Trip Down Memory Lane

Bridget Riley, Fission (1963) Gift of Philip Johnson to MoMA

Yellow Submarine, “Sea of Holes” (1968)

In my ongoing project to give my son as much of a 1970s childhood as possible (Osh Kosh engineers overalls, Fisher Price Little People airport, the one with the crank that moves helicopter and baggage carousel, Old School Sesame Street) we recently ran across all of the 1968 animated film, Yellow Submarine, on YouTube. Now, my son knows who the Beatles are because his older cousins received Rock Band for Christmas, and he spent most of Christmas Day listening to them sing in the family room, so that’s totally 2009. But when “Hello Hello” turns up on the iPod and he stands up in his chair and requests “Lucy in the Sky” it does warm the retro cockles of my heart.

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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.