The built environment becomes the backdrop from all kinds of imaginative (if improbable) scenes when this London photographer adds a single layer to each of his images: a black piece of cut paper.

Rich McCor, also known as “paperboyo,” transforms landmark architecture and urban design elements, sometimes turning them into other structures (like roller coasters) or something else entirely (the fire under a rocket ship).

These interventions often transform the scale of their subjects, reducing them for human use as, say, a stand for a telescope or a prop for a gymnast.

In each frame, the hand also adds another dimension, for a net effect of three different scales — the background, cutout and photographer.

More broadly, these images suggest work our own imagination can do while traveling — patterns that can be revealed by squinting our eyes and thinking just a bit outside the box about familiar structures.

Fans can follow McCor’s adventures in Around the World in Cut-Outs.

Unlike most of New York City’s standout architecture, this sculptural, almost alien-looking structure set to rise above the new Hudson Yards development will be open for the public to explore. Architect Thomas Heatherwick envisions this centerpiece as a way to take all of the visitors to the square and “sort of sprinkle them into the air,” encouraging them to interact with each other and with their surroundings in a new way.

Influenced by images of Indian stepwells, which use hundreds of flights of stairs to descend beneath ground level, this observation deck uses flights of stairs almost like building blocks to reach into the sky.

The ‘Vessel’ design is made up of 154 interconnecting flights of stairs, with nearly 2,500 individual steps and 80 landings, and if you want to walk the whole thing, you’ll travel an entire mile while remaining in the air above Hudson Yards. It’s 50 feet in diameter at the feet, blooming into 150 feet at the top, and gleams appealingly in polished copper.

The square at Hudson Yards is a collaboration between Heatherwick Studio and landscape architecture firm Nelson Byrd Woltz, set to feature 5 acres of trees, perennial gardens, pathways, seating and a 200-foot-long fountain mimicking a flowing river.

The square will be surrounded by a whopping 16 brand new skyscrapers containing nearly 13 millions square feet of office, residential and retail space. The largest development in New York City since Rockefeller center was built in 1939, it’s currently under construction, and estimated to be fully completed by 2023.

“We put ourselves under this vast pressure because we felt, intuitively, that it should be something that you haven’t experience already before,” says Heatherwick. “It has no commercial job to do. It’s not based on electronics. It’s not based on advertising. it’s extremely interactive but it’s properly using your physicality. There’s something that is timeless about humans and our physicality. The project, in a way, is a big invitation. It’s just there to hopefully mean things to different people, to not tell you how you’re supposed to think. It’s like a platform for life.”

The Forbidden City in Beijing, China, is one of the most-visited landmarks in the world, but now its secret garden, closed to the public for close to a century, is scheduled to open its gates.

Built in the 15th Century, the Forbidden City was a center of power for hundreds of years, a vast and sprawling complex of residential, cultural and political spaces. While tourists are welcome to explore much of the complex, the Secret Garden within its walls was shut off from view after the last emperor was deposed.

Current conservation efforts are underway, aimed at making the space historically accurate down to the last detail. For better and worse, the Secret Garden has been largely untouched for hundreds of years, closed off and left theoretically intact but also subject to decay. The first stage of the project was completed in 2008, and the final phases are scheduled to finish by 2020, at which time visitors will be able to enter once more.

More details from Hyperallergic: “The Qianlong Garden Conservation Project is a joint initiative between the Palace Museum, which manages the Forbidden City, and the World Monuments Fund (WMF). Last month WMF Senior Advisor Henry Ng discussed the project’s progress at a gathering of WMF’s Moai Circle at the bar Lumos. ‘Many of the threads were lost for how this place was built,” he explained, adding that the major challenge is retrieving traditional Chinese crafts that vanished in the country’s 20th-century cultural upheaval.'” (images via Si Bing/Palace Museum, the Palace Museum/World Monuments Fund and David Stanley via Inhabitat).

Quite possibly the most filmed and photographed bridge in the world, the Sixth Street Viaduct, spanning the Los Angeles River, is a challenging icon to replace, but the Ribbon of Light aims to try.

The famous Art-Deco viaduct in question, built in 1932, has been featured in dozens of films, television shows, music videos and video games, including Grease, Gone in 60 Seconds, Terminators 2 and 3, Madonna’s ‘Borderline’ video and episodes of Lost and 24.

Some sequences show the most recognizable part (directly over the LA river) being driven across, but many are shot from the river below. Unfortunately for fans, its was deemed seismically unstable thanks to compromised concrete supports, despite its historic landmark status with the city.

Architect Michael Maltzan, responsible for its replacement, has made his design an epic ode to its iconic curves, reprising and repeating them across a much longer portion of the new structure.

The new structure features arched trusses to be illuminated at night, suspended over a series of parks and paths being developed below and alongside it. A series of staircases and ramps will allow pedestrians and bikers to move up, down and across it as well.

The architects are clearly cognizant of the landmark they are replacing, and, in a way, are preserving its visibility through these repetitive forms, which actually extend much further out on either side than the original arches.

From the architects: “The project foresees a multi-modal future for the city, one that accommodates cars, incorporates significant new bicycle connections, and also increases connectivity for pedestrians to access the viaduct, not only at its endpoints, but along the entirety of the viaduct, linking the bridge, the Los Angeles River, and future urban landscapes in a more meaningful relationship.”

“These pairs of repeated concrete arches and cable-supported roadway deck are simultaneously elegant and efficient. The design approach unifies and optimizes the architecture of the viaduct through repetition, creating a unique configuration through the repeated use of arches, roadway and pier forms: an iconic structure.”

A massive 14,000-square-foot green roof is the latest addition to a city-approved pier conversion plan, part of an overall scheme to convert Pier 57 in New York City into an extensive modular shipping container mall on the water.

Developed by Youngwoo & Associates and designed by LOT-EK, famous for their extensive work with cargo containers, the SuperPier project will rent out retail space to stores in containers plugged into the larger existing structural framework.

Shade structures and seating are provided throughout to park area, allowing people to explore and rest along the length of the transformed open space. A series of plants organized to bloom in various seasons will add color year-round.

The project includes restaurants, an amphitheater and observation decks, all tucked into the currently-disused pier building.

As an historic landmark, external modifications like the park above must be carefully hidden from view, ultimately informing the design of the finished shapes and spaces. The result is a combination of historical facades and fresh interior and rooftop strategies.