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Old Structures...
Complaining For The Sake Of Complaining I’ve been getting ready for the upcoming construction history congress (more on that to follow in a...
a year ago
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a year ago
I’ve been getting ready for the upcoming construction history congress (more on that to follow in a few days) and part of that is searching for good images to use for presentation of my paper (ditto). One of the people I’m speaking about is Ole Singstad, who had a fantastic...
Blog - Guerrilla...
Pools and Populations in the SF Bay Area For many people, swimming in a pool on a hot July day with kids splashing and lifeguards hollering...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
For many people, swimming in a pool on a hot July day with kids splashing and lifeguards hollering is the quintessential summer experience. Not only do pools provide a place for people to recreate and cool off in the summer heat, but access to pools is essential to making basic...
Old Structures...
So Very Random Hidden among the vast holdings of the New York Public Library is a set of 52 images of playing cards...
a year ago
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a year ago
Hidden among the vast holdings of the New York Public Library is a set of 52 images of playing cards donated by William Barclay Parsons, arguably most famous for being the chief engineer of the Interborough Rapid Transit system, New York’s oldest subway. Each card has an...
There are two types...
My Comments at the Midtown South Social Equity and Music Festival Fifty-one years ago, the Pennsylvania Railroad tragically tore down Pennsylvania Station. Not only...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
Fifty-one years ago, the Pennsylvania Railroad tragically tore down Pennsylvania Station. Not only is it the best building ever torn down in New York, but in the combined Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, we got the worst building in … Continue reading → The post My...
Archinect - Features
Architects, How Is Work Feeling These Days? We want to hear from our community: How are you feeling about the economic outlook of your firm and...
a year ago
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a year ago
We want to hear from our community: How are you feeling about the economic outlook of your firm and sector? How easy or difficult are you finding it to secure projects? What is your employment outlook? What are you hearing from clients? Fill out our anonymous survey below.
Construction Physics
Reading List for 06/21/2025 Construction Physics email stats, why appliances break so often, a special economic zone for Silicon...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
Construction Physics email stats, why appliances break so often, a special economic zone for Silicon valley, a river filtering pool, and more.
Common Edge
What Happened to New York City Public Housing, and How Can We Fix It? The former chief architect for NYCHA on what ails the the system.
a year ago
CONTEMPORIST
A Basketball Court Was Built Inside This New Home Architecture firm Studio Lau has shared photos of a split-level home they completed in Canada, that...
4 months ago
39
4 months ago
Architecture firm Studio Lau has shared photos of a split-level home they completed in Canada, that includes an indoor basketball court. Mars House is a project that was sparked by the shifting demands brought on by the pandemic. It was meticulously designed to cater to a small...
Old Structures...
The Shapes Arise Nearly every day, I walk past the construction of the South Battery Park City Resiliency Project,...
a year ago
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a year ago
Nearly every day, I walk past the construction of the South Battery Park City Resiliency Project, part of protecting lower Manhattan from the kind of flooding that occurred during Hurricane Sandy. Much of it is relatively straightforward: there’s a big berm being added to the...
Coffee with an...
Notes on being an Architect
over a year ago
CONTEMPORIST
Clerestory Windows Add Natural Light Inside This New Addition To An Australian Home Architecture firm Bryant Alsop has shared photos of a contemporary renovation and extension of a...
a year ago
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a year ago
Architecture firm Bryant Alsop has shared photos of a contemporary renovation and extension of a typical free-standing timber period home in Australia. The view from the front door shows off the hallway that connects the original home with the new extension. The hallway...
Old Structures...
A Very Specific Moment I wrote before about the destruction of St. John’s Park, but I had not seen the photo below. The...
a year ago
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a year ago
I wrote before about the destruction of St. John’s Park, but I had not seen the photo below. The photo shows St. John’s Chapel, an out-chapel of Trinity Church, which was constructed in 1807 and which eventually gave the park its name. This was originally an almost suburban...
The Modern House
Sound and vision: a uniquely rhythmical converted dairy in Dalston
5 months ago
Construction Physics
A Cycle of Misery: The Business of Building Commercial Aircraft "There are no historic precedents or current parallels for the magnitude of financial exposure...
a year ago
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a year ago
"There are no historic precedents or current parallels for the magnitude of financial exposure risked by an American airframe company" – George Ball, managing director at Lehman Brothers, 1982 "You can't win, you can't break even, and you can't quit" – Jean Pierson, former CEO of...
THE ARCHITECTURAL...
6 Reasons Why Today’s Architecture Is Unsustainable The so-called sustainable buildings of today often fall short of genuine sustainability. Instead,...
a year ago
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a year ago
The so-called sustainable buildings of today often fall short of genuine sustainability. Instead, the concept is reduced to mere clichés and greenwashing. In this article, we delve deeper into the underlying factors concealed behind the sometimes eco-friendly exteriors of...
devonzuegel.com
To rent or to sell, that is the question As a real estate developer, one of the big decisions you need to make is whether you will rent or...
a year ago
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a year ago
As a real estate developer, one of the big decisions you need to make is whether you will rent or sell the buildings you've built. Income from rentals flows in steadily over years, while income from sales hits all at once. This essential difference is simple but has many...
devonzuegel.com
On [there being more than] liberty Recently, Ayaz Matin sent me an email asking the following question: When I was looking at your...
over a year ago
24
over a year ago
Recently, Ayaz Matin sent me an email asking the following question: When I was looking at your website I came across these words: Individual liberty is the single most important value that society should uphold. I’m more utilitarian and communitarian now. I still believe we...
CONTEMPORIST
A Sunken Living Room Was Made Possible By A New Extension To This Home Mulroy Architects has shared photos of a project they recently completed that included modernizing...
a year ago
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a year ago
Mulroy Architects has shared photos of a project they recently completed that included modernizing the interior of a 1920s home in Greater London, England, that also included the addition of a rear extension. The brief was to refurbish and extend the upper floors of the house to...
Common Edge
Is AI Really the Next Big Thing in Architecture? There are good reasons to be skeptical about its ultimate utility.
over a year ago
BLDGBLOG
Cleared For Approach [Image: “Forest and Sun” (1926) by Max Ernst.] When I first saw this painting—“Forest and Sun”...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
[Image: “Forest and Sun” (1926) by Max Ernst.] When I first saw this painting—“Forest and Sun” (1926) by Max Ernst, a composition and theme he continually revisited and changed over the course of his career—I mistook the tiny white squiggles in the lower right for a procession of...
Old Structures...
Very Local Requirements Below, a construction fence of typical New York design. Such fences here have had windows of some...
a year ago
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a year ago
Below, a construction fence of typical New York design. Such fences here have had windows of some kind going back at least to the mid-1900s. Per the current NYC building code, section 3307.7.3, “Viewing panels shall be provided in solid fences erected on or after July 1, 2013, at...
Old Structures...
A Thomas Nast Holiday – 3 of 3 In my opinion, this is genius.
a year ago
Common Edge
Confessions of a (Mostly) Analog Architect The fit between digital design and the hands-on world of construction.
10 months ago
Old Structures...
A Striking Row I was in the Upper East Side a couple of weeks ago, and the row of houses on the left caught my eye....
a year ago
19
a year ago
I was in the Upper East Side a couple of weeks ago, and the row of houses on the left caught my eye. That’s 690 to 700 Madison Avenue, just north of 62nd Street. While there’s an obvious alteration – the facade of the first two floors of each house was replaced at some point […]
Construction Physics
Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a giant geothermal power plant? It’s become fairly common knowledge that Yellowstone National Park, in addition to being incredibly...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
It’s become fairly common knowledge that Yellowstone National Park, in addition to being incredibly beautiful, is sitting on top of an enormous supervolcano that catastrophically erupts every few hundred thousand years. Unlike normal volcanoes, which tend to produce large...
Old Structures...
Travelog: Advertising Claims It’s truly embarassing how much time I spent looking at this old ad painted on a building in Bath...
a year ago
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a year ago
It’s truly embarassing how much time I spent looking at this old ad painted on a building in Bath and wondering what “richestin cream” was. As a slight consolation, note the drain branch directly left of the word “richest”: if you’re putting interior plumbing drains on the...
Old Structures...
One Event, Two Views On July 9, 1776, a bunch of New Yorkers – who maybe or maybe were not part of an organized group...
a year ago
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a year ago
On July 9, 1776, a bunch of New Yorkers – who maybe or maybe were not part of an organized group called the Sons of Freedom – celebrated the publication of the Declaration of Independence by pulling down a six-year-old equestrian statue of King George III at Bowling Green and...
Contemporist...
A Contemporary Home Inspired By The Fachwerk-Style Houses Of Germany Interior designer Tamara Strugova, together with her husband, has completed a contemporary home...
a year ago
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a year ago
Interior designer Tamara Strugova, together with her husband, has completed a contemporary home whose design was inspired by the Fachwerk-style houses found in Hamburg, Germany, with their prominently exposed posts and beams.
99% Invisible
Unbuilding the Terrace [EPISODE] All across the country thousands of people are living in locations that regularly flood, and many of...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
All across the country thousands of people are living in locations that regularly flood, and many of these places will only get more flood-prone as the climate continues to change. Residents who live in these danger zones are often trapped in a demoralizing loop—flooding,...
devonzuegel.com
Situated Software Written by Clay Shirky First published March 30, 2004 on the "Networks, Economics, and...
over a year ago
25
over a year ago
Written by Clay Shirky First published March 30, 2004 on the "Networks, Economics, and Culture" mailing list. Subscribe to the mailing list. I teach at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), where the student population is about evenly divided between...
Common Edge
Worshiping the Old Isn’t Historic Preservation To keep buildings alive and relevant, some flexibility is required.
8 months ago
Contemporist...
The Dining Table Becomes Part Of The Stairs Inside This Eclectic House Mag Arquitectes together with Clara Lleal INTERIORISTA has shared photos of a home they designed in...
a year ago
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a year ago
Mag Arquitectes together with Clara Lleal INTERIORISTA has shared photos of a home they designed in Catalunya, Spain, that showcases a unique dining area.
Blog - Guerrilla...
Counter-mapping: Sitio San Roque, Philippines This counter-map was the product of a collaboration between the Junior Philippine Geographical...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
This counter-map was the product of a collaboration between the Junior Philippine Geographical Society – University of the Philippines Diliman (JPGS-UPD), the Save San Roque Alliance, Kadamay – San Roque, and most especially the urban poor residents of San Roque. The...
McMansion Hell
BONUS MCMANSION HELL: liminal edition bonus mcmansion: liminal edition | Patreon BONUS MCMANSION HELL: liminal edition
over a year ago
Archinect - Features
The Longevity & Legacy of the 'Vanilla Architect': How a Monoculture Yields Cycles of... This Op-Ed explores how unconscious bias of mentors, tokenism, and resultant patterns of system...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
This Op-Ed explores how unconscious bias of mentors, tokenism, and resultant patterns of system justification reinforce a status quo that marginalizes women and people of color. These complex and long-lived dynamics are unpacked through personal anecdotes, historical analysis,...
Contemporist...
20 Top A’ Architecture Design Award Winners A’ Design Award & Competition is the Worlds’ leading design accolade reaching design enthusiasts...
a year ago
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a year ago
A’ Design Award & Competition is the Worlds’ leading design accolade reaching design enthusiasts around the world, and showcasing the 18,000 award winners from 139 different design disciplines.
Construction Physics
The grid part II - the golden age of the power industry Welcome to Part II of our history of the electric power industry. For Part I, see here. By 1930, the...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Welcome to Part II of our history of the electric power industry. For Part I, see here. By 1930, the US was using 114 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, generated by more than 4000 power plants. Most electricity was generated by coal (56%) and hydroelectric (34%)...
Construction Physics
How to Build an AI Data Center This piece is the first in a new series from the Institute for Progress (IFP), called Compute in...
a year ago
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a year ago
This piece is the first in a new series from the Institute for Progress (IFP), called Compute in America: Building the Next Generation of AI Infrastructure at Home. In this series, we examine the challenges of accelerating the American AI data center buildout. Future pieces will...
Old Structures...
Pro Tip, As They Say A slightly-redacted photo from a Brooklyn site visit, showing a diagram on the wall in a maintenance...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
A slightly-redacted photo from a Brooklyn site visit, showing a diagram on the wall in a maintenance room: No one I spoke to had floor plans of any kind for the building. I knew it had a steel frame but not where the interior columns were. And then, during a site visit, a handy...
CONTEMPORIST
A Modern Two-Storey Rear Addition For An Old Australian Cottage Bijl Architecture has shared photos of the Stealth House, a renovation project they completed that...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Bijl Architecture has shared photos of the Stealth House, a renovation project they completed that included a modern addition to an inter-war cottage located in Hunters Hill, Australia. From the street, the original facade and front garden of the home hide the barely visible rear...
Old Structures...
Me And My Shadow One nice thing about fire escapes: they let you get photos from a position that is effectively...
a year ago
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a year ago
One nice thing about fire escapes: they let you get photos from a position that is effectively floating in midair a few feet away from the building.
A Weekly Dose of...
Visualizing the World, Visualizing Change In 1939, Otto Neurath's Modern Man in the Making was released by Alfred A. Knopf. Neurath was...
a year ago
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a year ago
In 1939, Otto Neurath's Modern Man in the Making was released by Alfred A. Knopf. Neurath was director of the International Foundation of Visual Information and used the Isotype (International System of Typographic Picture Education) system to "teach through the eye." A recent...
