TOPIC

History

Underexposed

Underexposed | 4

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

Who Makes the Many Harlems?

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

Typecast: Row House

The Bible and the Billionaire

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.

Shelf Life

Has Any City Ever Planned for Love?

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

Housing Brass Tacks

Public Housing Transformed

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.

Obstruction for Justice

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

Underexposed

Underexposed | 1

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.

Shelf Life

Architecture in the Basement

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.

The Story of Squats

Why does the history of squatting in New York matter? Artists, historians, documentarians, and writers reflect on a singular passage in the city's story, and what it can offer today.

Codes of Conduct

Happy Birthday, zoning! The codes may have changed over 101 years, but as Andrea Renner and Eric Goldwyn explain, when it comes to how New Yorkers use zoning to advance their own visions of a perfect city, much remains the same.