Exciting Multi-Generational Moment

I come from a long line of designers: my great-grandmother was an art teacher, my maternal grandparents were trained at Pratt in graphic and industrial design and my mother is a graphic designer and historian. At age 10 or so, I learned how to work a typositor. We even have a namesake typeface, Scotford Uncial. Our professional spheres have overlapped just a few times, but today they coincide: an essay and slideshow on the design of James Joyce’s Ulysses by my mother, Martha Scotford, appears on Design Observer, where I was recently made a contributing writer. I should have something on DO myself later this week…

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By Alexandra Lange

Alexandra Lange is an architecture critic and author, and the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner for Criticism, awarded for her work as a contributing writer for Bloomberg CityLab. She is currently the architecture critic for Curbed and has written extensively for Design Observer, Architect, New York Magazine, and The New York Times. Lange holds a PhD in 20th-century architecture history from New York University. Her writing often explores the intersection of architecture, urban planning, and design, with a focus on how the built environment shapes everyday life. She is also a recipient of the Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary from AIGA, an honor she shares with Design Observer’s Editor-in-Chief, Ellen McGirt.