Sean Godsell is a surprise. I'm expecting a rising rock star of an architect, a Melbourne Bjarke Ingels, with more success than he knows how to use.

As a latecomer to San Francisco's performing-arts district, SFJAZZ, a 30-year-old concert series, had to figure out how to fit into the Hayes Valley neighborhood. 

There are few American campuses more urban than Columbia University's; even its athletic fields are in Manhattan, grouped together in the cramped Baker Athletics Complex at the island's northern tip.

The design for a convention center in central Spain's historic city of Toledo presented Rafael Moneo with a fascinating problem: how to insert a modern, 400,000-square-foot building into a city that has scarcely changed since El Greco painted it in the 16th century.

With a light touch, a New York firm restores the base of minimalist master Donald Judd.

Tucked tight against Switzerland's border with both France and Germany, Basel is a small city that has made room for big business.

In an age of lightning-fast mobile devices that provide access to information with the swipe of a finger, books can seem archaic.

With an expansive glazed facade and warm wood ceilings that subtly reflect light, the Los Gatos Public Library emits a soft glow at all waking hours, but the best time to see it is at dusk.

The industrial yellow-brick building one block north of Toronto’s Dundas Square in the heart of the city has been home to the Ryerson University School of Image Arts since the late 1960s.

Rene Gonzalez's new Alchemist shop on Miami's Lincoln Road has some tough competition. It stands on a popular plaza opposite a garish movie theater, the Regal South Beach.