Contemporist...
A' Design Awards & Competition - Early Call for Entries The A’ Design Award & Competition is recognized as the world’s premier design award, engaging design...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
The A’ Design Award & Competition is recognized as the world’s premier design award, engaging design enthusiasts globally and celebrating more than 1800 winners across over 150 design disciplines.
Contemporist...
Would you live in a strawbale cabin? This off-grid desert home might change your mind Amid the Joshua Trees of California’s high desert, a small cabin has been built that's anything but...
a month ago
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a month ago
Amid the Joshua Trees of California’s high desert, a small cabin has been built that's anything but simple. With curving walls made of barley straw and a roof like twin petals reaching for the sky, this off-grid structure is more than just a stunning example of eco-architecture,...
Old Structures...
Not Saved I vaguely know Fort Tilden – a former army base near the west end of the Rockaway peninsula – but...
10 months ago
57
10 months ago
I vaguely know Fort Tilden – a former army base near the west end of the Rockaway peninsula – but its remote location and the lack of anything there that really interests me mean that I don’t know it particularly well. So the headline “Time to pay last respects to the abandoned...
SOCKS
H. Wieners and P. Treutleins’ Catalogue of Mathematical Models (19th Century) After last week’s post on Man Ray’s photographs of equation models from the Institut Poincaré in...
a year ago
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a year ago
After last week’s post on Man Ray’s photographs of equation models from the Institut Poincaré in Paris, here are four illustrations (plus the cover) from the book “Verzeichnis von H. Wieners und P. Treutleins Sammlungen mathematischer Modelle für Hochschulen, höhere Lehranstalten...
Cartogrammar
Ohio is still a piano In a hundred years, no one will remember our work. Strike that, make it about five years. Digital,...
over a year ago
21
over a year ago
In a hundred years, no one will remember our work. Strike that, make it about five years. Digital, web-based work can break or disappear in an instant. I’ve certainly done some things which are now gone forever. Anyway, one broken thing was the crazy Ohio piano map I made nearly...
Archinect - Features
“We’ve Matched 120 Community Members So Far” — AIA’s ‘Ask an Architect’ Initiative Reveals... Earlier this month, we covered the launch of the AIA Pasadena & Foothill Chapter’s 'Ask an...
3 months ago
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3 months ago
Earlier this month, we covered the launch of the AIA Pasadena & Foothill Chapter’s 'Ask an Architect' program aimed at helping homeowners impacted by the devastating Los Angeles Fires. The free program under the AIA in California umbrella, which will begin with Eaton Fire victims...
BLDGBLOG
The Reaction Area “Enigmatic chemical reactions” have broken out underground inside two Los Angeles-area landfills,...
a year ago
7
a year ago
“Enigmatic chemical reactions” have broken out underground inside two Los Angeles-area landfills, according to the L.A. Times. These “highly unusual reactions at Los Angeles County’s two largest landfills have raised serious questions about the region’s long-standing approach to...
There are two types...
With Rhetoric: The New York Apartment House WHEN I was in graduate school, I was one of the editors of VIA IV: “Culture and the Social Vision.”...
7 months ago
69
7 months ago
WHEN I was in graduate school, I was one of the editors of VIA IV: “Culture and the Social Vision.” I helped Robert A.M. Stern write New York 1900, Metropolitan Architecture and Urbanism 1890-1915. My summer job turned into a … Continue reading → The post With Rhetoric: The New...
Old Structures...
Four Views For Advertising From 1909, we’ve got some amazing sketches of the view from the Singer Building, created to show how...
a year ago
23
a year ago
From 1909, we’ve got some amazing sketches of the view from the Singer Building, created to show how wonderful it would be to have an office there. South: West: North: East: I’m not going to go into detail about all the buildings you can see, as I’ve done so many times before....
Old Structures...
Getting Repetative The heat wave is back. Technically it left for a few days, but given that I hate hot weather, it...
11 months ago
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11 months ago
The heat wave is back. Technically it left for a few days, but given that I hate hot weather, it didn’t seem like that to me. As bad as it is, even people without a/c can cool off in various public places. The most amusing is the subway, which, when I was commuting to school […]
99% Invisible
Broken Plexus (1 of 3): Designing a Recovery Workbook to Work Out Optimal Routines Severe brachial plexus injuries (BPI) are relatively rare, which can make it difficult for sufferers...
2 months ago
26
2 months ago
Severe brachial plexus injuries (BPI) are relatively rare, which can make it difficult for sufferers to find useful resources. Broken Plexus is a three-part micro-series on assistive design, centered on (but not limited to) people with serious BPIs facing long-haul recoveries....
SOCKS
90-Degree Axonometric’s by Auguste Merle (Late 19th – Early 20th C.) Auguste Merle was an Art Brut artist living in France at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries....
a year ago
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a year ago
Auguste Merle was an Art Brut artist living in France at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. His works depict imaginary buildings with meticulous detailing, using graphite on notebook paper. The rigorous yet inventive forms are depicted in 90-degree axonometric projections,...
Archinect - Features
Exploring Architecture’s Uncertain Nature With Schidlowski Fellow François Sabourin Academic fellowships provide unique opportunities for designers and researchers to explore specific...
over a year ago
23
over a year ago
Academic fellowships provide unique opportunities for designers and researchers to explore specific topics of interest while teaching. Archinect's Fellow Fellows series showcases individuals who are currently in or have recently finished an architecture fellowship.  For our...
Old Structures...
A Solution To An Intractable Problem People usually like regular geometry, and I’d argue that architects like it more than the general...
a year ago
22
a year ago
People usually like regular geometry, and I’d argue that architects like it more than the general public. That can create problems with buildings where the reality of construction and the reality of patterns can cause irregular geometry. The most famous example of the problem is...
A Weekly Dose of...
Self-Published Books by BNIM and KPF Over at World-Architects I wrote about two self-published books recently published by BNIM and...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Over at World-Architects I wrote about two self-published books recently published by BNIM and KPF: ALL - The Tom and Ruth Harkin Center by BNIM Design in Detail by Kohn Pedersen Fox The "Found" feature also includes responses to a few questions on why the firms opted to...
CONTEMPORIST
A Desk Designed To Hide Inside The Wall Architectural and interior design firm Sonya Lee Architect has shared photos of a 1930s home they...
a year ago
24
a year ago
Architectural and interior design firm Sonya Lee Architect has shared photos of a 1930s home they renovated in Queens, New York, that includes an interesting design detail. As working from home has become much more popular, especially over the last few years, the designers...
Old Structures...
Complicated History, Nice Backdrop From February 1946, a view of the East River waterfront in Brooklyn, with lower Manhattan in the...
11 months ago
54
11 months ago
From February 1946, a view of the East River waterfront in Brooklyn, with lower Manhattan in the background. It was a cold month: note the ice in the river past the train storage to the right of pier 15. This is the old pier 15, which was close to the foot of Montague Street. It...
CONTEMPORIST
A Stepped Brick Extension Makes Space For A Soft Warm Blush Kitchen Architecture and interior design firm Bradley Van Der Straeten, has shared photos of a home in...
a year ago
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a year ago
Architecture and interior design firm Bradley Van Der Straeten, has shared photos of a home in England that received a new stepped brick extension with views of the garden. When the front door is open, you can see all the way through to the rear garden. A stepped form took shape...
Old Structures...
The Personal Connection Times Three It’s hard to overstate the importance of personal links in discussing how people feel about the...
a year ago
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a year ago
It’s hard to overstate the importance of personal links in discussing how people feel about the built environment. This 1952 photo by Angelo Rizzuto looks east past St. Paul’s Chapel to the St. Paul and Park Row buildings: I’ve worked on St. Paul’s and the Park Row building. As a...
devonzuegel.com
Part 3: The first walkable city in America in a century A new city has been proposed in California, and I’ve never been more captivated by a vision for the...
a year ago
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a year ago
A new city has been proposed in California, and I’ve never been more captivated by a vision for the future of my home state in my lifetime. This post is part of a series I’m writing about this bold proposal. As an urbanism nerd, the aspect of California Forever’s plan that I was...
Common Edge
The Uneven—but Important—Legacy of Prince Charles, Architecture Critic While his design prescriptions were too narrow, his critique of modern planning principles still...
a year ago
BLDGBLOG
Uncontrolled Remains I find landfill chemistry weirdly fascinating, particularly the idea that untold millions of tons of...
3 days ago
6
3 days ago
I find landfill chemistry weirdly fascinating, particularly the idea that untold millions of tons of garbage being stored in giant, artificial landforms—or simply buried underground like false geological deposits—might be inadvertently catalyzing chemical processes we neither...
CONTEMPORIST
A New Home That Includes A ‘Dutch Barn’ In Partial Shell Form YARD Architects has shared photos of a contemporary barn-inspired home in England, that’s located in...
4 months ago
39
4 months ago
YARD Architects has shared photos of a contemporary barn-inspired home in England, that’s located in the Suffolk countryside. The home owners had purchased a new build ‘Dutch Barn’ in partial shell form, which required a full internal fit out to create a family home for them and...
Old Structures...
Onec You See It The current round of repair work on the Manhattan Bridge has reached the stage of painting the...
a year ago
45
a year ago
The current round of repair work on the Manhattan Bridge has reached the stage of painting the towers. It has, to my eye, the unfortunate effect of making the bridge look like it’s wearing shorts.
devonzuegel.com
OWD #4: Supersonic planes, levitating trains, & electric automobiles Mobility is central to living in every city. In this episode, we discussed how different communities...
over a year ago
24
over a year ago
Mobility is central to living in every city. In this episode, we discussed how different communities tackle the question of transportation, and how culture shapes how different transport technologies get adopted. RSS · Apple Podcasts · Spotify · Overcast Mobility is central to...
Contemporist...
The Exposed Wood Ceiling Of This Home Shows Off Its Structure Eva Hinds Arquitectura has shared photos of a modern home they have completed in La Libertad, El...
a year ago
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a year ago
Eva Hinds Arquitectura has shared photos of a modern home they have completed in La Libertad, El Salvador, that has exposed structural elements.
CONTEMPORIST
A Home Interior That Blends Japandi And Australian Design Inspiration NAKO Design has designed a home in Edmonton, Canada, that’s influenced by both Japandi and...
over a year ago
50
over a year ago
NAKO Design has designed a home in Edmonton, Canada, that’s influenced by both Japandi and Australian design styles. With a modern palette of black and white warmed with soft silver elm wood accents and texture, the home shows sophistication with a continuity of texture and tone...
Contemporist...
Tucked Behind This Minimalist Home Is a Backyard Oasis Bold House is a Mediterranean home designed by Manuel García Asociados with a focus on harmony,...
a month ago
12
a month ago
Bold House is a Mediterranean home designed by Manuel García Asociados with a focus on harmony, craftsmanship, and spatial flow. Curved forms are used throughout to soften transitions and create a continuous connection between architecture and interior design. The result is a...
Common Edge
Notre Dame Cathedral and the Rebirth of Artisanship The miraculous rebuild was enabled by the century-old French system of trade guilds and education.
6 months ago
Cartogrammar
Seasonal relief Just a map for fun, made without writing any code, which is a nice change of pace. I finally spent a...
over a year ago
26
over a year ago
Just a map for fun, made without writing any code, which is a nice change of pace. I finally spent a bit of time catching up with the great Daniel Huffman’s excellent tutorial on creating shaded relief maps with Blender. Do try it out if you haven’t; he’s written it up thoroughly...
Construction Physics
What Would It Take to Recreate Bell Labs? For most of the 20th century, AT&T was almost entirely responsible for building and operating...
11 months ago
81
11 months ago
For most of the 20th century, AT&T was almost entirely responsible for building and operating America’s telephone infrastructure. It manufactured the phones and electrical equipment, laid hundreds of millions of miles of wire across the country, and built and operated the...
CONTEMPORIST
272 Wood Slats Were Used To Create A Sculptural Element Inside This New Coffee Bar Design firm jones | haydu has shared photos of The Caffé by Mr. Espresso, a new coffee bar in...
a year ago
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a year ago
Design firm jones | haydu has shared photos of The Caffé by Mr. Espresso, a new coffee bar in Oakland, California, that features curved birch slats. The design of the cafe is heavily inspired by Italian culture, using minimalism and contrast, with the designers explaining, “The...
Common Edge
Let’s Stop Using the Terms ‘Traditional’ and ‘Modern’ By now, the terms are arbitrary and confusing.
over a year ago
CONTEMPORIST
Arched Geometry Adds Personality To This Office Building Lobby Architect and interior design firm Atelier Cho Thompson, has shared photos of the lobby in a...
a year ago
37
a year ago
Architect and interior design firm Atelier Cho Thompson, has shared photos of the lobby in a building in Boston, Massachusetts. Originally constructed as a shoe factory, the exterior of the building has an ornate stone facade, decorated with imagery depicting shoe manufacturing,...
Construction Physics
The dream of deregulation - the grid part III For most of the industry’s history, electric power in the US had largely been provided by vertically...
over a year ago
88
over a year ago
For most of the industry’s history, electric power in the US had largely been provided by vertically integrated utility companies that handled every part of the electricity supply: generating it, transmitting it, distributing it to customers, and managing the overall system....
