In AN 02: As the Tide Turns

In Issue 02 of The Architect’s Newspaper (available online tomorrow), my take on MoMA’s Rising Currents exhibition. The architects involved presented their work to a surprisingly large crowd on January 9. Best quote:

Certain tropes of contemporary waterfront design immediately surfaced: walls are bad; wetlands are good. And each project seemed to have a farmer’s market, whether on a barge, repurposed railway terminus, or flupsy (a floating oyster incubator). Pavements, edges, parks, and vacant lots were all to be permeable. Food, bi-valve or vegetal, was to be grown at or on the water’s edge.

This project represents a real departure for MoMA: a formally amorphous, sustainability-oriented topic, younger architects, a non-competitive exhibition, an interactive component, and so on. The biggest news from the presentation was that the museum is thinking of a continuing series of urban, contemporary exhibitions — which can only be a good thing for NYC architecture culture.

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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.