With an engaged and extensive international readership, Places Journal is widely recognized as an essential and trusted resource on the future of architecture, landscape, and urbanism. Our mission is to harness the moral and investigative power of public scholarship to promote equitable cities and resilient landscapes.
Founded at MIT and Berkeley in 1983, Places has deep associations with leading design faculties around the world, and for more than a decade we have been supported by the collective financial contributions of our Academic Partners. This innovative funding model enables us to remain free of advertising and free of charge, and to produce independent scholarship that bridges from the academy to the profession to the public.
Cities that are growing and cities that are shrinking, environmental health and social equity, climate change, resource scarcity, technological innovation — all demand that we rethink how we plan, design, construct, and maintain the built environment. These challenges also demand that serious design scholarship move from the margins to the center of the larger cultural discussion.
Academic Partners enjoy the opportunity to make key organizational decisions, collaborate with peer institutions, and inform a dynamic conversation about the future of design.
Academic Partners have a seat on our Partner Council. Each fall, the Council convenes for a three-day gathering, featuring presentations from Places editors and open discussion among Council representatives. There are numerous opportunities for engagement and collaboration year-round.
Academic Partners are acknowledged on pages across the Places website and represented on a dedicated page with institutional biographies, logos, and links. Moreover, Council members may be invited to participate in public-facing events and special projects coordinated by Places.
Academic Partners make possible the ongoing enrichment of an extensive and easily searchable archive of substantial articles, accessible to everyone with no paywall, as well as the creation of valuable new initiatives, including Reading Lists and Places Books. As a special service to educators at partner institutions, Places also offers one-on-one research consultations, making it easy to incorporate Places articles into syllabi and research plans.
Places News

Tracey’s project will focus on the Sanctuary Movement, and the entangled histories of immigration, colonization, and religion along the U.S./Mexico borderlands.
Places News

Places is collaborating with Columbia’s Historic Preservation Program to co-host the annual Fitch Colloquium. This year’s theme is “Repairing Architecture Schools.”
46,000
Unique Monthly Visitors
80,000
Followers on Social Media
13,500
Email Subscribers
900,000
Article Views Annually
4,000 *
Hours Read Monthly
* Active reading, directly measured by scroll behavior
63%
North America
18%
Europe
13%
Asia
6%
Australia,
South America, and Africa
* Active reading, directly measured by scroll behavior
A deep and ever growing archive of interdisciplinary scholarship, narrative journalism, essays, criticism, and photography. New articles are published weekly.
Our article series include Repair Manual, An Unfinished Atlas, Future Archive, and The Inequality Chronicles, among many others.
Places is a dynamic nexus of collaborative projects that have taken the form of essays, interviews, lectures, books, and events — all dedicated to creating opportunities for writers and scholars to think critically and boldly about the built environment.
In narrative surveys on Repair, Design Activism, and Pandemic Teaching, dozens of scholars, designers, activists, and professionals share perspectives on some of the most pressing challenges facing contemporary education and practice.
An interactive page that allows researchers to bookmark articles and share innovative curricula. Faculty at Places partner schools have the exclusive opportunity to produce Featured Reading Lists, grouped under a special designation.
A collaboration with Princeton University Press featuring short, lively volumes expanded from selected Places articles.










































Join Places Journal‘s network of visionary and committed Academic Partners in building the future of public scholarship on architecture, landscape, and urbanism.