A weekly dispatch on architecture, design, and cities, from Christopher Hawthorne
A conversation with Aaron Cayer about how AECOM rose from humble SoCal roots to become a powerful, secretive player in global politics
Why not-so-bad feels, in this case, like a minor miracle; plus a ranking of WTC architecture from best to worst
Fifteen years and more than $800m in the making, the Swiss architect’s “concrete sculpture” is finally ready to meet a dubious public
Let’s ask Liz Diller!
A review of Michael Meredith’s “Smaller Architecture”
A roundtable discussion with Gustavo Arellano, Joe Mathews, and Alissa Walker
A review of Julian Rose’s “Building Culture”
And what Peter Eisenman, his former mentor, thinks of his ballroom plan
“Architecton,” from the Russian documentarian Victor Kossakovsky, is beautiful, relentless, and confused
The Met director on growing up with a famous father, his intense apprenticeship with Tom Krens, and why he’s chosen ‘a new generation of architectural voices’ to remake the museum
Is it a day late and a dollar short? Maybe. Probably! But the firm's new mass-timber office block near Basel, mixing the thrifted with the bespoke, is exceptionally good
Viktor Orbán, MAGA, and the gaudy architecture of grievance; plus, my odd run-in with the Hungarian Culture Minister
The shaky case for a ban on new buildings
