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Norman Foster's JP Morgan Chase Building 270 Park Avenue, with 60 stories, the 1390 feet skyscraper in NY City for ten thousand Chase employees, was started in 2021 after the area around Grand Central Terminal was opened up for new buildings. It has large windows to let in more sunlight high ceilings and wide open spaces and adds a feeling of civic pride- double the air of other modern buildings and 30% more sunlight to make it livable and inviting to people and employees. WSJ reporter Michael Lewis looks at the new building and its architectural style putting naked steel beams to open sight and trying to meet human needs for space, light, and civic mindedness, openness to the city and the world.

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Extremely difficult engineering challenges for fueling, refueling in space, the lander for moon's surface, lie ahead for a Moon base planned for 2028. This time the NASA program will go on uninterrupted by swings in public sentiment.

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Pep Guardiola and Valverde on the Manchester City loss to Real Madrid 3-0 and Valverde's hat trick. The Uruguay midfielder said: “We’d put some emphasis on training the long ball from goal kicks. City like to press high – they like to go one-v-one, and that means we might have space in behind them to exploit.” Courtois long goal kick gave Valverde his first goal. Manchester City missed Norwegian Haaland in this game.

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On May 11, NYT shows the rail network in India opening with the first trains taking 45 million migrants to homes in all parts of the country. Australia calls for an international inquiry into the cause of the coronavirus pandemic and its origins in China. Russia begins a cautious reopening with the governors of provinces having powers for reopening based on local conditions. In Spain restrictions are gradually being lifted but the major cities of Barcelona and Madrid are still in lockdown. And as Germany the first country to reopen opens up its business and schools the crucial R ratio of reproduction of the virus -with 1 being the number at which it grows again and below 1 showing control of spread- moves up to above 1.

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The old Fifth Avenue NYC building that Lord & Taylor department store opened in 1914 is remodeled by Amazon for offices that will have 2000 employees or a fifth of its New York workforce. Konrad Putzier of the WSJ looks at the problems of renovating old spaces in cities across the US. The cost is a factor as it cost Amazon $978 million. Renovating it means staying within what the old Italian Renaissance based design would allow without too much cost. This means less natural lighting, putting more interior meeting space which does not require windows. Only the new rooftop 2 floors have flexibility to put in modern windows. 

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In a new first China's Chang'e-4 probe is about to touch down Jan 3rd on the dark side of the moon, and dispatch a rover in a vast crater to explore the moon. China is using this as the first step in setting up a planned lunar base by 2030. This happens as president Trump revives the U.S. space program after it languished under the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations restricting to unmanned space exploration.

China National Space Administration is the best funded space agency in the world after U.S.'s NASA. Some experts say NASA has lost its focus falling victim to shifting political agendas. An earlier funded program to return astronauts to the moon by NASA was cancelled in 2010 during the Obama administration. This is now jolting the Trump administration into action to revive the programs whose goals are now harder to achieve for the moon program dates in 2023.

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Robert Redford American actor and founder of Sundance Film Festival of Utah passed away at age 89 years in September 2025. He is remembered for giving independent films a start by develping the infrastructure for this in Utah. Redford started buying land in Utah early in his career as he realized that the Los Angeles area where he grew up was becoming congested and lacked green space with expanding development. Utah also offered him the wide open spaces in the mountains and an opportunity to work with independent films of artistic value. He worked with director Sidney Pollack and actors Paul Newman and Dustin Hoffman, Jane Fonda, in many popular films including- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Way We Were, and Out of Africa. He also directed films such as The Ordinary People winning an Academy Award for direction.  After Van Nuys High School, he attended the University of Colorado on a baseball scholarship before dropping out. He spent time in Europe followed by study at the Pratt Institute in New York, and classes at American Academy of Dramatic Arts, which led to his acting in a Broadway play Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park in 1963.  Of films Redford never let the publicity affect him and cared little for being well known, preferring the wide open spaces of Utah exactly because he knew so little about the area and also because it felt like home not being so well known. Sydney Pollack sees Redford as representing a little bit of the American essence as it were, part of the old American landscape of the 1950's and 1960's, of the old heroic figures of that period in American history. ...

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This report in The Times points out that the world of work is changing as employers reduce office space and shift workers to work from home with some limited time spent in the office environment to link up with colleagues. This report cites a survey that shows 45% of companies are saying they do not need 70% of office space.  The Times has been published for one year with employees not coming into the office. The Reach which publishes the Daily Mirror and Daily Express in UK has cut office space and 75% of employees in future will work full time from home. Banks are also making that move- HSBC is getting rid of 40% of global office space, Lloyds Bank is getting rid of 20% of office space. With these changes comes the question when did this idea of working out large offices start? It started in 1906 with the Larkin Administration Building in New York. It was based on the ideas of Frederick Taylor's scientific management ideas and was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright to recreate something like a factory floor. Later by 1970 office spaces shifted to privacy with cubicles and private offices. It then went through another transformation with a shift to open offices as in Japan in the period around 2000 which is making a comeback today. This time open offices with social distancing space for a smaller number of people coming in for a short time to the office. Simon Nixon says employers should not simply look for savings as the main motivation but at the broader picture- wellness of employees, guiding employees on how to structure work and space at home, associations in this field should also provide guidance and get involved in the transformation of office space. Productivity goes with wellness, and happy employees who have kept wellness in mind will be more productive asset for the employers. Lyrarc recommends office workers read articles on the German approach to office work called "Feierabend," which sets clearly demarcated lines between work and recreational activities that renew one for work the next day. Feierabend literally means "end of the day" in German and a specific time say 5.00 pm cuts off the days work and sets time aside for breaking away from work to take a bike ride or a walk in the garden for instance.   ...

