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What we can learn from Italy’s radical design movement

by Sarah Hucal

Fifty years ago, a ferociously anti-design, anti-dolce vita force came into being in the halls of the architecture department of the University of Florence.

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From Curbed LA

The last artists’ haven in Los Angeles

by Jennifer Swann

As skyrocketing rents in Los Angeles continue to squeeze renters farther into the outskirts of the city, the Antelope Valley is positioned to become a new frontier for emerging artists—if they can get over its terrible reputation.

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Austin faces the future

by Sara Polsky

Austin is changing. The city once known for music and slackers is more famous these days for its booming population, tech scene, and festivals. As it reshapes itself to meet residents’ needs, what will Austin become next?

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From Curbed LA

Learning to love the ‘Persian Palaces’ of Beverly Hills

by Shaya Tayefe Mohajer

"Persian Palaces"—boxy mansions with huge columns out front—have a bad reputation in LA, but the style has deep roots in Iranian culture, going back thousands of years, and they provide some consistency for Persians who fled their country after...

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Reinventing Waller Creek

by Stephie Grob Plante

Waller Creek, once a problem for the city, is now the centerpiece of a massive renovation project—a connected "chain of parks" spanning 37 acres—that could transform downtown Austin.

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The fight for Rosewood Courts

by Michael Schrantz

Officials and preservationists in Austin are fighting over the potential redevelopment of Rosewood Courts, which was the country’s first African-American housing project. The fight is a proxy for opposite visions of East Austin: preservation or...

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From Curbed NY

Curbed New York’s 12 best longreads of 2016

by Zoe Rosenberg

Stories of the last gas man of Lower Manhattan, reshaping a former Coast Guard base, infiltrating a notoriously private park, and more.

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Curbed’s 10 best West Coast longreads of 2016

by Adrian Glick Kudler

This year, Curbed launched its West Coast features program, and we took you from Portland to the Mexican border to bring you tales of disappearing water, secession movements, hypergentrification, strip clubs, and more.

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From Curbed Philly

The long road to North Broad

by Melissa Romero

It’s been one year since the start of North Broad Renaissance, a non-profit dedicated to revitalizing the corridor north of City Hall. While improvements are afoot, there’s still a long way to go.

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From Curbed LA

A hidden mansion in oil country

by Hadley Meares

Hidden in industrial Santa Fe Springs is the Clarke Estate, a 1920s testament to the ideals of three progressive Southern California pioneers who believed the West was the perfect place for culture, art, and new ways of thinking to flourish.

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How South by Southwest transformed Austin

by Alissa Walker

South by Southwest prides itself on its scruffy roots. A conference dreamed up in 1986 by a few journalists to bring attention to Austin’s boisterous live music scene. A film festival that epitomized the spirit of a handful of fiercely independent...

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Recoding Austin

by Nate Berg

In 2013, to adjust for its growing population, Austin began the process of rewriting its zoning code. Here’s how the new Land Development Code could be dramatically transformative for Austin.

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Facebook's new home assistant uses Morgan Freeman's voice

by Alissa Walker

What voice do we want responding to our orders to dim the lights? Facebook’s new AI talks back in the voice of God. Or at least someone who played him once in a movie once.

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From Curbed DC

An HGTV show is coming to D.C.

by Michelle Goldchain

The nation’s capital doesn’t usually get film crews in the city, but, next month, a new HGTV show will make its premiere. The show, D.C. Flippers, will run its pilot episode on January 8 at 2 p.m. EST. The show will be hosted by Ati and Rob Williams.

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From Curbed DC

Finally, someone is building a model of D.C. in Minecraft

by Michelle Goldchain

The Washington, D.C. Metro area is going virtual, thanks to one Minecraft architect, called Thor_IAD. The player revealed his efforts to recreate the region in the popular sandbox video game on the Washington, D.C. section of Reddit.

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This swan ladle and tilting wine holder will never fall down

by Lauren Ro

Swanky is a swan-shaped ladle that floats upright in a pot of soup, or balances on a table top.

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Uber, Lyft, and the future of transportation in Austin

by Patrick Sisson

The unorthodox Texas capital recently became the biggest U.S. city without Uber or Lyft. Nearly a dozen startups have swooped in to claim market share. What can other cities learn from Austin’s peculiar ridehailing situation?

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From Curbed NY

On Staten Island, a centuries-old waterway helps shape new wetlands

by Nathan Kensinger

It’s not often that you can watch a river being remade amid the dense fabric of New York City, and a walk along Staten Island's New Creek is rare opportunity to view both the past and future of the city’s waterfront.

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From Curbed NY

From house of worship to house of sin: The history of Chelsea’s Limelight building

by Priya Krishna

The Church of the Holy Communion on the corner of 20th Street and Sixth Avenue is one of the most peculiar structures in New York City. The soaring Gothic Revival building, originally used as an Episcopalian church, has become—despite its very...

