Uploaded on 2014-10-30 by jrmjr

![Philadelphia][2] The History and the Future of Cities I traveled to Philadelphia PA, USA on October 15 – October 19 and took this photo from the 33rd floor of the Loew’s hotel – formerly the Pennsylvania Savings Fund Society (PSFS) building. The building was designed by Zurich architect William Lescaze in partnership with George Howe who was a graduate of Harvard University. The PSFS building is considered one of the most historically significant buildings in the United States because of its connection to the immigrant population, the great depression, and the extraordinary materials used to build it. The photograph shows the varied shapes and sizes of buildings that span the decades of urban expansion. According to the 2010 census nearly 64% of the Philadelphia workforce arrives by automobile, 26% by public transit, slightly less than 10% walk, and less than 1% ride a bicycle. The University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University are nearby. They look especially close when viewed as a part of the landscape but the students tend to migrate in a fairly tight radius out away from the campus at night and into the many popular social spots where they gather to talk face-to-face and to take photos of each other using their smart phones. The students tend to move farther away from the group to talk on their phones and remain close while texting. Most walk to their destinations. Some ride bicycles. These habits can't be seen but are an important component of big data. Location data and phone data is happening on smart phones but may not be captured and consolidated to identify and understand the habits and pattens at this level that is taking place in the City. As I was leaving the City on October 19 there was an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer about Joe Amento who, at age 53, died of mesothelioma – a disease that’s linked to asbestos exposure which has a 40 year latency period. Joe had lived in an area that had once been the location of asbestos factories. The article made me wonder about the advances and use of synthetic materials that we may touch, inhale or ingest. The article made me wonder how stem cell research, our understanding of human genetics, and our ability to construct models to simulate all manner of things could help avoid the use of harmful materials as future cities are built – another use of big data if you will. Indeed our history continues to serve as a baseline for and a part of the data used to build future cities. [1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14146953614450125.jpg [2]: http:// [3]: http://C:%5CUsers%5Cbmcelheney.bmcelheney-PC%5CDocuments%5CFuture%20Cities%5Cphoto.JPG