http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/architecture/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Fri, 07 Jul 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2704/architectural_casualties_of_war/ On Nov. 9, 1993, Croat artillery relentlessly bombarded the Bosnian town of Mostar. Their principal target was the Stari Most, a graceful, arching Ottoman bridge that held no strategic or military value. Linking the town's Muslim east and Croat west, the bridge had long symbolized Mostar's proud history of tolerance and cosmopolitanism--its deliberate destruction was intended to erase this legacy and physically rend its communities. The bridge's demise is one recent example of the fate of architecture in wartime. From the firebombing of Dresden in World War II to the present-day looting of Iraq's archaeological heritage, the built environment has suffered tremendously in the conflicts of the past century. But under what circumstances is it appropriate to focus upon the… architecture war and peace books David Moberg Tue, 25 Jul 2006 05:00:01 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2743/jane_jacobs_reconsidered/ When Jane Jacobs died this past spring, the flood of obituaries carried with them a litany of praise. Jacobs, they said, had faced down the great, infamous builder Robert Moses, ended neighborhood-killing urban renewal policies, and transformed urban planning with her lyrical evocation of Greenwich Village's "intricate sidewalk ballet" in The Death and Life of Great American Cities. And yet, these sorts of tributes to a "legend"--while not undeserved--gloss over political and historical context, and drown questions of Jacobs' larger significance for postwar history in a readymade bath of piety and awe. So it is welcome that, after a fitting period of mourning and tribute, the first book-length treatment of Jacobs' life and work, Alice Sparberg Alexiou's Jane Jacobs: Urban… books art and culture architecture David Moberg Thu, 21 Jun 2007 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3243/a_glbt_center_of_their_own/ It's "not your average GLBT Center" declared the April 24 edition of The Advocate, the national GLBT newsmagazine. Indeed. The Center on Halsted, billed as the nation's most comprehensive GLBT community center, was unveiled last month in a flurry of local and national press. More than a decade of perspicacious planning and frenetic fundraising culminated in a 175,000-square-foot complex on North Halsted Street, the main drag of Chicago's Boys Town. The city's first community center serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community is also the first of its kind in the nation. The three-story, gleaming expanse of steel, glass and art deco style celebrates a coming-of-age for GLBTs in Chicago and beyond. It is also the fruit of a… architecture lgbt David Moberg Tue, 18 Sep 2007 05:00:01 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3341/chain_stores_picket_fences_and_tanks/ Much ink has been spilled over the ills of American suburbanization--homogeneity, car-dependency, systematic segregation and abolishment of public space. More and more people are questioning the value of communities once seen as the centerpiece of the American Dream. But anti-sprawl critiques are usually limited to places like Levittown or Laguna Beach. Could they be applied to U.S. military bases as well? If Mark L. Gillem has anything to say about it, then yes. In America Town: Building the Outposts of Empire (University of Minnesota Press), Gillem details the suburbanization of America's military bases, the facilities political scientist Chalmers Johnson has trenchantly called "America's version of the colony." Some may find military land-use practices banal, but not Gillem--a former planner for… architecture international military David Moberg Tue, 13 Nov 2007 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3409/prairie_style_romance/ If Nancy Horan had presented the ending of her novel, Loving Frank (Ballantine), in a workshop, or if perhaps she'd stricken the historical names and pawned this as pure invention, it would have likely been considered an excellent example of deus ex machina. "Oh, please," the reader would say. "You're going to create these fascinating, complex characters, fill reams with exquisite period detail and reflections on architecture and feminism, increase the tension to such an incredible degree ... and then ... this?" We'd feel cheated. But life tends to defy the conventions of literature and art, to sometimes embrace the illogical, the impossible, the too obvious. And so Loving Frank--which is, paradoxically enough, an elegant and sober work--cannot end neatly.… architecture books David Moberg Wed, 02 Jan 2008 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3458/empires_architecture/ Panic shot through the State Department and White House earlier this summer when the American architecture firm Berger Devine Yaeger posted computer-generated images and layout of the forthcoming U.S. embassy in Baghdad on its website. Ostensibly concerned with security, government officials urgently acted to remove graphics to avoid aiding potential insurgents in their plots to disrupt the embassy's progress. The real fear, however, may have been that the disclosure would draw public and congressional attention to everything that's gone wrong with the embassy. Indeed, it's difficult to imagine how insurgents could be any more disruptive to the embassy's existence than those who are building it. Allegations of mismanaged funds, shoddy workmanship, kickback schemes, exploitative labor practices, ill-gotten contracts, blocked investigations,… architecture foreign policy iraq David Moberg Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3464/the_revolution_will_not_be_designed/ In October 2005, amid ample media buzz, Stanford University christened its Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. Known as the "d.school" (rhymes with B-school), the institute proclaims itself the home of an interdisciplinary vanguard that is set to unlock the potential of "design thinking." Bruce Nussbaum, editor at BusinessWeek, is a believer, hailing the school's "powerful methodology." Optimize and Fortune magazines concur. So do the corporate stakeholders that are sponsoring classes--Motorola, Electronic Arts, Wal-Mart and Mozilla, among others. Their investments are helping fulfill the prophecy of the Institute's founder David Kelley, also chairman of IDEO, the commercial design powerhouse. As the world increasingly confronts what the school's website terms "messy problems," such as extreme poverty and ecological catastrophe, design will emerge… architecture David Moberg