From the category archives:

Urban Planning

A chance encounter with James Rossant

by Tommy Manuel

Cities of the Imag­i­na­tion, James Rossant

The weather that day was mild, bright, and crisp. I was mak­ing last minute prepa­ra­tions for a review I had that day at Columbia’s GSAPP. A dap­per gen­tle­man with white hair and thin rimmed cir­cu­lar glass begs my par­don and pro­ceeds to ask me about the stu­dios and the school […]

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Cities are BLANK

by Tommy Manuel

Source: Orig­i­nally posted at Aribra.com
Cities are _____. Cities are organic. They are like plants. Cities are like ecosys­tem. Cities are jun­gles. Cities are like bac­te­r­ial colonies. Cities are fortresses against the per­ils of nature. Cities are machines, engines of cul­ture and progress. Cities are like libraries, or like a liv­ing museum.  Cities are amusement […]

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New York Times: To Protect an Ancient City, China Moves to Raze It

by Tommy Manuel

By MICHAEL WINES

KASHGAR, China — A thou­sand years ago, the north­ern and south­ern branches of the Silk Road con­verged at this oasis town near the west­ern edge of the Tak­la­makan Desert. Traders from Delhi and Samarkand, wea­ried by frigid treks through the world’s most daunt­ing moun­tain ranges, unloaded their pack horses here and sold saf­fron and lutes along the city’s […]

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