Infrastructure

Itaipu is one of the largest hydroelectric plants in the world. It provides electricity to 80 million people in Brazil and Paraguay. Not only is it huge, but it represents a unique model of cross-border energy cooperation.

Balneário Camboriú is known as Brazil’s Dubai for the rows of skyscrapers that line the beachfront. It’s home to the three tallest buildings in Brazil. But there’s another city that Balneário Camboriú seems to be increasingly emulating: Orlando, Florida, for its theme parks.

Mexico City is the biggest city in North America, and like most big cities, it has a lot of cars and traffic. Yet, over the past 30 years, it’s gone from being considered the most polluted city in the world to ranking 999th among global cities for air pollution. A small part of that has been taming traffic and the development of a robust bicycling culture. John Burnett reports from Mexico City.

In the world of architecture, there are many plans that never actually get built. A new book, “Atlas of Never Built Architecture,” by Greg Goldin and Sam Lubell, is a compendium of buildings, city plans and other structures that were designed, but never actually got off the ground.

Paris won the bid to host this summer’s Olympics, in part, on a promise to rejuvenate one of the country’s most notorious suburbs: Seine-Saint-Denis. But not all residents are sure the transformation will work.