Notes on a Last-Minute Safari
We saw every animal that was in “The Lion King” and then some. They were just there, like ants at a picnic, except that they were elephants and giraffes and zebras.
https://newyorker.com/magazine/2024…
The true losers of this presidential debate were the American people
We didn’t need this show. Each candidate has had time to show us who they are, and one is a felon trying to destroy democracy.
https://theguardian.com/commentisfr…
Even If a Project Fails, the Ideas Behind It Don’t Disappear
For architects and designers, unbuilt/unrealized projects are confounding, bittersweet, frustrating, elusive, even ghostly—the ultimate what-ifs.
https://commonedge.org/even-if-a-pr…
Kanye West Bought an Architectural Treasure—Then Gave It a Violent Remix
How the hip-hop star’s beautiful, dark, twisted fantasy turned a beach house in Malibu, designed by the Japanese master Tadao Ando, into a ruin.
https://newyorker.com/magazine/2024…
Going Once, Going Twice
No doubt it’s a finer fate than the place becoming an Apple Store.
https://nyra.nyc/articles/going-onc…
The Co-op Where Everyone’s an Architecture Critic
When Paul Goldberger moved into U.N. Plaza last year, he joined a cadre of design-obsessed owners.
https://curbed.com/article/paul-gol…
Fox and Hedgehog
The myths of Anne Carson.
https://thenation.com/article/cultu…
We’ll Always Have Paris?
The City of Light still has some fight left in it.
https://nyra.nyc/articles/we-ll-alw…
Michael Shorris on Joan Mitchell & James Schuyler
Like much of Schuyler’s work, “Daylight” is precise and unadorned, yet touching in its plaintive prose.
https://brooklynrail.org/2024/06/1b…
O.J. and L.A.
O.J. Simpson’s death earlier this month marked the end of a tragic trajectory, a long and enduring descent from national hero to pariah.
https://commonedge.org/o-j-and-l-a/
Brancusi Makes the Modern World Look Stale
In Paris, a rare retrospective shows that we still haven’t matched the sculptor’s grace, humor, and clear-eyed brilliance.
https://newyorker.com/magazine/2024…
Rael San Fratello 3D Prints Architecture with a Political Edge
Oakland, California–based architects Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello harness advanced technology to challenge old political structures and imagine new forms.
https://metropolismag.com/profiles/…
Means and Ends
What would happen if we foregrounded human values in the creation of our systems?
https://nyra.nyc/articles/means-and…
The Architectural Gift
Gifted buildings are potent mechanisms of geopolitical reshuffling, premised on an uneven power relation between giver and receiver. How do such exchanges shape cities in transition?
https://placesjournal.org/article/t…
Designing the Future With Children
The “future” is a topic of concern even for young children as stories about the world burning, massive floods sweeping people off of their homes and livelihoods, and countless numbers of people drowning while trying to flee into safer zones, have become the new normal on our news screens.
https://platformspace.net/home/desi…
The British Museum’s Blockbuster Scandals
While facing renewed accusations of cultural theft, the institution announced that it had been the victim of actual theft—from someone on the inside.
https://newyorker.com/magazine/2024…
Shibboleth
Nothing like a quiet breakfast.
https://newyorker.com/news/essay/sh…
The Bauhaus Nazis: the collaborators – and worse – among the design icons
They were seen as heroes and martyrs who defied the Nazis. But a new show in Weimar reveals horrifying details about some Bauhauslers, one of whom designed the crematoriums at Auschwitz
https://theguardian.com/artanddesig…
Iris Murdoch, The Art of Fiction No. 117
I knew very early on that I wanted to be a writer. I mean, when I was a child I knew that.
https://theparisreview.org/intervie…
Encyclopedia Brown
A Story for My Brother, Philip Seymour Hoffman.
https://theparisreview.org/blog/202…
Helen Vendler Believed Poetry Matters
She devoted her life to showing us how and why.
https://nytimes.com/2024/04/25/book…
Anni Albers Transformed Weaving, Then Left It Behind
Her textiles are quiet revelations, but even her later prints show how restraint can generate ravishing beauty.
https://newyorker.com/magazine/2024…
Conserving Culture: A Conversation with David Wessel on Rebuilding Ukraine
As of January 2024, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has destroyed nearly a quarter of a million buildings, most of them private homes, according to the Kyiv School of Economics.
https://savingplaces.org/stories/fi…
Voices of Mourning
What do we owe the dead?
https://thebaffler.com/latest/voice…
A Dutch Architect’s Vision of Cities That Float on Water
What if building on the water could be safer and sturdier than building on flood-prone land?
https://newyorker.com/magazine/2024…
How AI Can Help Us End Design Education Anachronisms
The rise of generative AI has given every design educator sufficient reason to reconsider both what to teach and how to teach it.
https://commonedge.org/how-ai-can-h…
