Places Journal
@placesjournal.bsky.social
Architecture, landscape, urbanism. Independent nonprofit public scholarship on the built environment. Free & accessible to all.
Read: http://placesjournal.org
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Read: http://placesjournal.org
Sign up: placesjournal.org/newsletter
Donate: https://placesjournal.org/donate/
Pinned
Places Journal
@placesjournal.bsky.social
· Nov 20
We publish independent public scholarship on buildings, landscapes and cities, combining the immediacy & accessibility of journalism with the depth of academic research.
This journal is animated by the conviction that the environment is public, and writing about it should be public, too.
Join us!
This journal is animated by the conviction that the environment is public, and writing about it should be public, too.
Join us!
HAPPENING TODAY!
Tune in via Zoom at 1:00pm PT to hear from designers, editors, and authors about the work that fills the interior of the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Places Editor Nancy Levinson will be speaking about PORCH: A Library.
Join us! Registration is free.
Tune in via Zoom at 1:00pm PT to hear from designers, editors, and authors about the work that fills the interior of the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Places Editor Nancy Levinson will be speaking about PORCH: A Library.
Join us! Registration is free.
November 17, 2025 at 6:52 PM
HAPPENING TODAY!
Tune in via Zoom at 1:00pm PT to hear from designers, editors, and authors about the work that fills the interior of the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Places Editor Nancy Levinson will be speaking about PORCH: A Library.
Join us! Registration is free.
Tune in via Zoom at 1:00pm PT to hear from designers, editors, and authors about the work that fills the interior of the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Places Editor Nancy Levinson will be speaking about PORCH: A Library.
Join us! Registration is free.
ICYMI: This spring, we curated a library of 700+ books examining the commitments of people to one another and to the planet, and exemplifying the porch as a shelter for democratic encounter.
Hundreds of books were on the shelf in the U.S. Pavilion at the Biennale. And we also built a bibliography:
Hundreds of books were on the shelf in the U.S. Pavilion at the Biennale. And we also built a bibliography:
November 14, 2025 at 6:51 PM
ICYMI: This spring, we curated a library of 700+ books examining the commitments of people to one another and to the planet, and exemplifying the porch as a shelter for democratic encounter.
Hundreds of books were on the shelf in the U.S. Pavilion at the Biennale. And we also built a bibliography:
Hundreds of books were on the shelf in the U.S. Pavilion at the Biennale. And we also built a bibliography:
Join us for a day of conversations about the design & curatorial vision of the U.S. Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale, hosted this MONDAY 11/17 by @archpaper.com.
As part of a panel of contributors, Places Editor Nancy Levinson will share the curatorial work behind PORCH: A Library.
As part of a panel of contributors, Places Editor Nancy Levinson will share the curatorial work behind PORCH: A Library.
events.archpaper.com
November 14, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Join us for a day of conversations about the design & curatorial vision of the U.S. Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale, hosted this MONDAY 11/17 by @archpaper.com.
As part of a panel of contributors, Places Editor Nancy Levinson will share the curatorial work behind PORCH: A Library.
As part of a panel of contributors, Places Editor Nancy Levinson will share the curatorial work behind PORCH: A Library.
In the 1980s, in Tucson, activists and religious leaders joined forces to protect refugees at the U.S.-Mexico border. Their collaboration helped galvanize the Sanctuary Movement, a humanitarian immigrant defense project that pioneered new models of citizen resistance.
From @cetracey.bsky.social:
From @cetracey.bsky.social:
A Theology of Smuggling
In the early 1980s, in Tucson, activists and religious leaders joined forces to protect refugees at the U.S.-Mexico border. Their collaboration galvanized the Sanctuary Movement.
placesjournal.org
November 13, 2025 at 6:45 PM
In the 1980s, in Tucson, activists and religious leaders joined forces to protect refugees at the U.S.-Mexico border. Their collaboration helped galvanize the Sanctuary Movement, a humanitarian immigrant defense project that pioneered new models of citizen resistance.
From @cetracey.bsky.social:
From @cetracey.bsky.social:
Journalist and critic @timothyaschuler.bsky.social is lecturing TODAY @kstate.bsky.social College of Architecture, Planning & Design. His lecture will explore overlooked + forgotten landscapes across the American Midwest, drawing from his work as Places critic-in-residence in landscape architecture.
November 12, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Journalist and critic @timothyaschuler.bsky.social is lecturing TODAY @kstate.bsky.social College of Architecture, Planning & Design. His lecture will explore overlooked + forgotten landscapes across the American Midwest, drawing from his work as Places critic-in-residence in landscape architecture.
