Social Good

Lorraine Wild|Dialogues

A Babylon of Signs

Installation of a digital billboard in Los Angeles’ Silver Lake neighborhood catalyzed environmental design protests that led to a proposed new sign ordinance in this city.“There is no reason…why the methods of commercial persuasion …

Lorraine Wild|Dialogues

A Babylon of Signs

Installation of a digital billboard in Los Angeles’ Silver Lake neighborhood catalyzed environmental design protests that led to a proposed new sign ordinance in this city.“There is no reason…why the methods of commercial persuasion …

Kerry Saretsky|Essays

Movable Feast

Photo by iMorpheusThe show begins when I walk into a restaurant. The rise of the stage; the thunder of the spotlight. The music; the lights, the color, the darkness or the bright; the crowd, or the emptiness — and I haven’t even …

Mark Lamster|Essays

Practice Does Not Make Perfect

The J-E-T-S spent $75 million this year on a state-of-the-art new training facility designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, but they may still miss the playoffs.

Tom Vanderbilt|Essays

Fanfare for the Common Commuter

I’ve become a regular morning commuter on the city’s splendid Metro — the first in the world to employ only rubber tires on its cars. It didn’t take long for me to notice, as the trains departed, a curious trilogy …

Glen Cummings|Essays

Athos Bulcão, The Artist of Brasilia

Concrete relief, Teatro Nacional, Brasilia, 1966In 1956, Brazilian President Juscelino Kubitschek was sworn into office, boasting a campaign promise to deliver half a century of progress in the space of five short years. In an effort to …

John Thackara|Essays

Alternative Trade Networks and the Coffee System

Alterative trade networks are emerging in the coffee industry, attempting to eliminate the middle man.

Michael Bierut|Essays

There is No Why

Philippe Petit, New York City, August 7, 1974  The best design movie of 2008 is not about a typeface. It's about a tightrope walker.  Man on Wire, a thrilling new documentary directed by James Marsh, tells the story of Philippe …

Tom Vanderbilt|Essays

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do

This article is adapted from Tom Vanderbilt’s new book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (Knopf).Once, on a driving trip in rural Spain, I decided to take a shortcut. On the map, it looked like a good idea. The road turned out …

Andrew Blauvelt|Essays

City and Suburb: Worlds Away?

Poughkeepsie, NY, by John Lehr, 2005. Courtesy Kate Werble Gallery, NYBack in 1974 when it opened, Washington Square Mall was too big and too near to ignore. With more than 100 stores it seemed like the largest mall at the time, …

Michael Bierut|Baseball

The (Faux) Old Ball Game

Since 1992, every ballpark in America has been designed on the nostalgic model of Baltimore's Camden Yards, including the new parks for the Yankees and the Mets. Why is it impossible to build a baseball stadium that looks like it belongs …

Rick Poynor|Essays

Lost America: The Flamingo Motor Hotel

I found this old photo in a box at the back of my attic. It shows a motel in Flagstaff, Arizona where I stayed for a couple of nights in May 1978. I was 20, it was my first visit to the US, and for three weeks I had been touring around on …