Construction Physics
On Klein on Construction In the New York Times, Ezra Klein investigated the recent Goolsbee and Syverson paper on...
over a year ago
43
over a year ago
In the New York Times, Ezra Klein investigated the recent Goolsbee and Syverson paper on construction productivity we recently looked at. Klein suggests that the stagnation in construction productivity might be the result of organized special interests increasingly leveraging...
Old Structures...
Still Developing The caption on this 1882 picture is obviously wrong. Jacob Ruppert’s house was at the corner of...
7 months ago
73
7 months ago
The caption on this 1882 picture is obviously wrong. Jacob Ruppert’s house was at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 93rd Street, and the big avenue to the right is Park (Fourth) Avenue. You can tell because of those little bridges and the wide center mall: this is the north end of...
99% Invisible
Left to Write (3 of 3): Setting Up a Free One-Handed Touch-Typing System on Your PC Introducing the KURTY Single-Handed Half-Board Keymap (or KURTY for short!), a free plug-and-play...
2 months ago
7
2 months ago
Introducing the KURTY Single-Handed Half-Board Keymap (or KURTY for short!), a free plug-and-play system enabling one-handed touch-typing on two-handed QWERTY keyboards. After a debilitating injury to my right arm and hand, I researched and tested adaptive keyboards, which had...
CONTEMPORIST
A House That Blends Into The Color Palette Of The Surrounding Desert Design and development office Industry of All Nations has recently completed ‘The Landing House’, a...
a year ago
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a year ago
Design and development office Industry of All Nations has recently completed ‘The Landing House’, a new modern home that’s integrated into the rugged natural landscape of the Mojave Desert, With a backdrop of California’s Joshua Tree National Park, the home has been designed as a...
CONTEMPORIST
Large Travertine Slabs Were Used To Update This Home’s Design Architecture firm SWATT + PARTNERS has shared photos of the Kojima House, a home that has been...
a year ago
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a year ago
Architecture firm SWATT + PARTNERS has shared photos of the Kojima House, a home that has been updated with an additional and a remodel. Located in Kentfield, California, the home boasts unobstructed views of San Francisco Bay, Kent-Woodlands Valley, and surrounding mountains....
Contemporist...
A Circular Off-Grid Home In Costa Rica Studio Saxe has shared photos of a secluded circular home they designed that's located deep within...
7 months ago
62
7 months ago
Studio Saxe has shared photos of a secluded circular home they designed that's located deep within Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula.
CONTEMPORIST
A House Designed Like Two Barns Beside Each Other Exterio Studio has shared photos of a modern home they designed in the Kujawy region of Poland, that...
a year ago
58
a year ago
Exterio Studio has shared photos of a modern home they designed in the Kujawy region of Poland, that has a layout similar to two barns positioned side-by-side. The home has been designed to take advantage of the long and narrow lot, with the layout divided into two interconnected...
Common Edge
Why Mass Transit in America Disappeared A talk with the author of The Great American Transit Disaster: A Century of Austerity, Auto-Centric...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
A talk with the author of The Great American Transit Disaster: A Century of Austerity, Auto-Centric Planning, and White Flight.
Old Structures...
Helping The Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation has received a well-deserved award – a 2024 “Excellence...
10 months ago
51
10 months ago
The Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation has received a well-deserved award – a 2024 “Excellence in Historic Preservation Award” – from the Preservation League of NYS: here. It’s an interesting award in that the Foundation, which ordinarily funds projects and provides...
Common Edge
“What Would Jane Jacobs Do?” Is the Wrong Question Proponents of City of Yes are misapplying her ideas (again).
9 months ago
Old Structures...
An Engineer For Dinner The picture above is the front page of the menu and program from a dinner held in 1941, when...
a year ago
22
a year ago
The picture above is the front page of the menu and program from a dinner held in 1941, when “…engineers and patriots are needed!” I wrote about John Ericsson five years ago, and I still walk by his statue in Battery Park almost every day. I feel like the menu picture – which...
Common Edge
Money and the Conundrum of Architects Who Don’t Build The identity is a little different than the actual grind.
a year ago
Old Structures...
A Desperately-Needed Addendum My intention with the last blog post, The More Things Stay The Same was not to leave everyone with a...
a year ago
20
a year ago
My intention with the last blog post, The More Things Stay The Same was not to leave everyone with a cliff-hanger. Dan Eschenasy asked the obvious question: did the building in question fall down? The answer is no, it did not. 428 West 29th Street shows up on the land use maps in...
Contemporist...
This Renovated 1960s Apartment Balances Vintage Charm and Modern Precision Tucked inside a postwar building in Conca D’Oro, a northern neighborhood in Rome defined by dense...
a week ago
10
a week ago
Tucked inside a postwar building in Conca D’Oro, a northern neighborhood in Rome defined by dense urban growth and enduring mid-century structures, this apartment project by Italian studio 02A reveals what happens when renovation meets restraint. Housed in a 1960s...
Old Structures...
Not What’s Expected I’ve met a lot of people who have not been to New York who think that Central Park is like a London...
10 months ago
57
10 months ago
I’ve met a lot of people who have not been to New York who think that Central Park is like a London square, a block-sized oasis surrounded by buildings. The “surrounded by buildings” part is correct, but the size is a bit off. It’s 1.3 square miles (3.4 square kilometers for...
CONTEMPORIST
Rammed Earth Walls Surround This House In Australia Luigi Rosselli Architects have shared photos of a home they renovated in Sydney, Australia, that had...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Luigi Rosselli Architects have shared photos of a home they renovated in Sydney, Australia, that had rammed earth walls added. The original home, whose design was akin to that of a drilling platform, had two existing floors hovering above, and was entirely disconnected from its...
99% Invisible
Sanctuary In July 1980, a group of Salvadoran migrants crossed the border between Mexico and Arizona. They...
5 months ago
81
5 months ago
In July 1980, a group of Salvadoran migrants crossed the border between Mexico and Arizona. They walked over a remote mountain range and halfway across a wide desert valley in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. There were more than two dozen of them—people who had left...
Old Structures...
It Looked Familiar: Boom One of the problems with electing Wilson Fisk, AKA Kingpin, as mayor of New York, is that he has a...
a year ago
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a year ago
One of the problems with electing Wilson Fisk, AKA Kingpin, as mayor of New York, is that he has a lot of enemies who will try to kill him by, say, blowing him up in his sleep. This is a preservation problem because the mayor’s residence is Gracie Mansion, a 1799 wood-frame...
Old Structures...
Fuzzy Structural steel and composite steel deck used with concrete slabs need to be fireproofed. Ducts,...
7 months ago
55
7 months ago
Structural steel and composite steel deck used with concrete slabs need to be fireproofed. Ducts, pipes, lights, and electrical conduits do not.
Old Structures...
Ancient Sensationalism Sometimes you learn a little historical nugget and you don’t think about it. It sits in the back of...
8 months ago
45
8 months ago
Sometimes you learn a little historical nugget and you don’t think about it. It sits in the back of your head for years – decades, actually, in this case – until you’re reminded of it. The murder of Gulielma Sands in 1799 is a good example. It was a tragedy for Ms. Sands and a...
A Weekly Dose of...
Summer in the City From the middle of March, when a family emergency put this blog on hiatus, until the middle of July,...
a year ago
27
a year ago
From the middle of March, when a family emergency put this blog on hiatus, until the middle of July, when a funeral mass was held for my dad, my life was split almost evenly between my home in New York City and my parent's home in Central Florida. The emergency in March was an...
Archinect - Features
Where You Should and Should Not Use AI When Hiring As artificial intelligence begins to play a more prominent role in how firms hire, we break down...
a month ago
15
a month ago
As artificial intelligence begins to play a more prominent role in how firms hire, we break down where AI can improve efficiency in the way architects create job ads, manage communication, and understand regulations. In contrast, we also detail areas of the hiring process where...
99% Invisible
Single Handed (5 of 6): E-Ink Devices & Peripherals Render Reading More Accessible A severe arm injury can leave you with a lot of time on your hands, while simultaneously limiting...
2 months ago
32
2 months ago
A severe arm injury can leave you with a lot of time on your hands, while simultaneously limiting your recreational options. For me, two-handed video games were out, at least until I had the time and patience to research and learn to use accessible gaming controllers. At the same...
Archinect - Features
How To Reduce the Stress of an Architecture Job Search At some point in their careers, most, if not all, individuals in the architecture profession find...
12 months ago
83
12 months ago
At some point in their careers, most, if not all, individuals in the architecture profession find themselves looking for new employment. This can include graduates looking for their first job out of architecture school, experienced designers and architects moving from one firm to...
Archinect - Features
'AI Could Be Seen as a Culture of Death in Its Darkest Sense'; A Conversation with Genevieve... Genevieve Goffman does not create art about artificial intelligence; at least, not yet. The New...
a year ago
26
a year ago
Genevieve Goffman does not create art about artificial intelligence; at least, not yet. The New York-based artist has instead grounded her acclaimed work in fantasy and narrative world-building, often through the medium of evocative and ornate 3D printed sculptures derived from...
Common Edge
Building Emissions Are Falling, Now the Real Work Begins There has been a significant drop this year. The path toward net-zero intensifies.
a year ago
Construction Physics
Machine Tool Reading List For those interested in reading more about the machine tool industry, the sources I found useful are...
a year ago
30
a year ago
For those interested in reading more about the machine tool industry, the sources I found useful are listed below. The machine tool industry has been studied quite extensively, if sporadically (lots of sources talk about its decline in the 1980s, fewer ones talk about its...
Archinect - Features
How Marcus Prize Winner Tiantian Xu Brought 'Architectural Acupuncture' to Students at... Throughout the Spring of 2025, award-winning Chinese architect Tiantian Xu delivered a studio at the...
a month ago
20
a month ago
Throughout the Spring of 2025, award-winning Chinese architect Tiantian Xu delivered a studio at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in her capacity as the tenth recipient of the biennial Marcus Prize. As the semester progressed, Archinect spoke with both Tiantian Xu and the...
CONTEMPORIST
Red-Pigmented Concrete Screens Surround This New Home In Cape Town Architecture firm SAOTA, together with interior design firm ARRCC, has recently completed a modern...
a year ago
22
a year ago
Architecture firm SAOTA, together with interior design firm ARRCC, has recently completed a modern house in Cape Town, South Africa. The home was designed by Philip Olmesdahl, principal of SAOTA, for himself and his family, with him sharing, “When architects design their own...
The Modern House
The Green Series #2: how to control heat and draught-proof your home Triple glazing and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) systems come as standard in a...
7 months ago
19
7 months ago
Triple glazing and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) systems come as standard in a Passivhaus home, sealing the interior against the elements and radically reducing your reliance on conventional heating. For the second in our series of Passivhaus hacks, Kate Jacobs...
99% Invisible
Anything’s Pastable: Eat Sauté Love [EPISODE] This week we’re featuring an episode from The Sporkful’s series on the creation of “Anything’s...
a year ago
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a year ago
This week we’re featuring an episode from The Sporkful’s series on the creation of “Anything’s Pastable,” Dan Pashman’s new pasta cookbook. In part two of “Anything’s Pastable,” Dan embarks on an epic trip across Italy in search of lesser-known pasta dishes — and to learn about...
Archinect - Features
Archinect Meets: The Value Of Architecture When it comes to architecture, Brian Linder doesn't like to color inside the lines. Trained as an...
2 weeks ago
16
2 weeks ago
When it comes to architecture, Brian Linder doesn't like to color inside the lines. Trained as an architect at Carnegie Mellon and UCLA, he also worked in real estate, marketing, and management consulting before establishing himself as a licensed "Architecture Broker." Under the...
Old Structures...
A Metaphor When I was maybe ten years old, visiting the observation deck of the Empire State Building, I heard...
a year ago
55
a year ago
When I was maybe ten years old, visiting the observation deck of the Empire State Building, I heard someone describe the view as being like the buildings were a beard and Central Park a shaved strip. In 1952, there were far fewer high-rises on the Upper East and Upper West Sides,...
Old Structures...
A Blast From The Past, In The Past My mental image of hand-drawn, colored engineering renderings is that they were a nineteenth-century...
a year ago
20
a year ago
My mental image of hand-drawn, colored engineering renderings is that they were a nineteenth-century phenomenon. These drawings prove me wrong: they’re a 1922 description of the lower-Manhattan tunnel under the Hudson River, then in the early stages of construction. The second...
Old Structures...
The Right Angle I’m not working on any of the buildings in this photo, but if I were… Raking sunlight is a fantastic...
a year ago
42
a year ago
I’m not working on any of the buildings in this photo, but if I were… Raking sunlight is a fantastic way to get information about a facade. Any out-of-plane geometry is immediately visible as a shadow. You can see the natural irregularity of a brick wall: and a bulge that might...
Common Edge
The Next New Thing In architecture, the gulf between the traditional and the modern seems wider than ever before.
a year ago
There are two types...
Me on the On Cities Podcast CLICK HERE to open in Apple Podcasts The post Me on the On Cities Podcast appeared first on There...
a year ago
28
a year ago
CLICK HERE to open in Apple Podcasts The post Me on the On Cities Podcast appeared first on There are two types of architecture—good architecture, and the other kind.
