The American dream crashed with the economy. Can architecture bring it back? In this political season, we’re hearing a lot of talk about reclaiming the American dream. And nothing says “American dream” like the single-family house, though it’s a sore subject for the 4 million families who’ve lost their homes to foreclosure since 2007, or the hundreds of thousands more in limbo, with the roofs over their heads worth less than the mortgages they owe. Photo © Michel Arnaud But now new house construction, which had slowed dramatically, is beginning to rise: Housing starts are up, particularly for multifamily dwellings,

Can public-interest design become a viable alternative to traditional practice? Last month Salon published an article titled “The Architecture Meltdown.” The piece, by Scott Timberg, detailed the high unemployment rates, the shrinking fees, and the tough climate for fresh architecture grads, weighed down by heavy student debt. It’s so bad, said one architect, Guy Horton (a contributor to architectural record), that architecture has become “the new English major.” The article’s author blamed the poor economy, of course, but he also tore into the profession as the designer of its own demise. While the media has lionized the starchitect—the solo creative

Architects and preservationists continue to grapple with old buildings and new ideas. This month’s issue, in which we explore contemporary ideas and projects surrounding historic architecture, is all about raising questions. What criteria make old architecture worth saving? Is it desirable, or even possible, to restore a historic building or neighborhood to its virgin state—or should preservation reflect layers of history? What inspires an architect to successfully adapt an old structure without resorting to the kind of historicist motifs that only cheapen a genuine regard for the past? Photo © Michel Arnaud Related Links Building Types Study: Renovation, Adaptation, Addition

The changing world of architectural photography ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty.’ — John Keats Hold on a sec, Mr. Keats: When it comes to photography and architecture, truth is not that pure and simple. We all look at images of architecture every day, on the Internet and in magazines like this one. Architects depend on photography to document and market their work, and here at Record, photographs help us consider which projects to cover. When we lay out the magazine’s pages, we think carefully about which pictures best convey the experience of a work of architecture. Photo © Michel Arnaud

I recently had the opportunity to pose some questions to Frank Gehry at a small event hosted by McGraw-Hill Construction, in Washington, D.C.

Despite a bleak economic climate, American architects are making the most of their skills. November is a month of darkening days, and this year it arrives with an extra chill for the design profession. As the mercury began to dip across most of America, so did the numbers in the Architects Billing Index, down a sudden five points in September, to 46.9. Many of record’s readers don’t need to see that statistic, however, to know how tough this economic climate continues to be for architects, particularly those primarily engaged in residential and commercial design in the United States. Photo ©

The only constant is change. Over the great bridge, with the sunlight through the girders making a constant flicker upon the moving cars, with the city rising up across the river in white heaps…the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world. — F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby Photo © Michel Arnaud Cathleen McGuigan, Editor in Chief I never tire of the New York skyline. It looks fresh on every return to the city, in every kind of weather and at every time of day, gleaming or

It takes a great client to make a great building, as architects like to say when they’re feeling modest.

Ideas about place, craft, and community inspire a summer camp for architects. Every summer for the last dozen years, architect Brian MacKay-Lyons has hosted a design-build workshop at his weekend farm, which sits along a spectacular stretch of rugged coastline in his native Nova Scotia. The point of “Ghost Lab,” so named for the stone ruins of a long-abandoned settlement on the property, is to get architecture students to pick up a hammer and actually make a structure with their own hands, a disappearing skill set in design education today, where “building” is largely virtual. Photo: © Erica Lansner Related