Places

About
Foundation
Partner Schools
Print Archive
Peer Review
Submissions
Donate
Contact


Departments

Critique
Essays
Gallery
Interviews
Multimedia
Partner News
Peer Reviewed
Poetry & Fiction
Projects


Topics

Architecture
Art
Books
Cities / Places
Community
Culture
Design History
Design Practice
Development
Ecology
Economy
Education
Energy
Environment
Film / Video
Food/Agriculture
Geography
Health / Safety
History
Housing
Ideas
Infrastructure
Landscape
Photography
Planning
Politics / Policy
Preservation
Public / Private
Reputations
Sustainability
Technology
Theory/Criticism
Transportation
Urbanism
Water



Design Observer

Archive
Books + Store
Job Board
Email Archive
Comments
About
Contact
Log In
Register


Architecture


05.16.13: Jim Bassett

“Everyone a Tourist”
On Places, a slideshow of photographs of the Mayan ruins at Chichén Itzá, by Jim Bassett, contrasts the romantic tradition of travel photography with the realities of mass tourism.
READ MORE

05.13.13: Belmont Freeman

Digital Deception
On Places, Belmont Freeman argues it's time to grapple with the artistic and professional consequences — and ethical dilemmas — of today's ever more powerful digital rendering technologies.
READ MORE

05.09.13: Thomas Jorion & Josh Wallaert

Temple of the Vanities
On Places, recent work by photographer Thomas Jorion, documenting defense towers, nuclear reactors, munitions depots and other 20th-century monuments to political and military hubris, now mostly abandoned.
READ MORE

05.06.13: David Heymann

Please Save Modernism from the Modern
On Places, David Heymann makes the case for why the Folk Art Museum is a great modernist building — and why the Museum of Modern Art should reverse its decision to tear it down.
READ MORE

04.29.13: Naomi Stead

Child’s Play
On Places, Naomi Stead examines the cultural perception of architecture as not simply a creative profession but also a kind of child's play — an uber-kindergarten legitimated for academic credit and professional reputation.
READ MORE

04.08.13: Phyllis Lambert

Seagram: Union of Building and Landscape
On Places, Phyllis Lambert explores the evolution of the Seagram Building, focusing on Mies van der Rohe's profound concern for the relationship between building and nature.
READ MORE

04.02.13: Ellen Dunham-Jones

The Irrational Exuberance of Rem Koolhaas
On Places, Ellen Dunham-Jones assesses the protean career of Rem Koolhaas and his provocative efforts to marry art and capitalism, radicalism and pragmatism, icon-making and city-making.
READ MORE

02.28.13: Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer

Client and Architect
On Places, a republication of Mariana Van Rensselaer's 1890 essay on the architect and the client, and the need for the "reciprocal loyalty from which alone can grow a truly national art."
READ MORE

02.25.13: Alexandra Lange

Founding Mother: Mariana Van Rensselaer and the Rise of Criticism
On Places, Alexandra Lange explores the ongoing relevance of the late 19th-century writings of Mariana Van Rensselaer, one of the pioneers of architecture criticism in America.
READ MORE

02.18.13: Daniel Brook

Head of the Dragon: The Rise of New Shanghai
On Places, Daniel recounts the fast-forward and often ruthless reinvention of Shanghai — its transformation from moth-balled relic of Maoism to one of the world's most dynamic and contradictory cities.
READ MORE

02.12.13: Mitchell Schwarzer

The Emergence of Container Urbanism
On Places, Mitchell Schwarzer charts the rise of container urbanism from the mid 20th century to now, focusing especially on the dynamic potential of repurposed shipping containers to shape a new kind of city life.
READ MORE

01.14.13: Shannon Mattern

Paju Bookcity: The Next Chapter
On Places, Shannon Mattern visits Paju Bookcity in South Korea— a special economic zone dedicated to books —and high-style architecture — now being remade for the digital era.
READ MORE

01.02.13: David Heymann

My Beautiful City
On Places, a personal essay by David Heymann, on Austin then and now, and a heartbreak of a house commission; with an audio recording by the author.
READ MORE

12.19.12: Kate Bernheimer, Andrew Bernheimer & SO-IL

Fairy Tale Architecture: Monkey King
On Places, a design by Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu (SO – IL) for the Chinese fairy tale “Monkey King.”
READ MORE

12.18.12: Kate Bernheimer & Andrew Bernheimer

Fairy Tale Architecture: The Little Match Girl
On Places, a design by Bernheimer Architecture for the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Little Match Girl.”
READ MORE