Old Structures...
Part Of A Wave I’m speaking today at the “Office To Residential Summit” a two-day conference on the various...
a year ago
56
a year ago
I’m speaking today at the “Office To Residential Summit” a two-day conference on the various architectural, legal, engineering, and logistics aspects of converting office buildings (of which there are currently more than needed) to apartments (not so much). My talk is about some...
Common Edge
Can Quality Solve L.A.’s Housing Crisis? QUIMBY—Quality In My Backyard—is a movement to harness the urgency of YIMBYs to build neighborhoods...
a month ago
24
a month ago
QUIMBY—Quality In My Backyard—is a movement to harness the urgency of YIMBYs to build neighborhoods that even NIMBYs can love.
Common Edge
Kelp Farming May Help Clean New York’s Polluted Waterways and Fight Climate Change The seaweed found in Newtown Creek, Gowanus Bay, and the East River could suck up carbon and...
over a year ago
McMansion Hell
ode to a faux grecian urn Howdy everyone, Today’s house, built in 2001, comes to you from, you guessed it, the Chicago...
a year ago
27
a year ago
Howdy everyone, Today’s house, built in 2001, comes to you from, you guessed it, the Chicago suburbs. The house is a testimony to traditional craftsmanship and traditional values (having lots of money.) The cost of painting this house greige is approximately the GDP of Slovenia...
CONTEMPORIST
This Home Renovation Made More Use Of The Basement And Outdoor Space Best Practice Architecture has shared photos of a contemporary home renovation they completed in...
a year ago
25
a year ago
Best Practice Architecture has shared photos of a contemporary home renovation they completed in Seattle, Washington. Before – The Exterior The single-story, mid-century home had two doors at the front of the home, with steps leading to each one. After – The Exterior The updated...
Contemporist...
Modern meets nature in this home that opens to a meadow in the trees Set in a sunny meadow and framed by tall evergreens, this Washington State home designed by Prentiss...
a month ago
16
a month ago
Set in a sunny meadow and framed by tall evergreens, this Washington State home designed by Prentiss + Balance + Wickline Architects feels like a peaceful escape into nature. The architects recently shared a look inside the completed project, and it’s every bit as serene as its...
CONTEMPORIST
This Modern House Sits On Top Of Stilts In The Forest Architects Carlos Maia, Débora Mendes, and Igor Macedo of Tetro have designed a new home in Nova...
over a year ago
48
over a year ago
Architects Carlos Maia, Débora Mendes, and Igor Macedo of Tetro have designed a new home in Nova Lima, Brazil, that’s immersed in lush Atlantic Rainforest nature that includes large leafy trees, foliage, shrubs, birds, and wild animals. The house, white in color and with a unique...
99% Invisible
You Ain’t Nothin But a Postmark [EPISODE] Over a decade after Elvis Presley’s death, the king of rock & roll took over headlines once again as...
a year ago
19
a year ago
Over a decade after Elvis Presley’s death, the king of rock & roll took over headlines once again as Americans weighed in on which portrait of Elvis would be forever immortalized on a 29 cent US postage stamp. It was put to a popular vote: should the stamp feature an image of...
The Solarchitecture...
7-Stage Solar Design Review - launched! Together we make your home healthier, full of sunlight & abound with natural energy
over a year ago
Contemporist...
A Monochromatic Interior Sets The Vibe Inside This Retail Store Design firm Studiomateriality, has shared photos of a retail store they designed in Athina, Greece,...
a year ago
40
a year ago
Design firm Studiomateriality, has shared photos of a retail store they designed in Athina, Greece, that has a monochromatic interior to catch the eye of people walking past.
Common Edge
The Creative Power Produced by Embracing Paradox There is a keen sense of insight that comes from being in the in-between spaces of a largely binary...
a year ago
There are two types...
With Rhetoric: The New York Apartment House WHEN I was in graduate school, I was one of the editors of VIA IV: “Culture and the Social Vision.”...
over a year ago
15
over a year ago
WHEN I was in graduate school, I was one of the editors of VIA IV: “Culture and the Social Vision.” I helped Robert A.M. Stern write New York 1900, Metropolitan Architecture and Urbanism 1890-1915. My summer job turned into a … Continue reading → The post With Rhetoric: The New...
The Modern House
Our Guide to Exeter: where to kayak, throw clay and blend your own botanicals in the West Country...
5 months ago
Contemporist...
How A Wood Screen Turned This Home Extension Into A Design Showpiece Austin Maynard Architects has unveiled a thoughtful renovation and extension of an Australian home,...
a month ago
19
a month ago
Austin Maynard Architects has unveiled a thoughtful renovation and extension of an Australian home, transforming it into a warm, modern space that blends lightness, function, and character.
Construction Physics
Airport Reading List The major sources I found helpful for learning about airports and their construction are listed...
a year ago
83
a year ago
The major sources I found helpful for learning about airports and their construction are listed below. As usual, these are listed roughly in order of how useful I found them. And because “useful” isn’t the same as “actually interesting to read” I’ve marked the books that are...
THE ARCHITECTURAL...
Can We Afford More Modernist Buildings? A common myth suggests that the unattractiveness of new buildings over the last century is due to...
a year ago
23
a year ago
A common myth suggests that the unattractiveness of new buildings over the last century is due to rational or economic reasons, implying that building beautifully is too costly. In this article, I’ll debunk this idea and uncover the real reason behind the prevalence of...
99% Invisible
Broken Plexus (3 of 3): Addressing Sensational Paradoxes of Peripheral Nerve Damage Peripheral neuropathy feels paradoxical at times, as sensory nerve damage can lead both to extreme...
2 months ago
21
2 months ago
Peripheral neuropathy feels paradoxical at times, as sensory nerve damage can lead both to extreme hypersensitivity on the one hand, as well as sections of complete numbness on … well, that very same injured hand. The impacts of such damage can be felt most persistently in the...
CONTEMPORIST
A Wedge-Shaped House Gonzalo Rufin Arquitectos + Felipe Toro have shared photos of a small wedge-shaped home they...
4 months ago
39
4 months ago
Gonzalo Rufin Arquitectos + Felipe Toro have shared photos of a small wedge-shaped home they completed that’s located on the windy beach of Matanzas, Chile. Surrounded by forests, ravines, and trees, the home is positioned on the only flat space of the land. The construction is...
McMansion Hell
Hello everyone! The word is out – I am writing a book! Hello everyone! The word is out – I am writing a book! If you ever wanted to read a book about...
a year ago
24
a year ago
Hello everyone! The word is out – I am writing a book! If you ever wanted to read a book about McMansions, 5-over-1s, the ignoble toil of architects, ridiculous baubles for rich people, hostile architecture, private equity, shopping (rip), offices (rip), loud restaurants, and...
Old Structures...
Infrastructure Density From 1954, “Sunnyside Yards” probably requires some explanation for people unfamiliar with western...
11 months ago
40
11 months ago
From 1954, “Sunnyside Yards” probably requires some explanation for people unfamiliar with western Queens. The yard (foreground) was built with Penn Station in the aughts because there was simply not enough room near the station, in Manhattan, for a proper yard. So, except for a...
CONTEMPORIST
The Reinterpretation Of A Gabled Roof Is On Display At This New House Architecture firm Studio KUNZ has shared photos of a home they completed in a small town in the...
a year ago
64
a year ago
Architecture firm Studio KUNZ has shared photos of a home they completed in a small town in the south of Brazil. The home sits on a high plateau, surrounded by an idyllic landscape formed by araucaria trees, which was key for a young couple who have a close relationship with life...
Common Edge
Our Buildings, Our Selves, Featuring Michael Kimmelman and Kate Wagner Episode 2 of the Common Edge podcast explores the question: The age of the starchitect is over,...
3 months ago
Contemporist...
This Quiet Home Is All About Living Slowly and Fully In the ancient water town of Suzhou, known for its poetic gardens and slow-living culture, one home...
3 weeks ago
11
3 weeks ago
In the ancient water town of Suzhou, known for its poetic gardens and slow-living culture, one home has been quietly redefining the idea of what it means to dwell well. The Suzhou Tongli Villa, designed by Hangzhou Shihe Design, isn’t lavish in the traditional sense. There’s no...
Contemporist...
Above the Ground, Among the Leaves: A Modest Prefab Timber Home in the Trees Perched high on a rocky slope in Palm Beach, just 40 kilometers from Sydney, Australia, this modest...
3 weeks ago
11
3 weeks ago
Perched high on a rocky slope in Palm Beach, just 40 kilometers from Sydney, Australia, this modest home offers an antidote to over-designed living. Designed and built by CplusC Architects + Builders, this two-bedroom home isn’t about grandeur or excess, it’s about quiet...
Old Structures...
A Sometimes Disagreeable Foreign Land, Part 1 My off-hand comment yesterday about a Baedeker guide made me think that I should look to see what a...
7 months ago
61
7 months ago
My off-hand comment yesterday about a Baedeker guide made me think that I should look to see what a nineteenth-century European guidebook had to say about New York and I was not disappointed. The guidebooks put out by the Baedecker company since the 1830s are famous for their...
Common Edge
How Madagascar Is Confronting Climate Change The island nation is grappling with unique and formidable environmental challenges.
a year ago
Contemporist...
This Tiny House Makes the Most of Every Inch In an episode from find the Perfect Place, a YouTube channel focused on unique home tours, host...
a month ago
13
a month ago
In an episode from find the Perfect Place, a YouTube channel focused on unique home tours, host Bronson visits a small but well-considered tiny house in Wanaka, a scenic town on New Zealand’s South Island.
Old Structures...
New Ringing The Old Here’s a terrible photo I took through the window of a ferry: There’s a weird concentric-circle...
9 months ago
65
9 months ago
Here’s a terrible photo I took through the window of a ferry: There’s a weird concentric-circle effect to the buildings in much of lower Manhattan that you can see clearly here, that the buildings on the waterfront are new and bigger than the ones behind them. It’s a simple...
Old Structures...
Now The Good Side A few years ago, I wrote a fairly snarky and negative piece on the Park Avenue Hotel. The building...
a year ago
34
a year ago
A few years ago, I wrote a fairly snarky and negative piece on the Park Avenue Hotel. The building is physically of interest to me because it was a rare example of a residential building with cast-iron facades and a good example of the common approach (in the mid-nineteenth...
McMansion Hell
pre-recession, post-taste Hello, everyone. I hope this blog can bring some well-needed laughs in really trying times. That’s...
a year ago
27
a year ago
Hello, everyone. I hope this blog can bring some well-needed laughs in really trying times. That’s why I’ve gone back into the archives of that precipitous year 2007, a year where the McMansion was sleepwalking into being a symbol of the financial calamity to follow. We return to...
Old Structures...
It Looked Familiar: An Impossible View Above, Iron Man flies past the Chrysler Building. I was trying to figure out if the buildings in the...
a year ago
16
a year ago
Above, Iron Man flies past the Chrysler Building. I was trying to figure out if the buildings in the background were realistic, and got part of the way there. The gray building on the right looks like a simplified version of the Socony-Mobil Building at the southeast corner of...
Archinect - Features
'AI Is Both Incredible and Terrifying'; A Conversation with Neil Leach Neil Leach is a British professor and licensed architect currently based in California. He has...
over a year ago
28
over a year ago
Neil Leach is a British professor and licensed architect currently based in California. He has worked for NASA developing a 3D printer for the Moon and Mars, and is co-founder of DigitalFUTURES. Having authored over 40 books on architecture and digital design, and taught at some...
Construction Physics
Could ChatGPT become an architect? OpenAI recently released an updated version of their GPT large language model, GPT-4, and have...
over a year ago
42
over a year ago
OpenAI recently released an updated version of their GPT large language model, GPT-4, and have incorporated it into their ChatGPT chatbot. In case you've been living under a rock, ChatGPT is a chatbot that uses large language models, which use artificial neural networks
Contemporist...
A Weekend Apartment That Embodies the Philosophy of Happiness Russian designer Yulia Babintseva of YUHOME Design Studio reimagined a 812 square foot (75 sqm)...
3 weeks ago
10
3 weeks ago
Russian designer Yulia Babintseva of YUHOME Design Studio reimagined a 812 square foot (75 sqm) apartment as a serene weekend escape. Overlooking the greenery of Petrovsky Island, the apartment was designed for a couple who wanted more than function, they wanted a story, a symbol...
Common Edge
Letter From Los Angeles: The Unsettling Silence of Construction Sites What happens when the people who will rebuild burned-out L.A. are afraid to come to work?
3 weeks ago
Contemporist...
A' Design Awards & Competition - Early Call for Entries A’ Design Award & Competition is the world’s leading design accolade reaching design enthusiasts...
over a year ago
38
over a year ago
A’ Design Award & Competition is the world’s leading design accolade reaching design enthusiasts around the world, and showcasing 1844 winners in 139 different design disciplines.
Old Structures...
6:52 AM, November 27 Half an hour after dawn, and the setting full moon is just to the right and below the ONE WAY sign....
a year ago
17
a year ago
Half an hour after dawn, and the setting full moon is just to the right and below the ONE WAY sign. The construction on the left is poart of the Battery Resliency program to prtocet lower Manahttan against sea level rise.
Contemporist...
