Readings
Books, journals, and articles related to historic preservation and city planning.
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Flaneuring – MacArthur Park, Little Rock, Arkansas
I promised in my 2023 end-of-the-year post that I would write more about my recent travels to the MacArthur Park neighborhood in Little Rock, Arkansas. As with my recent post on Van Buren, Arkansas – where a well-worn but well-cared-for downtown exudes a high level of meaning and character – MacArthur Park is another example…
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A Year in Pictures and Travels – 2023
It has been a busy year indeed. Travels for work assignments in 2023 took me to many different communities and destinations.
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Van Buren, Arkansas, and the Crawford County Bank Building
A new assignment with a work colleague to prepare a set of design guidelines for a National Register-listed downtown district led me to Van Buren, Arkansas this past week. Van Buren, a community of just over 23,000 people, is the seat of Crawford County and features a linear but compact and walkable downtown lined with…
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Cumberland, Maryland, and a Curious Case of Morris Lapidus
Recently, I had the privilege of working in Cumberland, Maryland this past year. Cumberland is not just any place – it has a history extending to the French and Indian War, where a young George Washington made a name for himself as an officer in the British army. Nestled in the Appalachian Mountains in the…
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Readings – Killing Greektown
A month ago, or so, I missed out on participating in a work-related book club discussion session organized by one of my colleagues – as usual, I had a project deadline to meet. I hated to miss it since the subject of discussion was the book, How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the…
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Flaneuring – Uptown Public Art
I visit lots of places around the country – most often as a peripatetic consultant under the constraints and pressures of a work assignment. A work assignment puts you on a strict schedule without much time for some necessary extras – like actually walking around an old downtown or neighborhood, trying to seep its patina…
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Happenings
It has certainly been a while. Yes, too long. Why no writing? Why the lengthy intermission? What’s been going on? My closest friends and colleagues know the reason and I might as well as confess – and no surprise, really – I’ve been exceptionally busy with work travels and projects these last many, many months.…
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Industrial Landscapes and a Smelterman’s Paradise
Of all the heritage places I have come to know through my work travels and vacation journeys, industrial landscapes have long captured my imagination the most. It is a curiosity that has not waned since the days I first visited the Pullman neighborhood in Chicago when I was a younger version of myself back in…
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Ben Halpern and I
I’ve known Ben Halpern for many years. It was not until very recently, however, that he came to know me. It was last year October, on a chilly, early autumn day that I received an unexpected phone call from him — he was reaching out to me on an architectural photography project he was working…
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Introducing the Chronicles
Historic places provide windows and visual reminders to our collective past. They provide our identity, as well as comfort and reassurance, especially in vulnerable and unfamiliar times. As is often said, historic buildings and communities offer a sense of place — perhaps an emotional connection that is difficult to describe, or a feeling of well-being…
The Places of Sense Chronicles 