Metropolis Magazine

ArtPrize, a yearly art festival in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is attracting unprecedented crowds to this unexpected destination.

Known for A Pattern Language, his landmark book on architecture and urban design, Christopher Alexander's ideas have had an effect on everything from software and iPhone apps to business management and ecology.

Martin C. Pedersen says New Orleans' recovery is far from over in the Ninth Ward, even with the efforts of groups like Brad Pitt's Make it Right Foundation.

Bridgeport, Connecticut was known for post-industrial decay and crime. Today, people are talking about its "tantalizing" downtown that is ripe for redevelopment, writes Carrie Jacobs.

The Manufacturer's Hanover Trust Company building of New York from 1953 has been the focus of much debate over the right way to preserve an historically significant building.

Amanda Burden's High Line has elevated public space to new heights. "+Pool" design trio want to submerge it under water, specifically in the East River that runs through NYC.

San Francisco architecture critic John King talks about his new book Cityscapes and the role that so-called "background buildings" play in creating the city's mosaic.

Castle Square Apartments in Boston is currently being retrofitted in what is said to be the largest energy savings project of its kind. The low-income housing towers are receiving $6.7 million from HUD's Recovery Act Green Retrofit Program.

Sally Augustin stumbled upon a curved park bench at the heart of a public space, and found herself drawn into the brilliance of its curves.

Policy in Hong Kong dictates that development must concentrate on only 25% of the land area, with the remaining 75% preserved as open space. Julia Levitt examines the ingenious density that results.

Natural and artificial light have a significant effect on the experience of hospital patients and can actually reduce stress and hospital time, says Rosalyn Cama, an interior designer and researcher specializes in health care design.

Greg Flisram reports on a unique 50s era suburban development in Madison, Wisconsin that has an unusual early design that is modest in size and sensitive to the environment.

Researchers from the University of Washington trace the history and development of Hong Kong, the skyscraper capital of the world, from reclamation of waterfront land in the 1800's to contentious urban renewal projects today.

In this article the author describes the Chinese practice of assigning individuals apartments which are little more than shells. He claims that the act of customizing the shell creates a sense of ownership similar to that of homeowners in the U.S.

Andres Duany, the most vocal of New Urbanist, says that the critiques of the "ism" he helped create brand it as a "rustic version of starchitect culture" when it is in actuality an "expanding web of ideas, techniques, projects, and people."

A small town in Michigan created a network of underground pipes to divert waste heat from its power plant to downtown streets and sidewalks. Today, the community benefits from sidewalks that remain clear and dry no matter how cold it gets.

Architect Norman Foster, who worked with Buckminster Fuller towards the end of his life, recently rebuilt Fuller's Dymaxion Car to exacting specifications. Metropolis Magazine interviewed Foster about what we can still learn from the Dymaxion design.

Waste-to-energy power plant, and ski slope? Architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) proposed the unusual idea for a competition to replace a power plant in Copenhagen -- and won.

After 9/11, lower Manhattan became a tangle of makeshift roadblocks and security measures. Architect Rob Rogers was tasked with redesigning the bollards to be more pleasing to the eye while still serving as secure barriers to entry.

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission lists only 110 interiors worthy of preservation. This article in Metropolis says the challenge is the "temporal nature of interior spaces."