Reposted by Places Journal
This new piece from @shannonmattern.bsky.social about the role of libraries in public life is extraordinary. There's so much I want to quote from it, but I'd encourage you to take the time to read it yourself instead...
placesjournal.org/article/extr...
placesjournal.org/article/extr...
Extralibrary Loan: Making the Civic Infrastructure We Need
Amid a war on public knowledge, libraries are pushing outward, enlarging the commons through new configurations of civic and creative life.
placesjournal.org
November 11, 2025 at 7:54 PM
This new piece from @shannonmattern.bsky.social about the role of libraries in public life is extraordinary. There's so much I want to quote from it, but I'd encourage you to take the time to read it yourself instead...
placesjournal.org/article/extr...
placesjournal.org/article/extr...
Happening TODAY!!
@cetracey.bsky.social presents her On the Brinck | Places Prize lecture, "The Theology of Smuggling: A Genealogy of Humanitarianism in the Borderlands."
Attend in-person, @unm.edu School of Architecture and Planning, or tune in on Zoom!
@cetracey.bsky.social presents her On the Brinck | Places Prize lecture, "The Theology of Smuggling: A Genealogy of Humanitarianism in the Borderlands."
Attend in-person, @unm.edu School of Architecture and Planning, or tune in on Zoom!
Don't miss this lecture by @cetracey.bsky.social on theology, colonialism and humanitarianism in the Southwestern U.S. — part of our On the Brinck | Places Prize collab with the School of Architecture + Planning @unm.edu.
Albuquerque folks! Details below. Or join by Zoom: unm.zoom.us/j/97216782176
Albuquerque folks! Details below. Or join by Zoom: unm.zoom.us/j/97216782176
November 3, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Happening TODAY!!
@cetracey.bsky.social presents her On the Brinck | Places Prize lecture, "The Theology of Smuggling: A Genealogy of Humanitarianism in the Borderlands."
Attend in-person, @unm.edu School of Architecture and Planning, or tune in on Zoom!
@cetracey.bsky.social presents her On the Brinck | Places Prize lecture, "The Theology of Smuggling: A Genealogy of Humanitarianism in the Borderlands."
Attend in-person, @unm.edu School of Architecture and Planning, or tune in on Zoom!
Reposted by Places Journal
What if we could work with our public libraries to create + sustain convivial infrastructures for local news, local 🎶, digital equity, and more? I wrote abt lots of communities that are doing this work, bldg networks of solidarity + resistance, modeling alternatives to extractive commercial systems.
I wrote about public libraries as spaces of civic solidarity, common knowledge, and public infrastructure — all endangered by commercial and federal saboteurs
Extralibrary Loan: Making the Civic Infrastructure We Need
Amid a war on public knowledge, libraries are pushing outward, enlarging the commons through new configurations of civic and creative life.
placesjournal.org
November 1, 2025 at 1:57 PM
What if we could work with our public libraries to create + sustain convivial infrastructures for local news, local 🎶, digital equity, and more? I wrote abt lots of communities that are doing this work, bldg networks of solidarity + resistance, modeling alternatives to extractive commercial systems.
"To what extent have the removals and re-sitings of Confederate monuments across the South sparked broader reckonings with histories of racial injustice, and how will current backlash against attempts to confront this racist past continue to refashion the landscape?"
Amid the restoration of a Confederate monument in D.C. and Trump's dismantling of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, this essay by David Cunningham is a critical read.
Cunningham visited the site of every Confederate monument removed since 2015, documenting how the landscape has (or hasn't) changed.
Cunningham visited the site of every Confederate monument removed since 2015, documenting how the landscape has (or hasn't) changed.
Monumental Juxtapositions
Since 2015, more than one hundred communities across the American South have removed, relocated, or modified Confederate monuments. In many cases, their symbolic — and material — imprints remain.
placesjournal.org
October 31, 2025 at 2:36 AM
"To what extent have the removals and re-sitings of Confederate monuments across the South sparked broader reckonings with histories of racial injustice, and how will current backlash against attempts to confront this racist past continue to refashion the landscape?"
Amid the restoration of a Confederate monument in D.C. and Trump's dismantling of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, this essay by David Cunningham is a critical read.
Cunningham visited the site of every Confederate monument removed since 2015, documenting how the landscape has (or hasn't) changed.
Cunningham visited the site of every Confederate monument removed since 2015, documenting how the landscape has (or hasn't) changed.
Monumental Juxtapositions
Since 2015, more than one hundred communities across the American South have removed, relocated, or modified Confederate monuments. In many cases, their symbolic — and material — imprints remain.
placesjournal.org
October 30, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Amid the restoration of a Confederate monument in D.C. and Trump's dismantling of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, this essay by David Cunningham is a critical read.
