[Image: Singapore expands beneath the Pacific Ocean; via the BBC]. Singapore has embarked upon the excavation of an underground oil reserve, expanding the city's industrial port beneath the floor of the Pacific Ocean. It is "no ordinary construction site," the
BBC tells us, but an elaborate project of engineering and infrastructure currently underway "several hundred feet underground, below the seabed in Singapore."
There, workers are "laboring around the clock to carve out an enormous network of caverns that will eventually store vast amounts of oil."
[Images: Singapore expands beneath the Pacific Ocean; via the BBC]. More specifically, "Five oil storage caverns are being dug out under the seabed of Banyan Basin, off Jurong island, a series of mostly-reclaimed islands that house most of Singapore's petrochemical industry."
Artificial caverns built offshore from manmade islands?
The terrestrial mechanics of Singapore's existence are increasingly interesting, if ecologically problematic. As
Pruned's recent look at the city's
sand-importation economy shows, the island-nation exists through a near-ceaseless act of geological accumulation, piecing itself together and expanding from the inside out using deposits of earth taken from neighboring countries.
Singapore,
Pruned writes, "has been reclaiming land from the sea since the mid-1960s, expanding its total land area by nearly 25% as a result. And it's still growing. With no hinterlands to supply it with natural resources, however, it has to import sand, the primary landfill material. But exactly where, the Singaporean government does not disclose. Its supply lines are not public information."
Earlier this year, we looked at the idea of
forensic geology, whereby even a single piece of sand can be tracked back to its terrestrial origins. As that
link explains, the source of electronics-grade silicon is often deliberately occluded from public documents, treated as an industrial trade secret. Here, though, it is not microchips but internationally recognized political territory that is being mined, traded, and assembled—a black economy without audit or receipts.
Singapore's off-the-books experiment in sovereign expansion—not through military conquest but through intelligent geotextiles, Herculean dredging projects, and, of course, new undersea caverns—is perhaps a kind of limit-case in how nation-states not only utilize natural resources but literally build themselves from the ground up (and down) as political acts of landscape architecture.
(Earlier on BLDGBLOG: Artificial Caverns Expanding Beneath Chicago).
I spent the day in Easton, Maryland yesterday on the Chesapeake Bay for a new project and while walking around outside, was astonished by the number of unusual mushrooms I saw growing everywhere.
The structure of these little plants always intrique me; the ribbing, the spots and the cupping -they're so amazing and rather architectural, don't you think?
I know nothing about mushrooms so would never even think of trying to taste or touch any of them for fear of poisoning, but always appreciate them. I had never seen any this yellow green color before.
This monster mushroom had numerous heads and was probably 12" in diameter! I suppose there was one good thing to come from this wet, humid weather we've been having: mushrooms!
[Image: Inside the Picher, Oklahoma, supergrid, by Clint Langevin and Amy Norris].
[Images: Photos of waste rock piles in Picher; (top) 
[Image: The "kit of parts"].
[Images: A wanderer above the sea of white cubes gazes at the Picher supergrid].
[Images: More views inside the supergrid; second image is simply a detail from the first (
[Images: The model, by 
While in Brooklyn a few weeks ago, I came across a small city park that I had never heard of in Greenpoint, which was surprising considering its' loveliness, 
Opened in 1891, the park gained beautiful structures and monuments throughout its' history which attracted my eye. 
Designed in 1910 by the architectural firm 
The beautiful neo-classical detailing of the structure isn't surprising as Helmle received his training at the well known architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White. 
The yellow brick and limestone facade also features a beautiful segmented beadboard ceiling with trimwork picked out with yellow paint.
I just think this is such a lovely building, don't you? I wonder what the original light fixtures were (the junction boxes are still in the ceiling)
Located inside the crescent shaped building is a WWI memorial created by noted sculptor Carl Augustus Herber in 1923.
In her left hand Winged Victory holds a laurel for victory and a palm frond for peace in the other.
While I was drawn in by the architecture, I believe the locals simply appreciate the open space and lush green!
McGorlick Park is located between Driggs and Nassau Avenues & Russell and Monitor streets in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. 
While in NY this past weekend, I had to run an errand with friends at a Toys R Us and had a pleasant surprise; famous NY buildings in minature built of my favorite childhood toy, legos!
The beloved Chrysler Building was also included.
Even King Kong wasn't forgotten on the top of the Empire State Building!
If you're in NY and find yourself near Times Square (AKA tourist h*ll), stop in Toys R Us at 1514 Broadway to see the sites (or at least stop by candyland for some treats!)