12.17.12: Kate Bernheimer, Andrew Bernheimer & Abruzzo Bodziak

Fairy Tale Architecture: Snowflake
On Places, a design by Abruzzo Bodziak for the Russian fairy tale “Snowflake.”
READ MORE

12.11.12: Naomi Stead

Writ Small
On Places, Naomi Stead explores the presentation of architecture in children's literature, with a special focus on stories about houses and the meaning of home.
READ MORE

11.05.12: Belmont Freeman

Past Perfect: Four Freedoms Park
On Places, Belmont Freeman reviews the controversial politics of presidential memorials, focusing especially on Four Freedoms Park in New York City, the memorial to FDR designed 40 years by Louis Kahn.
READ MORE

10.31.12: Kate Bernheimer & Andrew Bernheimer with Vera Leung

Fairy Tale Architecture: The Halloween Edition
On Places, a design by Bernheimer Architecture for the Brothers Grimm fairy tale “The Boy Who Set Forth to Learn What Fear Was.”
READ MORE

10.22.12: Keith Eggener

The Demolition and Afterlife of Baltimore Memorial Stadium
On Places, just in time for the World Series, Keith Eggener recounts the saga of Baltimore Memorial Stadium, and explores the relationship between civic building and collective memory.
READ MORE

10.08.12: Jeremy Till

Scarcity contra Austerity
On Places, Jeremy Till explores the distinction between the political ideology of austerity and the physical condition of scarcity — and argues that a sharper understanding of scarcity will enable designers to operate more creatively.
READ MORE

10.04.12: Melissa Dittmer

Lafayette Park: Living in Ordered Exhibition
On Places, Melissa Dittmer describes the experience of living in Mies van der Rohe's Lafayette Park in Detroit, where the glass-and-steel architecture encourages "a sense of intimacy that fosters community."
READ MORE

09.17.12: Jonathan Massey & Brett Snyder

Occupying Wall Street: Places and Spaces of Political Action
On Places, Jonathan Massey and Brett Snyder explore the physical places and virtual spaces of Occupy Wall Street — the "hypercity built of granite and asphalt, algorithms and information."
READ MORE

09.17.12: Jonathan Massey & Brett Snyder

Mapping Liberty Plaza
On Places, Jonathan Massey and Brett Synder present their maps of Zuccotti Park, tracking "the transformation of a corporate plaza into a testing ground for radical idea about the reorganization of society."
READ MORE

09.14.12: Sandra Vivanco

Latin America: A New Generation of Women Architects
On Places, a gallery of exemplary works by the rising generation of Latin American women architects.
READ MORE

09.12.12: Despina Stratigakos

Why Architects Need Feminism
On Places, Despina Stratigakos makes the case for the next wave of feminism in architecture — and for a more sustainable and inclusive professional culture.
READ MORE

09.10.12: Gabrielle Esperdy

The Incredible True Adventures of the Architectress in America
On Places, Gabrielle Esperdy revisits "the amazing adventures" of the architect-feminists who fought for gender equality back in the '70s — and sees a powerful model for next-wave activism.
READ MORE

07.19.12: Anisha Gade

Olympic Urbanism: The Athletes' Village
On Places, a slideshow on the urban form of Olympic Villages, from derelict ruins in Berlin to suburban townhomes in Sydney to public housing in Athens.
READ MORE

06.28.12: Kenny Cupers

Paris: Life Forms
On Places, a slideshow by Kenny Cupers documenting the nuanced realities of life in the public housing estates of suburban Paris.
READ MORE

06.25.12: Reinhold Martin, Raphael Sperry, Amit C. Price Patel, Liz Ogbu & Tom Angotti

The Housing Question
On Places, a debate inspired by the MoMA exhibition Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream, organized by the Buell Center and Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility.
READ MORE

06.21.12: Naomi Stead

A New Belle-Lettrism and the Future of Criticism
On Places, Naomi Stead makes the case for a radical rethinking of architecture criticism — a "new belle-lettrism" — prompted by the potential of online media.
READ MORE

06.07.12: Lance Hosey

The Shape of Green: Aesthetic Imperatives
On Places, Lance Hosey explores the relationship of sustainability to technology and aesthetics.
READ MORE

06.04.12: David Heymann

An Un-flushable Urinal: The Aesthetic Potential of Sustainability
On Places, David Heymann explores the unmet challenge of developing the "radical aesthetic potential" of sustainability in architecture.
READ MORE

