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Cities / Places


06.10.13: Eric W. Sanderson

Roads to Rails
On Places, Eric W. Sanderson lays out his plan for a modern streetcar revival, supported by municipal investment in urban rail.
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05.30.13: Tom Vanderbilt

The City and the Sea
On Places, Tom Vanderbilt surveys the landscape and politics of New York City after Hurricane Sandy, focusing on both early response and long-range planning.
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05.28.13: David Burney & Nancy Levinson

An Interview with David Burney: On New York and the 21st-Century City-State
On Places, an interview with New York City Design and Construction Commissioner David Burney, who reflects on the urban design record of the Bloomberg years, the post-Sandy recovery effort, and the rise of the 21st-century city-state.
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05.23.13: Thomas Locke Hobbs & Aaron Rothman

Barranca
On Places, a portfolio by the photographer Thomas Locke Hobbs, drawn from his years in Buenos Aires.
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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.
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05.02.13: Peter Holzhauer & Aaron Rothman

Expect Everything
On Places, a slideshow by photographer Peter Holzhauer, of his recent work on Los Angeles, curated by Aaron Rothman.
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04.23.13: Jerry Herron

Motor City Breakdown
On Places, Jerry Herron looks at the troubled portrait of Detroit — and its spectacular decline — in recent books and films.
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04.15.13: Lawrence Vale & Annemarie Gray

The Displacement Decathlon
On Places, Lawrence Vale and Annemarie Gray compare the cases of communities displaced by the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where plans for the 2016 Games are unfolding, and Atlanta, 20 years ago.
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02.21.13: Ken McCown

Creatures of Helsinki
On Places, a slideshow of photographs by Ken McCown highlighting the "creatures of Helsinki" — the myriad animals, crafted of stone or wood, that adorn the architecture of the Finnish capital.
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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.
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02.04.13: D.J. Waldie

Beautiful and Terrible: Aeriality and the Image of Suburbia
On Places, D.J. Waldie explores the relationship between aerial photography and the postwar suburban boom, a relationship at once materialistic and transcendent, "beautiful and terrible."
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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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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.
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12.06.12: Michael Light & Aaron Rothman

Above Lake Las Vegas
On Places, aerial photographs of the bankrupt luxury communities of Lake Las Vegas, by Michael Light.
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12.03.12: Dave Jordano & Aaron Rothman

Detroit, As Is
On Places, a portfolio by the Detroit-born photographer Dave Jordano, drawn from his latest series, Detroit Unbroken Down; with an introduction by Aaron Rothman.
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11.27.12: Andrew Herscher

The Unreal Estate Guide to Detroit
On Places, Andrew Herscher challenges the usual view of Detroit's decline: "What if Detroit has not only fallen apart and emptied out but also become a new sort of urban formation that only appears depleted through the lens of conventional urbanism?"
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11.15.12: Thomas Jorion

The Forgotten Line
On Places, photographer Thomas Jorion documents la petite ceinture, the abandoned railway line that circles Paris, and remains the city's last great wasteland.
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10.15.12: Robert Macfarlane

Ice
On Places, Robert Macfarlane recounts his journey to the "formidably difficult" Minya Konka, in western China, which has long attracted devout Buddhists and intrepid mountaineers.
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10.11.12: Richard Campanella

What the Nation’s Best-Educated Amateur Planners Learned from Hurricane Isaac. And Gustav. And Rita and Katrina. And Cindy, Ivan, Lili, Isidore, and Georges.
On Places, geographer Richard Campanella analyzes the many lessons that New Orleanians have learned from weathering powerful hurricanes — and he argues that the toughest test is yet to come.
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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."
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10.01.12: Hsiao-Hung Pai

Factory of the World: Scenes from Guangdong
On Places, journalist Hsiao-Hung Pai investigates the living and working conditions of migrant laborers in Guandgong, and what she sees as the increasing ruthlessness of Chinese urbanism.
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09.27.12: Mark Robbins & Nancy Levinson

