A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Gowntown: A 197-X Plan for Upper Manhattan Terreform UR (Urban Research) , 2016 Paperback | 8 x 11 inches | 180 pages | English | ISBN: 978-0996004107 | $40.00 Publisher Description : Gowntown investigates the impact of Columbia University’s massive expansion into Upper Manhattan and proposes strategies of transformative leverage to generate broad community benefit and counter a spreading urbanism of trickle-down and gentrification. Terreform’s multi-scalar design is grounded in a planning paradigm focused on carefully crafted – as well as spontaneous – institutional, social, and environmental connections, inspired by the public possibilities of one of the world’s great concentrations of educational, medical, cultural, and community assets. Gowntown is addressed to all the people living, working, and studying uptown, presenting a collection of ideas that radically bridge the familiar – and too often hostile – divide between gown and town. Gowntown grows from a spirit of ...

Zoned Out! Race, Displacement, and City Planning in New York City Tom Angotti, Sylvia Morse (Editors) UR (Urban Research) , 2017 Paperback | 6 x 9 inches | 176 pages | English | ISBN: 978-0996004138 | $20.00 Publisher Description : Gentrification and displacement of low-income communities of color are major issues in New York City and the city’s zoning policies are a major cause. Race matters but the city ignores it when shaping land use and housing policies. The city promises “affordable housing” that is not truly affordable. Zoned Out! shows how this has played in Williamsburg, Harlem and Chinatown, neighborhoods facing massive displacement of people of color. It looks at ways the city can address inequalities, promote authentic community-based planning and develop housing in the public domain. dDAB Commentary : In March, when my book NYC Walks was released, I was fortunate enough to be  in conversation with Michael Sorkin at Rizzoli Bookstore . Following our talk a...

Spaces of Disappearance: The Architecture of Extraordinary Rendition Jordan H. Carver UR (Urban Research) , September 2018 Paperback | 6 x 9 inches | 264 pages | b/w illustrations | Languages | ISBN: 978-1947198012 | $25.00 Publisher Description : By investigating the sovereign claims of American power and the architectural spaces of secret prisons, Spaces of Disappearance reconstructs the network of black site prisons developed in the early years of the so-called War on Terror. Jordan H. Carver compiles an original archive of architectural representations, redacted documents, and media reports to build a knowingly incomplete spatial history of post-9/11 extraordinary rendition. Framed by an introductory essay by architectural historian and theorist Felicity D. Scott that positions Carver’s work within a longer history of military strategy and state violence against “uncertain” warfare, this book skillfully presents the territorial and political logics of the top-secret CIA...

Designed Ecologies: The Landscape Architecture of Kongjian Yu edited by William S. Saunders, published by  Birkhäuser , 2012. Hardcover, 256 pages. ( Amazon ) Letters to the Leaders of China: Kongjian Yu and the Future of the Chinese City edited by Terreform, published by  UR (Urban Research) , 2018. Paperback, 300 pages. ( Amazon ) One of the most memorable crits I attended during the World Architecture Festival a couple weeks ago was Turenscape's presentation of Puyangjiang River Corridor , which involved the demolition of the channelized river's concrete embankments and subsequent "softening and remediating" of the 10-mile-long river corridor. Even though the concrete-lined river sprouted industrial uses along its banks, Turenscape convinced the city's mayor to remove the concrete and the industry in order to bring the river back to life. How, the jury asked the designer from Turenscape, did they manage to do that? "Six months of drinking with the...

Downward Spiral: El Helicoide's Descent from Mall to Prison edited by Celeste Olalquiaga and Lisa Blackmore, published by  UR (Urban Research) , 2018. Paperback, 268 pages. ( Amazon ) If any decade could be called "the driving decade" it would definitely be the 1950s. Domestically, it encompassed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which saw the federal government pay for thousands of miles of highways, many barreling through cities. In turn, buildings downtown had to be designed and reconfigured for the automobile. One bold example, which was proposed in 1959 and built five years later, was William Tabler's "Motor-Pool Hilton" in San Francisco, which wrapped a hotel around a parking garage; people could drive up the ramp and park right next to their room. But a look at the building disappoints , since the automotive aspect driving the design -- turning it into a hybrid between a hotel and a motor lodge -- is hidden. To see a true auto-architecture aro...