Washington’s DuPont Circle may now be a posh address for lawyers and diplomats—and 4,000 Starbucks outlets—but it was once a bohemian hotseat for intellectuals.
To rebuild the Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast, Mississippi’s governor picked a panel of vaunted New Urbanists to submit plans. But is their nostalgia for small-town America appropriate, nevermind prepared for the task?
Whether or not the new head of FEMA knows what’s best for New Orleans is a matter of concern—at least for the one person who knows he knows what’s best for the city. Presenting a manifesto, a proposal, a parvum opus from one Mr. Ignatius J. Reilly.
Even in the face of disaster, life finds a way. But how long can we afford to flout forces beyond our control and live on unsteady ground? And what are we willing to pay? Our writer sends a dispatch from New Orleans.
Did David Childs really steal his Freedom Tower design from a Yale student? And can you call that stealing, or just the way the business works? Our critic explains how plagiarism exists in architecture, and why there actually should be more of it.
Great buildings deserve strong guardians and even stronger PR, and so do bad buildings apparently, as shown in the case of 2 Columbus Circle.
In the fourth installment of her letters from Scotland, our writer, who is living in Edinburgh for a year, visits Italy, where she marvels at people and architecture, and can never seem to elude those church bells.
The plan for the Sept. 11 memorial at the World Trade Center site is nearly finished, but what good is a design competition when we’re still trying to decipher the meaning of the event?
In recent years public architecture has a bad record in New York, especially after the uglification of modernism. Why then are people not paying more attention to Ground Zero?
Within the halls of Washington, D.C., lurks a stench of unsolved crimes, muttering highwaymen, and altogether strange behavior. Our writer peers into the capital’s dark corners.
New York City is a collection of islands, and one, Hart Island, is completely inaccessible, possibly because it’s reserved for the dead. A report on the home of potter’s field and an abandoned missile base.
Barring Times Square, nighttime New York is awash in a warm glow. Who do we thank for this? Why, our streetlamps! Investigating the rich history of light in the city.