05.14.12: Keith Eggener

The Uses of Daylight
On Places, Keith Eggener casts new light on the little-known Boley Building in Kansas City, by Louis Curtiss, which featured one of the first glass curtain walls in America.
READ MORE

04.10.12: Jerry Herron

The Last Pedestrians
On Places, Jerry Herron traces the intersecting lives of architect Albert Kahn, artist Diego Rivera and industrialist Edsel Ford — and how they all shaped the visioin of Detroit as industrial powerhouse.
READ MORE

04.05.12: Placement & Corine Vermeulen

Living with Mies: The Towers at Lafayette Park
On Places, photographer Corine Vermeulen and the design collective Placement offer a glimpse of life in Lafayette Park, the Mies van der Rohe-designed residential complex in Detroit.
READ MORE

03.19.12: Gabrielle Esperdy

Banham's America
On Places, Gabrielle Esperdy traces the American journeys of Reyner Banham, and views the British historian in the lively tradition of European travelers who tell us Americans something important about ourselves.
READ MORE

03.15.12: Julia Czerniak, Joe Sisko

UPSTATE: Design, Research, Real Estate
On Places, a profile of UPSTATE, the urban design center at the Syracuse University School of Architecture, including an interview with directors Julia Czerniak and Joe Sisko and a slideshow of projects.
READ MORE

03.12.12: Stan Allen

The Future That Is Now
On Places, Stan Allen assesses architecture education in North America during the past two decades of rapid and profound technological and social change.
READ MORE

03.06.12: Giovanna Borasi & Mirko Zardini

Demedicalize Architecture
On Places, Canadian Centre for Architecture curators Mirko Zardini and Giovanna Borasi explore the changing social and political concepts of “healthy” buildings and cities.
READ MORE

03.01.12: Alexandra Lange

How to Be an Architecture Critic
So you want to learn how to talk about buildings? Alexandra Lange suggests starting with “Sometimes We Do It Right,” Ada Louise Huxtable's classic review of the Marine Midland Bank Building in New York.
READ MORE

02.27.12: Belmont Freeman

What Is It About the Art Schools?
On Places, Belmont Freeman recounts the dramatic saga of the National Art Schools in Havana — and argues that we are overlooking the larger narrative of post-revolutionary Cuban architecture.
READ MORE

02.20.12: Lawrence Vale

Housing Chicago: Cabrini-Green to Parkside of Old Town
On Places, Lawrence Vale recounts the troubled saga of Chicago's now-demolished Cabrini-Green, and the mixed-income new-urbanist style communities that are replacing the old public housing.
READ MORE

02.14.12: Jonathan Massey

Housing and the 99 Percent
On Places, Jonathan Massey traces a history of American home ownership, from the boosterism of the 1920s to postwar suburbia to the housing bubble to current foreclosure crisis.
READ MORE

02.09.12: Marc Angélil, Jørg Himmelreich, Hubertus Adam & J. Christoph Bürkle

An Interview with Jacques Herzog
On Places, an interview with Jacques Herzog, who discusses the recent work of Herzog & de Meuron and the challenges of maintaining a creatively vital practice.
READ MORE

02.06.12: Keith Eggener

Louis Curtiss and the Politics of Architectural Reputation
On Places, Keith Eggener assesses the work of the neglected Kansas City architect Louis Curtiss — and highlights the politics of professional repuation.
READ MORE

02.02.12: Mitchell Schwarzer

Building After Auschwitz
On Places, Mitchell Schwarzer reviews Building After Auschwitz, the new book by historian Gabriel Rosenfeld that asks a thorny question: Is there a Jewish architecture?
READ MORE

01.19.12: Ila Berman & Mona El Khafif

Design, Research, Impact: URBANlab at CCA
On Places, a profile of URBANlab at the California College of the Arts, including an interview with Ila Berman and Mona El Khafif and a slideshow of projects.
READ MORE

01.16.12: Will Holman

Lessons from the Front Lines of Social Design
On Places, Will Holman recounts his experience at Arcosanti, Rural Studio and YouthBuild — and describes the challenge of making a career in public-interest architecture.
READ MORE

01.12.12: Dave Jordano & Aaron Rothman

Detroit Re-Photography
On Places, the Detroit Rephotography Survey, by Dave Jordano, documents the same sites in the early 1970s and 2010.
READ MORE

12.22.11: Kate Bernheimer, Andrew Bernheimer & Guy Nordenson and Associates

House on Chicken Feet, Part 3
On Places, in the third of three architectural fairy tales, Guy Nordenson and Associates re-engineer the tower in "Rapunzel."
READ MORE