Student/Teacher
On Places, a portfolio of Mark Robbins's photographs of Rwandan households —part of his ongoing exploration of culture, space, decor and the body.
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09.24.12: Jeffrey Hou

Beyond Zuccotti Park: Making the Public
On Places, in the wake of Occupy Wall Street, Jeffrey Hou argues that we need to focus not only on ensuring the right to public space but also on the "making of the public as an engaged citizenry."
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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."
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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."
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09.06.12: Daniel Kariko & Aaron Rothman

Storm Season
On Places, a portfolio by photographer Daniel Kariko records the fragile and changing landscapes of the barrier islands of southern Louisiana.
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07.26.12: Enrique Ramirez

Journey’s End: Wim Wenders in Texas
On Places, Enrique Ramirez explores the making of Wim Wenders's Paris, Texas, and how the strange and atmospheric film captures the elusive essence of Houston.
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07.16.12: Steven Boyd Saum

Accidents Will Happen: Lessons on Honey, Smoked Pig Fat, Atomic Disaster and the Half-Life of Truth
On Places, an essay by an American who is hiking in a Ukrainian forest when he hears about an accident at a nearby nuclear power plant. In the land of Chernobyl — ten years after the explosion — nothing is quite as it seems.
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07.12.12: Karen Piper

Revolution of the Thirsty
On Places, Karen Piper argues that the ongoing Egyptian Revolution is about not only political freedom but also the right to water: it is a "revolution of the thirsty."
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07.09.12: Rudabeh Pakravan

Territory Jam: Tehran
On Places, Rudabeh Pakravan analyzes the rise of illegal satellite TV in Tehran, which allows residents to watch state-banned shows — and which has made the private home "the true public realm" in the Iranian capital.
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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.
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05.10.12: Zhang Xiao & Aaron Rothman

The Last Days of Kaixian
On Places, a slideshow by Chinese photographer Zhang Xiao, documenting the last town to be submerged by the reservoir of the Three Gorges Dam; with an introduction by Aaron Rothman.
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05.07.12: An Xiao Mina

Art Village: A Year in Caochangdi
On Places, An Xiao Mina describes her volatile year in the Beijing arts district of Caochangdi, which was being threatened with demolition.
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05.01.12: Michael Ezban

The Trash Heap of History
On Places, Michael Ezban explores the past and present of Monte Testacccio, the great landfill of imperial Rome — and finds a precedent for contemporary landfill reclamation projects.
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04.19.12: Josh Sides

20 Years Later: Legacies of the Los Angeles Riots
On Places, California historian Josh Sides assesses the dynamic changes in South Los Angeles in the 20 years since the riots of 1992.
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04.16.12: Aaron Paley & Amanda Berman

CicLAvia: Reimagining the Streets of Los Angeles
On Places, Aaron Paley and Amanda Berman argue that the semi-annual CicLAvia — which bans cars from parts of L.A. — is inspiring Angelenos to imagine a new urban future.
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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.
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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.
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03.29.12: Robert Adams & Aaron Rothman

We Are in a Western Town
On Places, Aaron Rothman explores the enduring power of the photographs of Robert Adams, and what they reveal about the paradoxical landscape of the American West.
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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.
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02.23.12: David Schalliol

A Method of Living
On Places, photos by David Schalliol show the dramatic transformation of public housing in Chicago — the demolition of the city's infamous projects and their replacement with mixed-income, new-urbanist-style communities.
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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.
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01.30.12: Deborah Gans

Hospitality Begins at Home
On Places, Deborah Gans visits a digital installation by Israeli artist Maya Zack and the In-House Festival in Jerusalem, and is inspired to explore the spatio-political dimensions of homeland.
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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.
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01.09.12: Jerry Herron

The Forgetting Machine: Notes Toward a History of Detroit
On Places, Jerry Herron tracks the decline and fall of his home city of Detroit, from ruin porn to the demolition of Hudson's to Henry Ford's first horseless carriage.
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12.15.11: Kathleen Robbins & Mary Carol Miller

