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.
Thomas Schumacher Symposium
The University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation is hosting the Schumacher Symposium: A Celebration of Life and Career. This two-day event is to memorialize Tom Schumacher's ideas, influence and unique and profound insights.
Kopernik
Report on Kopernik, a new website for funding technology to assist populations in the developing world.
Becoming a Designer in the Age of Aquarius
On rereading S. Neil Fujita’s 1968 job manual, <i>Aim for a Job in Graphic Design/Art</i>.
The Butterfly People
Critical Beats
On Places, Nancy Levinson argues that the fundamental dilemma of architecture criticism is the rise of the global beat — dateline: placeless.
Death’s Bloom
From 1913 to 1971 five thousand one hundred and twenty one mentally ill patients were cremated. Their remains were sealed in copper canisters. In 2000 David Masiel photographed them.
Today, 03.06.10
Each morning, before starting work, I spend 30 minutes looking for images that are beautiful, funny, absurd and inspiring. Here's TODAY.
The Architect as Urbanist: Part 2
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap; ">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. </span>
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.
This Place is a Message
On Places, a portfolio of recent photographs of natural and built landscapes by Arizona-based artist and photographer Aaron Rothman.
Introducing MIT's New Media Lab Complex
On Friday and Saturday March 5 and 6, MIT will officially open the new Media Lab Complex, designed by Pritzker Prize winner Fumihiko Maki, with a free public open house and a free public conference with the architect.
The Nano Effect on Urban India
Review of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum exhibition of the Tata Nano, 2010.
Reading Rudolph
On Places, architect Ian Baldwin reviews <i>P</i><i>aul Rudolph: Writings on Architecture</i>, and makes a compelling case for looking anew at several important but neglected projects.
Why Nicolai Ouroussoff Is Not Good Enough
Nicolai Ouroussoff might turn out to be the last architecture critic, which makes it even more imperative to say: He is not making a good case for keeping the breed.
Today, 02.27.10
Each morning, before starting work, I spend 30 minutes looking for images that are beautiful, funny, absurd and inspiring. Here's TODAY.
What Am I Doing Here? Tall Buildings and High Anxiety in Las Vegas
I spent three days in a new entertainment complex, CityCenter, in Las Vegas. What follows is a diary of my experience in that time.
Imagining – A Better Future
The Georgia Tech College of Architecture is hosting a major symposium as part of its T. Gordon Little Lecture Series in the Imagination from March 12-13, 2010.
The Volunteer Design Chronicles (Lincoln, NE)
Community-focused pro-bono design activities in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Sweating the Small Stuff
Review of TED 2010 conference, "What the World Needs Now," Long Beach, California, February 9–13.
How Haiti Could Change Design
<div>How might the Haiti earthquake change design practice? On Places, Thomas Fisher argues that designers need to develop practices that not only respond to crises that have happened but also proactively intervene in disaster-prone areas, with the goal of limiting damage in the future.</div><div><br /><div><br /></div></div>
Prisoners of Logic
For five or six years now, I have led a double life as a painter. Until recently, I viewed this other identity as a kind of dirty secret.
Today, 02.20.10
Each morning, before starting work, I spend 30 minutes looking for images that are beautiful, funny, absurd and inspiring. Here's TODAY.
Better Living Through Artistry
SEWA, a cooperative textile manufacturing company in Ahmedebad, India, is a network of self-employed women.
Working for the People
Completing his doctorate in geography, Timothy Mennel produced not a typical dissertation but <i>Everything Must Go: A Novel of Robert Moses's New York</i>. On Places, read an excerpt, in which Moses and Frank Lloyd Wright take a drive through Harlem and the Bronx.
Five Houses Down
Five Houses Down, a poem by Christian Wiman.
Finding Innovation in Every Corner
Interview with management expert Anil Gupta, who seeks to reduce poverty by finding, broadcasting and nurturing examples of innovation among India's poor.
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 <i>Death Wish</i>.
Today, 02.13.10
Each morning, before starting work, I spend 30 minutes looking for images that are beautiful, funny, absurd and inspiring. Here's TODAY.
Dream Job: Interview with Film Graphics Designer Eric Rosenberg
Eric Rosenberg abandoned his career in editorial design with only a single movie-related project in hand and headed West to make his fame.
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.
Phoenix – Barcelona: Cities in Transformation
The School of Architecture + Landscape Architecture at Arizona State University sponsors and exhibition and symposium <i>Phoenix – Barcelona: Cities in Transformation</i>.
Hungarian Rhapsody
This collection is the record of the immensely productive life of György Kepes.
Chicago Self-Park
In <i>Chicago Self-Park</i>, 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."
DesigNYC
DesigNYC is the latest grass-roots organization to match socially minded designers with nonprofits.
Left Me Speechless
Our work should not merely address the political injustices wrought by discriminatory laws: it should register the sense of loss inflicted on those who suffer them.
"Think Tall"
An interdisciplinary team from the Masters programs in Architecture and Building Sciences at Auburn University has won a competition to design a pedestrian bridge for the new Volkswagen manufacturing plant in Chattanooga, TN.
Architect, Park Thyself
The auto-urban relationship, writes Ian Baldwin, is "fumbling, overheated, unsatisfying for both parties." Baldwin reviews <i>House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage</i>, currently on exhibit at the National Building Museum, and <i>The Architecture of Parking</i>, by Simon Henley.
The Cotton Club
Report on the complex, and sometimes muddled, standards for certifying organic cotton.
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.
Big Book, Small Reward
Among the trends I’d like to see disappear in this new decade is the trend of obscenely fat monographs.
Who Owns Student Work?
The prevailing opinion at many design schools is that faculty and the university have some “ownership rights” in the output of any class. In other words, students don't own their own work. An opposing viewpoint.
Today, 01.30.10
Each morning, before starting work, I spend 30 minutes looking for images that are beautiful, funny, absurd and inspiring. Here's TODAY.
GlobalTap
Report on prototype for GlobalTap water refilling stations.
Howling at the Moon: The Poetics of Amateur Product Reviews
Amazon reviews can be seen as an example of a democratizing impulse in design criticism.
ink
On Places, a gallery of images from "ink," an exhibition of the work of Michelle Fornabai now at Columbia's downtown Studio-X.
Moshe Safdie
Review of architect Moshe Safdie's Mamilla Alrov Center in Jerusalem.
Dams Across America
A gallery of images showing the construction of some great U.S. hydroelectric dams of the 1930s and '40s, including Hoover and Grand Coulee — something to contemplate as the current administration struggles to stimulate the economy and smarten the power grid.
Today, 01.23.10
Each morning, before starting work, I spend 30 minutes looking for images that are beautiful, funny, absurd and inspiring. Here's TODAY.
Visualizing the Future of <br />Environmental Design
<b>UC Berkeley Spring Program<br />College of Environmental Design<br />2.3.10 – 2.6.10</b><br /><br />UC Berkeley's spring celebration will focus on the global dynamics and sustainability challenges that could have not been foreseen when the CED was founded in 1959.