12.21.11: Kate Bernheimer, Andrew Bernheimer & Leven Betts with Bret Quagliara

House on Chicken Feet, Part 2
On Places, in the second of three architectural fairy tales, architects David Leven and Stella Betts reimagine "Jack and the Beanstalk."
READ MORE

12.20.11: Kate Bernheimer & Andrew Bernheimer

House on Chicken Feet, Part 1
On Places, the first of three "architectural fairy tales" that explore magical homes; part one, by New York architect Andrew Bernheimer, reimagines the hut of the Russian witch Baba Yaga.
READ MORE

12.12.11: David Heymann

The Evil, Evil Grain Elevator
On Places, David Heymann continues his exploration of buildings and landscapes — and shows how even a building form as familiar as a grain elevator can come to seem evil.
READ MORE

12.08.11: Reinhold Martin

Occupy: The Day After
On Places, Reinhold Martin explores how Occupy Wall Street might challenge the structural inequities of finance capitalism, and how architects and urbanists can contribute to the next phase of the movement
READ MORE

12.05.11: David Heymann

A Mound in the Wood
On Places, David Heymann continues his exploration of the charged relationship between architecture and landscape.
READ MORE

12.01.11: Thomas Fisher

The Death and Life of Great Architecture Criticism
On Places, Tom Fisher argues that architecture criticism is ripe for bold reinvention.
READ MORE

11.28.11: David Heymann

Landscape Is Our Sex
On Places, David Heymann analyzes the logics — and illogics — of the idea that the relationship of a building to its landscape is — or should be — a key element of its design..
READ MORE

11.07.11: Reinhold Martin

Occupy: What Architecture Can Do
On Places, Reinhold Martin explores the role of architecture in the Occupy Wall Street movement — and in the larger challenges of constructing a better and more equitable society.
READ MORE

10.24.11: David Adjaye, Nikolaus Hirsch, Jorge Otero-Pailos

On Architecture and Authorship: A Conversation
On Places, David Adjaye, Nikolaus Hirsch and Jorge Otero-Pailos discuss the complex relationship of architecture to authorship: Is the architect an author or service provider?
READ MORE

10.20.11: Jason Griffiths

Manifest Destiny: A Guide to the Essential Indifference of American Suburban Housing
On Places, British architect Jason Griffiths offers a close reading of modern American suburbia, where mass production meets the myth of the arcadian frontier.
READ MORE

10.03.11: Alexandra Lange & Mark Lamster

Lunch with the Critics: Supertall
On Places, Alexandra Lange and Mark Lamster debate the merits of Supertall!, the latest exhibition at New York City's Skycraper Museum.
READ MORE

09.20.11: Quilian Riano

Landscape Optimism: An Interview with Chris Reed
On Places, Quilian Riano interviews landscape architect Chris Reed, who describes the rise of landscape urbanism from an academic movement in the 1990s to an increasingly influential set of ideas and practices.
READ MORE

09.16.11: Barry Bergdoll

The Art of Advocacy: The Museum as Design Laboratory
On Places, MoMA's curator of architecture and design, Barry Bergdoll, describes his efforts to expand the museum's role to support experimentation and advocacy.
READ MORE

09.14.11: Aron Chang

Beyond Foreclosure: The Future of Suburban Housing
On Places, Aron Chang argues that the foreclosure crisis highlights the need to transform suburban housing — to make it responsive not to dated demographics and wishful economics but to the actual needs of a diversifying and dynamic population.
READ MORE

07.25.11: Rob Walker

Implausible Futures for Unpopular Places
On Places Rob Walker describes the Hypothetical Development Organization, which creates fanciful renderings of imaginary developments for vacant urban sites — a new form of "architecture fiction."
READ MORE

07.07.11: David Heymann

The Eastward-Moving House
On Places, David Heymann's "The Eastward-Moving House" — a continuation of the imaginative history of American home-building begun in J.B. Jackson's "The Westward-Moving House."
READ MORE

07.05.11: J.B. Jackson

The Westward-Moving House: Three American Houses and the People Who Lived in Them
On Places, a republication of J.B. Jackson's classic essay "The Westward-Moving House," which traces the evolution of the American house — the American dream — over three centuries and across the continent.
READ MORE

