Archpaper Review: Our Cities Ourselves

Does one size fit all, even when it is oh-so-hot bikes and buses? I wonder, in The Architect’s Newspaper, about the solutions proposed in the Center for Architecture’s Our Cities Ourselves.

What was also disconcerting is the sameness of the strategies. Bus Rapid Transit, the transport fix on everyone’s lips, is the major player, linking backwaters to centers, creating transit nodes, replacing cars and motorcycles. BRT is the one thing most of these cities do have (or have in the works). Dedicated bus lanes and bike lanes turn up in almost every example, along with linear parks and landscaped boulevards, street-level retail, highways sunken and disappeared. But can BRT really always be the answer?

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By Alexandra Lange

Alexandra Lange is an architecture critic and author, and the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner for Criticism, awarded for her work as a contributing writer for Bloomberg CityLab. She is currently the architecture critic for Curbed and has written extensively for Design Observer, Architect, New York Magazine, and The New York Times. Lange holds a PhD in 20th-century architecture history from New York University. Her writing often explores the intersection of architecture, urban planning, and design, with a focus on how the built environment shapes everyday life. She is also a recipient of the Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary from AIGA, an honor she shares with Design Observer’s Editor-in-Chief, Ellen McGirt.