Cunningham visited the site of every Confederate monument removed since 2015, documenting how the landscape has (or hasn't) changed.
Cunningham visited the site of every Confederate monument removed since 2015, documenting how the landscape has (or hasn't) changed.
Don't miss this lecture by @cetracey.bsky.social on theology, colonialism and humanitarianism in the Southwestern U.S. — part of our On the Brinck | Places Prize collab with the School of Architecture + Planning @unm.edu.
Albuquerque folks! Details below. Or join by Zoom: unm.zoom.us/j/97216782176
Albuquerque folks! Details below. Or join by Zoom: unm.zoom.us/j/97216782176
October 30, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Don't miss this lecture by @cetracey.bsky.social on theology, colonialism and humanitarianism in the Southwestern U.S. — part of our On the Brinck | Places Prize collab with the School of Architecture + Planning @unm.edu.
Albuquerque folks! Details below. Or join by Zoom: unm.zoom.us/j/97216782176
Albuquerque folks! Details below. Or join by Zoom: unm.zoom.us/j/97216782176
Since 2015, dozens of communities across the American South have removed, relocated & modified Confederate monuments. Often, symbolic and material imprints remain — and sometimes, the statues are simply reinstalled...
Public scholar David Cunningham wrote on this very subject for Places last month.
Public scholar David Cunningham wrote on this very subject for Places last month.
October 30, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Since 2015, dozens of communities across the American South have removed, relocated & modified Confederate monuments. Often, symbolic and material imprints remain — and sometimes, the statues are simply reinstalled...
Public scholar David Cunningham wrote on this very subject for Places last month.
Public scholar David Cunningham wrote on this very subject for Places last month.
Reposted by Places Journal
The anger and despair can feel all-consuming, but I'm hoping that this can be a source of encouragement — a reminder that we can support and defend these local institutions and their broader networks of solidarity
I wrote about public libraries as spaces of civic solidarity, common knowledge, and public infrastructure — all endangered by commercial and federal saboteurs
Extralibrary Loan: Making the Civic Infrastructure We Need
Amid a war on public knowledge, libraries are pushing outward, enlarging the commons through new configurations of civic and creative life.
placesjournal.org
October 29, 2025 at 1:03 PM
The anger and despair can feel all-consuming, but I'm hoping that this can be a source of encouragement — a reminder that we can support and defend these local institutions and their broader networks of solidarity
Amid a war on public knowledge, libraries are pushing outward, enlarging the commons through new configurations of civic and creative life.
In her latest — and, yes, 34th! — article for Places, @shannonmattern.bsky.social writes about building the infrastructure we need to keep ourselves free.
In her latest — and, yes, 34th! — article for Places, @shannonmattern.bsky.social writes about building the infrastructure we need to keep ourselves free.
October 28, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Amid a war on public knowledge, libraries are pushing outward, enlarging the commons through new configurations of civic and creative life.
In her latest — and, yes, 34th! — article for Places, @shannonmattern.bsky.social writes about building the infrastructure we need to keep ourselves free.
In her latest — and, yes, 34th! — article for Places, @shannonmattern.bsky.social writes about building the infrastructure we need to keep ourselves free.
Reposted by Places Journal
I wrote about public libraries as spaces of civic solidarity, common knowledge, and public infrastructure — all endangered by commercial and federal saboteurs
Extralibrary Loan: Making the Civic Infrastructure We Need
Amid a war on public knowledge, libraries are pushing outward, enlarging the commons through new configurations of civic and creative life.
placesjournal.org
October 28, 2025 at 3:03 PM
I wrote about public libraries as spaces of civic solidarity, common knowledge, and public infrastructure — all endangered by commercial and federal saboteurs
In attacking libraries, Donald Trump is waging a war on public knowledge. Such pressures make the core mission of libraries harder, yet rather than retreat, libraries can push outward, enlarging the commons through new configurations of civic and creative life.
From @shannonmattern.bsky.social:
From @shannonmattern.bsky.social:
Extralibrary Loan: Making the Civic Infrastructure We Need
Amid a war on public knowledge, libraries are pushing outward, enlarging the commons through new configurations of civic and creative life.
placesjournal.org
October 28, 2025 at 4:01 PM
In attacking libraries, Donald Trump is waging a war on public knowledge. Such pressures make the core mission of libraries harder, yet rather than retreat, libraries can push outward, enlarging the commons through new configurations of civic and creative life.
