Mayor de Blasio promises to close the Rikers Island jail complex in ten years. But what comes next? A look at the island’s history reveals clues — and cautions.

The humble gambrel roofs of Queens’ Dutch Colonial houses cover the borough’s complex history.

Hidden in Central Park, the remains of a 19th century reservoir that fell out of fashion.

Integration without gentrification? Self-determination without segregation? Who has the power to determine Harlem’s future?

Emily Schmidt spins the origin story of the affordable row house in the 1980s, when pastors and businessmen sowed scorched earth with rows of new homes.

For Shelf Life, a film made in 1964 provides an enduring lens through which to look at density's delights.

Catherine Fennell and Crystal Palmer, two authorities on Chicago's public housing transformation, probed the problematic mythos of public housing—from the "failure" of tower complexes to the virtues of mixed-income redevelopment.

How can protestors get their points across to an unyielding city? Gumming up the works may trump gathering in the square.

In the new series, Underexposed, photographer Stanley Greenberg's monthly dispatches trace the myriad paths of the city’s infrastructural networks in great breadth and close detail.

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.