats are hard to fathom: an inflatable interior you can occupy, it spans nearly 300 feet vertically with a radius of over 150 feet. Tens of thousands of square feet of fabric stretched between over ten thousand feet of rope. The total? 5 tons of material 6,000,000 square feet of space.

christo light sculpture installation

Its blunt title, Big Air Package, matches the simplicity of the setup: essentially, the viewer occupies a giant translucent inflatable balloon bathed in light that passes through the translucent material stretching out and up on all sides.

christo installation art inside

It occupies an old decommissioned gasometer in Germany, and its effects were unpredictable even to its creator, who was himself surprised by the effects of lighting in the resulting space. Now if only Christo would team up with James Turrell – the sky would certainly not be the limit.

Share on Facebook

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Tons of Art: Christo Unveils World’s Largest Indoor Sculpture

Posted in Creativity

 

320-gigapixel photo of London is the world’s largest panoramic photo

22 Feb

London-Gigapixel.jpg

A 320-gigapixel image taken from top of London’s British Telecom Tower has set the world record of the largest panoramic photo. It breaks the previous record set by a 281-gigapixel electron micrograph of a zebrafish embryo taken in 2012. The London image was shot by panorama specialists 360 Cities and is made up of 48,640 individual frames. To get an idea of just how large this photograph is, BT says if it was printed at ‘normal resolution’ the photo would measure measure 98 x 24 metres.Click through for pictures and more information on the hardware used to make the image. 

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on 320-gigapixel photo of London is the world’s largest panoramic photo

Posted in Uncategorized

 

5M SF of Sleek: World’s Largest Subterranean Rail Station

24 Jan

[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

World's Largest Underground Rail 1

The largest underground high-speed rail station in the world will connect Hong Kong to Beijing, and measure an incredible 4,628,481 square feet. Designed by Andrew Bromberg of architecture firm Aedas, the Express Rail Link West Kowloon Terminus is scheduled for completion in 2015 and will have 15 tracks for high-speed trains that are capable of reaching speeds of 124 miles per hour.

World's Largest Underground Rail 2

Express Rail Link West Kowloon Terminus is designed to make a smooth transition between the station and the city of Hong Kong, expression the character of the urban setting. Aedas designed the station with an undulating shape that focuses views to the Kong Kong Central skyline and Victoria Peak. The West Kowloon Cultural District is ‘invited into’ the site with a flowing green park and civic plaza with its own outdoor performance amphitheater.

World's Largest Underground Rail 3

On the green roof is a vegetated sculpture garden and an observation deck with a view of the journey into Hong Kong. Say the architects, “The station may be visible below as a reminder of where one came from, but the future paths of discovery present themselves invitingly beyond.”

World's Largest Underground Rail 4

The terminus will function more like an international airport than a rail station, meaning it will need to have both custom and immigration controls for departing and arriving passengers. It will connect Hong Kong to mainland China with both regional shuttle trains and long-haul high speed trains.

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Subterranean History: Beautiful Abandoned NYC Subway Station

Beneath NYC’s City Hall sits an abandoned wonder: the opulent City Hall Station, which has sat in disuse since 1945. Now passengers can finally ride through.
Click Here to Read More »»


20 Amazing Airport, Train & Bus Station Designs

Planes, trains and buses are all part of the daily grind. Travel’s not trivial, however, thanks to architects the world over who add excitement to the journey with truly dynamic designs. Roll ’em!
Click Here to Read More »»


Share on Facebook



[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on 5M SF of Sleek: World’s Largest Subterranean Rail Station

Posted in Creativity

 

Snowflake-Shaped Ski Dome Over River is World’s Largest

15 Nov

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

A six-armed, snowflake-shaped ski dome stretching across the river Gudenåen in Denmark would be the world’s largest if constructed, besting the current record holder, Ski Dubai, by at least 22,500 square meters. The dome consists of three enclosed, arching ramps that cross each other in the center, offering six indoor and two outdoor slopes.

The tallest arch rises 360 feet from the surface of the river at its apex. Rather than being completely enclosed, like most other indoor ski domes, Skidome Denmark, designed by CEBRA for the ski travel agency Danski,  would have a perforated facade that gives skiers a view of the river and surrounding countryside.

In addition to skiing, the dome would have facilities for skateboarding and BMXing, and a landscaped park on the roof. Danski representative Simon Oscar Anderson told Dezeen that the conspicuous river location was chosen to connect the different neighborhoods in the town of Randers, “solving a lot of infrastructural problems for the city.”

“Skidome Denmark brings, quite literally, a piece of the Alps to Denmark: The slopes are developed in association with Alpe d’Huez ski resort in France, and the gradients are copied directly from the most popular pistes,” says CEBRA. “The arches contain a total of six slopes with real snow and varying degrees of difficulty, so that skiers of all ages will be able to find challenges according to skills and experience.”

“Every piste has its own chair lift and the three arches are conjoint by an elevator for transporting skiers between the different levels. In order to ensure variation in the landscape over time, it is possible to transform the pistes’ topography, providing visitors with a different experience each time they visit the ski dome.”

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

5 Places You Probably Never Thought to Go Skiing: Far-Out Ski Destinations from Lebanon to Bolivia


It’s that time of year when most ski resorts are wrapping up their winter ski season and avid urban vacationers are taking those last weekend runs. Ski buffs sometimes brag about skiing at Whis…
7 Comments – Click Here to Read More »»


3 Incredible Gatherings: The Largest, Strangest and Scariest Collective Activities in the World

The following three events are vastly different in terms of geography, history and purpose but are all impressive in their own way and right as these images show.

13 Comments – Click Here to Read More »»


Share on Facebook



[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Snowflake-Shaped Ski Dome Over River is World’s Largest

Posted in Creativity

 

Largest SEO For Photographers Resource List

16 Oct

SEO for Photographers is an ongoing process.  In fact, learning SEO for any industry is the same.  We decided to make the journey a little easier by supplying a list of the best resources to learn SEO for photographers.

If you have suggestions or questions, feel free to comment below.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s organic search results. SEO algortithms are changing rapidly.  Effective SEO is when a person enters a keyword in a search engine and your website appears due to optimization of the keyword.

seo for photographers

SEO for Photographers List

This list includes content specific to SEO for photographers, and additional resources to further grow your SEO knowledge.

  • Photography Web Marketing
  • ProBlogger
  • SEO for Photographers & The Photographers SEO Community
  • Scribe SEO
  • Outspoken Media
  • Search Engine Land
  • SEO for Photographers, A Necessary Evil
  • Mozcast
  • WordPress SEO
  • SEO… The Beginning
  • The Ins and Outs of Inbound Links
  • The 3 Essential Steps for Photography SEO
  • Search Engine Round Table
  • 18 Easy SEO Tips
  • SEOMoz Blog
  • Make Google Love Your Photo
  • SEO Gadget
  • SEO Tips
  • Basic SEO
  • John Doherty’s SEO Advice
  • Not Just For Wedding Photographers Anymore
  • Optimizing Images
  • Effective Websites
  • Distilled
  • 5 Keys to Searchable Images
  • SEO & Photo Blogs
  • Search Engine Journal
  • Link Exchanges

Want to search all of these sites at once?  Use this search box powered by DuckDuckGo.

As I mentioned above, feel free to comment with links to articles about SEO for photographers that you think belong on this list.

Thanks for reading

dslrBlog

 
Comments Off on Largest SEO For Photographers Resource List

Posted in Photography

 
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »