Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix: What It Suits, and What It Does Not
A major desert plant collection in Papago Park — and a plant palette that is global rather than Sonoran.
The Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati: One Frame, and How It Is Made
An 1820 Federal house — one of the finest of its date in America — with a portico that makes a single very good frame.
The Hard Rock Casino, Cincinnati: The One Decision That Governs Everything
A casino venue in downtown Cincinnati — a building deliberately built without a single usable window.
The Cincinnati Zoo: The Problem, and Four Ways Out of It
America's second-oldest zoo and a serious botanical garden — where the barriers are the photographic problem.
The Cincinnati Art Museum: The Venue’s Own Logic
An 1886 museum on the Eden Park hilltop, designed around a single problem: how to light a painting.
The Cincinnati Music Hall: A Walk Through the Building
An 1878 Venetian Gothic concert hall in Over-the-Rhine, built when Cincinnati was the sixth-largest city in America.
The Columbus Zoo: Field Notes
A very large zoo on the Scioto north of Columbus — where the sheer size of the site is the first problem to solve.
COSI Columbus: What It Suits, and What It Does Not
A science centre occupying a 1924 high school with a sweeping 1999 addition, on the west bank of the Scioto.
The Columbus Museum of Art: The Venue’s Own Logic
A 1931 Renaissance Revival museum joined to a 2015 glass wing — two buildings that light people in opposite ways.
The Bluestone, Columbus: Field Notes
A former stone church downtown, now a music and event venue — the architecture of worship running a bar.