The East Coast Greenway is already a third of the way to completion, and when finished will stretch from Calais, Maine, to Key West, Florida, passing through 16 states and 25 cities along the way.

Developed by the non-profit East Coast Greenway Alliance, the aim is to provide a continuous and ever-changing set of views and experiences to travelers on foot or in non-motorized vehicles.

Its creators note that the “route has been chosen to provide the traveler with an ever-changing, interesting and scenic landscape, whether urban, suburban, small town, industrial or rural,” accessible to cyclists, walkers, joggers and runners. Along the way, the Greenway also syncs up with public transportation at key spots, allowing easy access and egress for people seeking to pursue one stretch of it or another.

“It’s about seeing America at the right speed, where you can take in all of the culture around you. And you don’t have a windshield between yourself and the community.” While the project has been in the works for years, new funding and permissions gained in the last year have propelled it forward more quickly, helping its facilitators connect the dots along the nearly 3,000-mile route.

Border City is being designed as a bridge between nations, a novel approach to creating international unity at a time when some politicians call for building walls. Proposed by architect Fernando Romero of the firm FR-EE at the London Design Biennale, this visionary project is to be developed along a region of border covering parts of Texas, New Mexico and Chihuahua.

The plan is centered around an extant border crossing and aligned with other crossings in the area as well. It may sound far-fetched, but Romero is already negotiating with private land owners in the region as well as developers and investors. He hopes to make the city a reality within a decade.

Romero believes our existing concept of borders is “primitive” and sees and urgent need to move past binary understandings of such divides. Already, many global centers of economic activity are centered not around cities but rather clusters of metropolitan areas, often along national borders.

“This is a long-term vision, a vision that is not about building walls but about thinking more ambitiously about the mutual relationship [between two countries] and about what borders really mean between countries” said the architect. It is also a reflection of current reality, where there already “exists a very strong mutual dependency of economies and trades.”

The urban plan consists of interconnected hexagonal-shaped grids, each with their own center and linked to existing transportation corridors and border crossings. If his proposal is fully realized, the city could even become a special economic zone (see also: Hong Kong and Andorra) that would enjoy semi-independent governance.

Even without that kind of designation and semi-autonomy, however, there would still be big benefits to residents and businesses in terms of easy access between countries due to optimized transit and city planning. Many “twinned” border cities along the Rio Grande have already benefited from close ties despite extant borders, despite the lack of centralized and ground-up plans to optimize connectivity.

“What you’re seeing here is the first binational city to be designed from zero between the United States and Mexico,” said Romero. “This is one of the most active borders in the world in terms of commerce and traffic of goods but also in terms of human activity and employment.”

After years of design and development, the first naturally filtered public swimming pool in the United States is set to open later this month in Minneapolis, the largest city in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Located close to the Mississippi River in Webber Park, the project draws on European precedents but Minnesota law had to be changed to allow for this novel, chemical-free approach.

A series of filtration strategies including appropriate plants, bacteria and microorganisms serve to keep the pool organically free of harmful bacteria and nutrient build-ups.  Some city swimmers will still need to accustom themselves to the unusual look of the water, appearing more like that of a lake than a chemically-cleaned pool, but for most Minnesotans this should not prove too difficult.

The main 500,000-gallon swimming area has space for up to 500 people in the water at once and a 13-foot deep end for diving, while an adjacent bioengineered pond helps to cycle and clean water from (then return it to) the human-occupied side. Over 2.5 miles of underground and underwater pipes push and pull water through this complex but effective system.

The project has not been without problems, including delays and additional costs, but as the first of its kind in the country there were bound to be some setbacks along the way. Migrating ducks and toads, for instance, attempted to settle the pool while it was under construction and had to be scared away and moved along, respectively. Poorly-chosen fill had to be replaced, weather pushed back elements of construction and various other surprises found on-site contributed to slower execution. Still, this ground-breaking approach represents a solid test case for other states interested in pursuing similarly sustainable organic pools as well as a legislative precedent for other areas with similar laws currently prohibiting naturally filtered designs (lead image via CBS MN).

It can be hard to explain to someone from Europe or elsewhere just how vast and variegated the United States really is, but this short epic photo series is a great start. It depicts a series of surreal landscapes, carefully chosen to show the amazing range of environments found across the American West.

Photographer Reuben Wu came originally from the United Kingdom and was awed by what he found traveling cross-country in America. On his latest trip from his home in Chicago, he looped through the northern and southern Midwest on his way to the West Coast and back, taking incredible images along the way, dubbing the series Cross Country.

He traveled this route with a plan: capture scenes at night when natural marvels were devoid of human activity and using technology to calculate when peak moonlight would allow for stunning visibility. The result is this set of vivid images that make familiar places seem alien, and speak both to beautiful variety and carefully found settings.

Subjects of the series span from Illinois and Indiana through North Dakota and Nevada, California, New Mexico and Kansas, and featured sites (or sights) include: Yellowstone, Badlands, Death Valley, the Grand Canyon and the Grand Prismatic Spring, the Devil’s Tower and the Smith Mansion.

Imagine the state of it: the United States executive mansion after 150 years of continuous occupation. By this time, the already-aging White House had been retrofit with a maze of modern amenities like plumbing, electricity and heating – none of which this expansive estate was constructed to house.

Per reporter Brian Resnick, sagging ceilings, scaffolding and supports had rendered the structure an unsanitary fire hazard by the late 1940s – some suggested scrapping it entirely and starting from scratch, but President Truman lobbied to keep and rehabilitate it.

As these amazing photographs from the National Archives & Truman Library illustrate, the entire interior had to be ripped out. Historically valuable materials and decor were meticulously cataloged and stored, and temporary steel columns and beams erected to keep the exterior from collapsing.

To get equipment like bulldozers inside and clear debris required disassembling machines to avoid bursting holes in the sides of the structure – rebuilding would have been cheaper and faster, but this careful treatment preserved irreplaceable pieces of US history.

In all rooms and on all levels, lathe, plaster, brick and mortar were laid bare, giving a unique one-time view – fortunately captured in photographs – into the hidden structure and secret architecture of the most important residence in America.