Author Archive

Paris Changes the Future of Urban Form

Call me old-fashioned, but I was very disappointed to find out that Paris had lifted the ban on buildings over 37m.  I discovered this change through the announcement of Herzog & de Meuron’s new 200m (650 ft) tower for Paris, as the first since the ban. [Image: Paris roof-scape. Courtesy of PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE.]

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Financial Crisis Timeline

I was tipped off by John to a Fast Money video on CNBC, which explains the following three pieces of legislation that set the stage for our current financial crisis. [Image: Graph of DOW Index highlighting three years with influential economic legislation. Courtesy of Google.] 1999 – Congress passes law allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie [...]

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How Big is 700 Billion?

The treasury’s financial bailout has been labeled Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP).  Since they chose a name whose acronym sounds more like a government scandal or cover-up, I’m not sure they’ll fair much better with the details.  To this end, I’m going to ignore all the information/misinformation, and focus on putting this number in perspective. [...]

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Back in Black

Do not mistake this as a reference to our dynamic, um flexible, unstable economy, but rather to the fact that I’m back in New York in my architecture uniform.  Work, teaching, and blogging shall resume. Given that Monday was the first day of fall, I hope that everyone enjoyed their summers.  It was also my [...]

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California Dreamin’

The last two weeks have been a scramble to finish a deadline at work and prepare the schedule, lecture, and assignment for my first class of the semester.  Going from one extreme to the other, I now take off for a much needed vacation.  If I permit myself to engage in the ridiculous neighborhood naming [...]

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