06.27.11: Deborah Gans

Below the Sill Plate: New Orleans East Struggles to Recover
On Places, architect Deborah Gans describes a multi-year effort to rebuild neighborhoods in post-Katrina New Orleans — and the limited results to date.
READ MORE

06.16.11: Alice T. Friedman

Girl Talk: Marion Mahony Griffin, Frank Lloyd Wright and the Oak Park Studio
On Places, architectural historian Alice Friedman explores the pioneering career of architect Marion Mahony Griffin, who rose to prominence in the Oak Park office of Frank Lloyd Wright.
READ MORE

06.13.11: Despina Stratigakos

What I Learned from Architect Barbie
Why can't architects wear pink? On Places, Despina Stratigakos describes the feminist politics that inspired Architect Barbie.
READ MORE

06.02.11: Alexandra Lange & Mark Lamster

Lunch with the Critics: Cronocaos
On Places, Mark Lamster and Alexandra Lange analyze "Cronocaos," the new exhibition on preservation at the New Museum in New York, curated by OMA/Rem Koolhaas.
READ MORE

05.24.11: Michael Maltzan

No More Play
On Places, Michael Maltzan argues that Los Angeles is on the brink of its latest transformation — and at a point where "the very word city no longer applies."
READ MORE

05.19.11: Ian Baldwin

The Architecture of Harry Weese
On Places, Ian Baldwin reviews The Architecture of Harry Weese, and finds an overlooked modernist whose work was "highly original and often stunning."
READ MORE

05.16.11: Belmont Freeman

Kevin Roche: Architecture as Environment
On Places, Belmont Freeman reviews Kevin Roche: Architecture as Environment, and finds much to admire in a long career that has lately been overlooked.
READ MORE

05.12.11: Nick Sowers

Soundscapes: Atlantikwall
On Places, selected soundscapes by architect Nick Sowers that record a journey along the Atlantikwall, the line of coastal fortifications built by the Nazis to defend against Allied invasion.
READ MORE

05.09.11: Mirko Zardini & Jean-Louis Cohen

Architecture in Uniform
On Places, selections from Architecture in Uniform: Designing and Building for the Second World War, the new exhibition at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, curated by Jean Louis Cohen.
READ MORE

05.05.11: Donald Judd & Elizabeth Felicella

101 Spring Street
On Places, an essay by Donald Judd on the Soho building where he lived and worked, and selected images of its interiors, by New York photographer Elizabeth Felicella.
READ MORE

05.03.11: Adam Yarinsky

Donald Judd and the Blooming of Reality
On Places, architect Adam Yarinsky reviews Donald Judd, by David Raskin, and Chinati: The Vision of Donald Judd, by Marianne Stockebrand, et al.
READ MORE

04.22.11: Alexandra Lange

The Anti-Monograph
On Places, Alexandra Lange argues that the new monograph from Studio Gang is a version of the anti-monograph: an effort to feed the star machinery and resist it at the same time.
READ MORE

04.14.11: Stephen Luoni, UACDC

Venture Design
On Places, a profile of the University of Arkansas Community Design Center, which has turned Northwest Arkansas into a laboratory for the creative retrofitting of postwar suburbia.
READ MORE

03.29.11: Jonathan Massey

Breuer, Baby!
On Places, selections from "Marcel Breuer and Postwar America," a recent exhibition at the Syracuse School of Architecture, organized by Jonathan Massey and Barry Bergdoll.
READ MORE

03.28.11: Mark Lamster

The Architectural Monograph: A Defense
On Places, Mark Lamster asks: In a dynamic era for practice and publishing, what is the future of the architectural monograph?
READ MORE

03.07.11: Beth Weinstein

The Collaborative Legacy of Merce Cunningham
On Places, architect Beth Weinstein highlights a real though often unrecognized architectural type: the diverse collaborations between major choreographers and eminent architects.
READ MORE

02.21.11: Lisa Findley

Red and Gold: A Tale of Two Apartheid Museums
On Places, architect Lisa Findley explores South African apartheid museums, and the difficulties of memorializing a complex and terrible history.
READ MORE

02.03.11: Tim Culvahouse

The New Orleans Corner Store
On Places, architect Tim Culvahouse continues his series on the built character of New Orleans, with a look at the humble but sociable corner store and its role in the restoration of the city.
READ MORE

01.27.11: Alejandro Cartagena & Aaron Rothman

Fragmented Cities
On Places, a selection of images by Mexican photographer Alejandro Cartagena, documenting the rapid suburbanization and disappearing natural landscapes of Monterrey.
READ MORE

