Longform
Deep dives on cities, architecture, design, real estate, and urban planning.
Not in my bat’s yard
By turning community spaces into habitats for a protected species, bat boxes throw a wrench—arguably a small one—into the development process.
Who’s afraid of the pedestrian mall?
To make cities safer and denser, we need to make room for people, not cars. The specter of the 1970s is holding our foot traffic back.
A green new home
A Green New Deal would touch our lives at every level, including at home.
The truth about RVs
"You’re not going to buy an RV and drive it off the lot and have no hassles."
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Encroaching development threatens a crucial Staten Island wetlands
Soon, more than half of the Graniteville Swamp may be bulldozed to make way for a 28-acre development
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A walking tour of 1949 Greenwich Village
In the footsteps of Henry Lanier and Berenice Abbott.
An accessible neighborhood needs parks
For many families like mine—with members who are on the spectrum or have other sensory or mental disorders—parks and playgrounds are vitally important.
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In Greenpoint, new waterfront parks will transform the Newtown Creek
One of Brooklyn’s most polluted waterways will soon be home to a new network of green spaces
Making a home in a famous house
"The most effective way to preserve a house is to use it."
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The shows we’ve lived by
From classic sitcoms to ’80s excess, a timeline of the most influential homes on TV.
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Why we’re obsessed with the TV teen bedroom
"The teen bedroom has become such an iconic design because growing up, that is one of the only things you have control over."
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The Big Little Lie of the TV kitchen island
The women of the HBO series should lose their spectacular, high-maintenance houses.
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Will Midtown Village leave the Gayborhood behind?
As the neighborhood grows and changes, some worry about a loss of identity.
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How the television transformed our homes
TV’s entry into our living spaces began a nationwide conversation about where the sets should go and how they should look
The budget furniture dilemma
As companies like Wayfair face criticism, is buying from them the right thing to do?
The magical (postmodern) world of Disney
How major architects of the 1980s and early 1990s brought a new fantastic point of view to the Walt Disney Company’s buildings
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Exploring Shirley Chisholm State Park, NYC’s nicest park built on a toxic dump
Shirley Chisholm State Park is now open in Brooklyn on a site that was once occupied by two toxic landfills.
How trees can save us
They are the most effective, efficient, and immediate form of urban climate action —provided they’re planted where people need them most.
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After refinery shutdown, what happens to the land?
Much of the soil and groundwater is contaminated, so how can the land be used in the future?
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New York City is a mall
Experts claim retail is dead, but the "vertical centers" and "food halls" in America’s densest city just keep coming.
The rise and fall of Laguna Beach, a gay California hotspot
Can a grassroots effort bring back the town’s LGBTQ vibe?
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Whose Jersey Shore is it?
New development on the Jersey Shore has created tensions between residents and weekenders.
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New York’s massive storm surge barrier poses an ‘existential threat’ to city shores
"By the time the surge gets here, it’s already too late"
Ending housing discrimination against the formerly incarcerated
Activists are pushing local governments to prohibit landlords from considering criminal convictions.
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50 or so years of the Albany Bulb
"It has been—often all at once—a landfill, an encampment, a community, an art installation, a museum, a music venue, a playhouse, a racetrack, and a dog park."
When the world’s your half-pipe
Skateboarding has made it to the Olympics, but it still owes a debt to American architecture.
A model home for the modern era
How industrial designer Gilbert Rohde helped Herman Miller become America’s top producer of modern furniture.
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‘Don’t ever leave’: A native New Yorker reflects
New York native and Gothamist founder Jake Dobkin dispenses advice in his new book, ‘Ask a Native New Yorker’
Why Marie Kondo’s method is ideal for my ADHD
For me, ADHD turned the luxury of storage space into a hazard, but KonMari circumvented some of my habits.
Women on wheels
The bicycle’s feminist legacy has faded, but modern feminists are fighting for cycling again.
Inventing the kitchen of tomorrow
Author Sarah Archer, in this excerpt from her new book, explains how midcentury corporations remade the postwar kitchen.
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On Staten Island, a massive barrier will rise to protect against climate change
New York City’s latest efforts to fight climate change underscore the reality that the city is facing a very tenuous future
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Goodbye, Show World: The last days of Times Square’s peep shows
As Times Square’s fortunes rose, the businesses that came to define it in the 1960s and ’70s have all but disappeared
The future is coming—at 11 miles per hour
Autonomous shuttle companies want to fill the first-mile, last-mile gaps in public transportation.
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The winding history of Donald Trump’s first major Manhattan real estate project
The Commodore Hotel was a key remnant of Midtown’s Terminal City.
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Brooklyn’s most endangered buildings
Across the borough, many different types of structures are threatened with demolition
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I live car-free in Atlanta—and I love it
Despite roadway hazards and irrational drivers, I’ll always prefer to walk and bike.
Bringing back the Bauhaus
In 1925, the design school was forced out of Weimar. The city is ready to welcome it back.