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Illustration from the “Projected Trends” section of Hugh Ferriss’ The Metropolis of Tomorrow (1929).

Modern Babylon: Ziggurat Skyscrapers and Hugh Ferriss’ Retrofuturism

In the early twentieth century, architects turned to a newly discovered past to craft novel visions of the future: the ancient history of Mesopotamia.
by Eva Miller via The Public Domain Review on April 9, 2025
Colorful, brightly lit interior of Washington Cathedral.

Reclaiming Medievalism

Washington Cathedral’s break with Confederate memory.
by Richard Utz via Medievalists.net on January 14, 2025
The Griffith Observatory, constructed by the Works Progress Administration, on a hill overlooking Los Angeles.

A New Deal for Architecture

What it conveys is quite specific: grandeur, beauty, dynamism, and power.
by David Schaengold via Compact on December 20, 2024
A boy sitting inside of an enclosed porch while his mother looks in from outside the door.

Inside Out

The magical in-betweenness—and surprising epidemiological history—of the porch.
by David Owen via The New Yorker on July 27, 2024
A drawing of a city skyline filled with skyscrapers.

The Man Who Saved the Skyscraper

Fazlur Khan and the idea that would turn architecture on its head.
by Nick Greene via Mental Floss on July 21, 2024
A rendering of Buckminster Fuller and June Jordan's “Skyrise for Harlem” project published in Esquire, April 1965.

Nowhere But Up

In the wake of the 1964 Harlem riots, June Jordan and Buckminster Fuller’s plan to redesign the neighborhood suggested new possibilities for urban life.
by Nikil Saval via New York Review of Books on June 8, 2024
Whitehall, designed by Carrère & Hastings for Henry Morrison Flagler, 1902.

Building Palm Beach

On the town’s history & architecture.
by Benjamin Riley via The New Criterion on May 22, 2024
The Bahá’í House of Worship, a tall, ornate building made of concrete, illuminated against a cloudy sky.

The Beauty of Concrete

Why are buildings today simple and austere, while buildings of the past were ornate and elaborately ornamented? The answer is not the cost of labor.
by Samuel Hughes via Works In Progress on May 17, 2024
A Historic American Buildings Survey photograph of a house being demolished.

Before the Wrecking Ball Swung

The Historic American Building Survey's mission to photograph important architecture before its demolition.
by Martin Filler via New York Review of Books on November 9, 2023
The Trubek and Wislocki Houses, 1970, Nantucket, Massachusetts, by Denise Scott-Brown and Robert Venturi.

The Historian’s Revenge

The rise and fall of the Shingle Style ideal.
by Witold Rybczynski via The Hedgehog Review on November 1, 2023
NY skyline including 33 Thomas Street, a skyscraper in the Tribeca neighborhood of Southern Manhattan, New York City.

Apocalypse-Proof

A windowless telecommunications hub, 33 Thomas Street in New York City embodies an architecture of surveillance and paranoia, an ideal set for conspiracy thrillers.
by Zach Mortice via Places Journal on September 12, 2023
Buckminster Fuller looking at a model of a geodesic dome.

Buckminster Fuller’s Hall of Mirrors

Alec Nevala-Lee’s new biography assesses the complicated legacy of an architect better known for his image than his work.
by Daniel Luis Martinez via The Nation on February 1, 2023
A glimmering white Mormon church has two towering spires on each side, and is strikingly symmetrical. It is flanked by rows of palm trees.

Building Mormonism

History and controversy in the architecture of the Latter-day Saints.
by Greg Allen via Art In America on December 22, 2022
A child in the backyard of the Avenel Cooperative.

The Most Dangerous Architect in America

Gregory Ain wanted to create social housing in Los Angeles. Dogged by the FBI, his hope for more egalitarian architecture never came to be.
by Kate Wolf via The Nation on December 21, 2022
Crowds and escalators in the Mall of America.

