The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (IDTP), with headquarters in New York and Hamburg and a field office in Buenos Aires, has an exhibition starting today at the Center for Architecture in New York, showing architect visions of ten cities in the word, including the La Boca neighborhood in Buenos Aires, that show the positive possibilities of green urban growth.
The exhibition is called “Our Cities Ourselves” which strives to “show the visions of ten of the worlds most fascinating cities from ten of the world’s leading architects.”
The exhibition organizers say that “Nearly all of the cities are in developing nations, because this is where most urban growth will happen over the next 20 years. They have the opportunity to learn from and leapfrog over the mistakes made by developed nations, particularly the over-dependence of cars in the United States.”
Buenos Aires is described by “Our Cities Ourselves” as follows:
“Buenos Aires is Argentina’s largest city, with nearly a third of the country’s population living there. Its metro, known as subté, opened in 1913, the first in the Southern Hemisphere. Even though the public transit system is well developed, the use of cars continues to grow and traffic congestion with it.”
In Buenos Aires the area of focus of “Our Cities Ourselves” is La Boca, “site of the old industrialized port and now home to squatters, poor housing and an eight-story highway viaduct.”
The proposal for La Boca is “Create people-friendly waterfront, accessing existing popular cafes, bars and tango clubs. Lay down promenades with bike lanes and public sides either side of the river, linked by a BRT, water taxis and pedestrian/bicycle bridge. Transform old freight line to pedestrian and bicycle boulevard with new housing and shops.”
The “Our Cities Ourselves” exhibition starts today and runs through September 11 at the Center for Architecture in New York.
More information and some of the images can be found at www.ourcitiesourselves.org
The Mendoza Sun
