Plans for $400-billion new city in the American desert unveiled

[brooklynite]

CNN

The cleanliness of Tokyo, the diversity of New York and the social services of Stockholm: Billionaire Marc Lore has outlined his vision for a 5-million-person "new city in America" and appointed a world-famous architect to design it.

Now, he just needs somewhere to build it -- and $400 billion in funding.

The former Walmart executive last week unveiled plans for Telosa, a sustainable metropolis that he hopes to create, from scratch, in the American desert. The ambitious 150,000-acre proposal promises eco-friendly architecture, sustainable energy production and a purportedly drought-resistant water system. A so-called "15-minute city design" will allow residents to access their workplaces, schools and amenities within a quarter-hour commute of their homes.

Although planners are still scouting for locations, possible targets include Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Texas and the Appalachian region, according to the project's official website.

The announcement was accompanied by a series of digital renderings by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the architecture firm hired to bring Lore's utopian dream to life. The images show residential buildings covered with greenery and imagined residents enjoying abundant open space. With fossil-fuel-powered vehicles banned in the city, autonomous vehicles are pictured traveling down sun-lit streets alongside scooters and pedestrians.

[dsc]

1. Good luck finding a desert in Appalacia

Also 15 minute commutes in the mountains good luck with that.

[ms liberty]

13. My first thought too.

[Demovictory9]

22. Lol

[CanonRay]

2. I have one word

Water. There isn't any.

[brush]

6. My first thought too. Better stay away from wildfire areas too.

[GregariousGroundhog]

23. Nevada is potentially doable.

The Trans-Alaska pipeline is 800 miles long and can transport just shy of 90 million gallons of oil per day. If we transport that amount of water, that's 18 gallons per person per day. The actual amount of water transportable would be greater though because water is less viscous than crude oil . Desalinating 500 million gallons of water per day and transporting it 500 miles to Nevada isn't outside the realm of technical feasibility.

The biggest issue is cost. San Diego built a billion dollar desalination plant capable of 50 million gallons per day. It costs them a little over $6 per thousand gallons. I don't know how much piping the water 500 miles would add, but it wouldn't be cheap.

[Retrograde]

28. 18 gallons a day?

Drinking, washing and cooking is at least 5 times that in our current culture

[Hoyt]

3. Texas? Otherwise like the vision.

[sakabatou]

4. Sustainable my ass. I'm gonna guess it'll gobble up water from an aquifer

[calguy]

5. I'm gonna guess it never happens.

[brush]

9. Yep. Cities usually spring up because there's a water supply.

All those spots in the American dessert are already developed.

[Captain Zero]

27. haha. lol.

nt

[maxsolomon]

7. Surprised BIG had anything to do with this.

#1 place NOT to develop a new city: the desert.

[Wounded Bear]

8. We already have too many cities in the desert and near desert areas...

[bullwinkle428]

10. This has the smell of the "Titanic of city planning" from a mile away.

"Unsinkable" my ass.

[hatrack]

11. And having spent some time in Tokyo, I can tell you it's not all that . . .. clean . . .

But yeah, sure, let's spend half a trillion of OPM on Dubai West . . . .

[luv2fly]

12. Hope they learn from Brasilia

*snip*

By many measures, Brasilia, the capital city of Brazil, is a miracle. Built from the ground up at breakneck speed between 1956 and 1961, the year it was inaugurated, it’s filled with beautiful, sculptural, and symbolic buildings by Oscar Niemeyer—a true master of design—and majestic avenues that stretch far as the eye can see.

But by just as many other measures, Brasilia is failing to embody its original ambition as a progressive city that would guarantee a good quality of life to its residents. It’s been labeled a “cautionary tale” for urban dreamers. This backlash against the city’s design is what sparked Costa’s defensive statement.

The problems Brasilia faces today include inequality, congestion, and sprawl—which are far from unique in this city and common throughout the world. They’re direct ripple effects of the utopian thinking that went into its design. It’s a catch-22: The very things about the city that Brazilians hold near and dear to their hearts are also what’s causing many of its challenges.

More at:
https://archive.curbed.com/2019/6/7/18657121/brasilia-brazil-urban-planning-architecture-design

[haele]

14. What is the industry that is going to get people to move there?

A massive service center for teleworking? A ginormous Amazon Warehouse? A Hydrogen Car plant with a hub for supporting parts and development of the infrastructure for hydrogen car refueling? Biotech? A military base, or federal government complex?
A space-port?

Saudi Arabia is planning a similar city, and it's not going well, because there's nothing really that important the city is supposed to be doing.

Cities are formed organically to support major endeavors - and once those endeavors are over, they tend to dissolve (Detroit being an example).
One doesn't just "build a city". China does, but that's because they have to keep their population working. And most of those cities are empty.

I wish him luck finding a major business that employs potentially millions of people to pair his city up with.

Haele

[Hugin]

15. I think I saw a South Park episode about this once.

I didn't realize the show was a docudrama.

[niyad]

16. WATER, you f'n moran.

[displacedtexan]

17. Altas Actually Shrugged.

Can't you just picture it? Built to Walmart standards.

[Rstrstx]

18. So EPCOT will finally get built?

[NickB79]

19. Sounds like he's planning an arcology

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcology

Essentially a much larger, but not as closed loop, version of the failed Biodome built in the late 80's.

As for water, they'll have to recycle it to make it work. Hope the citizens are ok knowing they're drinking recycled piss and toilet water.

[hunter]

26. We all drink recycled piss and toilet water.

In some places the high tech recycled water is better than the "naturally" recycled water.

[FBaggins]

20. How can you advertise diversity in a new city?

Do they have a way to enforce who moves there?

[dalton99a]

21. Scientists Discover Major Underground River In U.S. Desert

[Klaralven]

24. All he needs is a sufficiently large oil field

Dubai to Become "The Best City in the World" by 2050

https://www.archdaily.com/962651/dubai-to-become-the-best-city-in-the-world-by-2050

[Shrike47]

25. The desert does not have the water to support this city, and you can't have ours. Sorry.

[hunter]

29. Or he could just move to Singapore.

The economy of Singapore is a highly-developed free-market economy. Singapore's economy has been ranked by the World Economic Forum as the most open in the world, the 3rd-least corrupt, and the most pro-business. Singapore has low tax-rates and the second-highest per-capita GDP in the world in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is headquartered in Singapore.

--more--

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Singapore

But I'm not sure I could live in a place where Ordnung muss sein. I'm much more comfortable in organically grown cities that are a little rough around the edges.

For urban areas water is probably not a huge problem. Urban users can afford to move water long distances, desalinate water, and/or recycle sewage back into potable water. These technologies are already established in many parts of the world. Unfortunately this takes a lot of energy. If this energy is derived from fossil fuels global warming only gets worse.

And very seriously, we all ought to be opposing any new construction on previously undeveloped land. Haven't we trashed enough of the natural environment? Instead of building new stuff out on the desert we could be tearing shit down and restoring trashed landscapes to something resembling a natural state. Even minor increases in the population density of existing cities could comfortably accommodate millions of people who now live in poverty.

[hatrack]

30. Yeah, I've definitely seen this movie before . . . .

[PortTack]

31. This proves that being a billionaire and being smart...do not necessarily go together

[LiberalFighter]

32. I hope he goes bust.

[Goodheart]

33. Where are you going to get water for your 5 million residents?

[Hekate]

34. I am gobsmacked. Water, you idjit, WATER