Tag: Architecture

American xenophobia and the roots of the housing crisis

July 10, 2019

Harris Fine Block, Broome and Orchard Streets, New York (1898 and 1901). Hornberger & Straub, architects. These facades are typical of many immigrant-built tenements of this period. Recently rehabilitated, they command high rents in an increasingly desirable neighborhood. Photograph by Sean Litchfield. BY ZACHARY J. VIOLETTELecturer, Parsons/The New School of Design As I was finishing the … More American xenophobia and the roots of the housing crisis

College is for the connections . . . and the architecture

June 26, 2019

BY CARLA YANNI After the recent college admissions scandal in the United States, many people were left scratching their heads. Who would pay half a million dollars just to secure a place for a child at the University of Southern California? Sure, USC comes in at a respectable 22nd place in one national ranking of … More College is for the connections . . . and the architecture

Modernism and the Memorial: Public remembrance in the US and Germany.

January 12, 2018

KATHLEEN JAMES-CHAKRABORTYProfessor of art history at University College Dublin 2017 might turn out to be the year in which white Americans ceased to take Confederate monuments lightly; of course, their African-American neighbors never had. The erection of Maya Lin’s remarkable Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC, in 1982, inaugurated a memorial boom in the United … More Modernism and the Memorial: Public remembrance in the US and Germany.

Reading for the holidays: Churches of Minnesota

December 7, 2017

We’ve got a lot of new titles to be excited about this year, from the oft-buzzed-about The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen to the beautiful early-1900s photographic northwoods journey of Border Country. These books join our already robust collection of beautiful books about Minnesota and the Upper Midwest, and we’d like to take a moment to … More Reading for the holidays: Churches of Minnesota

F. Scott Fitzgerald in MN snippets: Thanksgiving, a football captain, and Crocus Hill Pharmacy

November 21, 2017

In these three snippets, we meet the childhood and teen-aged friends of F. Scott Fitzgerald in St. Paul, Minnesota. The first piece appears in the book F. Scott Fitzgerald in Minnesota (2017). The final two have not been published previously. BY DAVE PAGE Photograph by Jeff Krueger. 96 VIRGINIA STREETClark residence (1884)In 1908 Charles A. Clark, … More F. Scott Fitzgerald in MN snippets: Thanksgiving, a football captain, and Crocus Hill Pharmacy

On Being and algorithmic clouds.

October 16, 2017

BY MARK JARZOMBEKMassachusetts Institute of Technology BEFORE BUDDHA INVENTED RENUNCIATION; before Christians invented martyrdom; before Mohammed invented the jihad, before the Hebrews invented monotheism, before Plato invented the dreaded cave in which we supposedly live, blind to the presence of all that is Good, people talked to each other in freer ways. They talked to … More On Being and algorithmic clouds.

F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Minnesota State Fair’s tunnel of love.

July 24, 2017

BY DAVE PAGE When my friend and co-author Jack Koblas began doing research on F. Scott Fitzgerald in the 1970s, quite a few of Fitzgerald’s St. Paul acquaintances were still alive. In response to Koblas’s inquiries about Fitzgerald, several of these friends replied that they couldn’t believe anyone wanted to do another book on Fitzgerald, … More F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Minnesota State Fair’s tunnel of love.

The Art of Losing

February 15, 2017

BY CAITLIN DeSILVEYAssociate professor of cultural geography at the University of Exeter. She is currently a fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study in Olso, Norway. ‘The art of losing’s not too hard to master,’ wrote Elizabeth Bishop, ‘though it may look… like disaster’. Mastering the art of losing—now there’s a project for the 21st … More The Art of Losing

The 1939–40 New York World’s Fair publicly launched the first idea of the television and what it can do.

March 17, 2016

This publicity photograph from RCA emphasizes the wealth and prestige of the first television viewers posed in front of the TRK-12 RCA receiver.Courtesy of the Hagley Museum and Library.  BY DANIELLE SHAPIRO Today, we take television for granted. It is everywhere, in different sizes and shapes, in our pockets and our living room walls. It is … More The 1939–40 New York World’s Fair publicly launched the first idea of the television and what it can do.

Recovering the fading histories of America’s postwar suburban churches.

January 13, 2016

American architect Edward A. Sovik designed the Riverside Bible Chapel in Story City, Iowa (1949). In her new book, author Gretchen Buggelnshows how architects and suburban congregations joined forces to workout a vision of how modernist churches might reinvigorate Protestantcommunity.Photos by Gretchen Buggeln. BY GRETCHEN BUGGELN Mention “postwar suburban church” and you are likely to … More Recovering the fading histories of America’s postwar suburban churches.