Our German correspondant is keeping us totally current on the redevelopment of the HafenCity Project in Hamburg. And up-to-date we are, because he tipped us to these gorgeous images of the core of the plan: a new concert hall...

This conversation, between Renzo Piano and Richard Meier, on the occasion of the opening of Mr. Piano's extension to the High Museum in Atlanta, seems to make our point nicely regarding the Inspiration Meme: It's not about humble, it's...

While we here in New York talk about really important stuff, our peers in Tokyo are having an interesting, and elevated, debate about preservation on Omotedando. The editor of Tokyo's Metropolis told us how he really feels, while iMomus...

Tropolism's graphic editor was out for a bit, and so we're just now posting this. By a whopping 1 vote margin, my diligent readers have voted for the Louis Kahn tower, and not the obscure (but totally rockin!) MoMA...

Jim Conti let us behind the Beacon (I so did not type that) a bit. Click for many more pictures and the inside story......

While the topic of who did what to inspire whom, and in what context (lowbrow? academic? highball? boudoir?) rages on at our colleagues at Ye Olden Guttre, we patiently await your input on the matter. You see, we have...

We are all over the floating home in the Netherlands thing. In fact, we like anything that floats on the water. Which is why we read this very lovingly. Think of us as people who leak a news story...

We love a good meme. We love a good rhyme. We also love a really good joke, of which there are so desperately few in my profession. However, never let it be said that we don't know our Louis...

Tropolism isn't all about hard-hitting journalism. We like pretty lights as much as the next blogger. We also like talking to our friends. This is why when Jim Conti, the lighting designer for 55 Water Street, told us that...

The challenge is clear: how to rebuild between 30,000 to 50,000 (or is it 80,000?) homes after they've been scraped away from the worst-hit parts of New Orleans. What is heartening is that there is an active community watching...

We've had a long love affair with this park-to-be. Today was the dedication. It's New Park Week in Manhattan. New parks are like new land, and we love them....

The ever succinct Pruned has posted another étude to density, around Naoya Hatakeyama's diptych for a residential re-use for Osaka Stadium. These are the things that keep us warm at night....

The new park at 55 Water Street was dedicated last night, and declared open. Read on, and with pics!...

One of the Joys of Blogging is having folk from the World Wide Interweb posting correspondance that directs me hither, yon, and further yon. For instance, this gorgeous panorama of Manhattan, from our favorite tall building. Or this, a...

Update Bonus Add-On Sidebar to the 55 Water Street Beacon "of Progress": A person very close to the project says the owner, Retirement Systems of Alabama, chose to give The Beacon the appendix "of Progress". I only hope that surgery...

Waay back in 2002, I directed the design of a competition for 55 Water Street at Rogers Marvel Architects. I'm sure I've said that before. The real heros are the people at The Muncipal Arts Society, who educated the...

As a practicing architect, I have felt nothing but comlete bewilderment at Gutter's thread about libel. At Tropolism, we find this to be high-functioning complaining. Tropolism means cities are messy, and the ideas for buildings are as messy as...

I generally don't announce book parties, but this one deserves mentioning. First, because it comes from R20th Century [warning: annoying browser resize approaching], which has had a string of exhibitions over the last five years looking at under-appreciated modern...

John Updike's hilarious review of Jed Perl's New Art City. My favorite quote: The words "existential" and "empirical" remain hazy, as much as Perl loves and uses them. The verb "existentialize" doesn't exist in my dictionary, and I groped...

Friday, a friend invited me to go to Creative Time's latest event, an opening for a show inspired by the High Line, after we supped, and I said yes. It was only an 80% yes, these things often turn...

"Architects are formalists. Deal." David Smiley told me that when I was a wee student in the thicket of the early 90s argument about being-a-formalist-or-not. We make things. It's a useless distinction to think otherwise. He was also conveying...

Our Cologne correspondant tells us that the P&C (Peek & Cloppenburg in case you didn't know) Department Store is open for business. Renzo Piano's website well-documents the building, and includes some gorgeous photos. The most interesting retail projects are...

Since launching two weeks ago, Tropolism has been fortunate to receive lots of loving praise and pointers here and there to websites we have begun to love. Three we find fascinating: The Bottom Drawer wins for most provocative name....

Miss Rep works the preservation balancing act this afternoon. Including collating valid exceptions taken by Polis about us. And points to a helpful discussion at the AIA tonight at 6....

As you know, Tropolism means making the hidden city visible. Yesterday, the local paper ran an article about Open House New York, which had tours of hidden, inaccessable, or just plain private spaces for any New Yorker who got...

The Door to Action continues. Tropolism is happy to announce a competition to rebuild Louisiana, sponsored by the School of Architecture and Design at University of Louisiana, in Lafayette. The school is the closest functioning architecture school to New...

Polis has a piece on the New New Museum of Contemporary Art's groundbreaking October 11. Suddenly, the Lower East Side is looking, well, less like the modern architectural wasteland it has always been. The building reminds me of the...

Greg Allen brings It On regarding the recently demolished beauty by Gordon Bunshaft. And includes links. Our hero. A taste, referring to Martha Stewart, John Pawson, Alexis Stewart, and Donald Maharam, successive owners of the houses after MoMA: "Martha...

(above: skating at Rock Center, 1941 I'm an architect. And I make lists. Welcome to my world. I'll let you in on a secret: I've not visited this list for years. But today's news, that Bryant Park is going to...

The Two Dozen List is always in motion. Condos rise, and condos fall. Seasons Change. Everything changes. Like the city. End of Metaphor. Readers have added, addled, and actively pursued some additions, revisions, and updates, and the List has...

More floating houses from the world of North Central Europe. This time, a Dutch solution to a flooding problem. Really, who else would have achieved this, with built example to boot? No concept models here, these are real. Dig...

Are we the only ones who are wondering why everyone suddenly loves this building? Where were the études before someone suggested they make the building, like, useable. I understand the argument about the "turning point in Modernism", but I...

Tropolism means be clear about what you know you don't know. In this case, I disclosed that I didn't know something about several buildings on my incomplete list, including nArchitects' Switch Building. After the jump, construction photos from a...

Tropolism isn't sure what to make of these. They're models, plopped on the bay in Hamburg, taken with a close-up lens. Marketed as real. Hey, if Sciame can do it, why not the German prefabricated floating home company, or...