[How many people receive rent subisidy] in your city (including the rich)? [A semantic issue: if you rent out a house and the landlord gets tax breaks on their mortgage interest rate is not everyone getting a tertiary/'trickle down' subsidy, assuming that the cost of financing home ownership gets passed on to tenant?] I currently... Continue Reading →

The number of people with rent subsidies in New York City The Museum of the City of New York had a show over the winter focusing on affordable housing in the city. The show was a rich look at various types of affordable housing projects undertaken in the last 100 or so years. (Coverage of... Continue Reading →

Everything possible about Hatshepsut’s temple (try not to see it as ‘modernist’ avant la lettre). Queen Hatshepsut made the news this week with reports that her impact had been covered up by her successor (stepson); she was a far more prolific builder than previously thought. Sorkin here implores a reading of her namesake temple that... Continue Reading →

The distance of a whisper Noise pollution is something I seem to care about now that I'm older. As a teenager I scoffed at my mom complaining about noise coming through the party wall of a neighboring apartment. I laughed and photographed a 'No Honking /$350 Fine' the first time I saw one. Now I... Continue Reading →

The distance a shout carries in the city A shout travels by airwaves and its reach is influenced by humidity, drowned by wind and ambient noise. Traffic is loud. People can be. A shout is a voice, and a city brings many voices together in close proximity. One shout can be drowned out by others,... Continue Reading →

The modulus of rupture. Number four on Michael Sorkin's list of 250 things every architect should know refers to the strength of a structural element. How much force until the (toothpick, twin, log, beam) snaps? Various sizes of concrete, steel, different species of wood, etc are subjected to a test with a point load increasing... Continue Reading →

[How to live] with the same [5] strangers in a lifeboat for one week. What am I going to write about, naval architecture? (I think I need to save that for number two hundred something.) As an earnest requirement for aspiring architects this one seems silly, but as a thought experiment it offers more. What... Continue Reading →

The feel of cool marble under bare feet. I'm hoping to dust off this blog with daily notes on a list of 250 things an architect should know, according to Michael Sorkin. This exercise is not novel (see original art and posters) but suites me as I am beginning to study for the architecture license... Continue Reading →