Ugly America
From the pages of Life, a complex view of the mid-century commercial landscape.
View ArticleImage, Myth, And Memory In 20th-Century Paris
In Paris in the mid 20th century there emerged a zone of queer space — a lesbian archipelago on the Left Bank that was both novel and ostentatiously radical.
View ArticleA History Of The Urban Dashboard
We know what rocket science looks like in the movies: a windowless bunker filled with blinking consoles, swivel chairs, and shirt-sleeved men in headsets nonchalantly relaying updates from “Houston” to...
View ArticleThe Association Of (Gay) Suburban People
Gay activism, and the occasional Tupperware party, in an era of entrenched homophobia.
View ArticleBeyond Google Earth
Satellite imagery might seem neutral, but it is constructed by systems which not only present but also transform the visual data.
View ArticleBoth Sides Of Sunset: Photographing Los Angeles
City of sprawl, city of neighborhoods. City of wealth and poverty, celebrity and anonymity. Los Angeles requires us to peer beneath the surface.
View ArticleEnvironmental Design In The Modern Era
Environmental change is accelerating, although it is not always perceptible or predictable. Landscape designers grapple daily with this problem, and many now focus their practice on designing for...
View ArticleDivide And Conquer
The abstract lines we’ve drawn across America — the Mason Dixon Line, the Transcontinental Railroad — still resonate in the shape of the nation.
View ArticleA Katrina Lexicon
How we talk about a disaster so monumental we can’t agree on what to call it.
View ArticleThe Occupation Of 123 Delancey Street
How a band of “dirty little artists” liberated a vacant public building on the front lines of urban renewal.
View ArticleAlong The California Aqueduct
Modern California is in fact an extraordinary achievement. To make a semi-arid region not only habitable but also prosperous and abundant has required massive and sustained geo-engineering — the...
View ArticleTaking Notes From Los Angeles' Miracle Mile
Food trucks, public art, a vibrant and organic walking culture — the evolution of Mid-Wilshire mirrors the ongoing transformation of Los Angeles.
View ArticleWhen The Dilbit Hits The Fan
If the Keystone XL pipeline is dead, what is the future of the Alberta tar sands? A visit to the headwaters of Canadian oil.
View ArticleBelgrade: A History Of The Present
Belgradians have endured bombings, sanctions, flood, and political tumult — and that’s just in the last two decades. Now can they survive global real estate?
View ArticleWhen Preservation Prevents Progress
Preservation has evolved from a rarified special interest to an institution — an ethos — entrenched in our culture. But has it become too conservative, even elitist?
View ArticleThe History Of Hippie Architecture
The hippie modernists who hijacked Aspen and sought to galvanize ecological awareness — no matter their motley raiment, grab-bag philosophies and clown-car comportment — were in a valuable vanguard...
View ArticleThe Panama Canal Is Changing Everything (Again)
The shockwave of the $5.5 billion Panama Canal expansion project is reshaping cities and industry throughout the Americas.
View ArticleTent City, America Is Growing
Tent cities are now so common that some people are campaigning to make them semi-permanent settlements of micro-housing. But is this a genuine solution or merely a quick fix?
View ArticleThe New Reincarnation Of The US-Mexican Border
The 276 Boundary Monuments along the US-Mexico border recall a time when the countries were separated by dignified stone sentinels rather than walls, sensors, and cameras.
View ArticleWhat David Bowie And Steve Jobs Can Teach Us About Change
What does the career of the shape-shifting David Bowie tell us about the nature of change in an era that’s lost faith in progress?
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