Books
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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.”
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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.”
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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.
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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.”
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07.23.12:
William L. Fox
On the Road Home
On Places, William Fox reviews
The Prehistory of Home, by anthropologist Jerry Moore — and explores what it means to be
home.
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06.18.12:
Ian Baldwin
Rolling to a Stop
On Places, Ian Baldwin reviews
ReThinking a Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking and
Reinventing the Automobile.
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05.22.12:
Shannon Mattern
Marginalia: Little Libraries in the Urban Margins
On Places, Shannon Mattern surveys the rise of the little library, of the myriad pop-up, guerrilla and ad-hoc libraries
that build on the DIY energy and political edge of tactical urbanism.
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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?
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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."
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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."
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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.
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09.27.11: William L. Fox & Mark Klett
The Half-Life of History
On Places, writer William Fox and photographer Mark Klett document the semi-ruin of the WW II military airfield at Wendover, Utah, where the U.S. Air Force trained for the bombing of Hiroshima.
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06.09.11:
Adelheid Fischer
A Home Before the End of the World
On Places, Adelheid Fischer explores our startling ignorance of the natural world — and wonders whether this is enabling the degradation of the environment.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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04.27.11:
Timothy Mennel
Jane Jacobs, Andy Warhol, and the Kind of Problem a Community Is
On Places, Tim Mennel compares the radically different New York worlds of Andy Warhol's Factory and Jane Jacobs's Village — and comes to some provocative conclusions.
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04.25.11:
Thomas J. Campanella
Jane Jacobs and the Death and Life of American Planning
On Places, Thomas Campanella evaluates the complex legacy Jane Jacobs, including the ongoing marginalization of the urban planning profession.
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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.
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04.11.11: Robert Dawson & Josh Wallaert
Public Library: An American Commons
On Places, photographer Robert Dawson documents public libraries across the United States, emphasizing their vital — and now threatened — role as an American commons.
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04.07.11:
Ray Gastil
In Motion: The Experience of Travel
On Places, Ray Gastil reviews
In Motion: The Experience of Travel, the latest book by Tony Hiss.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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05.13.10:
Belmont Freeman
Havana: Nostalgia Is a Dangerous Business
On Places, New York architect Belmont Freeman reviews the recent literature on Havana architecture and urbanism, including
Havana Revisited: An Architectural Heritage.
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05.10.10:
Timothy Beatley
Green Metropolis
On Places, urban planning professor Timothy Beatley, author of
Green Urbanism, reviews
Green Metropolis, by David Owen, which argues that Manhattan is the greenest city in the U.S.
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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.
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03.01.10:
Brian Rosa
Frank Gohlke: Thoughts on Landscape
On Places, Brian Rosa reviews Frank Gohlke's
Thoughts on Landscape, a volume of collected writings which shows that this leading American photographer is as eloquent with words as with images.
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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.
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01.25.10:
Ian Baldwin
Architect, Park Thyself
The auto-urban relationship, writes Ian Baldwin, is "fumbling, overheated, unsatisfying for both parties." Baldwin reviews
House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage, currently on exhibit at the National Building Museum, and
The Architecture of Parking, by Simon Henley.
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01.14.10:
Beth Weinstein
The City's End
Architect Beth Weinstein reviews
The City's End: Two Centuries of Fantasies, Fears and Premonitions of New York's Destruction, by architectural historian Max Page — just in time for the season premiere of
24, which finds Jack Bauer and his fellow counter-terrorists relocated to NYC.
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11.11.09:
Gavin Browning
it is what it is
Gavin Browning reviews
it is what is is, the 1,000-page monograph of the work of the New York-based multidisciplinary design firm 2x4.
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10.20.09:
William L. Fox
Las Vegas
Writer and critic William L. Fox reviews
Las Vegas, by Nicole Huber and Ralph Stern, probing the improbable success of the gambling-entertainment world-city constructed in the midst of the Mojave.
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10.13.09:
Dorothy Ball
Bienville's Dilemma
New Orleans-based writer Dorothy Ball reviews Richard Campanella's
Bienville's Dilemma, a panoramic study of the history and geography of New Orleans that spans from the early 16th century to Hurricane Katrina and its troubled aftermath.
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09.24.09:
Barbara Penner
Niagara: It Has It All
Architectural historian Barbara Penner reviews
Inventing Niagara, by Ginger Strand, drawing out the contradictory mix of reverence and exploitation inspired by the famous falls.
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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.
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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.
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09.08.09:
Mark Klett
Placing Memory
Photographer Mark Klett reviews
Placing Memory, which juxtaposes contemporary color photos of abandoned Japanese-American internment camps, by photographer Todd Stewart, with government-commissioned period images, to haunting effect.
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