The Big Picture
28 pounds, 450,000 words, 800 photographs, 200 maps. 50 years on, what can NYC’s only comprehensive plan teach us about envisioning a collective urban future?
A Leg Up on the Last Mile
The on-demand economy is helping restore New York City’s historic warehouses to their original purpose, and spurring the development of a new generation of industrial-scale architecture in the urban core.
Unruly Bits
New digital technologies promise to fix common bugs and glitches in construction. But as the story of the world’s second-tallest modular tower reveals, the labor, politics, and material complexity of building don’t always follow rules of computation.
Join us on January 7
A conversation with UO contributors exploring the role of photography in understanding the contemporary city.
Urban Omnibus: Portfolios panel discussion →
Public Risks on Private Shores
Along New York City’s waterfront, development has spurred the creation of new public spaces regulated down to the level of tree plantings and bicycle parking. Why aren’t resilience measures mandated in a similar way?
Accessibility, Augmented
From video-enabled visual interpretation to 3D audio effects, smartphone wayfinding apps have a lot to offer Blind users. But these new features are no substitute for public infrastructure — digital or otherwise — that accounts for nonvisual navigation of the built environment.
Disruption at the Doorstep
Facial recognition. Tenant screening platforms. Biometric databases. A new set of digital products seeks to disrupt the real estate industry. But these technologies are fast becoming weaponized against a familiar target of housing discrimination: working-class tenants of color.
An exhibition of photo commissions from ten years documenting the collective work of citymaking is on view through February 7, 2020.
Portfolios