Visitors to Battery Park in Manhattan will find memorials to fallen soldiers, sunken sailors and 400 passengers who perished when a Staten Island ferry was attacked by a giant octopus.

This last event, however convincing (thanks to 250-pound cast-bronze sculpture and plaque), is entirely fictional, part of surprisingly elaborate hoax. That would be hard to guess at a glance, though, given the thought and craft that went into this fake memorial and the other materials that were designed to bolster its credibility.

Artist Joseph Reginella invented the scenario, crafting a website, a mock documentary, news articles and fliers to complete the deception. The monument even directs people to the Ferry Disaster Memorial museum. It also weaves in real-world facts, like the name of the ship.

He had the idea while taking the ferry himself. When his won asked whether there were dangerous creatures waiting below, he invented the story, then spent months elaborating on the fabrication.

To keep the city from taking it away, he has moved the memorial from place to place. To add credibility, he made the day of the event the same as the assassination of President Kennedy, something that would plausibly overshadow such a massive historic disaster.

For many of the world’s citizens (and travelers), the threat of bodily harm from war or terror attacks is a daily fact of life. Constructed of bulletproof material, this backpack is designed to reduce the risk of personal injury in unstable regions.

Dubbed Rhino Skin (part of Second-Chance Gear) and designed by Hadassah College graduate Hila Raam, the pack’s back and side straps pull forward and wrap around the wearer to form bulletproof vest.

On top, a likewise projectile-and-debris-resistant hood can be deployed when one hits the proverbial deck upon hearing an air raid siren, helping shield the wearer, if warned, from additional shrapnel injuries.

While it will not do much in some  extreme, close-proximity situations (where nothing short of full body armor would help), it does cover the head and torso, protecting vital organs and reducing damage potential from rocket, mortar or bomb strikes.

From the designer: the Rhino Skin is “a modular backpack combining kevlar used as a civilian personal protection system in
countries or areas that are under daily attacks, protecting against debris and impact created from missile and rocket attacks.This unique bag pack protects the essential life or death body areas … the head, neck, back and the sides of the body. Most important the brain, heart, liver and kidneys are fully protected.”

Normally, urban design is done with death and destruction in mind – but prevention, rather than facilitation, is the focus. This unique mini-city was made to be destroyed, pummeled into the dust by repeated drills by armed forces.

Built by the United States military in the remote Nevada desert, the Urban Target Complex (R-2301-West aka “Yodaville”) is the target of strafing, sniping, rocketing and bombing (above image by Lance Cpl. Zac Scanlon).

The terrain has a realistic layout patterned after settlements in the Middle East, and the structures themselves – mainly constructed from shipping containers – are stacked up to four stories high.

As Ed Darack writes for Air & Space Magazine, from his experience following troops into the faux action, “The artillery and mortars started firing, troops advanced toward the target complex, and aircraft of all types—carefully controlled by students on the mountain top—mounted one attack run after another. At one point so much smoke and dust filled the air above the “enemy” that nothing could be seen of the target—just one of the real-world problems the students had to learn to cope with that day.”

BldgBlog asks what we should make of mysterious military architecture, often hidden from public view and thus veiled from scrutiny or critique. “So what, for instance, might something like a Yodaville National Park, or Urban Target Complex National Monument, look like? How would it be managed, touristed, explored, mapped, and understood? What sorts of trails and interpretive centers might it host?”