Patrick Sisson - Writer, Journalist, Cultural Documentarian, Music Lover

Tag: Architecture

Curbed March 28, 2016 Even in quickly evolving New York City, there’s something romantic about slowing down, stepping out of the fast currents of foot traffic, and looking up. Few neighborhoods will disappoint. Look up high, especially in Manhattan, and you can see the built history of the big city play out in the architectural […]

Curbed October 2, 2015 The Polis concept from Studio Gang would remake police stations into community centers and neighborhoods hubs offering numerous community services. Images via Studio Gang. The eclectic body of work of Chicago architect Jeanne Gangdraws inspiration from unlikely sources. The angled profile of the WMS Boathouse mimics the motion of rowers, and […]

Curbed October 6, 2015 The Uhlmann Residence in Phoenix, designed by Al Beadle. The photo was taken during the Arcadia House Tour in 2014, after the stucco front had been restored. All images courtesyModern Phoenix. “I’m known as the steel and glass man. I won’t deviate from that too much. People come to me saying […]

Curbed December 17, 2015 The United States has witnessed a sea-change in the visibility of the transgender community over the last few years. From the prominence of celebrities such as Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox to increasing acceptance of and accommodations for transgender youth, the fuller, more fluid range of gender identity is being expressed […]

Curbed Chicago Feature March 27, 2015   The maxim “less is more” has become synonymous with Mies van der Rohe’s design approach, shorthand for the power of focusing on the pertinent details and the experience within a space. But for those tasked with repairing and restoring the architectural icon’s masterpieces, the phrase could easily refer to […]

Line//Shape//Space Feature March 30, 2015 At first glance, Eteläsatama, or South Harbor in Helsinki, doesn’t stand out much from the ribbons of scenic shoreline that form the Finnish capital’s border with the sea. Ferries dock nearby, crowds meander over from nearby Market Square, and anyone strolling through can pause and snap a photo of famous […]

Dwell Feature December 2014/January 2015 Prefab Issue   When you’re a grandson of Frank Lloyd Wright and planning to build near Taliesin—Wright’s studio and architecture school near Spring Green, Wisconsin—you have no shortage of design resources. Tim Wright, a documentary filmmaker who teaches at Taliesin, and his wife, Karen Ellzey, managing director for a commercial real estate firm, […]

Dwell Post April 10, 2014 Link When the newly restored Carreau du Temple, a marketplace and exemplar of 19th century French construction in Paris’ Marais neighborhood, officially opens to the public on April 25th, it won’t merely be an achievement in architectural preservation. By literally exposing this glass-and-steel giant to the surrounding area with a […]

Article/Interview Nothing Major August 2013 Link  History—and city skylines—tend to be constructed by the winners, but that’s never the whole story. Alexander Eisenshmidt, an architecture professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, discovered the truth of this maxim while researching unfinished Chicago building projects and collecting a dossier of grandiose proposals, eccentric dreams, and impossible ideas that […]

Feature Nothing Major June 21, 2013 Link With Rio racing to prepare for 2016, Brazilian protests against stadium spending raging and the price tag for the Sochi Winter Olympics rising precipitously, the subject of infrastructure spending for the bi-annual games is a heated one. But it’s the second life of these structures which often leave […]