History: Places: Design Observer

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History

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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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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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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01.09.12: 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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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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11.07.11: 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.
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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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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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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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07.11.11: Mark Klett & Aaron Rothman

Views Across Time
On Places, an interview with photographer Mark Klett and a slideshow from his ongoing rephotography project, with views across time of the American West.
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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.
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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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06.16.11: 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.
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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.
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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.
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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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02.10.11: 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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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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12.09.10: 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.
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11.23.10: Jason Reblando

New Deal Utopias
On Places, photographer Jason Reblando documents the Greenbelt Towns created by the New Deal of the 1930s — an earlier era's response to tough times.
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11.15.10: Thomas Fisher

Frederick Law Olmsted and the Campaign for Public Health
On Places, Tom Fisher explores a forgotten chapter in the illustrious career of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted: his brief but exemplary period as head of the U.S. Sanitary Commission.
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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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10.28.10: 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.
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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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01.18.10: Nancy Levinson

The Public Works
Why isn't the Great Recession inspiring a new New Deal? The essential dilemma, argues Places editor Nancy Levinson, is that we no longer believe in public sector solutions — or even in the public itself.
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11.05.09: Jan Otakar Fischer

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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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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09.16.09: 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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09.13.09: 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.
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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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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.
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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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