The Pennybacker Bridge

"Pennybacker Bridge" is the official name of the structure we Austinites refer to as the "360 Bridge". The structure was named after Percy Pennybacker, a former designer for the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT). It was designed by Clearwater Constructers out of Colorado and opened to traffic on December 3, 1982. Although it spans 1,150 feet, the bridge does not touch the comfortable waters of Lake Austin. It was designed as such in order to allow boat traffic to move freely under it. The bridge is upheld by 72 steel cables, each of which is connected to the arched support beams grounded in either side. It was the second bridge of it's kind built in the world.

The Pennybacker Bridge serves as more than just as a medium for crossing this dammed section of the Colorado River. It additionally serves as a connector for two very different pieces of the city as well as a hub for recreation of all types. This bridge is truly host to a 'boatload' of activity. It sits perpendicular to the Austin Country Club Golf Course as well as the lake which runs under it. Each every warm day of the year, boats cruise just 100 feet below it. People visit the areas near this bridge in order to escape from the high entropy of the city they work in. The bridge is witness to a host of emotions from the dwellers of the city pass over it each and every day. By morning, parents are driving children to school and adults are hastily headed to work, most distracted by thoughts of the day ahead. By afternoon, people have lost the stress they carried by morning, their minds flow as freely as the boats which skim atop the water. People use the urban space in a variety of ways, utilizing each and every square inch of this urban oasis of grass and water. The bridge however, is a constant, always standing as a symbol of the versatility of the city of Austin as shown by those who pass over and under it each and every day. It's not in every city that you can go to work by morning and be on the lake in the afternoon.

Below is a neat 3-D Model of the Pennybacker Bridge:

Here is a link to a 360 degree panorama taken from a position adjacent to the bridge.

Amy's: The Universally Loved Place

This is my city project. I did it at the Amy's Ice Creams down town. All of my photos and pieces of all of my audio clips are in this movie, so I figured there was no point in posting them all separately.

Shanghai, shanghai

Shanghai is one of the largest cities by population in the world. During the last decade of the booming of Chinese economy, it has flourished to a global city, exerting influence over finance, commerce, fashion, technology and culture.


Today, Shanghai is the leading financial center in Asian continent; it's own stock market Shanghai Stock Exchange ranked their among worldwide stock exchanges in terms of trading volume; it has over 20 million residents; it just held the World Exposition in 2010; it has over 13 metro transportation lines; ATP World Tour took place in Shanghai; F1 took place in Shanghai; Transformer 2 was shot in Shanghai......


However, under the shade of prosperity, Shanghai is a vicious magnet, attracting migrant laborers to come and contribute their life to the venal magnates. Let's look at some facts and statistics. Shanghai has a bigger population than Australia's. Out of the 23 million people in the city, 9 million of them are migrants from all over the country. Then, out of the rest of 14 million residents, only 35% of them are natural Shanghaiese, born in Shanghai and speak Shanghaiese, a local dialect only spoken in Shanghai, distinct to Mandarin Chinese. Similar to the immigrants culture in New York City, a foreign is formed by various groups of emigrants in Shanghai.


This is a typical tenement, maybe even a fancy one since it has only one storey and a yard. Behind the tenement we can see that there is a silver modern building. In all the images one can find online, Shanghai is composed by a medley of uneven fashionable buildings, but here in this picture there is only one. On the second door from the right, a red Chinese letter is written on it: "拆“, which means demolishing. The tenement we are looking at here is about to be pulled down, or already pulled down by now. Because another groups of modern building is about to be constructed here. It means that the migrant workers living in the tenement are forced to leave and find somewhere else to squeeze in.


shanghai v. to put by trickery into an undesirable position

Other than the "Shanghai" you can find here, (just kidding, here). There exists the invisible "shanghai" behind it. It locates at every blind spot away from the city's resplendence. Shanghai, lures these migrant workers with its exhaustible opportunities and limitless wealth, cram them into slums and extort cheap labor from them. No "rags to riches" story could possibly blossom there because "infants" are already smothered in the "nursery". While the urban city expands, these "ugly" tenements are torn down and workers are driven out from their home. The city's improvement is based on the sacrifice of diligent, innocent workers. Once a worker offered all his labor to the city, the city repels him, leaving him no opportunity nor even a shack for him to live. Behind the glory and splendor, the human nature of greed and hideousness forms the invisible city - shanghai.

After all, where can he go?