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Watch Macron take the world on a tour of Notre Dame cathedral. "Sublime," "much more welcoming,"  "more light," are words used to describe the renovation that makes the cathedral more beautiful than before. It was become more touristic before the pandemic, dark spaces inside and cluttered outside in the years before the pandemic. The restoration could not have come at a better time from my personal visits to Notre Dame over 25 years, with the organ music lifting one's spirits in the earlier years. It was restored in 5 years, considered an "insane" challenge. The cost 700 million euros. Donations in euros raised from 150 countries raised 846 million euros. 250 companies and hundreds of experts were involved in the renovation. The organ is restored and will be heard in all its joyful music.  The stained windows have regained color and wall reflect light, dark spaces have more light, brightening up the space inside the cathedral. Pipes system with water is installed that will be used to reduce the damage form a fire. Admission will remain free at the insistence of the diocese of Paris. 14-15 million will now be welcome inside the cathedral form all parts of the world.    ...

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The dominance of SpaceX in satellite launches and the lack of competitors leaves the US government dependent on one vendor.

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About 38% of Gen Y (18-34 years) prefer to locate in mid or large sized cities such as San Francisco, Chicago and Boston. Companies are following this trend especially in the tech and internet field to attract young employees. Many professionals marry later with both partners working and prefer living in a close environment with many opportunities for interaction and activities. Commercial vacancy rates in central business districts are down faster than in the suburbs- 13.9% of urban space is empty in the 3rd quarter of 2013 compared to 18.5% in the suburbs, according to Reis Inc. The recession had reduced downtown rents and cities offered additional incentives. After the merger of Continental with United, the corporate offices were moved to the Sears Tower in downtown Chicago. Google's Motorola Mobility is moving into the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago from the suburbs. Twitter moved to a location in downtown San Francisco attracted by the space and lower rents.

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The rulings in Britain for "duty of care" protect a customer or worker from harm. The rule "to love your neighbor becomes in law "you must not injure your neighbor." This is the new idea that the British government is moving forward so that the internet as public space is protected for all who use it. It does not state how many fire extinguishers are to be installed in a public building. Britain's Health and Safety Act simply requires the owners to do all that is needed to protect the users and occupants from harm. Since 1945 this is the foundation for heath and safety laws in the U.S. and in the UK.  This is the principle that 2 researchers Mr. Perrin and Ms. Woods have come up to tackle the protection of the internet as public a space. Perrin is a civil servant and founder of Ofcom, the UK's version of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission regulator. Woods is a professor of internet law at Essex University. It is now part of the legislation proposed by Boris Johnson's government in The Queen's Speech outlining government priorities. A new regulator would have the power to require companies to protect users of public spaces (the internet) from online harms such as pornography, extreme content, cyber bullying. The 2017 suicide death of Molly Russell a British teenager made this a priority for the government. The French government is also proposing rules based on this principle. ...

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Congestion pricing has cut vehicles in central Manhattan (NY) district by 11% in 2025. One benefit it has made finding parking space easier. Peopel avoid taking the car if they can. Fee is $9 below 60th Street. It means safer quieter streets, easier walks, less traffic, and revenue for public transportation projects. 27 million fewer car trips say NY authorites were made compared to before the pricing was introduced. Traffic moves at speeds faster by about 4-5%, yet in the tunnels and bridges in NYC the morning commute traffic moves from 15% to 30% faster so it eases up a lot of traffic movement.  $550 million from revenue generated from the pricing can now be invested in the rail and subway transit with additional investments to upgrade it to make life easier for transit riders. This is improving quality of life for New Yorkers not just in the city district but in the outlying areas of NY state and NJ where 73,000 fewer cars leave every day for the commute into NY City. ...

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Forty years after a canal around Utrecht's old town was turned into a 12 lane motorway, the Dutch city is replacing the motorway with its 900 year old moat. Utrecht old city is now surrounded once again by greenery and water rather than concrete and fumes of exhaust. Efforts to sideline cars and bring back healthier living with bicycles began in 2002. The city was born in 1122. In 2017 the city opened a 12500 bicycle park next to the rail station. The central Zocherpark has been restored to 1830's design. This should be an inspiration for other cities in Europe. It is also a reminder for other cities in America, in Latin America, Asia and Africa to be careful before they let motorways take over. Even in the waterfront of American cities such as Chicago and Seattle the motorways have taken much space where greenery and fresh air would make for healthier living. Some French cities have done what Utrecht has done, supporting the general trend to return these wide healthy spaces back to the people.  ...