Urban Planet is a daily roundup of blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
Founded in 1766 and completed in 1791, the Mission San Francisco de Asís is feeling its age. The Mission is the oldest building in San Francisco, having survived two major earthquakes in the early 1900s. In the early ’90s, the Mission underwent major conservation but the work is not complete. In an effort to preserve the mission, a company called CyArk has undertaken a field capture process to digitally document the Mission using terrestrial scanners. The 200 scans yielded by this process will allow for the creation for a variety of digital applications as well as architectural drawings to aid in rebuilding should the need occur. (The Atlantic Cities)
Congratulations, North Korea, on your first skatepark. The park is part of the Ryugyong Health Complex, a part of leader Kim Jong-un’s new emphasis on physical culture. As film maker Patrik Wallner points out, this represents a real shift in the Democratic People’s Republic, “Skateboarding is very harmless in the eyes of the North Koreans, but it’s not tolerated. They kept referring to it as ‘nonsense,’ meaning skateboarding wasn’t accepted, and would be denied in most places, especially at any war memorials or statues of the Kims — places that have marble stairs, ledges, ramps, obstacles that are essential for skateboarding.” (GOOD)
Image from The Atlantic Cities
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