Because Egypt: Return of the Grandiose MegaProjects

Architecture projects don't come much bigger or more challenging than building an entire new capital city from scratch, but that's what the Egyptian Government, Skidmore, Owings & Merril (SOM), and international group of investors Capital City Partners Limited intend with the Capital Cairo project. The recently-proposed city, seven times the size of Paris, and twelve times bigger than Manhattan, would measure approximately 700 sq km (270 sq miles) and be home to 7 million residents.

Planning of the as-yet unnamed city is being led by SOM, and if it goes ahead, it would be located to the east of the current city of Cairo and serve as something of a pressure valve for the existing capital's ever-growing population. The new city would house 7 million people and create an estimated 1.5 million new jobs.

"While we are at the earliest stages of design, the new city will be built on core principles that include places of education, economic opportunity, and quality of life for Egypt’s youthful population," says SOM's Philip Enquist, who is Partner in Charge of Urban Design and Planning at the firm. "The new city will be designed and built in harmony with nature as a showcase of environmentally sensitive development."

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The Towering Transformation of San Francisco...in context

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Shenzen's Crazy Awesome Cloud City! (but will they actually build the arcology?)

Many of the world’s cities are hundreds, even thousands of years old. They evolved from the bottom up as populations changed and demanded change. A new road here, new building there. The result is striking and wild—a kind of physical history.

But what if you could start New York or London from scratch?

To see skylines of the future—look east. Perhaps nowhere is urban growth happening more rapidly than in China. Home to a burgeoning list of megacities (population over 10 million), the country is wide open to ambitious and imaginative urban design.

n a recent contest, the city of Shenzhen went looking for creative proposals for a financial district (think London’s Canary Wharf) including three skyscrapers, a scattering of cultural buildings, and a green space linking it all together.

The co-winning design is a massive complex called Cloud Citizen that’s nearly as wide as it is tall. The structure forms a fused city skyline complete with three towers—the tallest of which would be the second highest in the world (680 meters)—and a series of giant floating skyways. Cloud Citizen would house office, commercial, leisure, and cultural space and include suspended public plazas and roads.

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The FB page of the design (find the picture which is totally wrong for the market!)

NY's Proposed Undeground 'Lowline' Park

Perhaps these guys ought to talk to yesterday's mass producer of forests...otherwise this will look like a mall...bleh.

Plans for Pier 29

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Central SoMa Proposed Heights Plan

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Lessons for San Francisco: City Planning New York and its Public Spaces

McCoppin Hub Plaza Plans

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Polk Street "Improvements"

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Plans for Mission Bay Block 6E

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550 ft Tower at Transbay Block 5

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Planning Started on Ocean Avenue Corridor

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This is going to be highly influenced on whether or not there will be a City College of San Francisco.  They are in process of losing their accreditation. 

A Video of the New Transbay Tower and Transit Center with the Other New Towers

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San Francisco...if the Warriors Have Their Way

They're missing a few buildings that are going up, but...even so.