From Old Victorian Shopfront to Sustainable City Home with Solar Panels and Rooftop Garden In the heart of a heritage conservation zone, CplusC Architects + Builders have reimagined the urban...
6 days ago
6
6 days ago
In the heart of a heritage conservation zone, CplusC Architects + Builders have reimagined the urban home as a living system. Welcome to the Jungle House is built on the belief that architecture must move beyond shelter and aesthetics, it must support life, reduce consumption,...
Old Structures...
The Queen Anne Style Is Rare In New York I was on the Upper East Side and saw two houses that don’t quite fit in on Park Avenue north of 69th...
a year ago
42
a year ago
I was on the Upper East Side and saw two houses that don’t quite fit in on Park Avenue north of 69th Street. Those two rowhouses are listed in the records of the Upper East Side Historic District as having been built between 1882 and 1885 as part of a larger row, with the other...
Old Structures...
A Moment Captured This sketch is labelled ‘Architectural drawing for a customs house (“United States Custom House”),...
a year ago
16
a year ago
This sketch is labelled ‘Architectural drawing for a customs house (“United States Custom House”), New York, New York’ on the Library of Congress website. It’s not clear if that title was somehow written on the sketch or is a librarian’s interpretation of the content. It’s...
Old Structures...
The Main Attraction Hasn’t Changed From one of the New York Public Library’s scrapbooks, a view north from Park Avenue and 41st Street...
7 months ago
57
7 months ago
From one of the New York Public Library’s scrapbooks, a view north from Park Avenue and 41st Street in 1920: The focal point of such a view is, of course, Grand Central Terminal. The big vacant lot, protected only by an easily-hopped fence, was the former site of the 1860s Grand...
Blog - Guerrilla...
Guerrillas in the Midst: Crowdsourcing Cartography When I think about what Guerrilla Cartography does, I think of building and creating something new...
10 months ago
86
10 months ago
When I think about what Guerrilla Cartography does, I think of building and creating something new from many different pieces, like a puzzle that only makes sense once it’s put together. But unlike a puzzle, there is no single correct way to put the pieces together, as they can...
Common Edge
Architects vs. Algorithms: A 2025 Love Story This year, AI will assert itself on both the designer and the client sides of the construction...
5 months ago
Old Structures...
The Same But Different This is an 1884 photograph of Broadway looking north from just south of Houston Street. Broadway...
a year ago
21
a year ago
This is an 1884 photograph of Broadway looking north from just south of Houston Street. Broadway runs straight from here until the bend at 10th Street where Grace Church is, and the church is just barely visible at the end of the street. Unlike most photos of Manhattan from the...
Common Edge
How the Much-Maligned Porch Supports Walkable, Sustainable Communities Its aesthetic detractors don’t understand the porch’s ability to create community.
10 months ago
The Modern House
The Secret Life of Reggie Yates | A House Tour with the Writer and Director
6 months ago
CONTEMPORIST
A New Extension And A Garden Studio For This Heritage-Listed Home Paul Archer Design has sent us photos of a rear addition they completed for a Grade II Listed Town...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Paul Archer Design has sent us photos of a rear addition they completed for a Grade II Listed Town House in Greater London, England. Not only did they design the addition, but they also created a small garden studio that provides a workspace for the musician owner. A large...
99% Invisible
Brilliantly Boring [EPISODE] If you’ve been paying attention to our Power Broker series, then you know that bad infrastructure...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
If you’ve been paying attention to our Power Broker series, then you know that bad infrastructure can cause harm. That makes it all the more important to recognize the thought and care that goes into the objects we use and see everyday. Nothing embodies that spirit of recognition...
Contemporist...
Peek Inside This Apartment Building With Cloud-Shaped Windows ROOM+ Design & Build has unveiled a striking modern apartment built on a slender urban lot in Ho Chi...
a month ago
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a month ago
ROOM+ Design & Build has unveiled a striking modern apartment built on a slender urban lot in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where playful cloud-shaped openings turn the compact structure into a standout architectural statement.
CONTEMPORIST
Operable Screens Cover The Exterior Of This Hawaiian Home Architecture firm OLSON KUNDIG has shared photos of a home they completed in Hanalei, Hawaii, that...
a year ago
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a year ago
Architecture firm OLSON KUNDIG has shared photos of a home they completed in Hanalei, Hawaii, that blurs the lines between indoor and outdoor living with the inclusion of a series of operable shutter screens that wrap most of the building facade. The custom shutter system,...
Blog - Guerrilla...
White Elephants in the State of Vermont This map, which originally appeared in the Community atlas, has been revised. The typeface has been...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
This map, which originally appeared in the Community atlas, has been revised. The typeface has been changed to Cornerstone, which is used in the logo for the Black Lives Matter movement. How did you decide to map what you mapped for the Community atlas?  That was the question...
A Weekly Dose of...
Adjaye: Works 2007-2015 Adjaye: Works 2007-2015: Houses, Pavilions, Installations, Buildings Edited by Peter Allison Thames...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Adjaye: Works 2007-2015: Houses, Pavilions, Installations, Buildings Edited by Peter Allison Thames & Hudson, October 2022 Hardcover | 10-1/2 x 10-1/2 inches | 300 pages | 500 illustrations | English | ISBN: 9780500343807 | $90 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION: Following Adjaye: Works...
The Solarchitecture...
7 key principles of solar passive design - Part 1. or how to dramatically improve indoor healthy air quality and well-being while reducing...
over a year ago
21
over a year ago
or how to dramatically improve indoor healthy air quality and well-being while reducing energy-consumption for every building we build?
devonzuegel.com
Part 6: Is the proposed new city in California climate resilient? A new city has been proposed in California, and I’ve never been more captivated by a vision for the...
a year ago
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a year ago
A new city has been proposed in California, and I’ve never been more captivated by a vision for the future of my home state in my lifetime. This post is part of a series I’m writing about this bold proposal. One of the biggest questions I had when I first learned about this...
Old Structures...
A Last Remnant I’ve mentioned before the way that the numbered street grid was literally cut though the once-hilly...
a year ago
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a year ago
I’ve mentioned before the way that the numbered street grid was literally cut though the once-hilly topography of Manhattan Island. It’s hard to find visible evidence of that process today. The Dyckman Farmhouse, near the north end of the island and dating to 1784, is on a hill...
Old Structures...
The Skull Beneath The Feathers I like birds to begin with; this hummingbird sculpture in Montreal seems designed specifically for a...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
I like birds to begin with; this hummingbird sculpture in Montreal seems designed specifically for a structural engineer who likes birds.
CONTEMPORIST
Custom-Made Terrazzo Tiles Fill The Interior Of This New Coffee Bar & Cafe BRADLEY EDWARDS ARCHITECT has shared photos of the Onyx Coffee Lab, a combined coffee bar, café,...
4 months ago
35
4 months ago
BRADLEY EDWARDS ARCHITECT has shared photos of the Onyx Coffee Lab, a combined coffee bar, café, patio, and kitchen they designed in Bentonville, Arkansas, that includes custom Terrazzo tiles. The design process began after the decision was made to put a coffee bar in the...
Contemporist...
A Charred Wood Exterior Was Given To This Modern Home In The Forest CLB Architects, together with HSH Interiors (Holly Hollenbeck), has designed a home in an aspen...
a year ago
Old Structures...
Happy Christmas I’m not so sure about that vest.
6 months ago
Old Structures...
Amazing Detail I recently put up a map put up an 1884 planning map for the expansion of the Croton water system...
a year ago
13
a year ago
I recently put up a map put up an 1884 planning map for the expansion of the Croton water system north of New York. It turns out that was just an appetizer. Today’s map, from 1899, has much more detail and is amazing proof of what could be done with hand drafting: no GIS...
McMansion Hell
every small city has that one dictator chic house I don’t know why, but every city, no matter how big, has some insanely stacked dictator-looking...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I don’t know why, but every city, no matter how big, has some insanely stacked dictator-looking McMansion somewhere outside the city limits. If you sort your Zillow results as Price: High - Low, this house will pop up first. It costs something like $5,000,000. It is 10,000 square...
CONTEMPORIST
A Rain Tree Became The Centerpiece Of This Home’s Design Guz Architects has shared photos of a modern home they designed in Singapore, that was conceived as...
a year ago
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a year ago
Guz Architects has shared photos of a modern home they designed in Singapore, that was conceived as a multigenerational family house arranged around a large garden and an old rain tree which was protected and preserved. The architects included passive cooling measures, which were...
Archinect - Features
Archinect Celebrates Canada Day by Highlighting 15 Architecture Firms That Are Defining the... July 1, also known as Canada Day, is a time when Canadians come together to commemorate the union of...
over a year ago
22
over a year ago
July 1, also known as Canada Day, is a time when Canadians come together to commemorate the union of what were once three separate colonies — New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Canada (contemporary Ontario and Quebec). Canada isn't just one of the largest countries in the world, but...
The Beauty of...
Riding the Steel Breeze (Port Talbot Parkway, Neath Port Talbot, UK) Some stations are born parkways, some achieve parkway status, while yet others have parkway status...
a year ago
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a year ago
Some stations are born parkways, some achieve parkway status, while yet others have parkway status thrust upon them. Such is the explanation for an arrival at Port Talbot Parkway being such a strange experience. As passengers step out of their trains they find themselves...
Common Edge
Encounters With Damian: Columbia University’s Homeless Neighbor Near and around campus, the juxtaposition between privilege and poverty is glaring.
a year ago
Coffee with an...
Design Paths Design is hard. The path you follow from start to finish is never a straight line. If only there...
a year ago
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a year ago
Design is hard. The path you follow from start to finish is never a straight line. If only there were a handful of clear diagrams to explain the process. This isn’t that:
Old Structures...
The Big Time We’re working on the Gothic Bridge in Central Park, seen above. Tim went to the night-before prep...
a year ago
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a year ago
We’re working on the Gothic Bridge in Central Park, seen above. Tim went to the night-before prep for the Thanksgiving parade and found this float: And then he watched the parade on TV and found it again, second from the end:
Contemporist...
Reclaimed Wood Finds New Life In This Coastal Home Set beneath the branches of towering Messmate Gums in Torquay, Australia, Winkler Residence is a...
2 weeks ago
10
2 weeks ago
Set beneath the branches of towering Messmate Gums in Torquay, Australia, Winkler Residence is a sustainable, timber-framed home designed by Peter Winkler Architects. Conceived as both a family residence and an architectural studio, the project is shaped by decades of coastal...
Contemporist...
From the street, it looks like a shed, inside, this home's a sanctuary You won’t find windows or fences here, just a bold idea for urban privacy. Designed by Specht Novak,...
a month ago
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a month ago
You won’t find windows or fences here, just a bold idea for urban privacy. Designed by Specht Novak, the Stealth House transforms a leftover lot into a hidden retreat of steel, silence, and sunlit courtyards. Every inch of its 1,100 square feet is a study in purpose,...
Old Structures...
On The Spectrum Between Solid and Hole For study, two photos of the elevated structure supporting the 2 and 5 trains in the Bronx. This...
a year ago
23
a year ago
For study, two photos of the elevated structure supporting the 2 and 5 trains in the Bronx. This piece of the subway system has a slightly odd history. The portion south of and up to 180th Street, at the south end of Bronx Park, was planned as part of the original IRT subway, but...
99% Invisible
Uptown Squirrel [EPISODE] This past fall, hundreds of people gathered at The Explorer’s Club in New York City. The building...
a year ago
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a year ago
This past fall, hundreds of people gathered at The Explorer’s Club in New York City. The building was once a clubhouse for famed naturalists and explorers. Now it’s an archive of ephemera and rarities from pioneering expeditions including treks to the North Pole, the moon, and...
CONTEMPORIST
A New Home With Twin Gables Connected By A Glazed Breezeway Wheeler Kearns Architects has shared photos of a new home they have completed in Illinois, which is...
a year ago
83
a year ago
Wheeler Kearns Architects has shared photos of a new home they have completed in Illinois, which is located on a one-acre wooded ravine site north of Chicago. The home, situated upward and slightly angled away from the street, includes twin-gabled volumes, one for sleeping and...
CONTEMPORIST
Before + After – An Apartment Transformed With A New Interior FCstudio has shared photos of an apartment renovation they completed in Sao Paulo, Brazil, that...
10 months ago
72
10 months ago
FCstudio has shared photos of an apartment renovation they completed in Sao Paulo, Brazil, that transformed the space into a contemporary and open interior. The design plan included removing walls and creating integrated spaces, like in the living room, which was once a smaller...
Old Structures...
An Original Or An Imitation Of An Imitation The Leonard Street facade of 249 Church Street: For this discussion, ignore the stone ground-floor...
a year ago
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a year ago
The Leonard Street facade of 249 Church Street: For this discussion, ignore the stone ground-floor storefront, which was a 1920s alteration of this 1867 loft building, probably replacing cast iron columns and lintels. The rest of the facade is, per the Landmarks designation...
Contemporist...
An Extension To This 1933 Home Creates A New Kitchen And Outdoor Terrace Heliotrope Architects has shared photos of a contemporary extension they completed for a home in...
11 months ago
66
11 months ago
Heliotrope Architects has shared photos of a contemporary extension they completed for a home in Seattle, Washington, that was originally designed and built in 1933 by Norwegian boat captain Ole E. Nelson.
