Vibrant cities are places of making and selling, of transaction and speculation, of consumption and creativity. They are cauldrons of wealth creation—though too often of despair. Cities are also invaluable as places for people to find their identities and their tribe, and remake and realize themselves. Architecture exists to tease out the innate expressiveness and uniqueness of the city’s multifarious communities. 

I hope you will engage with stories about architecture anchored in the communities and cultures it affects. My Substack can be found here.

You will find new perspectives on tired debates and appreciate context that often goes missing in conversations about urban issues and the places we live in. You will find essays informed by interviews with people who add perceptive viewpoints and unique expertise. .

Yet now is the most challenging time for cities in decades. The very purpose and practice of architecture is much criticized. I hope you will be stimulated by, and participate in, this forum about the tumultuous present and the discovery of future community. 

I continue to write stories for several publications, and I love the different audiences those publications bring and the brilliant editors I get to work with. Substack will allow me to develop in depth stories and essays that are more personal and those that require me to drive a square peg into a given publication’s round hole. (It usually doesn’t work, usually for good reasons.) Because I can readily reach wider audiences on Substac, I won’t post on this site anymore. You are welcome to sample the older posts and numerous links to past stories on this site.

Subscribing to my Substack is free . . .

. . . but I will ask you to pay for your subscription, if you are able. In today’s media landscape most of the deep reporting and thoughtful commentary is behind paywalls. Free media is abundant but most of it is, at best, uninformed. It’s an economic dichotomy that does not advance broad, civil conversation. 

Substack usefully straddles the fence: I can offer limited free content so that everybody can participate. I can undertake the reporting, interviewing and travel that genuinely useful journalism requires when you subscribe. I plan to post every one to two weeks, and some stories will be available without paying. Subscribers will also receive full access to the column archives, and special content. I hope everyone will help me grow this column by sharing what you like and recommending the column to others.