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The illustration above, from the May 1883 issue of Harper’s Magazine, courtesy of the New York Public Library, gives a better sense of the Brooklyn Bridge caissons than yesterday’s working drawing (repeated below) even if it’s got less technical information. Note that May 1883 was when the bridge officially opened, and the caissons had at […]
a year ago

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More from Old Structures Engineering

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From Scientific American, December 8, 1894, an interesting view of two buildings: drawings that include both the above-ground portion of the buildings, more or less as you would see them, and the foundations as they could never be seen. The foundations are seen as if the earth had been turned transparent. The image of the […]

4 months ago 54 votes
Happy Christmas

I’m not so sure about that vest.

4 months ago 48 votes
Genteel

That’s the Hotel Marlborough at 36th Street and Broadway, shortly after 1900. The hotel opened in 1888 when the entertainment district on Broadway was further south; by the time it was demolished in 1922, that district had moved to Times Square, a few blocks to the north. It’s a story repeated for hundreds of buildings […]

4 months ago 51 votes
Once Again, In Plastic

The restoration of Notre Dame deserves all the praise that has been heaped upon it, but have I mentioned recently that my son and I have built the LEGO Notre Dame? We finished our small Notre Dame about a week after the official opening of the large one, but they had a head start on […]

4 months ago 46 votes
It Looked Familiar: Archetypical

From a graphic novel about art called Naked City: how do you capture the spirit of New York? A relentless grid and Old-Law tenements.

4 months ago 53 votes

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They Turned A Crumbling Art Studio Into A Warm Light-Filled Family Home

SHED Architecture & Design has shared photos of a renovation they completed in Seattle, Washington.

14 hours ago 3 votes
Reading List 05/10/2025

Amazon’s Vulcan robot, magnetohydrodynamic ship propulsion, Waymo’s manufacturing scale up, Boom Supersonic’s new super alloy, and more.

18 hours ago 2 votes
How Architecture Can Tell the Stories We’ve Tried to Forget

Archinect's Fellow Fellows series showcases individuals who are currently in, or have recently finished, an architecture fellowship. During our conversations, we discuss their architectural journey, areas of research, and their overall experience as academic fellows. For our latest interview, we connected with Christina Chi Zhang, the 2023–24 Harry der Boghosian Fellow at Syracuse University School of Architecture. Zhang shares her experiences navigating the intersections of architecture, storytelling, and social justice, her approach to teaching and research, and the inspiration behind her fellowship exhibition, I found within me an invincible summer. Through her work, she explores how architecture can serve as a tool for healing and reclamation in post-traumatic cities, incorporating narratives from both human and non-human perspectives.

2 days ago 2 votes
Learning How to Talk About Architecture on Social Media

A few tips from the host of the popular YouTube channel "Stewart Hicks Takes on Buildings."

4 days ago 2 votes
How the US Built 5,000 Ships in WWII

Among the most impressive manufacturing achievements of the US during WWII was the number of ships it produced.

4 days ago 3 votes