Cotton Farmers
On Places, photographer Kathleen Robbins and writer Mary Carol Miller focus on the cotton farms of their native Mississippi — a changing landscape and vanishing livelihood.
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11.17.11: Lisa Findley & Liz Ogbu

South Africa: From Township to Town
On Places, Lisa Findley and Liz Ogbu describe the ongoing struggle to transform the once segrated black townships of South Africa into diverse and thriving towns.
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11.14.11: Robert E. Lang & Arthur C. Nelson

Megapolitan America
On Places, planners Robert Lang and Arthur Nelson argue that the United States can now be understood in terms of a new geography of large and powerful "megapolitan" regions.
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11.10.11: Andrew Ross

Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World's Least Sustainable City
On Places, Andrew Ross analyzes the contradictory political and economic forces that once made Phoenix the fastest-growing city in the U.S. — and today a prime casualty of the crash.
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11.01.11: Phillip Lopate

Above Grade: On the High Line
On Places, writer Phillip Lopate traces the pre-history of the High Line, and ponders whether New York City's elevated park will be a victim of its own success.
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10.17.11: Cynthia E. Smith

Design with the Other 90%: Cities
On Places, Cynthia Smith, curator of the Cooper-Hewitt exhibition "Design with the Other 90%: CITIES," offers an in-depth look at her research into socially responsive urban design in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
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10.13.11: Denis Wood

Everything Sings: Maps for a Narrative Atlas
On Places, geographer Denis Wood and his landscape architecture students map the ordinary, everyday things of a residential neighborhood in Raleigh, North Carolina.
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10.10.11: Enrique Ramirez

I Watch Slacker to Read Austin in the Original
On Places, architectural historian and Texas native Enrique Ramirez assesses Richard Linklater's Slacker and recalls Austin in an earlier and less self-conscious era.
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09.06.11: James Barilla

The Road to Exurbia
On Places, James Barilla recounts the rural pleasures of growing up in a hill town in Western Massachusetts — yet regrets the deep environmental footprint of low-density exurban life.
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08.29.11: Danielle Dutton

An Excerpt from S P R A W L
On Places, a passage from Danielle Dutton's comic novel S P R A W L, which pieces together a theory of the American suburb.
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08.25.11: Ryan Harty

Sarah at the Palace
On Places, a short story by Ryan Harty set in an apartment complex half a mile from the Las Vegas strip.
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08.11.11: Emily Mitchell

States
On Places, fabulist Emily Mitchell conjures up an alternate history of the United States.
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08.08.11: Urban Waite

No One Heard a Thing the Night the Chicken Died
On Places, a short story by Urban Waite set on a family farm adjacent to a new golf course in Long Beach, California.
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08.02.11: Richard Powers

What Does Fiction Know?
On Places, novelist Richard Powers grapples with Berlin's history in this meditation on place and narrative.
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07.28.11: Leigh Merrill

North Texas Strip
On Places, a slideshow by Leigh Merrill, whose photographs of the Dallas strip depict places that look familiar but are in fact digital fabrications — a kind of Texas tall tale.
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07.21.11: Justin Partyka

The Place That Roger Built
On Places, a slideshow of photographs by Justin Partyka of Walnut Tree Farm, the old Suffolk farmstead where late environmental writer Roger Deakin lived and worked.
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07.18.11: Alex Schafran

Scenes from Surrendered Homes
On Places, urban historian Alex Schafran looks closely at Douglas Smith's photographs of foreclosed homes in California, and sees poignant documentation of the personal toll of the great recession.
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07.14.11: David T. Hanson

Colstrip, Montana
On Places, a photo essay by David T. Hanson, focusing on the massive coal mine at Colstrip, Montana, and the complicated nexus of energy politics and land use in the American West.
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07.02.11: D.H. Tracy

To England
On Places, a poem by D.H. Tracy, a salute to England on Independence Day.
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06.30.11: Ken McCown