Common Edge
Reclaiming Urbanism After the L.A. Fires The city should reconsider the single-use land patterns of Pacific Palisades and Altadena and enact...
5 months ago
47
5 months ago
The city should reconsider the single-use land patterns of Pacific Palisades and Altadena and enact zoning reforms.
99% Invisible
Mini-Stories: Volume 20 Happy New Year! We’re starting 2025 with four more mini stories! This week we have a sleepy button,...
6 months ago
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6 months ago
Happy New Year! We’re starting 2025 with four more mini stories! This week we have a sleepy button, electric signs, a very important sticker, and video you can smell. Let’s get into it! Snooze Buttons In the 1950s, General Electric changed alarm clocks forever by adding a snooze...
Contemporist...
A Home Designed To Walk Up And Around The Green Roof AtelierM has sent us photos of a contemporary home they completed in Capilla del Senor, Argentina,...
9 months ago
95
9 months ago
AtelierM has sent us photos of a contemporary home they completed in Capilla del Senor, Argentina, whose design was inspired by geometry and its surroundings.
Common Edge
Why Would You Want to Teach Architecture? Opening minds and defining a way of working is the ultimate payoff.
a year ago
Construction Physics
Why Levittown Didn't Revolutionize Homebuilding For decades, people have tried to bring mass production methods to housing: to build houses the way...
11 months ago
79
11 months ago
For decades, people have tried to bring mass production methods to housing: to build houses the way we build cars. While no one has succeeded, arguably the man that came closest to becoming “the Henry Ford of homebuilding” was William Levitt, with his company Levitt and Sons....
Common Edge
Unlocking the Mysteries of Zoning Sara Bronin’s new book, Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World, is a deep, accessible dive...
5 months ago
59
5 months ago
Sara Bronin’s new book, Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World, is a deep, accessible dive into the prosaic realms of urban planning.
The Modern House
The house that art built: Paul Huxley and Susie Allen invite us into their west London home and...
6 months ago
Old Structures...
Adelaide House, Part 4 – The Context Part 1, General: here. Part 2, Structure: here. Part 3, Facades: here. Skyscrapers only make sense...
a year ago
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a year ago
Part 1, General: here. Part 2, Structure: here. Part 3, Facades: here. Skyscrapers only make sense as an urban phenomenon. (Keep in mind that a lot of inner-ring US suburbs are at urban density.) Putting aside the obvious economic argument that land is cheap in rural areas so...
CONTEMPORIST
Exposed Wood Posts & Beams Add A Warm Rustic Touch To This Small Cabin Still Architects has shared photos of a small contemporary cabin they completed in the Muskoka...
6 months ago
84
6 months ago
Still Architects has shared photos of a small contemporary cabin they completed in the Muskoka region of Ontario, Canada, where the Rosseau River flows into the lake. The 800-square-foot (74-sqm) cabin has a wood exterior with black accents. Its wood deck, with steps down to the...
Construction Physics
The Rise of Steel Part II Welcome to the Rise of Steel part II. We previously looked at the early stages of industrialization...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Welcome to the Rise of Steel part II. We previously looked at the early stages of industrialization of iron and steelmaking, between roughly 1200 and 1850. To briefly recap, making steel was an involved, multistep process. Iron would first be smelted from iron ore in a blast...
99% Invisible
Orange Alternative [EPISODE] In the months following the invasion of Ukraine, cryptic anti-war graffiti began popping up across...
over a year ago
69
over a year ago
In the months following the invasion of Ukraine, cryptic anti-war graffiti began popping up across Russia. People started writing out the phrase “no war” using asterisks instead of the various letters in order to disguise the meaning of the message. Then back in September, a...
Construction Physics
Reading List 03/08/2025 China’s industrial diplomacy, streetlights and crime, deorbiting Starlink satellites, a proposed...
4 months ago
41
4 months ago
China’s industrial diplomacy, streetlights and crime, deorbiting Starlink satellites, a proposed canal across Thailand, a looming gas turbine shortage, and more.
THE ARCHITECTURAL...
How Germany’s Most Beautiful City Was Destroyed… and Rebuilt Dresden, a stunning city in Germany, was nearly wiped out during World War II when it was bombed,...
5 months ago
44
5 months ago
Dresden, a stunning city in Germany, was nearly wiped out during World War II when it was bombed, leaving only ruins behind. But its story didn’t end there—this is a tale of how Dresden came back to life, and rose from the ashes like a phoenix. Before the war, Dresden was known...
Archinect - Features
Applying to architecture school? Don't miss these info sessions and open houses this... Deadlines for 2025 architecture academic programs are coming up soon! To learn more about exciting...
8 months ago
65
8 months ago
Deadlines for 2025 architecture academic programs are coming up soon! To learn more about exciting undergraduate and graduate degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning, take a look below at Archinect's latest highlight of upcoming information sessions...
Contemporist...
A Stone Covered Home That Surrounds A Central Courtyard With Sunken Seating YDR estudio has shared photos of a contemporary stone house they completed in Mexico that includes a...
5 months ago
78
5 months ago
YDR estudio has shared photos of a contemporary stone house they completed in Mexico that includes a central courtyard with sunken outdoor seating.
Common Edge
Why Gardening Should Be Our Metaphor for Local Development If your town isn’t cultivating its own economic growth, then it’s being mined for someone else’s...
7 months ago
Archinect - Features
Inside the Multidimensional Worlds of Squint/Opera and Journey In 2022, two decades after their founding, creative agency Squint/Opera joined forces with fellow...
5 months ago
152
5 months ago
In 2022, two decades after their founding, creative agency Squint/Opera joined forces with fellow studios ICRAVE, 59, and VMI Studio under the banner of Journey, a "superpowered organization" bridging physical and digital design. Long before the merger, Squint/Opera had...
Common Edge
Finding Inspiration in Histories of Indian Families With Powerful Architectural Legacies The stories found in Architectural Inheritance and Evolution in India rekindled the fire for the...
a year ago
CONTEMPORIST
A Modern Cabin Perched On The Edge Of Rocky Cliffs PIN Architects has shared photos of a small modern cabin they completed in Turkey, that’s located on...
3 months ago
48
3 months ago
PIN Architects has shared photos of a small modern cabin they completed in Turkey, that’s located on the slopes of a deep valley surrounded by rocky cliffs and olive trees. The cabin, entirely made of steel, has facades that are fully glass, with solid wall applications in a few...
CONTEMPORIST
A Home Renovation Where The Walls Were Removed So The Interior Connects With the Exterior Paul Archer Design has shared photos of a home they renovated in London, that included opening up...
a year ago
24
a year ago
Paul Archer Design has shared photos of a home they renovated in London, that included opening up the walls to connect the interior spaces with the garden. The designers removed the whole ground floor, including the external walls to the rear, the stairs, most of the interior,...
Blog - Guerrilla...
Sunken Cities Foundation Contributing an original map to GC’s newest Shelter: An Atlas was very appealing to me...
over a year ago
50
over a year ago
Foundation Contributing an original map to GC’s newest Shelter: An Atlas was very appealing to me for a couple of reasons: One, as an independent map illustrator, it would give my work wide exposure. Two, it would put me in good company with other talented mapmakers. Suggestions...
Old Structures...
Look, Ma! No Hands! There is absolutely nothing unique about a masonry flat arch serving as a window head, but it’s...
a year ago
39
a year ago
There is absolutely nothing unique about a masonry flat arch serving as a window head, but it’s relatively rare on steel-frame buildings like this 1920s apartment house on the Upper East Side. There are two tip-offs that it’s a real arch and not just a cleverly-hidden lintel:...
Construction Physics
How did solar power get cheap? Part I Solar photovoltaics (PV) have become one of the cheapest sources of electricity. Lazard’s estimate...
over a year ago
39
over a year ago
Solar photovoltaics (PV) have become one of the cheapest sources of electricity. Lazard’s estimate of unsubsidized levelized cost of energy (LCOE)
Old Structures...
Pareidolia He’s a happy little gas-powered guy.
11 months ago
Contemporist...
Before and After - A Renovated 1950s Red-Brick Warehouse Turned It Into A Cafe Snow Peak Cafe, designed by KiKi ARCHi, is set inside a former red-brick warehouse in Suzhou, China....
3 weeks ago
13
3 weeks ago
Snow Peak Cafe, designed by KiKi ARCHi, is set inside a former red-brick warehouse in Suzhou, China. Once part of a cluster of industrial buildings from the 1950s, the structure has been reworked into a modern space for coffee, retail, and quiet conversation. Guided by Snow...
Old Structures...
A Rabbit Hole I Did Not See Coming As a structural engineer, I do not examine old boilers, but I do see them quite often. The older...
7 months ago
63
7 months ago
As a structural engineer, I do not examine old boilers, but I do see them quite often. The older ones tend to be abandoned in place because (a) they are huge and heavy, and will have to be cut into many small pieces to be removed form the cellars and sidewalk vaults where they...
SOCKS
Database, Network, Interface : The Architecture of Information. An exhibition at Archizoom (EPFL),... We are pleased to announce that we are curating an exhibition that will open in September at the...
over a year ago
27
over a year ago
We are pleased to announce that we are curating an exhibition that will open in September at the Archizoom Gallery (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland.  In an age characterised by the increasing dematerialisation of cultural production and transmission, Database, Network, Interface...
Contemporist...
A Clever Pass-Through Window Turns This Kitchen Into a Social Hub Located in Seattle, Washington, the Broadview Residence by KO Architecture was designed for a couple...
a month ago
8
a month ago
Located in Seattle, Washington, the Broadview Residence by KO Architecture was designed for a couple with a school-age daughter. The home prioritizes flexibility, long-term use, and budget-conscious design, meeting the family’s needs now while staying adaptable for retirement.
Old Structures...
It Looked Familiar: Unmistakable Ms. Marvel is set largely in Jersey City. Despite being the second-largest city in New Jersey,...
a year ago
21
a year ago
Ms. Marvel is set largely in Jersey City. Despite being the second-largest city in New Jersey, Jersey City does not have much of a visual image. If you asked the average person in the New York metropolitan area to name a physical landmark there, it’s likely they would draw a...
Common Edge
“Boston Is A Red City” Construction rooted in local materials is what has provided cities with distinctive identities—and...
over a year ago
69
over a year ago
Construction rooted in local materials is what has provided cities with distinctive identities—and colors.
CONTEMPORIST
The Woody Palette Of The Exterior Is Brought Through To The Inside Of This Home In New Zealand First Light Studio has shared photos of a new home they designed that’s nestled into the Port Hills...
over a year ago
82
over a year ago
First Light Studio has shared photos of a new home they designed that’s nestled into the Port Hills in Governors Bay, New Zealand. The design brief for the house was to create a small home that was well crafted out of nice materials, which resulted in a gable form with a wood...
Old Structures...
Probably Not What The Artist Intended 75 Broad Street, diagonally across the street from our office, was built in 1928 and almost...
10 months ago
58
10 months ago
75 Broad Street, diagonally across the street from our office, was built in 1928 and almost immediately bought by the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation for use as the company headquarters. Like a lot of New York Telephone buildings of that era, the interior was a...
Old Structures...
Non-Demolished When the West Side Highway – the limited access, elevated highway that was demolished in the 1970s...
a year ago
49
a year ago
When the West Side Highway – the limited access, elevated highway that was demolished in the 1970s and 80s – was planned in the 1920s, it made sense. From a viewpoint any later than about 1940 it was a terrible mistake. Bad planning and little maintenance doomed the old highway,...
Archinect - Features
USC Students Try a ‘Bottom-Up’ Approach To Sustainable Housing Delivery in the School of... Our latest Archinect Studio Pin-Ups takes a look at three studios at Archinect Partner School USC...
6 months ago
57
6 months ago
Our latest Archinect Studio Pin-Ups takes a look at three studios at Archinect Partner School USC School of Architecture, offered as part of their one-year Master of Advanced Architectural Research Studies (M.AARS) postgraduate program. Led by instructors Julia Sulzer and Sascha...
Common Edge
I’m A New Yorker, Not a NIMBY Most New Yorkers care deeply about their great city and believe development shouldn’t be top-down...
9 months ago
79
9 months ago
Most New Yorkers care deeply about their great city and believe development shouldn’t be top-down and hidden from public scrutiny.
99% Invisible
Don’t Forget to Remember [EPISODE] We memorialize the losses most important to us, as a civilization. But what even is a memorial, and...
a year ago
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a year ago
We memorialize the losses most important to us, as a civilization. But what even is a memorial, and what does it do? And how does one memorialize such a vast and distributed tragedy like COVID-19,  which was devastating physically but also divisive politically? Memorials tend to...
Archinect - Features
At Tyler’s Urban Workshop, Architecture Students Build With, and For, Underserved... On November 8th, the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University will host the...
8 months ago
65
8 months ago
On November 8th, the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University will host the Urban Workshop Symposium, the latest iteration of the Urban Workshop's engagements in community-based design and education. The event brings to the fore questions, conversations, and...
Contemporist...
The Black Exterior Of This Barn-Inspired Home Is Contrasted With A White Interior Architecture and interior design studio Laney LA has shared photos of a modern home they designed in...
a year ago
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a year ago
Architecture and interior design studio Laney LA has shared photos of a modern home they designed in Culver City, California, that has a dark black exterior.
