Architecture

Mark Lamster|Essays

The End of the Worldport as We Know It

A couple of weeks ago we learned that I.M. Pei's JFK Terminal 6 was slated for replacement. Today comes news that the Delta (originally Pan Am) Worldport, aka Terminal 3, is to meet the wrecking ball.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

Damned Icons

Terminal 3 sits there, empty, next to JetBlue’s so-so Terminal 5, as an object lesson about how preservation and redevelopment have to operate in tandem.

Mark Lamster|Essays

Philip Johnson’s “Lost” Archive

Yes, there's an archive of Johnson material for sale. Was it unknown? The Times seems to think so, and just about anyone who knows anything about Johnson was aware of it.

Mark Lamster|Essays

Lou Kahn’s Trenton Bath Houses: The Best Buildings in New Jersey?

Lou Kahn's Bath Houses in Trenton, NJ, the best buildings in the state?

Mark Lamster|Essays

Do-Gooder Architecture: Then & Now

I don't think Philip Johnson would much care for Croon Hall, the new and very green building for Yale's school of forestry and environmental sciences.

Mark Lamster|Essays

Lunch with the Critics: Lincoln Center

Over on DO, Alexandra Lange and I launch our new feature, Lunch with the Critics.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

On DO: Lunch with the Critics

Please weigh in on Mark Lamster and my new Design Observer feature, "Lunch with the Critics," in which we observe the new Lincoln Center.

Mark Lamster|Essays

The Complexity of Simple Design: A Note on the Shakers

When I think of the Shakers I think of a kind of homespun simplicity: ladderback chairs, straw hats, an unfettered (if somewhat loopy) relationship with the almighty.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

Time to Move On

A very nice house in Montauk embodies the most recent cliches in architecture: floating staircases, pocket doors, and glass floors.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

Up in the Air

For spires in New York, height doesn’t matter, style does.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

Out of Love with Piano

After reading Reading Martin Filler’s review of Renzo Piano’s proposed addition to the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, I was struck again by how Piano’s critical reception seems to have curdled.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

Below Black Rock

While the plaza around the CBS Building in Manhattan has always seemed perverse, it is now made worse with the addition of a bank.