Point of Astonishment
On Places, architect Ken McCown's photographic record of a New Zealand  journey — where the panoramic vistas and unpolluted atmosphere recall what the Western U.S. was like decades ago.
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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.
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06.23.11: Kian Goh

Queer Beacon
On Places, architect Kian Goh explores LGBT public spaces in contemporary New York, where activism confronts gentrification.
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06.06.11: Karen Piper

"We Just Want To Be Tourists"
On Places, Karen Piper describes a recent trip to Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, where upscale adventure tourism confronted local political protest.
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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."
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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.
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04.29.11: Gita Lenz & Gordon Stettinius

Gita Lenz: New York Views
On Places, a gallery by the mid-century New York photographer Gita Lenz, whose long neglected work is gaining new recognition.
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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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04.05.11: Michael Light & David L. Ulin

L.A. Day/L.A. Night
On Places, a portfolio of images by photographer Michael Light, exploring Los Angeles in the day and at night, with an essay by David L. Ulin.
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03.24.11: Alejandro Cartagena & Aaron Rothman

Lost Rivers
On Places, a portfolio of images by Mexican photographer Alejandro Cartagena, documenting the ecological effects of rapid urbanization.
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03.10.11: Tim Culvahouse

Black in Back: Mardi Gras and the Racial Geography of New Orleans
On Places, Tim Culvahouse charts the complex racial geography of New Orleans (and looks in on the Rex and Zulu Mardi Gras parades).
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02.27.11: Mohamed Elshahed

Tahrir Square: Social Media, Public Space
On Places, Mohamed Elshahed argues that the physical occupation of Tahrir Square in Cairo was just as vital as online social media to the early success of the January 25 Revolution.
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02.24.11: Dorothy Tang & Andrew Watkins

Ecologies of Gold: The Past and Future Mining Landscapes of Johannesburg
On Places, Dorothy Tang and Andrew Watkins explore the ecological rehabilitation of the defunct gold mines of central Johannesburg.
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02.17.11: David Clements & Douglas Haller

Writing on the Wall
On Places, a portfolio of photographs by Detroit local David Clements, of some of the many hand-painted signs and murals found throughout the Motor City.
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02.14.11: Wes Janz

This Is Flint, Michigan
On Places, Wes Janz probes the ongoing decline of Flint, Michigan, and wonders about the role of the architect in a city where there's more demolition than design.
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02.10.11: Brian Rosa & Adam Ryder

The Edge of Light: Wendover
On Places, photographs by Brian Rosa and Adam Ryder document the nighttime mysteries of Wendover, where military history, land-speed racing and the casino industry make for unexpected juxtapositions.
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02.07.11: Brian Davis

The New Public Landscapes of Governors Island: An Interview with Adriaan Geuze
On Places, Brian Davis interviews landscape architect Adriaan Geuze of West 8 about his design for a major new public park on Governors Island in New York Harbor.
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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.
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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.
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01.13.11: Nick Sowers

Soundscapes: Burning Man
On Places, a selection of soundscapes — ranging from dust storms to diesel generators — recorded by architect Nick Sowers at the latest Burning Man.
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01.10.11: Nate Berg

Burning Man and the Metropolis
On Places, Nate Berg looks at Burning Man, and how a beach party in San Francisco mushroomed into a week-long temporary city of 50,000 out in the Nevada desert.
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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.
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12.15.10: Jon Calame

The Roma of Rome: Heirs to the Ghetto System
On Places, historic preservationist Jon Calame documents, in words and images, the state-sponsored enclaves — or ghettos — that house the Roma, or Gypsies, of Rome.
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12.02.10: Justin Partyka

Saskatchewan
On Places, photographer Justin Partyka explores the Saskatchewan prairie, where the agricultural life is giving way to the urban, and the landscape is an uneasy record of the change.
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11.11.10: Frank Schirrmeister

Plain City
On Places, photographer Frank Schirrmeister wanders at dawn with a large format camera through the empty streets of Berlin.
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11.08.10: Millay Hyatt