The Rise and Fall of the Mall

Alexandra Lange's "Meet Me by the Fountain" recovers the forgotten past and the still hopeful future of the American shopping mall.
by Melvin Backman via The Nation on December 12, 2022
Drawing by Thomas Rowlandson, of the "Inside View of the Public Library," Cambridge, 1809.

A Library by the Book

For its ubiquity and richness, the American library building stands as a reflection of the country’s enlightened calling.
by James Panero via The New Criterion on November 11, 2022
Cartoon of Buckminster Fuller with spirals in his glasses and hands out as if hypnotizing the reader.

Space-Age Magus

From beginning to end, experts saw through Buckminster Fuller’s ideas and theories. Why did so many people come under his spell?
by James Gleick via New York Review of Books on November 3, 2022
Overhead view of people walking around in the Mall of America

The Most American Form of Architecture Isn’t Going Anywhere

A new book challenges the dominant narrative that malls are dying.
by Kristen Martin via The Atlantic on June 21, 2022
Grid of black and white photos of various homes with different architectural styles.

Explore Milwaukee's History Through Its Many Home Styles

Interactive map shows Milwaukee’s housing patterns reflect not only aesthetic trends but also how historical events like immigration, war and civil rights shaped the city.
by Daphne Chen, Erin Caughey, Yuriko Schumacher via Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on April 1, 2022
Frank Lloyd Wright, a letter, and Edith Carlson

How to Fire Frank Lloyd Wright

The untold story of a world-renowned architect, an obsessive librarian, and a $5,500 house that never was.
by Philippa Lewis via The MIT Press Reader on October 13, 2021
A small cabin in the woods; Laird Sutton, a man with a thick white beard.

The Last Glimpses of California's Vanishing Hippie Utopias

A legion of idealists dropped out of society and went back to the land. Here's a glimpse of their otherworldly residences—and the end of the social experiment.
by David Jacob Kramer via GQ on September 9, 2021
Twin Towers at sunset

How To Remember Minoru Yamasaki’s Twin Towers

Remembered as symbols of strength after 9/11, the Twin Towers and their Japanese American architect were once criticized in racist and sexist terms.
by Alexandra Lange via CityLab on September 8, 2021
Construction of the U.S. Air Force Academy Chapel

Up In The Air

The restoration of the Air Force Academy Chapel is the U.S.’s most complex modernist preservation project ever.
by Frank Edgerton Martin via The Architect's Newspaper on March 2, 2021
US Capitol

Is the US Capitol a 'Temple of Democracy'? Its Authoritarian Architecture Suggests Otherwise

The neoclassical building was inspired by European shrines to imperial power.
by Megan Goldman-Petri via The Conversation on February 8, 2021
Broadway New York 1893

Perilous Proceedings

Documenting the New York City construction boom at the turn of the 20th century.
by David Gibson via Library of Congress on June 29, 2020

The Domestication of the Garage

J.B. Jackson’s 1976 essay on the evolution of the American garage displays his rare ability to combine deep erudition with eloquent and plainspoken analysis.
by Jeffery Kastner, John Brinckerhoff Jackson via Places Journal on February 1, 2020
A building that appears distorted

Staring at Hell

The artists of our time, with their ruin-porn coffee-table books, offer the world a glossy, anesthetized image of abandoned infrastructure from Chernobyl to Detroit.
by Kate Wagner via The Baffler on January 6, 2020

Pornotopia

In the mid-20th century, Playboy wasn't just an erotic magazine. It was an architectural movement as well.
by Paul B. Preciado via Public Books on October 11, 2019
An example of Frank Lloyd Wrights American System-Built Homes.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Affordable Housing Project

American System-Built Homes in Chicago (and elsewhere).
by Taylor Moore via Belt Magazine on May 9, 2019

Philip Johnson Was Very Nazi

A new biography of the architect shows why it’s hard to ignore the authoritarian characteristics of some of his most celebrated work.
by Armin Rosen via Tablet on December 5, 2018
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