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In this New York Times article from Monday, Henry Fountain takes the recent unveiling of the glass boxes on the 103rd floor of the Sears Tower as a jumping off point (pun intended) to discuss how new kinds of glass are finally making the architectural impulse towards completely translucent buildings a possibility. What would a [...]

According to an unverified source, today is the anniversary of the first public library opening. Dating this aniversary is all the more problematic because if you go back far enough, people’s definitions of “public library” start to differ significantly . For instance, did the dry sections of Roman baths where there were scrolls available for [...]

As you, web-savvy reader, likely already know (and are actively precipitating by getting your information from this blog), the nation’s major newspapers are dying. Several paper-owning conglomerates have filed for bankruptcy, many smaller companies are losing money every day, and The New York Times took out a loan on its own building.
In several cities near [...]

Last year, an ambitious plan to redesign the Tappan Zee Bridge just North of New York City got us all excited. After all, bridge construction in this city is basically a once-in-a-century sort of thing, and we had bold hopes for a nifty new bridge design because, let’s face it, nice solid 19th century structures [...]