The Post-Inversion City

I finally got around to finishing Towards a New Architecture this weekend, and had urban planning on my mind. Corbusier's big ideas put into practice, tall concrete high-density blocks in places like Cabrini-Green, are all but demolished. There's still something great about that book though, just the weird writing style he uses and the bold statements scattered all over the place make me want to keep coming back to it. They aren't suggestions or ideas for a new city - they are his solutions, take them or leave them. It seems to me like his ideas were never undertaken to their full extent, just the easy parts of his redevelopment plans realized. 

The cities that Le Corbusier and followers like Robert Moses desired are long out of style, their damage still being undone. Part of what makes their plans problematic is the heavy reliance on cars and commuters going from the suburbs to the city and back again. 

A new article is up at The New Republic dealing with demographic issues of the 21st century American city. The argument generally goes that Jane Jacob's ideal of families in the city living close to their jobs in vibrant neighborhoods is becoming closer and closer to a reality, driven by rising fuel costs and a weariness with suburban lifestyles. Of course with all these new affluent people moving to the inner city, people will get displaced. And that is the interesting potential future for the city - will American cities begin to look like Vancouver, or -to a more extreme extent- Paris? Will suburbs fall into decay and crime as low income families are pushed out of the denser city centers? 

The author doesn't think it will go that that extreme and I don't either, suburbs like mine are tending to get denser and more city-like, trying to attract the same sort of people who'd like to move to Chicago with high-rise condos and denser city centers. But even as murder rates have declined over the past few decades in Cook County, the collar counties have had spikes in violent crime. 

Anyway the article is a good one, it's an interesting overview of recent trends and is pretty link-heavy to other good sites.

Hidden Depths

Ocean descent is about weight, slowness, tonnes of sea water bearing down, and the discomfiting realisation that humans are alien to most of our own planet.

I just read a pretty amazing article covering a brief history of deep ocean exploration. The deep ocean was one of my obsessions when I was little, just like dinosaurs and Star Wars (not uncommon, I think). I guess I moved on, but the author's descriptions of the deep sea definitely rekindled my interest. I bet the library has a copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Happy Birthday

It was strange, I forgot it was my birthday until I got an email from Q101 last night congratulating me. So a radio station had to remind me that I turned 22. 

I'm spending most of today working so this won't really be that much of  a birthday. 

I've been working pretty long hours so I haven't had a lot of time to go through my vacation photos, but I'll put some up here and start posting more regularly soon.

Traveling

From tomorrow until Wednesday I'll be hiking in Grand Teton with my family. It'll be nice to get out of Elmhurst for a while.

My to-do list when I get back:

• Scan/photograph old work

• Resume job-hunting in full force

• Get started on that project

• Be at work eight hours a day....

so yeah I'm not sure how things will get done but I'll probably post again sometime next week with photos from the trip

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ben shared a link to the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe and I gave it a try today. They didn't turn out perfectly but they were delicious. They're so buttery I almost felt sick after my first one, but I'd recommend making them.

Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chilling

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons
(8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (see note)
Sea salt.

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.