I heard a piece on WYPR the other day on consequential strangers and how important they are in our daily lives. I then found this article in Time Magazine: If you look at the relationship continuum from stranger to soul mate, consequential strangers fall in that vast territory just beyond strangers and just short of [...]

In the morning the city Spreads its wings Making a song In stone that sings.  In the evening the city Goes to bed Hanging lights About its head. - Langston Hughes  How to navigate a city? Let me count the ways. In some cities, there are many more ways than others. Generally speaking, East Coast cities have [...]

My post using Omm Writer – beautiful white space for writing in.  I have always, always loved snow, having spent most of my childhood knee-deep in it. So this recent post on Design Observer about snow, cities, and white space deeply resonated with me.  The author talks about snow as the ultimate white space in [...]

On the steps of the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC. This taken with my Holga (I think), on one of my lunches. My gym is right across the street. Lately, I’ve been thinking about cities and use cases…. I’ve also been intrigued by this new social media service called Gowalla. Have you heard of it? [...]

Near Fell's Point in Baltimore, on my way back from taking Michaela to work. She's learning to drive. I figure the East Coast is a good place to learn how to drive defensively, as long as you don't get killed in the process. East Coast drivers are insane.  Anyway, driving around Baltimore is in stark [...]

She walked by just as I was taking the shot. This little old lady next to the tall, glass, modern building in SOHO, filled with architects sitting down for a presentation, those builders and definers of the urban space. While in New York last week, my senses were heightened of course, as they always are [...]

In my ongoing thinking about the city as an interface – as an operating system, if you will, of this thing we call Earth – I picked up a book I bought while in grad school: Universal Principles of Design. It lists a multitude of various design elements and principles to consider when designing. I'm [...]

The semester is humming nicely along. I have an incredible group of about nine grad students in my Visualizing Information design class at MICA. In my research for the class, I came across Trulia Hindsight. It couldn't be more timely given my current bedside reading, Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities.  [...]