How familiar settings suggest the universal while reawakening who we are. Tonight, from Mercer Island, two light paths cross the water, forming gateways to my…
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Exploring the Pier of Dreams
On the evening of November 17, 2021, I stepped onto the pier at Yarmouth, on the Isle of Wight. I walked to the covered area…
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Learning the Layers of Place
How experiencing things left behind spurs a diverse understanding of places, and human nature. Safe harbor for pirate ships, a bustling multi-use harbor today in St. Julian’s…
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A Path Remembered
Sometimes, many years later, we understand why certain images remain indelible. On April 22, 2004, I took a picture of a ruined stone house — or some…
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Recapping the Launch: Sustaining a City’s Culture and Character
Sustaining a City’s Culture and Character (American release, February 22, 2021, UK and European release, Spring 2021) focuses on how to understand the innate identity of…
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Listen up — our cities have things to say
I bet a lot of us have complained to our neighbours about our local areas losing their “character” or signed petitions against new developments we…
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Explaining ‘Rosetta Stone Urbanism
Why respect the distinctive character of cities? We invariably are products of our upbringings, which in my case has led me to write a third, well-illustrated…
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Place Parts, Episode 18: Landscape Ghosts, with Shannon Nichol
How do we unearth and rediscover landscapes which we can no longer see? Personal and collective memories in defining a place’s culture and character have…
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Tidbits and Events, Sustaining a City’s Culture and Character
Sustaining a City’s Culture and Character provides a catalog of techniques that emphasize “bottom up,” resident-based input. Such input includes local history, building forms, natural and…
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Place Parts, Episode 17: Understanding the Blends
Today’s episode in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, recalls the look and feel of urban blends discussed in Sustaining a City’s Culture and…
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