TOPIC

History

Offsetted: After Green Infrastructure

What’s lost when the value of city trees is reduced to the “environmental services” they provide?

Radicals and Real Estate

This is what democracy looks like: not only public squares, but office buildings. In the Lower East Side, the Peace Pentagon was the source point for four decades of resistance.

An Urban System of Death

Density and displacement aren’t just problems for the living.

Buried Grudges

From deadly explosions to silent climate warming emissions, the contemporary troubles of the city's gas infrastructure have roots in the tumult surrounding its installation more than a century ago.

Shelf Life

Do You Remember How It Was?

Residents recall a decade of upheaval in the East New York Oral History Project.

The Location of Justice: Systems

The CompStat Evangelist Consultant World Tour

28 maps track the networks of consultancy through which CompStat's architects spread the gospel — often for a tidy fee.

Intersections: Going Out

Muted Monumentality

A new Monument to Gay and Transgender People merges strength and fragility, as well as communion and isolation, by the banks of the Hudson River.

Shelf Life

Cataloging Comfort

A recently uncovered album reveals some of New York City parks' least exposed precincts — their public bathrooms.

The Location of Justice: Streets

Do You Feel Secure?

For decades, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design has touted the efficacy of bollards, gates, and cameras in deterring violent acts — with scant evidence. At what cost do we build “defensible space”?

Intersections: Surfacing

Constellating Queer Spaces

How can the ephemeral and mutable geographies of queer urban life be mapped and preserved?