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Inside Baltimore’s ambitious effort to eliminate blight

by Andrew Zaleski

Vacants to Value has spent six years trying to sell Baltimore’s vacant properties to owners who will rehab them. Is the effort working?

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Inside Hawaii’s modernist masterpieces

by Chris Mottalini

Russian-born architect Val Ossipoff arrived in Hawaii in 1931 and spent decades developing his vision of tropical modernism, with buildings that sprang seamlessly from the local landscape. Here, take a look around some of his most stunning work.

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From Curbed LA

The ranch that Big Macs built

When Ray Kroc struck it rich with McDonald's, one of his first purchases was the J & R Double Arch Ranch on California's Central Coast. There, he hosted parties, food experiments, and—strangely enough—health conferences.

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From Curbed NY

In the Bronx, finding nature along a hidden, polluted waterway

by Nathan Kensinger

Even the most bastardized waterways in New York City have beauty hidden along their lengths, and Westchester Creek is no exception. Once described as "the Bronx’s version of the Gowanus Canal," it's now experiencing a resurgence of nature.

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Can your city change your mind?

by Nate Berg

The design of our spaces can heal us, hurt us, and alter the way we think

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Airbnb vs. the city

by Megan Barber

It’s a story enshrined in tech history: in 2007, two entrepreneurs struggling to make rent in pricey San Francisco latched onto a novel idea. A design conference was coming to town and hotels were sold out. The pair decided to throw three air...

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From Curbed LA

The thirstiest town in the West

by Zoie Matthew

Borrego Springs—a tiny community in the middle of the Anza-Borrego Desert—was once a natural oasis poised to become California’s next great resort destination. But today the water is running out and the town has become parched and bitter.

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Designing for the end of the world

by Patrick Sisson

From high-end safe rooms to bunkers and shelters being laid out in backyards and empty fields across the country, a growing number of Americans feel they need to be self-sustaining in a world of rising threats.

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From Curbed LA

Los Angeles is killing us

by Adrian Glick Kudler

LA's two most legendary cemeteries are Forest Lawn Memorial Park, developed by a charismatic man nicknamed The Builder, and Hollywood Forever, run for decades by an ex-con who led it into ruin. Can they help us find the secrets of mortality?

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From Curbed NY

Four years after Sandy, Staten Island's shoreline is transformed

by Nathan Kensinger

Staten Island is in the midst of implementing "strategic retreat" as a way of returning its damaged post-Sandy areas to nature. Here's what its storm recovery efforts can teach NYC about climate change.

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10 streets that define America

by Curbed

We take an exhaustive look at the forces shaping our cities today: the regenerative power of small businesses, changes brought by new development, alternative transportation options, and rich, if burdensome, cultural legacies.

From Curbed LA

Ghosts of early California

by Hadley Meares

The reign of the Spanish-run California missions was brief and often brutal, giving rise to a variety of supernatural legends. Join us as we take a tour of the missions and meet some of the spooky spirits that supposedly reside therein.

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Why Fixer Upper is a stealth feminist fantasy

by Virginia Sole-Smith

The number one cable show in its timeslot among viewers ages 25 to 54, the real explanation for the show’s success is Joanna Gaines, one-half of Fixer Upper’s power couple.

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From Curbed NY

Infinite upon infinite: New York City in maps

by Nathan Kensinger

A new atlas by Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro highlights the city as ‘a place that contains worlds’

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Can Portland survive its popularity?

Portland, Oregon is in the midst of a population boom, but the notoriously well-planned city is having trouble adjusting to the influx. Preservationists are hoping a first-of-its-kind ordinance can save some of what makes Portland so special.

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From Curbed NY

How to get into Gramercy Park

by Angela Serratore

I spent an afternoon in New York City’s most exclusive park.

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From Curbed LA

The abandoned graveyards of early LA

by Hadley Meares

LA’s first cemeteries were the "eternal" resting places for everyone from Mission Indians to the governor of Mexican California to Wild West outlaws. As the young city grew, though, they were defiled, dug up, and bulldozed in the name of progress.

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From Curbed NY

A small Queens community confronts climate change along Hawtree Creek

by Nathan Kensinger

Hawtree Creek passes through a pocket of New York City that feels like it belongs to a different century. Now, it's on the front lines of climate change, as rising tides create new problems for longtime residents.

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From Curbed Chicago

When public housing goes private

by Zach Mortice

Can Chicago’s architects and developers work with public housing residents to change a broken system?

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From Curbed LA

The Myth and Truth Behind the Los Angeles ‘Devil Winds’

by Adrian Glick Kudler

The Santa Ana winds and their supposedly sinister effects loom large in the Los Angeles imagination. But how much do the winds really change us? And how much are we changing them?

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Midcentury modern design goes back to nature

by Kate Losse

The obsession with midcentury modern has recently evolved to include lush, jungly greenery and sculptural gardens. These verdant spaces may help scrub the air, but they also serve as uneasy reminders of our environmental anxieties.

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