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Changing Skyline: Designers aim for a better bike rack

The U-shaped steel bike rack is surely the unsung workhorse of urban street furniture. U racks - more accurately, upside-down U's - are so plain, so recessive, you don't really see them until you need one. (And then, invariably, they're full.) U racks are cheap. Their streamlined form takes up very little space. Except in extreme circumstances, they're also indestructible. All that makes them a nearly perfect design.

The "Pretzel" bike rack by Peter Everett Brown and Barbara Ann Sprague has thick loops that can challenge some bike locks, which is too bad, because the double "P" shape has potential in Philadelphia.
The "Pretzel" bike rack by Peter Everett Brown and Barbara Ann Sprague has thick loops that can challenge some bike locks, which is too bad, because the double "P" shape has potential in Philadelphia.Read more
    by Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic | Columnist
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    Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic