Comments on: Airport-Docks for New York (Nov, 1931)

By: Docks of New York (1945) | Old Old Films

Docks of New York (1945) | Old Old Films — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 06:02:33 +0000

By: Elron’s View from the Edge » Blog Archive » Past and Future Paradigms

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 18:33:47 +0000

[...] I bring all this up because what fascinated me most about Kuhn’s theories was that they seemed to me to apply in so many different fields of human endeavor. History and futurism also work in paradigms, paradigms that are closely related to the ones in science, but also in politics and society at large. At specific times in history, the way we think about ourselves, and especially the future, are really more reflections of the existing paradigms of the day. All of this is a (VERY) long-winded way of introducing this Modern Mechanix bit from Science and Mechanics, 1931. Its an example of how a perfectly reasonable projection of the future can seem so preposterous in hindsight, simply because of an unexpected paradigm shift. [...]

By: Stannous

Stannous — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 04:00:39 +0000

Another airplane-on-the-roof plan.
Found this about the designer:
In 1925 the American aluminum giant Alcoa commissioned the planning of a model town on the banks of the Saguenay River, to be built around the largest aluminum smelter in the Western world. Inspired by the American City Beautiful movement, New York architect Harry B. Brainerd drew up an ambitious master plan for a regional metropolis of 50,000 inhabitants. Responding to the majestic site, Brainerd carefully sited residential districts of straight and curved streets connected by radiating avenues between the area’s small river valleys. The downtown area, facing the smelter, was designed as a “Civic Center” of monumental scale. As the largest Canadian company town built this century, Arvida bears witness to the rapid evolution of urban planning as designers employed new approaches in prefabrication, standardization, and public hygiene. Here the rigorous zoning of commercial, residential, and industrial sectors ensured that public amenities were carefully integrated into the landscape and fabric of the city.