Cal Craven’s CAT Aquatic Car Is the Water Taxi of the Future

We already have water taxis and gondolas available for rent in various parts of the world today, but designer Cal Craven envisions a future in which these CAT aquatic water taxis will make gondolas truly seem a quaint throwback. The CAT car is a personal water taxi that people will be able to rent to take out on waterways and pilot themselves.

The CAT, or City Aquatic Transportation, is designed to carry 4 passengers and features panoramic views through its bubble glass top. No word on the propulsion system behind this cute concept, trough we would expect it to be an electric hybrid if made a few years down the road. We think the Boston Duck Tour buuses just met their match.

Via DVICE

By Laura K. Cowan

Cedar Fair names next president

Matthew A Ouimet has been named as the next president and CEO of Cedar Fair Entertainment  Company. Ouimet, 53, will succeed 70-year-old Dick Kinzel as chief executive officer of the North American park chain when he retires on January 3, 2012.

Ouimet is a 20-year veteran of the amusement park and hospitality industry, spending 17 of the years with the Walt Disney Company. During his tenure with the global entertainment giant, he served as senior vice-president, finance and business development, and chief financial officer of the Disney Development Company, executive general manager of Disney Vacation Club, president of Disney Cruise Line, and president of the Disneyland Resort in California.

In 2006, Ouimet was recruited to serve as the president of Starwood Hotel & Resorts, overseeing 900 owned, managed and franchised hotel properties in 95 countries, including the Sheraton, Westin, W Hotels and St Regis brands. In 2008, he joined Corinthian Colleges.

“Without question, Matt is the right leader to join Cedar Fair now as it builds momentum on its renewed path of sustained, profitable growth in 2011 and beyond,” says C Thomas Harvie, the group’s chairman. “Throughout his career, Matt has proven to be a critical thinker and effective business strategist with an enviable track record for identifying growth opportunities within existing business in the amusement park and resort  industry. His broad and diverse background in resort development, finance, marketing and operations will allow him to integrate quickly into cedar Fair.”

Via ParkWorld online

The Aldgate Landmark Pavilion – 2012 Olympics / EASTON + COMBS

The Aldgate Landmark Pavilion designed by Easton + Combs is a temporary entrance market to the City of London in Celebration of the 2012 Olympics. The site’s importance is that it is the location of the former city gate, the Aldgate, a historically significant point of entry to the city of London that was famous for being open to all social classes when the other city gates were reserved for various elites.

As the architects state, the Pavilion serves as a symbolic greeting hall, a light filled, multicolored, transparent surface that creates a momentary envelope for the celebration of the 2012 Olympics and a spatial marker of London’s archeology of social exchange. The Aldgate 2012 Pavilion addresses the city as a multilayered set of possibilities that constitute an urban theatre. As an architectural celebration of the 2012 Olympics, the structure is vibrant and porous yet asserts a sense of place and provides for a variety of possible events. Reading, music and gatherings are accommodated in the large room with a unique cylindrical inverted crown that suggests a space of performance and social exchange.

The design is based on extensive research into lightweight, inexpensive building strategies, as well as the history of temporary architecture. A fascination with chapel typologies implemented  in the context of densely built urban fabric is articulated through referencing the pavilion structure to the intimate nature of domed chapels.

Via eVolo