On the Trail of the Berlin Wall
On Places, writer Millay Hyatt treks the 100-mile trail of the former Berlin Wall, and observes the complicated merging of east and west, past and present.
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10.18.10: Thomas Fisher

Viral Cities
On Places, Thomas Fisher explores "viral cities," looking at historic and contemporary pandemics, and arguing for stronger links between the practices of urban design and public health.
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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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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.
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09.27.10: Interboro Partners

What's Going On in the Garment District?
On Places, an interactive section created by the Brooklyn-based Interboro Partners offers a detailed look at "what's going on in the garment district" of Manhattan.
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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.
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09.13.10: Keith Eggener

Size Matters: Small Towns with Big Things
From the Burj Khalifa to the world's biggest ball of twine, size matters. On Places, architectural historian Keith Eggener takes an expansive look at largeness, especially "big things in small towns."
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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." 
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08.11.10: Justin Partyka

The East Anglians
On Places, a portfolio by photographer Justin Partyka, documenting a deep-rooted but fragile agrarian community in East Anglia.
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08.04.10: Luther Thie & Kathrine Worel

Frontiers: On the Edge in Merced and Malibu
On Places, a portfolio of photographs by Luther Thie and Kathrine Worel, documenting houses and homes on the frontiers of the contemporary economic and environmental crises.
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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.
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07.22.10: Lawrence Vale

Shanghai's Avenue Queue
On Places, MIT urban historian Lawrence Vale reports on the Shanghai Expo, from the national pavilions to the media restrictions to the record-breaking queues.
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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.
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07.08.10: Jerry Herron

Borderland/Borderama/Detroit: Part 3
On Places, the third and final installment of "Borderland/Borderama/Detroit," an exploration of the rise and fall — and persistence — of Detroit, and what it means in American culture, by writer and historian Jerry Herron.
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07.07.10: Jerry Herron

Borderland/Borderama/Detroit: Part 2
On Places, part 2 of "Borderland/Borderama/Detroit," an exploration of the rise and fall — and persistence — of Detroit, and what it means in American culture, by writer and historian Jerry Herron.
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07.06.10: Jerry Herron

Borderland/Borderama/Detroit: Part 1
On Places, the first installment of "Borderland/Borderama/Detroit," an exploration of the rise and fall — and persistence — of Detroit, and what it means in American culture, by writer and historian Jerry Herron.
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06.14.10: Brian Davis, Julienne Schaer

Building Brooklyn Bridge Park: An Interview with Matthew Urbanski
On Places, landscape designer Brian Davis interviews Matthew Urbanski, principal of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, about Brooklyn Bridge Park, a major new public park in New York City.
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05.27.10: Leigh Merrill

Streets: Into the Sunset
On Places, a portfolio by photographer Leigh Merrill of photo-fabrications of the streets of San Francisco — images that are, like home ownership in America, an unsettling mix of fantasy and reality.
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05.20.10: Center for Urban Pedagogy

The Water Underground
On Places, watch The Water Underground, a video from the Center for Urban Pedagogy that tracks the complex — and contested — systems of water supply, treatment and waste that serve New York City.
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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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05.04.10: James Sanders

Adventure Playground: John V. Lindsay and the Transformation of Modern New York
On Places, James Sanders on the transformation of New York City that began in the Sixties under Mayor John Lindsay — the reinvention of the city from a workaday zone to a scenic setting for urban play, an "adventure playground."
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04.30.10: Bill Guy

Take Me To
On Places, a gallery of images of downtown Chicago by photographer Bill Guy. 
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04.19.10: Meena Kadri

People's Way: Urban Mobility in Ahmedabad
On Places, New Zealand-based design writer Meena Kadri rides the new bus-rapid-transit in Ahmedabad, a system that strives to mix old and new, rich and poor — and even offers yoga classes to the drivers.
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04.01.10: Richard Campanella

Delta Urbanism and New Orleans: After
On Places, the second of a two-part essay by Richard Campanella, on the ongoing struggles of New Orleans to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina.
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03.29.10: Richard Campanella