01.20.11: Sandy Isenstadt

American Glamour
On Places, Sandy Isenstadt reviews Alice Friedman's American Glamour and the Evolution of Modern Architecture.
READ MORE

01.18.11: Laura Raskin

Jorge Otero-Pailos and the Ethics of Preservation
On Places, journalist Laura Raskin profiles architect and preservationist Jorge Otero-Pailos and his "Ethics of Dust" installations at the Venice Biennale and Manifesta.
READ MORE

01.04.11: Jim Williamson

What Passes for Beauty: A Death in Texas
On Places, architect Jim Williamson recollects the aesthetic frustration and unexpected epiphany of his first project as an architect in Midland, Texas, the commission for the gravesite of the wife of an oil millionaire.
READ MORE

12.28.10: Ken McCown

Full of Beauties
On Places, photographs by Ken McCown, focusing on fragments of contemporary buildings and public art and on natural landscapes from California to New Zealand to Korea.
READ MORE

12.20.10: Mark Lamster and Alexandra Lange

Lunch with the Critics: Northwest Corner Building, Columbia University
For this installment of Lunch with the Critics, Mark Lamster and Alexandra Lange visit the Northwest Corner Building, Columbia University.
READ MORE

12.13.10: David Heymann

Site, Ascendant
On Places, the last installment of David Heymann's series on the rising importance of landscape to architecture, seen in works by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, Peter Zumthor, OMA, Zaha Hadid, and others.
READ MORE

12.09.10: Keith Eggener

Building on Burial Ground
On Places, architectural historian Keith Eggener looks at American graveyards and cemeteries past and present, from Mount Auburn to Forest Lawn to contemporary LCD-enabled eulogies.
READ MORE

11.29.10: David Heymann

A Cloud on a Lake
On Places, architect David Heymann explores the charged relationship between buildings and landscapes in works as diverse as Diller Scofidio + Renfro's notorious Blur Building and Hiroshi Sugimoto's minimalist seascapes.
READ MORE

11.04.10: Charles Waldheim

Notes Toward a History of Agrarian Urbanism
On Places, Charles Waldheim sketches a history of agriculture in cities, from Frank Lloyd Wright to ecological urbanism.
READ MORE

11.01.10: Mason White

The Productive Surface
On Places, Mason White traces a line from the Cité Industrielle to Buckminster Fuller to contemporary designers exploring the potential for built surfaces to produce agriculture, renewable energy, water harvesting, and more.
READ MORE

10.28.10: Max Page & Paul Johansen

Landmarks of Punishment: Eastern State and Charles Street
On Places, architectural historian Max Page and photographer Paul Johansen document two landmarks of U.S. prison architecture and penal philosophy: Eastern State Penitentiary and Charles Street Jail.
READ MORE

10.21.10: Javier Arbona

Dangers in the Air: Aerosol Architecture and Invisible Landscapes
On Places, Javier Arbona looks at innovative projects that conceptualize air — the atmosphere that surrounds us — as a dynamic and even political component of buildings and landscapes.
READ MORE

10.12.10: Quilian Riano

Relearning the Social: Architecture and Change
On Places, architect Quilian Riano reviews the Museum of Modern Art's new exhibition Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement.
READ MORE

10.07.10: Mimi Zeiger

Street Cred
On Places, Mimi Zeiger reviews Street Value, the new book about Downtown Brooklyn and the dynamic interplay of shopping and planning, of politics and race and class.
READ MORE

10.04.10: William W. Braham

The Temptations of Survivalism, or, What do you do with your waste?
On Places, architect William Braham explores the promise — and the illusions — of sustainable self-sufficiency in environmental design.
READ MORE

09.30.10: Tim Culvahouse

Stoop, Balcony, Pilot House: Making It Right in the Lower Ninth Ward
On Places, architect Tim Culvahouse assesses the post-Katrina architecture in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans sponsored by Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation.
READ MORE

09.23.10: Mabel O. Wilson & Peter Tolkin

Listening There: Scenes from Ghana
On Places, architects Mabel Wilson and Peter Tolkin curate a slideshow based on their research into the complex legacy of tropical modernism in Ghana.
READ MORE

09.16.10: Kim Förster

Massimo Vignelli: Oppositions, Skyline and the Institute
On Places, a gallery of Massimo Vignelli's graphic design work for the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, written and curated by Kim Förster.
READ MORE

