My Bookmarks
You (Still) Have to Pay for the Public Life
Places Journal
Half a century ago Charles Moore was a rising architect and Ivy League academic. He was also the first in the field to look seriously at Disneyland — and he liked what he saw.
Frederick Law Olmsted’s Campaign for Public Health
Places Journal
A forgotten but vital chapter in the career of America’s most illustrious landscape architect: Olmsted’s brief stint as head of the U.S. Sanitary Commission during the Civil War.
The Art of Public Service
Places Journal
A century ago Frank Pick worked to make the London Underground not just efficient but also aspirational — an environment that would add dignity and delight to the daily commute.
Who’s Your Data?
Places Journal
A city is not a BMW. You can’t drive it without knowing how it works.
Discovering Irvine
Places Journal
The midcentury master plan of Irvine, California, was not so much a radical alternative to suburban design as a boldly rationalized refinement.
Public and Common(s)
Places Journal
A philosophical view of the terms public and commons, from the 20th-century treatises of Hannah Arendt and Jurgen Habermas to recent books by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri.
Infrastructural Tourism
Places Journal
For decades tourists have marveled at monumental dams of the American West. These days they trace infrastructures like satellite communications and nuclear waste transport.
Green Is Hope, and Grass the Future
Places Journal
In Berlin, greenery has never been neutral or apolitical. During the pandemic, posters of meadows appeared on billboards across the city, an illusion of verdant fertility amidst mandated lockdown.
Databodies in Codespace
Places Journal
As the bioengineering of people and cities converges, where do we locate the public sphere?
The Future That Is Now
Places Journal
A leading academic reviews architecture education in North America during the past two decades of rapid social and technological change.
History of the Urban Dashboard
Places Journal
Futuristic control rooms with endless screens of blinking data are proliferating in cities across the globe. Welcome to the age of Dashboard Governance.
An Interview with James Turrell
Places Journal
From the first issue of Places: a 1983 interview with James Turrell, then beginning his transformation of the Roden Crater. The monumental work opened to the public in 2012.
What If, America
Places Journal
Who would win the electoral college if state borders reflected the way we live today?
People-Mapping Through Google Street View
Places Journal
A study comparing images of New Orleans in 2007 and 2016 found a striking increase in the number of people (and bicycles) occupying public space.
Indexing the World of Tomorrow
Places Journal
How the 1939 World’s Fair anticipated our current obsession with urban data science and “smart” cities.
A City Is Not a Computer
Places Journal
This seems an obvious truth, but we need to say it loud and clear. Urban intelligence is more than information processing.
Maintenance and Care
Places Journal
A working guide to the repair of rust, dust, cracks, and corrupted code in our cities, our homes, and our social relations.
The Butterfly Dream
Places Journal
In this famous parable, Zhuangzi asks, What is the nature of reality? Are we the dreamers, or are we being dreamed?
Instrumental City: The View from Hudson Yards
Places Journal
The world’s most ambitious “smart city” project is here. Should we worry that New York City is becoming an experimental lab?
Building Data
Places Journal
Metadata as history? The team behind Archipedia grapples with the critical challenges of digital scholarship.
Visualization of Renewable Energy in the Postwar Era
Places Journal
Today’s energy debates go back to the postwar era, when scientists argued that shifting away from fossil fuels was not just technically feasible but also ethically necessary.
Cartographic Grounds: Projective Landscapes
Places Journal
A new exhibition explores a range of cartographic practices, from a medieval map of the British Isles to contemporary data visualization.
Beyond Google Earth
Places Journal
Satellite imagery might seem neutral, but it is constructed by systems which not only present but also transform the raw visual data.
The New Public Landscapes of Governors Island
Places Journal
A leading landscape architect shares his vision for a big new public park in New York Harbor.
Landscape Optimism
Places Journal
The founder of Stoss discusses the rise of landscape urbanism from an academic movement to an influential set of ideas and practices.
Seagram: Union of Building and Landscape
Places Journal
The evolution of Mies van der Rohe’s architectural philosophy, culminating in his design for the Seagram Building.
Site, Ascendant
Places Journal
On the rising importance of landscape to architecture, seen in works by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, Peter Zumthor, OMA, Zaha Hadid, and others.
The Big Data of Ice, Rocks, Soils, and Sediments
Places Journal
Inside the material archives of climate science, which get wilder and dirtier the deeper you go.
Post-It Note City
Places Journal
A visit to the smart-city-in-progress at Sidewalk Toronto prompts questions about what it means to “participate” in civic design.