In the first installment of Shelf Life, Janet Parks, curator of the Avery Drawings and Archives at Columbia University, takes us through its architectural underworld, uncovering the collection's treasures.

Three supers of three very different buildings get into the nitty gritty of their work, helping us understand what it might take to make the city's ambitious Zero Waste vision a reality.

Three graphic novels dramatize the forces that shape the city, recasting old stories of good versus evil onto high-rises and streetscapes.

Artist Julia Jacquette and writer James Trainor discuss Jacquette's graphic memoir, Playground of My Mind, digging into the sandbox of their memories and a critical chapter in the history of New York City's public spaces.

Allison Henry explores seven proposals for the future of the Gowanus Canal.

Presenting the second of two runners-up in our Common Shares writing competition: Yen Ha brings us the story of a pair of strangers navigating the extremes of the sharing economy.

Presenting one of two runners-up in our Common Shares writing competition: Keith Engel gives voice to a man who takes it upon himself to enforce the rules governing the gray area between personal and collective responsibility.

Presenting the winner of our Common Shares writing competition: Frederica Hill sifts through what her neighbors discard to find her own place in the city.

Center for Urban Pedagogy teaching artist Chat Travieso works with high school students in Bushwick to simplify and illustrate the complexities of micro-unit housing.