Autodesk is expected to announce the release of AutoCAD for the Mac, iPad and iPhone today! This represents the return of AutoCAD to the Mac platform after nearly 20 years.

MacRumors first revealed screenshots of the beta version of AutoCAD back in May which had undergone early testing.

Meanwhile a mobile version called AutoCAD WS will be available free on Apple’s App Store for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. The free version is said to allow users to view CAD designs but only make minor changes.

Hopefully the Mac OS X version of AutoCAD will be released by the end of October. Exciting news for all those Mac fan-boys wishing for years, our dreams are finally coming true!

The MTA, in my opinion, should be one of the most lucrative “businesses” in the world rather than be in debt and sacrificing and/or cutting service that millions of people depend on everyday.

In a recent article by the New York Times it was stated that: “…subway riders will most likely notice leakier, dirtier stations. Part of the authority’s savings will be achieved at the expense of cleaning crews who fix water leaks and clean the steps of escalators. Automated MetroCard readers at the turnstiles will be inspected less often, and hundreds of the system’s oldest subway cars will stay in service longer.” This is completely unacceptable, and what’s worse is this attitude could lead to dangerous and hazardous health or physical risks to the riders.

My Two Ideas How to Save the MTA.

Selling Ads (better)

flickr photo credit: oblaat
For a moment, let’s consider that according to the MTA website there are 5.1 million people who use the system everyday as of 2009. Now let’s think of that in terms of internet traffic, which is equivalent to Google’s daily traffic (calculated from monthly average). I don’t know many people who thought of our subway in these terms, each day New Yorkers and tourists use our subway just as much as the entire world uses google.com!  The subway is unavoidable  for the majority of commuters and the amount of opportunities for advertisement placement is unlimited. With the “guaranteed” volume several millions travelers, selling ads should be lucrative since it’s one of the biggest businesses in the world. After all how do you think Google got all its money (become the #1 used service and sell ads). Now I understand the MTA already sells ads but it could be better, and I also understand that Google’s type of service doesn’t require nearly as many people as the MTA does to operate, which leads me to my next step to save the MTA.

Stop Charging “per Ride”

flickr photo credit: jasonstaten
This may be a long shot because I don’t believe it’s ever been attempted, but what if the MTA stopped charging New Yorkers on a daily or monthly basis and instead taxed the 8.3 million residents of the five boroughs. This would allow the MTA to collect money from people who don’t even ride the subway/bus system as a result dispersing the burden more evenly across the local public. This would also allow New Yorkers to ride the subway/bus systems without concern of individual or monthly payments or yearly fare hikes. Furthermore, the 45.6 million tourists or non-New York residents would pay an elevated fare rate to boost improvements and maintenance of the system instead of permitting widespread degradation.

The MTA is the 4th most traveled mass transit system in the world, how do you want our subways to look?

flickr photo credit: bnz506

flickr photo credit: michelle_wright

Hot Puppy/Wet Puppy, originally uploaded by tscibilia.

Just hanging out at my girlfriend’s house with our dog and decided to let him go for a swim. Since he hates rain I would never have guessed him to enjoy laying in a pool!

I guess when the temperature is 105 degrees +, you’ll do pretty much anything to stay cool. And I’ll admit, he’s a pretty cool looking pup.

French architect Jean Nouvel recently unveiled a shining new LEED Certified skyscraper on 11th avenue in New York City. The building features a stunning facade composed of 1,700 different panes of glass and is described by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect as a “vision machine”. With apartments reaching from $1.6 million to $22 million, one wonders if New York really needs another green luxury building when there’s so much need for affordable housing. But nonetheless, 100 Eleventh Avenue is a stunning portrayal of what modern design can accomplish in a city like the Big Apple.

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Ocean levels are rising around the globe, so rather than tethering our buildings to the sinking shoreline why not suit them for a life at sea? That’s the approach behind the Water-Scraper, a futuristic self-sufficient floating city. A special mention in this year’s eVolo Skyscraper Competition, the design expands the concept of a floating island into a full-fledged underwater skyscraper that harvests renewable energy and grows its own food.

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Ocean levels are rising around the globe, so rather than tethering our buildings to the sinking shoreline why not suit them for a life at sea? That’s the approach behind the Water-Scraper, a futuristic self-sufficient floating city. A special mention in this year’s eVolo Skyscraper Competition, the design expands the concept of a floating island into a full-fledged underwater skyscraper that harvests renewable energy and grows its own food.

Read the rest of Underwater Skyscraper is a Self-Sufficient City at Sea

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Post tags: “sustainable architecture”, evolo 2010 skyscraper competition, floating architecture, futuristic city, Green Building, green design, h2o scraper, Sarly Adre Bin Sarkum, squid skyscraper, sustainable design, water scraper

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In addition to causing widespread death and destruction, last week’s devastating earthquake in Chile may have shifted the Earth’s axis permanently and created shorter days, according to scientists at NASA. Based on calculations thus far, every day from now on should be 1.26 microseconds shorter. While the change probably won’t be affecting our daily schedules too much (a microsecond is a millionth of a second), it is unsettling to think about how much impact something as concentrated as an earthquake can have on the entire planet.

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Please check back frequently because I’ll experimenting with all new features like the new WPtouch 2.0 Pro plugin which essentially turns this website into an amazing webapp for the iPhone.

BOOKS are what a library is primarily designed to house, this design seeks to emphasize this. I found that even in a book we can find structure; the binding of a book is inherently rigid, however I focused my studies in structure by deforming the page of the book. I derived models by using techniques of tearing and adhering. These studies allowed me to experiment with form and apply program to its logical sections.

HORIZONTAL VS. VERTICAL is a methodology I derived from the studies of the book and the characteristics of tearing the pages up from a horizontal plane to a vertical plane. This thesis provided me with the asymmetrical design you see as a final proposal. By having the reading room and research be defined by the horizontal plane, while the stacks would be defined by the vertical plane.

Year: 2003
Semester: Fall
Class: Design
Professor: Erika Hinrichs
Size: 122,000 sf
Program: The second year design studio is intended to introduce the primary issues of “site” and “program.” The site is to be investigated as both a condition and as a specific context. The program will be researched as a concept as well as a utilitarian concern.