09.03.10: James Sanders

Hallowed Ground, Worldly City: Ground Zero and the Struggle for Lower Manhattan
On Places, James Sanders looks at the current controversy over the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero in a larger context, noting that New York City has for most of its history "abhorred the very idea of memorials." 
READ MORE

07.30.10: Architizer

China Portfolio: From the Linked Hybrid to the Bug Dome
On Places, Architizer curates a portfolio of recent architecture in the People's Republic of China, from Beijing to Shanghai, Shenzhen to Chongqing.
READ MORE

07.27.10: William L. Fox

Spatial Intelligence: New Futures for Architecture
Can buildings makes us happy? On Places, William L. Fox explores this possibility in his review of Spatial Intelligence: New Futures for Architecture, by Leon van Schaik.
READ MORE

07.26.10: Alexandra Lange & Mark Lamster

Lunch with the Critics: The New Lincoln Center
"Lunch with the Critics," a new feature on Design Observer, begins with Alexandra Lange and Mark Lamster's visit to the recently revamped Lincoln Center.
READ MORE

07.13.10: Dan Pitera

Detroit: Syncopating an Urban Landscape
On Places, Dan Pitera, of the Detroit Collaborative Design Center, curates a portfolio of projects by artists, architects and activists who are reshaping the city's abandoned landscapes.
READ MORE

06.25.10: Architizer

New Aging
On Places, a gallery of projects from Architizer's New Aging competition. 
READ MORE

06.22.10: Alice T. Friedman

Modern Architecture for the "American Century"
On Places, an excerpt from Alice Friedman's American Glamour and the Evolution of Modern Architecture, on Eero Saarinen's iconic projects for General Motors and TWA, and the rise and fall — and rise — of the architect's reputation.
READ MORE

06.19.10: Kim Høltermand

We Are All Alone
On Places, a gallery of images of buildings — "desolate containers" — by Danish photographer (and fingerprints expert) Kim Høltermand. 
READ MORE

06.02.10: Alejandro Bahamón & Maria Camila Sanjinés

Rematerial: From Waste to Architecture
On Places, Rematerial: From Waste to Architecture: a gallery of architecture projects constructed from discarded materials, ranging from recycled tires to repurposed refrigerators to the steel supports of a dismantled expressway.
READ MORE

05.17.10: Beth Weinstein

Self-Fab House
Architect Beth Weinstein reviews Self-Fab House, a compilation of the results of a competition sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia.
READ MORE

04.13.10: Tim Love

Paper Architecture, Emerging Urbanism
On Places, Tim Love explores the latest generation of paper architecture being created by under-employed designers — and argues that the current recession offers a real chance to align progressive theory with urban practice.
READ MORE

04.08.10: Mimi Zeiger

Two Feet High and Rising: On Optimism, Speculation and Oysters
On Places, Mimi Zeiger reviews MoMA's ambitious new architecture and urban design show, Rising Currents: Projects for New York's Waterfront, which explores how New York Harbor might be adapted in the face of rising sea levels.
READ MORE

03.15.10: Robert Taylor

Words and Pictures
On Places, architect Robert Taylor reviews Fumihiko Maki's collected essays and Shigeru Ban's latest monograph.
READ MORE

03.06.10: Nancy Levinson

Critical Beats
On Places, Nancy Levinson argues that the fundamental dilemma of architecture criticism is the rise of the global beat — dateline: placeless.
READ MORE

03.05.10: Ken McCown

Designed Landscapes
A portfolio of photographs of designed structures and landscapes — from La Jolla to Marfa, from Hadrian's Villa to Storm King — by landscape architecture professor Ken McCown.
READ MORE

03.01.10: Ian Baldwin

Reading Rudolph
On Places, architect Ian Baldwin reviews Paul Rudolph: Writings on Architecture, and makes a compelling case for looking anew at several important but neglected projects.
READ MORE

02.24.10: Robert Bruegmann

The Architect as Urbanist: Part 2
On Places, architectural historian Robert Bruegmann continues his analysis of Paul Rudolph's late work, with a focus on several extraordinary projects in southeast Asia.
READ MORE

02.24.10: Robert Bruegmann

The Architect as Urbanist: Part 1
On Places, architectural historian Robert Bruegmann argues that the later and lesser known work of Paul Rudolph — best known for his architecture building at Yale —  deserves renewed attention. 
READ MORE

02.01.10: Keith Eggener

Lethal T-Square: Architecture, Violence, Renewal
Robert Moses is often compared with Baron Haussman. Keith Eggener argues that he can be compared as well with the vigilante-architect played by Charles Bronson in Death Wish.
READ MORE

