April 7, 2021 Ι Bloomberg’s CityLab (with Elizabeth Blasius) In 2018, Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development felt that they had a progressive plan to preserve one of the city’s most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods. Pilsen, on the city’s southwest side, was home to Eastern European immigrants in the 19th century; in the 20th century, it drew… Continue reading How a Plan to Save Buildings Fell Apart
Category: Articles
Inside the ‘Tartarian Empire,’ the QAnon of Architecture
April 27, 2021 Ι Bloomberg’s CityLab In 1908, architect Ernest Flagg completed the Singer Building in Lower Manhattan, a Beaux-Arts showstopper made for the Singer sewing machine company. From a wide base, a slender 27-story tower rose, topped by a mansard roof and a delicate lantern spire. Every inch dripped with sumptuous detail inside and… Continue reading Inside the ‘Tartarian Empire,’ the QAnon of Architecture
What We Talk About When We Talk About Architecture
February 12, 2021 Ι Architects Newspaper In early June, I put on a white KN95 mask and a black sweater and left my apartment like thousands of other Chicagoans to protest the murder of Black Americans by police. An hour or so of marching and chanting culminated at an intersection near my home dominated by… Continue reading What We Talk About When We Talk About Architecture
Who’s Around Underground?
February 2021 Ι Landscape Architecture Magazine Republic Square in Austin, Texas, is one of the city’s most historic, sensitive, and heavily trafficked public green spaces. In the heart of downtown, it’s one of the original four public squares dating back to the city’s founding. In 1839, the city’s initial run of surveyed and platted blocks… Continue reading Who’s Around Underground?
Design Trust Chicago seeks to address systems beyond structures
Architect’s Newspaper Ι December 30, 2020 The recently unveiled Design Trust Chicago will coordinate the work of Chicago’s activist designers, placing community, racial equity, and social justice ahead of for-profit, developer-led agendas. Publicly announced in November, the Design Trust was founded by Katherine Darnstadt of Latent Design, and Elle Ramel and Paola Aguirre of City… Continue reading Design Trust Chicago seeks to address systems beyond structures
Shanghai’s Longhua Airport Is Converted into a New Public Park
Metropolis Magazine Ι November 30, 2020 At Xuhui Runway Park on the banks of Shanghai’s Huangpu River, in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world, it’s impossible to miss the history of what came before. Designed by Sasaki, Xuhui offers a palimpsest of a reused airport, preserving its materials and forms.… Continue reading Shanghai’s Longhua Airport Is Converted into a New Public Park
In One of Chicago’s Most Affluent Neighborhoods, Hidden Stories of Resistance Unveiled By App
Next City Ι November 20, 2020 The Armitage-Halsted historic district in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood is renowned for its well-preserved collection of 19th-century architecture and commercial streetscapes, filled with Victoria-era ornamentation, pressed metal bays, and classic Chicago corner turrets. Today, Lincoln Park is a thoroughly gentrified site of winners-circle complacency; dog parks, stroller moms in… Continue reading In One of Chicago’s Most Affluent Neighborhoods, Hidden Stories of Resistance Unveiled By App
The Divining Rod
Landscape Architecture Magazine Ι November 2020 Like a lot of landscape architects, Stephen McCarthy spends much of his time managing hydrology and restoring native ecologies. The sites he works on, in Milwaukee’s exurban fringe, are often landscapes of subtle differences: gentle rises and shallow streams, small agricultural plots hemmed in by hills and wetlands. At… Continue reading The Divining Rod
Generational Lines In The Sand
Architect’s Newspaper Ι Oct. 5, 2020 When the Board of Directors of AIA Chicago fired long-time Executive Vice President Zurich Esposito in August, it surprised many in the city’s architecture community, for whom Esposito had been a successful and effective chapter leader. Esposito’s abrupt dismissal left many questions in its wake, foremost among them what… Continue reading Generational Lines In The Sand
Design Crit
The Architect’s Newspaper Ι Oct. 28, 2020 During the Great Depression, the policymakers pushing the New Deal sought out conservative areas most suspicious of the plan and signed them up for buckets of federal funding first, effectively turning detractors into supporters. The New Deal’s would-be 21st-century sequel, the Green New Deal (GND), will have to… Continue reading Design Crit