Architectural criticism is a relatively recent invention; we have the Victorian John Ruskin to thank for it, who, as its paterfamilias, tended to funnel his sexual energies towards architraves, frescos, …
Why Knoxville’s Metropolitan Statistical Area Should Matter to You
Jay McInerney could have set his chronicle of the narcotized 1980s in Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, or any number of sprawling American metro-zones that were equally awash with “Bolivian Marching …
Build, Raze, Repeat: UT’s New Mantra for New Dorms on its Knoxville Campus
In August 2015, the University of Tennessee demolished the Apartment Residence Hall dormitories on its Knoxville campus, not long after the decade-older Shelbourne Towers were leveled. This in itself shouldn’t …
Past-Forward: Part 2
If history is an arc, as the American 19th-century transcendentalist Theodore Parker conceived the moral universe, in the world of architectural production that curvature is a pendulum’s path. At one …
Past-Forward: Part 1
“What’s past is prologue.” —William Shakespeare, The Tempest The ancient Romans had a useful double-faced god called Janus (Ianuarius). He presided over war and was the guardian of transitions and …