Old Structures...
It Looked Familiar: Famous and Less So On the left, Steve Rogers jogs off the Brooklyn Brige onto a walkway that doesn’t actually exist at...
a year ago
25
a year ago
On the left, Steve Rogers jogs off the Brooklyn Brige onto a walkway that doesn’t actually exist at the foot of the bridge. The S-curved pickets in the handrail above a stone base look very much like the walkway along the Hudson River in Battery Park City, on the other side of...
99% Invisible
Melanie Speaks [EPISODE] Swan Real is in this week for Roman Mars, asking: “What makes you sound the way you do? Maybe you’ve...
a year ago
37
a year ago
Swan Real is in this week for Roman Mars, asking: “What makes you sound the way you do? Maybe you’ve been told that you speak like your mom, or that you laugh like your uncle. Maybe you sometimes slip back into an accent that reveals something about your past. Maybe you have a...
99% Invisible
Single Handed (2 of 6): No-Tie Kits, Lace Locks, & Other Assistive Shoe-lutions After an accident incapacitated one of my hands, even trying to tie my shoelaces became an exercise...
3 months ago
28
3 months ago
After an accident incapacitated one of my hands, even trying to tie my shoelaces became an exercise in frustration. But I also wasn’t keen on giving in and boxing up my laced shoe and boot collection in favor of slip-ons. So rather than sole soul searching for new footwear, I...
devonzuegel.com
Part 2: Cluster development preserves California’s landscape A new city has been proposed in California, and I’ve never been more captivated by a vision for the...
a year ago
48
a year ago
A new city has been proposed in California, and I’ve never been more captivated by a vision for the future of my home state in my lifetime. This post is part of a series I’m writing about this bold proposal. One of the most essential parts of California Forever’s proposal to...
BLDGBLOG
World Store There was an article last year in the New York Times about a California start-up called Inversion...
over a year ago
5
over a year ago
There was an article last year in the New York Times about a California start-up called Inversion that wants to “speed delivery of important items by storing them in orbit.” Their goal is to build “earth-orbiting capsules”—“hundreds or thousands of containers”—that could “deliver...
Contemporist...
A Stepped Design For This Renovated Century-Old Edwardian House In San Francisco Andrew Mann Architecture has shared photos of a century-old Edwardian house they renovated in a...
a year ago
Common Edge
My Crystal Ball: An Architect Holds Humanity’s Future in the Palm of His Hand Speculative fiction about our next million years of existence.
16 hours ago
Old Structures...
Adelaide House, Part 2 – Structure Continuing my discussion (part 1 is here) of London’s maybe-first skyscraper, the Adelaide House,...
a year ago
49
a year ago
Continuing my discussion (part 1 is here) of London’s maybe-first skyscraper, the Adelaide House, let’s talk about structure. There’s a big difference between trying to build the first skyscraper in your city in the 1870s or 80s or 90s (depending on how you want to define...
Common Edge
In Warsaw, a Student-Designed Architectural Response to Dark Times The Freedom Pavilion offers a beautiful way to contemplate peace, freedom, and solidarity with...
a year ago
99% Invisible
Lost Cities of Geo Redux [EPISODE] If we’ve learned anything from watching the turnover of tech giants like Yahoo and Myspace, it’s...
over a year ago
62
over a year ago
If we’ve learned anything from watching the turnover of tech giants like Yahoo and Myspace, it’s that internet darlings rise and fall — and there’s something darkly fascinating about watching it happen in real time. The Lost Cities of Geo We may now be seeing it all again with...
Common Edge
A Cease and Desist Letter From the European Office of Classical Architecture Affairs Re: America’s Unauthorized Use of Classical European Architectural Intellectual Property
5 months ago
CONTEMPORIST
How A 1940s House Was Renovated Into A Modern Home Architecture firm Wittman Estes has transformed an original house built in the 1940s, located on the...
a year ago
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a year ago
Architecture firm Wittman Estes has transformed an original house built in the 1940s, located on the eastern shore of Hood Canal near the Bangor submarine base in Washington State. Due to the complex constraints of the shoreline exemption, the architects kept to the existing...
99% Invisible
The Wide Open When the Endangered Species Act passed in 1973, it was considered a bipartisan home run. The Act...
5 months ago
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5 months ago
When the Endangered Species Act passed in 1973, it was considered a bipartisan home run. The Act established protections for plants and animals on the endangered and threatened species lists, and across the aisle, everyone seemed to agree that it would be bad for a bunch of...
CONTEMPORIST
A Large Sliding Window Offers A Look Inside This Nature-Inspired Store Design Architecture and interiors firm MRDK have designed a modern retail store in Montreal, Canada, for...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Architecture and interiors firm MRDK have designed a modern retail store in Montreal, Canada, for Attitude, a company that specializes in plastic-free beauty products. The design of the space reflects their commitment to sustainability and a connection to nature, which is visible...
CONTEMPORIST
Glazed Pink Tiles Cover This New Home Addition Office S&M Architects has shared photos of a home addition they designed for a Victorian house in...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
Office S&M Architects has shared photos of a home addition they designed for a Victorian house in North London, that includes glazed pink pillow-shaped tiles. The handmade glazed tiles in a pink shade complement the home’s warm brick tones and draw upon the clients’ love of...
CONTEMPORIST
This Small Home With A Green Roof Curves Around A Pond Architect office Hello Wood has sent us photos of a small modern house they completed tucked away in...
a year ago
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a year ago
Architect office Hello Wood has sent us photos of a small modern house they completed tucked away in Hungary’s lush rural landscapes. Situated next to a fishing pond, the home is a retreat for the owners and is dug into a mound, peeking out just enough to blend with the horizon....
CONTEMPORIST
Before & After – An Extension Adds New Living Space For This Home In London Bradley Van Der Straeten Architects has designed the contemporary renovation and addition for a...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Bradley Van Der Straeten Architects has designed the contemporary renovation and addition for a Grade II listed terrace home in the London borough of Islington. The original house, which is spread over three floors, was in poor condition and had lost its charm and original...
CONTEMPORIST
A Round Fireplace Is A Unique Feature In The Living Room Of This Remodeled Home Aaron Kohler and Marc Straumann of architecture and design firm KOHLERSTRAUMANN, have shared photos...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Aaron Kohler and Marc Straumann of architecture and design firm KOHLERSTRAUMANN, have shared photos of their latest project, a renovated family home in Lausen, Switzerland. The architects completely transformed the space by changing the floors, renovating all bathrooms and the...
Archinect - Features
'The Pavilion Is More Than Structure — It Is Spirit': Archinect Talks With the U.S. Pavilion... The 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale is officially open to the public. Curated by Carlo Ratti, who...
a month ago
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a month ago
The 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale is officially open to the public. Curated by Carlo Ratti, who recently spoke with Archinect about the event, the Biennale features over 750 participants responding to themes of intelligence forms, adaptation, inclusivity, and...
The Wandering...
Cartographic palettes and colour harmonies This story begins one day when I was assembling a map of the city of Edmonton, Alberta from...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
This story begins one day when I was assembling a map of the city of Edmonton, Alberta from OpenStreetMap data. It was going to be a big map, a 42″ (106 cm) wide poster for a wall. The data was good, but the standard OSM colours were not. They would work fine for a street …...
Common Edge
Contemporary Architecture and the Modern City Americans don’t like modern buildings because they don’t like the modern city.
10 months ago
Common Edge
Architects Must Address the Issue of Toxic Building Materials Ending the cycle of pollution within our buildings benefits worker health, community health, and...
a year ago
There are two types...
Location, Location, Location: Affordable Housing and Urban Form in Manhattan NOTE: The following was written for the Tenth Anniversary Edition of Street Design, The Secret To...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
NOTE: The following was written for the Tenth Anniversary Edition of Street Design, The Secret To Great Cities and Towns, where it will appear in a shorter version. This version still needs a little editing for its new context. Part … Continue reading → The post Location,...
99% Invisible
The Monster Under the Sink [EPISODE] In the middle of the 20th century, the small town of Jasper, Indiana did something that no other...
a year ago
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a year ago
In the middle of the 20th century, the small town of Jasper, Indiana did something that no other city had done before: they made garbage illegal. The city would still collect some things, like soup cans and plastics, but yucky junk, like food waste, wouldn’t get picked up. This...
CONTEMPORIST
A Dramatic Upward-Sloping Roof Covers This Rural Home Prentiss + Balance + Wickline Architects has shared photos of a contemporary home they have designed...
a year ago
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a year ago
Prentiss + Balance + Wickline Architects has shared photos of a contemporary home they have designed in Winthrop, Washington, perched atop a steep river bank. The home’s design includes an upward-sloping roof form that motions toward the river and shelters an outdoor room....
CONTEMPORIST
Two Shingle Covered Cottages Connected By A Living Room And Kitchen In Between Bates Masi + Architects has designed a house in Montauk, New York, that’s built on land that was...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Bates Masi + Architects has designed a house in Montauk, New York, that’s built on land that was once home to early settlers in the 17th century. Remnants of horse stables, barns, and workers’ cottages scatter the landscape, however, one such cottage, a late addition built in the...
A Weekly Dose of...
Olmsted Trees Olmsted Trees Photographs by Stanley Greenberg, with contributions by Tom Avermaete, Kevin Baker,...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Olmsted Trees Photographs by Stanley Greenberg, with contributions by Tom Avermaete, Kevin Baker, Mindy Thompson Fullilove Hirmer Publishers, August 2022 Hardcover | 9 x 11 inches | 160 pages | 100 illustrations | German/English | ISBN: | $X.00 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION: Central...
99% Invisible
Roman Mars Describes Santa Fe As It Is [EPISODE] Santa Fe wasn’t always on the proverbial map — in fact, the Santa Fe railroad just passed it on by....
a year ago
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a year ago
Santa Fe wasn’t always on the proverbial map — in fact, the Santa Fe railroad just passed it on by. A lot of care has been taken to keep Santa Fe cute and quaint over its history, with steps to preserve native architecture and historical design. The result is a mixture of...
McMansion Hell
Bonus Post: The McMansionization of the White House, or: Regional Car Dealership Rococo, a treatise The McMansionization of the White House, or: Regional Car Dealership Rococo: a treatise | McMansion...
2 months ago
Old Structures...
Yet Another Blue-Sky Proposal From a magazine I can’t readily find (the February 28, 1891 edition of Architecture and Building),...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
From a magazine I can’t readily find (the February 28, 1891 edition of Architecture and Building), via a scrapbook at the New York Public Library: a very involved railroad and boulevard system that I doubt anyone wanted and had zero chance of being built: This proposal is along...
Old Structures...
Sort-Of Round This is the 3333rd blog post published on the Old Structures web site. People are attracted to round...
a year ago
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a year ago
This is the 3333rd blog post published on the Old Structures web site. People are attracted to round numbers, and I could just as easily have waited for the 4000th post to say something, but I like the “third of ten-thousand” aspect of the current number. Some housekeeping: some...
99% Invisible
Model Village [EPISODE] For decades, society has dealt with people with dementia and other forms of cognitive decline by...
a year ago
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a year ago
For decades, society has dealt with people with dementia and other forms of cognitive decline by storing them away in unstimulating, medicalized environments. But around the world, a new architectural movement is starting to challenge that old paradigm. Designing environments...
Old Structures...
Ins And Outs Of Development In 1891, Corydon Purdy published a four-piece article in the Engineering News on “The Steel Skeleton...
a year ago
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a year ago
In 1891, Corydon Purdy published a four-piece article in the Engineering News on “The Steel Skeleton Type of High Buildings.” Skeleton framing, as we understand it today, was about a year old; using some of the older and looser definitions floating around in the 1880s and 90s, it...
CONTEMPORIST
A Laneway House With A Rotated Brick Facade Architecture firm Williamson Williamson has shared photos of a laneway home they completed in...
a year ago
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a year ago
Architecture firm Williamson Williamson has shared photos of a laneway home they completed in Toronto, Canada, that features a distinct rotated brick facade. Usually, laneway houses are small, however, this one is a four-bedroom home, designed for a family of five, providing...
devonzuegel.com
On bounties Michael Kaminsky recently emailed me an interesting post he wrote about bounties in open source, and...
over a year ago
28
over a year ago
Michael Kaminsky recently emailed me an interesting post he wrote about bounties in open source, and I took the opportunity to write up some thoughts that had been swirling in my head for a while. You can find the (lightly edited) response I sent to him below. ~ Bounties are...
99% Invisible
Left to Write (1 of 3): Adaptive Keyboards & Writing Technologies for One-Handed Users Last year, an accident left my right arm and shoulder numb and paralyzed. After extensive testing,...
2 months ago
5
2 months ago
Last year, an accident left my right arm and shoulder numb and paralyzed. After extensive testing, doctors determined that I had severely injured my right brachial plexus — a crucial nexus of nerve pathways carrying signals back and forth between my spinal column and right upper...
CONTEMPORIST
This Modern House Was Made From Locally Sourced Stone Architecture firm ARGDL has shared photos of a home they completed in Tapalpa, Mexico, that’s built...
a year ago
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a year ago
Architecture firm ARGDL has shared photos of a home they completed in Tapalpa, Mexico, that’s built using stone, wood, and glass. Local stone was used to generate the main volumes of the home, while the regional pine can be seen in the roof structure as well as the window and...
