• Time to move beyond the style wars

    A humanist framing, prioritizing the public, returns beauty to its rightful place as an essential component of good architecture.
    In order to move beyond the style wars that have plagued the debate between modernists and traditionalists for the last 75 years, I’d like to propose a humanist framing, one that prioritizes the public, on whose ground and in whose sight we build. This means architects have a greater responsibility...Read more

  • Building rehabs revive main street

    The character of Georgia Avenue, a historic Atlanta main street, was preserved while injecting new life into a neglected neighborhood.
    Atlanta is more or less divided into quadrants by major Interstates—I-20 and I-75/85—that meet downtown in a tremendous spaghetti junction. Just to the east of I-20 a large sports complex created a “zone of neglect” along an adjacent historic main street, Georgia Avenue, serving the Summerhill...Read more

  • Securing the Capitol gracefully

    The United States Capitol deserves to be protected in a manner commensurate with its historic place in the country’s history. It is a magnificent building degraded in recent times with a stark security fence topped by concertina wire. Throughout history, fences with limited access gates have...Read more

  • How to use building types in zoning

    Building types are useful in defining a variety of house-scale buildings in a mixed neighborhood, and where neighborhoods are near main streets. Here's how to apply them.
    This is Part Three of a three-part series. Building types can be useful in form-based codes to enable a fine–grained mix of buildings of varied density and type in walkable neighborhoods. The approach of using building types is also effective in situations where permit streamlining is required and...Read more