Delta Urbanism and New Orleans: Before
On Places, an excerpt from Delta Urbanism: New Orleans, geographer Richard Campanella's account of the ongoing environmental and political struggles of post-Katrina New Orleans — and why a great American city remains pathetically vulnerable to further catastrophe.
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03.26.10: Gavin Browning, Greta Hansen & Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong

Trans Siberia
On Places, selected images from Trans Siberia, the new exhibition at Columbia's Studio-X New York, focusing on the administrative buildings of the Communist party in the former Soviet Union and China.
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03.01.10: Alan Thomas

Open Secrets: Photographs of Japan
On Places, photographs by Alan Thomas that explore the "peculiar geometries" of urban Japan — the small-scale improvisational spaces in between the big planned projects, and beyond the busy entertainment districts and the crowded department stores.
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02.08.10: Nate Berg

The Olympics and the City
Vancouver planning director Brent Toderian talks with Planetizen's Nate Berg, about how the city has met the urban design challenge of playing host to the Winter Olympics.
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02.05.10: Alan Thomas

Chicago Self-Park
In Chicago Self-Park, editor and photographer Alan Thomas explores the city's large multistory parking structures, which "give the viewer inside a particular way of framing the cityscape beyond."
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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.
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01.27.10: Hector Fernando Burga

A View of Haiti from Liberty City
Miami-based urban designer Hector Fernando Burga asks difficult questions about how urban designers can respond effectively to the disaster in Haiti.
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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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12.18.09: Center for Urban Pedagogy

Bodega Down Bronx
Why is it easier to get fresh produce in Park Slope than in the South Bronx? Places presents Bodega Down Bronx, a video from the Center for Urban Pedagogy, that examines where and why New York's bodegas get their food.
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11.19.09: Dk Osseo-Asare, Quilian Riano

A City in Search of Good Fortune
Architects Quilian Riano and Dk Osseo-Asare report on the profitable but notorious port of Buenaventura, Colombia, as the city battles drug traffickers and paramilitary gangs, poverty and corruption; and they fear that the proposed solutions might be part of the problem.
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11.14.09: Center for Land Use Interpretation

Urban Crude
An online gallery extracted from Urban Crude, an exhibition created by the Center for Land Use Interpretation, documenting the metropolitan petroscape of Los Angeles.
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11.05.09: Jan Otakar Fischer

Berlin: The Art of Reunification
On the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, architect and writer Jan Otakar Fischer describes the failed competition to create a reunification memorial — and explores the thorny questions of German memory and identity.
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11.03.09: Frieder Schnock & Renata Stih

Open Space: Berlin After Reunification
Berlin-based artists Renata Stih and Frieder Schnock curate an online gallery to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
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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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10.18.09: Ken McCown

Found Landscapes
A portfolio of photographs, with images ranging from the American West to Vatican City, by landscape architect Ken McCown.
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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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10.08.09: Ian Baldwin

Mind the Map
The new map of the London Underground tried to de-clutter the diagram by removing the River Thames; architect Ian Baldwin analyzes the error.
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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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09.18.09: Ian Baldwin

The Past Is Promenade: On the High Line
Architect Ian Baldwin contemplates the High Line and sees in New York's newest park a rare and valuable form of urban place: a slow corridor.
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09.12.09: Nicole Huber & Ralph Stern

Urbanizing the Mojave
America's greatest boomtown has gone bust. Architects Nicole Huber and Ralph Stern explore the cultural and environmental consequences of the rapid expansion of Las Vegas into the Mojave Desert, tracing a troubled history of mining, militarization, tourism, and water politics.
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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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09.11.09: Keith Eggener

Hometown, America
Architectural historian Keith Eggener visits the boyhood homes of Mark Twain and Walt Disney, and finds in each an all-American mix of historic fact, popular fantasy and commercial exploitation.
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05.15.09: Whitney Moon

Reclaiming the Ruin
The second coming of Detroit.
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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.
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05.28.07: Alexandra Lange

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