Old Structures...
Modern Perception First, the Carson, Pirie, Scott Store in Chicago, as it appeared in the past: In my opinion – and...
a year ago
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a year ago
First, the Carson, Pirie, Scott Store in Chicago, as it appeared in the past: In my opinion – and many other people’s opinions – it’s one of Louis Sullian’s most amazing designs. Here’s a close-up of the corner entrance as it appears today (actually yesterday, after I finished my...
Common Edge
The Sphere in Las Vegas: A Placeless Object in a Placeless City The latest Sin City spectacle is just that—spectacle. Pure, crystalline spectacle.
a year ago
Contemporist...
The 5 Ceramics of Italy 2025 Tile Trends That Are Shaping Interiors Fresh from the floors of Coverings 2025 in Orlando, Ceramics of Italy has just unveiled its...
a month ago
14
a month ago
Fresh from the floors of Coverings 2025 in Orlando, Ceramics of Italy has just unveiled its Spring-Summer 2025 Tile Trend Report, and it’s brimming with energy, craftsmanship, and soulful design. This year, Italian ceramic and porcelain tile is rewriting the rules of surfaces....
Old Structures...
It Looked Familiar: Bonus Geekiness For the end-of-summer holiday weekend, an extra. Daredevil makes a new friend: That’s one of the...
10 months ago
37
10 months ago
For the end-of-summer holiday weekend, an extra. Daredevil makes a new friend: That’s one of the eagle hood-ornament sculptures at the 61st floor of the Chrysler Building. They’ve been fascinating people since Chrysler was first built. There’s a very big but not famous building...
Old Structures...
Boosterism I don’t have an exact date for this photo, but the Temple Bar Building, the three-turreted...
a year ago
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a year ago
I don’t have an exact date for this photo, but the Temple Bar Building, the three-turreted skyscraper in the center, was constructed 1899 to 1901, so 1900 to 1910 is my guess. (As for how difficult discussing timelines can be, the New York Times article on the building I discuss...
Old Structures...
Different Types of Commercial Use From 1880, a view of Broadway looking north from Morris Street to Trinity Church. Given how deserted...
a year ago
39
a year ago
From 1880, a view of Broadway looking north from Morris Street to Trinity Church. Given how deserted it is, it’s either early in the morning on a weekend or a holiday. Wm. M Fleiss & Co, on the left, is at 47 Broadway. Broadway is lined with office and loft buildings which are...
The Beauty of...
Cover Story (Workington Bus Station, Workington, Cumbria, UK) Sometimes you seek out transport architecture, at others transport architecture is thrust upon you,...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Sometimes you seek out transport architecture, at others transport architecture is thrust upon you, just as it was when I accidentally ended up in Workington a couple of months ago. With poor weather forecast on one of the days of a trip to the Lake District, I spent the day...
Contemporist...
An Elevated Room Surrounded By Trees In The Jungle Mestizo Estudio Arquitectura has shared photos of a room they designed and built in the jungle in...
9 months ago
70
9 months ago
Mestizo Estudio Arquitectura has shared photos of a room they designed and built in the jungle in Ecuador, that features a sleeping area and bathroom.
Old Structures...
Gaudy This scrapbook clipping is listed as 1895 to 1945. The presence of the entrance kiosk for the City...
7 months ago
55
7 months ago
This scrapbook clipping is listed as 1895 to 1945. The presence of the entrance kiosk for the City Hall subway stop means it’s after 1904. I’m not sure if the Municipal Building (built 1909 to 1914) would be visible from this angle or would be off the left side of the frame; the...
Archinect - Features
On Becoming a Professional: Letter to an Architecture Student Dear Student, I suspect you’ve already encountered most of the conventional advice—the familiar...
3 months ago
289
3 months ago
Dear Student, I suspect you’ve already encountered most of the conventional advice—the familiar platitudes repeated endlessly in classrooms, critiques, and career talks. Work hard. Stay disciplined. Develop your craft. Each phrase is earnest, and each contains some truth, but...
THE ARCHITECTURAL...
I’d rather live in a nostalgic Disneyland than a modernist wasteland Critics often dismiss traditional or historicizing architecture as mere “Disneyland” — a fake,...
3 weeks ago
15
3 weeks ago
Critics often dismiss traditional or historicizing architecture as mere “Disneyland” — a fake, nostalgic fantasy out of step with modern life. But millions visit Disney’s Main Street every year, drawn to something they rarely find in real cities: beautiful, human-scaled streets...
Archinect - Features
Discussing Paid Research Opportunities for M.Arch Students at UW-Milwaukee SARUP In November 2022, we connected with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Architecture &...
a year ago
34
a year ago
In November 2022, we connected with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Architecture & Urban Planning (SARUP) to unpack its Mellows Graduate Research Positions (formerly called the Mellowes Master’s Research Assistantships).  For the 2024-2025 school year, SARUP is...
Archinect - Features
10 Controversial Buildings That Became Iconic Landmarks Architectural landmarks often become beloved symbols of their cities, but many were not always...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
Architectural landmarks often become beloved symbols of their cities, but many were not always welcomed with open arms. Throughout history, some of our most acclaimed structures have in fact provoked heated debates, divided public opinion, sparked fierce controversy, and in one...
Old Structures...
Not Quite Changing First, “Facade, 317 Broadway” from Berenice Abbott’s “Changing New York Project”, taken in 1936....
a year ago
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a year ago
First, “Facade, 317 Broadway” from Berenice Abbott’s “Changing New York Project”, taken in 1936. Second, a street view photo of 319 Broadway, today. 317 Broadway is at the southwest corner of Thomas Street and Broadway; 319 at the northwest corner. So unless this building moved...
99% Invisible
The Siren of Scrap Metal [EPISODE] Amid the noisy bustle of Mexico City, there is one iconic sound echoing on repeat in the background....
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Amid the noisy bustle of Mexico City, there is one iconic sound echoing on repeat in the background. A recording that blares from trucks looking to buy old household items and appliances, either to fix and resell or to sell for scrap. The crews inside these trucks are essentially...
CONTEMPORIST
This Backyard Office Also Has A Rock Climbing Gym WILLIAM TOZER Associates has designed a small backyard office in London, England, that also includes...
over a year ago
60
over a year ago
WILLIAM TOZER Associates has designed a small backyard office in London, England, that also includes a rock climbing gym. Full-height glazed doors slide open to connect the interior office space with the landscaped yard. Inside, desks and storage are integrated into the solid...
Old Structures...
Some Good News To Start The Year From Ars Technica, “40% of US electricity is now emissions-free” by John Timmer has a pretty...
a year ago
43
a year ago
From Ars Technica, “40% of US electricity is now emissions-free” by John Timmer has a pretty self-explanatory headline. The short version: wind and solar have advanced quickly because of decreases in their cost, coal use has dropped, and there’s more storage coming on line to...
THE ARCHITECTURAL...
The bigotry of Modernism We know that history tends to repeat itself, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse....
a year ago
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a year ago
We know that history tends to repeat itself, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. Unfortunately, the architecture world, including academics and practitioners, is often unaware that it perpetuates backward and bigoted attitudes, stifling the creativity of architects and...
Old Structures...
Winding This 1952 photo by Angelo Rizzuto is titled “Bdwy winding all thru T-Sq.” and it definitely shows...
a year ago
95
a year ago
This 1952 photo by Angelo Rizzuto is titled “Bdwy winding all thru T-Sq.” and it definitely shows Broadway and Times Square, although I have some quibbles about “winding.” This view is looking north and a little bit west, probably taken from a window on a high floor of 1450...
Contemporist...
Step Inside a Spa That Feels Like It Was Carved by Nature Located in Almaty, Kazakhstan, SIAM SPA is a three-story wellness destination designed by the...
2 weeks ago
11
2 weeks ago
Located in Almaty, Kazakhstan, SIAM SPA is a three-story wellness destination designed by the architectural bureau HAAST. With 3,240 square meters of serene space, the project is a carefully orchestrated experience that blends architecture, nature, and ritual, conceived as a...
99% Invisible
Whomst Among Us Let The Dogs Out (Again) [EPISODE] All kinds of songs get stuck in your head. Famous pop tunes from when you were a kid, album cuts...
a year ago
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a year ago
All kinds of songs get stuck in your head. Famous pop tunes from when you were a kid, album cuts you’ve listened to over and over again. And then there’s a category of memorable songs—the ones that we all just kind of know. Songs that somehow, without anyone’s permission, sneak...
Old Structures...
Visible Success, Invisibly A before and after photo of a recently completed facade stabilization and renovation project in the...
10 months ago
69
10 months ago
A before and after photo of a recently completed facade stabilization and renovation project in the West Village. The rowhouse was constructed in 1846, is now in a landmarked district, and has an operating restaurant on the first floor and in the basement. If you look closely at...
Old Structures...
Multiple Generations That picture of a cold, gray day in the Bronx was taken from the Burnside Avenue Station on the 4...
a year ago
23
a year ago
That picture of a cold, gray day in the Bronx was taken from the Burnside Avenue Station on the 4 train. (A side note: when I was at Rensselaer, some courses could be taken “self paced,” meaning that you studied on your own and took a test for each week’s less to show your...
CONTEMPORIST
A Cantilever At One End Allows This Home To Project Over The Land Leah Martin, partner and founder of Allied8 Architects in Seattle, Washington, has shared photos of...
12 months ago
62
12 months ago
Leah Martin, partner and founder of Allied8 Architects in Seattle, Washington, has shared photos of a modern Orcas Island home she designed for herself and her family. This small home, which cantilevers at one end, sits on the top of a ridge and is anchored to the bedrock in six...
Archinect - Features
Architectural Visualization Was Rather Flat: Then We Invented Perspective Before the invention of architectural perspective, architects and artists faced significant...
8 months ago
63
8 months ago
Before the invention of architectural perspective, architects and artists faced significant challenges in visualizing and communicating architectural space. Without a systematic way to represent depth and spatial relationships, architectural drawings were often symbolic,...
Common Edge
Does Brooklyn’s New Brooding Monolith Deserve Kudos? Closer in, SHoP’s Brooklyn Tower reveals texture, color, and personality, but for many it’s a bleak...
a year ago
28
a year ago
Closer in, SHoP’s Brooklyn Tower reveals texture, color, and personality, but for many it’s a bleak middle finger on the skyline.
Old Structures...
An IStructE Talk I’m giving an in-person and online talk on March 7 for the UK Institution of Structural Engineers on...
a year ago
29
a year ago
I’m giving an in-person and online talk on March 7 for the UK Institution of Structural Engineers on the connections between the development of fire-resistant construction technology, New York social history, and the origins of skyscrapers. More information here: New York’s...
Common Edge
What Would It Mean to Be An “AI First” Architecture Firm? It’s not about applying the technology to established processes, but creating entirely new paths...
3 months ago
Construction Physics
Reading List 05/24/25 Tulsa’s remote worker incentives, the “stolen iPhone building”, the Trump administration’s...
a month ago
19
a month ago
Tulsa’s remote worker incentives, the “stolen iPhone building”, the Trump administration’s shipbuilding struggles, falling traffic law enforcement, and more.
BLDGBLOG
Cleared For Approach [Image: “Forest and Sun” (1926) by Max Ernst.] When I first saw this painting—“Forest and Sun”...
over a year ago
6
over a year ago
[Image: “Forest and Sun” (1926) by Max Ernst.] When I first saw this painting—“Forest and Sun” (1926) by Max Ernst, a composition and theme he continually revisited and changed over the course of his career—I mistook the tiny white squiggles in the lower right for a procession of...
Common Edge
The 2003 Metropolis Cover Story That Changed Things for Sustainability Edward Mazria on the industry-altering impact of “Architects Pollute!”
a year ago
Construction Physics
The Story of Titanium The earth contains a lot of titanium - it’s the ninth most abundant element in the earth’s crust. By...
over a year ago
113
over a year ago
The earth contains a lot of titanium - it’s the ninth most abundant element in the earth’s crust. By mass, there’s more titanium in the earth’s crust than carbon by a factor of nearly 30, and more titanium than copper by a factor of nearly 100. But despite its abundance, it's...
Old Structures...
Location and Purpose From 1932, “The Kips Bay Station, with a capacity of 2,450,000 pounds of steam an hour, is the...
10 months ago
75
10 months ago
From 1932, “The Kips Bay Station, with a capacity of 2,450,000 pounds of steam an hour, is the largest and most modern central station steam generating plant in the world.” The station was a steam-generating plant, located on the East River at 36th Street, decommissioned and...
A Weekly Dose of...
Ando and Le Corbusier Ando and Le Corbusier is a two-volume project that shows how the works of two pioneers of modern...
over a year ago
37
over a year ago
Ando and Le Corbusier is a two-volume project that shows how the works of two pioneers of modern architecture – Le Corbusier and Tadao Ando – connect human experience to the basic givens of existence: interactions among human beings and personal encounters with nature, including...
Common Edge
Redefining Authorship: How AI Is Changing What It Means to Be an Architect The rise of artificial intelligence will challenge architects to rediscover their unique value.
3 months ago
Common Edge
Rice University Builds an Opera Theater It’s time to appreciate one of Allan Greenberg’s best works of architecture.
over a year ago