Would you take a ride on a 17-story water slide? The Verruckt Meg-A-Blaster being constructed in 2014 at the Schlitterbahn Kansas City Waterpark will be the tallest water slide in the world. By the way, the slide’s name,“Verruckt,” is German for “insane.” [Gawker]
Could the new SkyRise Miami tower be analogous to the Eiffel Tower? Developer Jeff Berkowitz seems to think so. The bayfront building, designed by Bernardo Fort-Brescia, FAIA, of Miami-based firm Arquitectonica, will be a 1,000-foot observation tower and amusement center. [Miami Herald]
The city of London plans to use heat generated from the Underground to provide energy for several hundred homes located near the Tube. [The Atlantic Cities]
The Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian’s design museum in New York, may be closed for renovations until 2014, but the museum has released a beta version of its website that offers new and “addictive” ways to explore its collection. Currently, about 55 percent of the Cooper-Hewitt collection is in the online database. [Slate]
Is the United Kingdom’s century-old garden city model the cause of its current housing problems? The 2014 Wolfson Economics Prize will offer £250,000 to applicants providing the best answer to the question: "How would you deliver a new garden city which is visionary, economically viable and popular?" [The Atlantic Cities]
What can you do with an vacant, bland federal building set to be torn down in March 2014? Splash paint all over it. The former National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency building in D.C. will be used as a public art canvas, featuring several different art installations. [WTOP]
The U.S. Department of the Interior sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) over FERC’s decision to replace the existing wooden flashboard with a rubber-made pneumatic one at the Pawtucket Dam in Lowell, Massachusetts. Park officials believe the replacement would damage the historic dam. [Lowell Sun]
The San Francisco Chronicle interviews Bay Area-based architecture and landscape photographer Robert Vente. [The San Francisco Chronicle]
The Burj Kahlifa, 1 WTC, and three other “Architectural Wonders Creating a Buzz Worldwide.” [Chicago Tribune]
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