Right now New York City's century-old networks of roads, trains and bridges seems on the brink of collapse. In response, Loci considers the value of infrastructure, in both pragmatic and poetic terms.
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In our current cultural climate, as conventional wisdom is being eroded, challenged, and denied, how can someone build a set of core beliefs? It might be that everyday encounters with those around us, and our ability to remain inquisitive and open to change, make the most impact.
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We know literacy is necessary for people to make informed social, political and economic decisions. But what tools are training are necessary for people to make informed decisions about architecture and design? Loci considers what’s required, and what’s at stake.
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Starting a successful community garden requires inspiration, innovation, and lots of hard work. Heather McKinstry, co-founder of Sprout Farms in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, shares a firsthand account.
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The architecture of our streets and cities shapes the way we interact with each other, sometimes imperceptibly. After personal investigation, Rebecca Della Peruta reflects on whether it isolates the homeless.
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Now that Gowanus, Brooklyn is rising from decades of postindustrial neglect, David Briggs turns to Detroit to see what designers and developers can learn from that city's history.
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In “The City in History,” Lewis Mumford described how the first great cities of Athens and Rome succumbed to the disparity of a city’s subcultures and accumulation of wealth for the privileged classes.
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As I start to write this, I am sitting in my darkened office on lower Broadway two days after Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on our city. There is no power in Lower Manhattan, the subways are not running, and my staff is scrambling to take a computer offsite.
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A few weeks ago, Sam Schwartz, traffic guru and the former New York City Traffic Commissioner, presented his Equitable Transportation Formula [ETF] at the monthly Institute of Urban Design breakfast club.
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NYU recently announced that it would reduce the size of its proposed expansion by almost 20% in an attempt to overcome the surrounding community's strong opposition to the plan.
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In this past Sunday's New York Times Real Estate section there was an article titled "Everybody Inhale" describing the challenges that our city faces with the expected surge in population over the next couple of decades.
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When I moved to Brooklyn in 1988, I noticed something strange – when telling my neighbors that I had a position at a firm in Manhattan, the inevitable response would be along the lines of, “Oh, so you work in the city?”
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