01.25.10: Gavin Browning & Michelle Fornabai

ink
On Places, a gallery of images from "ink," an exhibition of the work of Michelle Fornabai now at Columbia's downtown Studio-X.
READ MORE

01.10.10: Linda Samuels

Working Public Architecture
Can we envision a contemporary counterpart to the New Deal of the 1930s? Architect Linda Samuels reports on WPA 2.0, the ambitious competition and symposium created by cityLab at UCLA.
READ MORE

09.26.09: William W. Braham

How Much Does Your Household Weigh?
How much does your household weigh? Architect William Braham explores the unfolding complexities of sustainable design.
READ MORE

09.18.09: Kees Christiaanse

Curating the Open City
Kees Christiaanse, curator of the Rotterdam Architecture Biennale, outlines a compelling vision of the open city of the 21st century.
READ MORE

09.16.09: Sandy Isenstadt

Crystal and Arabesque
Sandy Isenstadt reviews Jonathan Massey's Crystal and Arabesque, which retrieves the life and work of the long-neglected early 20th-century architect Claude Bragdon.
READ MORE

09.13.09: Keith Eggener

Up-to-Date in Kansas City
Architectural historian Keith Eggener retrieves the little known architectural history of the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City — today the nation's official World War I Museum — and sees a path not taken for American modernism.
READ MORE

09.12.09: Chris Reed

The Infrastructural City
Los Angeles depends upon vast infrastructural systems that are breathtakingly powerful, yet vulnerable to disruption, even disaster. Landscape architect Chris Reed reviews The Infrastructural City.
READ MORE

09.09.09: Tim Love

Between Mission Statement and Parametric Model
Boston-based architect and educator Tim Love argues that architectural education is in crisis, a result of the increasing tension between digitally driven formal experimentation and new mandates for social responsibility.
READ MORE

09.09.09: Jonathan Massey

Five Ways to Change the World
Architect and educator Jonathan Massey suggests five ways to influence the built environment — and make the world a better place.
READ MORE

09.07.09: Tobias Armborst, Daniel D'Oca, Georgeen Theodore

Community: The American Way of Living
Think American suburbia is a sprawl of homogeneous privatopias? The U.S. curators of the Rotterdam Architecture Biennale argue that you haven't been paying attention.
READ MORE

05.19.09: Linda Samuels

Infrastructural Optimism
Learning from New Orleans, or why we really need a new New Deal.
READ MORE

05.15.09: Whitney Moon

Reclaiming the Ruin
The second coming of Detroit.
READ MORE

10.15.08: Donlyn Lyndon

The New U.S. Embassy in Berlin
In creating a new U.S. embassy in Berlin, architectural design is just one of the challenges.
READ MORE

04.16.08: Alexandra Lange

Will Miss Brooklyn Bow Out?
The redevelopment of the Atlantic Yards was based on a false assumption of Brooklyn's inferiority complex.
READ MORE

08.15.07: Garth Rockcastle

The Lost Public Art of Gordon Matta-Clark
Gordon Matta-Clark infiltrated the worlds of art and architecture, revealing deep complacencies in each.
READ MORE

07.05.07: Alexandra Lange

Don't Call David Adjaye A Starchitect
Lauded and pilloried (well, by one client), the U.K. sensation, David Adjaye, heads to our shores.
READ MORE

05.28.07: Alexandra Lange

Fantasy Island
The fantasy of converting Governors Island to a pedestrian playground is closer to becoming a reality.
READ MORE

12.15.06: Amy Murphy

Seattle Central Library: Civic Architecture in the Age of Media
In the Seattle Public Library, Rem Koolhaas and OMA work to transform architecture into media interface.
READ MORE

01.15.05: Daniel S. Friedman

Campus Design as Critical Practice
How to turn a lackluster midwestern campus into an international cultural destination.
READ MORE

01.15.03: Cervin Robinson

Portfolio: Timothy Hursley
Tim Hursley photographs the pro-bono buildings of the Rural Studio and the legal brothels of Nye County, Nevada.
READ MORE

11.01.01: Ruth Durack

Village Vices: The Contradiction of New Urbanism and Sustainability
A critique of New Urbanism focusing not on its traditionalism but on the unsustainability of its planning models.
READ MORE

07.01.00: Elizabeth Felicella

Portfolio: Uneasy Spaces
New York City photographer Elizabeth Felicella focuses on what she calls "landscape of security."
READ MORE

DESIGN OBSERVER JOBS