From @shannonmattern.bsky.social:
From @shannonmattern.bsky.social:
Reposted by Places Journal
This piece is really moving and informative. Thanks to @anandwrites.bsky.social for sharing it in this morning's newsletter. placesjournal.org/article/bles...
Grief and Empire on the Island of Guam
In a militarized territory like Guam, everything is political, even cancer.
placesjournal.org
October 18, 2025 at 10:57 AM
This piece is really moving and informative. Thanks to @anandwrites.bsky.social for sharing it in this morning's newsletter. placesjournal.org/article/bles...
Reposted by Places Journal
I'm sure you know of this already... a brilliant essay on cardboard packaging by Shannon Mattern. @shannonmattern.bsky.social
placesjournal.org/article/soci...
placesjournal.org/article/soci...
World in a Box: Cardboard Media and the Geographic Imagination
Cardboard boxes hold a world of meaning — a geography of consumption, disposal, and reuse — that spans from Amazon to the Container Corporation of America.
placesjournal.org
October 18, 2025 at 6:43 AM
I'm sure you know of this already... a brilliant essay on cardboard packaging by Shannon Mattern. @shannonmattern.bsky.social
placesjournal.org/article/soci...
placesjournal.org/article/soci...
“That’s the thing you learn the hard way when you come of age in a colony: while colonization is always about the big things of racial discrimination, land dispossession, and political subordination, it’s actually the little things that hurt the most.”
— Julian Aguon, “Blessed is the Spot”:
— Julian Aguon, “Blessed is the Spot”:
Grief and Empire on the Island of Guam
In a militarized territory like Guam, everything is political, even cancer.
placesjournal.org
October 18, 2025 at 1:41 AM
“That’s the thing you learn the hard way when you come of age in a colony: while colonization is always about the big things of racial discrimination, land dispossession, and political subordination, it’s actually the little things that hurt the most.”
— Julian Aguon, “Blessed is the Spot”:
— Julian Aguon, “Blessed is the Spot”:
“I was born with a hole in my heart. Technically, what I have is a heart murmur, but my sister says it’s why I’m so sensitive. Still, to place the blame for my broken heart on that hole would be a mistake. For brokenheartedness is a byproduct of having been born and raised in Guam...” — Julian Aguon
Grief and Empire on the Island of Guam
In a militarized territory like Guam, everything is political, even cancer.
placesjournal.org
October 17, 2025 at 7:38 PM
“I was born with a hole in my heart. Technically, what I have is a heart murmur, but my sister says it’s why I’m so sensitive. Still, to place the blame for my broken heart on that hole would be a mistake. For brokenheartedness is a byproduct of having been born and raised in Guam...” — Julian Aguon
Reposted by Places Journal
"Blessed is the Spot" by Julian Aguon for @placesjournal.bsky.social
"It’d be years before the federal government would come clean about how the sand and water were heavily contaminated with industrial chemicals linked to cancer."
placesjournal.org/article/bles...
#envhist
"It’d be years before the federal government would come clean about how the sand and water were heavily contaminated with industrial chemicals linked to cancer."
placesjournal.org/article/bles...
#envhist
Grief and Empire on the Island of Guam
In a militarized territory like Guam, everything is political, even cancer.
placesjournal.org
October 17, 2025 at 3:55 PM
"Blessed is the Spot" by Julian Aguon for @placesjournal.bsky.social
"It’d be years before the federal government would come clean about how the sand and water were heavily contaminated with industrial chemicals linked to cancer."
placesjournal.org/article/bles...
#envhist
"It’d be years before the federal government would come clean about how the sand and water were heavily contaminated with industrial chemicals linked to cancer."
placesjournal.org/article/bles...
#envhist
"Brokenheartedness is a byproduct of having been raised in Guam, especially if you are Indigenous to this island. If you're Chamorro, you're always coming back from burying the dead."
Julian Aguon, on his father's death & the high rates of cancer in Guam from radiation caused by U.S. nuclear tests.
Julian Aguon, on his father's death & the high rates of cancer in Guam from radiation caused by U.S. nuclear tests.
Grief and Empire on the Island of Guam
In a militarized territory like Guam, everything is political, even cancer.
placesjournal.org
October 16, 2025 at 1:48 AM
"Brokenheartedness is a byproduct of having been raised in Guam, especially if you are Indigenous to this island. If you're Chamorro, you're always coming back from burying the dead."
Julian Aguon, on his father's death & the high rates of cancer in Guam from radiation caused by U.S. nuclear tests.
Julian Aguon, on his father's death & the high rates of cancer in Guam from radiation caused by U.S. nuclear tests.
“Brokenheartedness is a byproduct of having been raised in Guam, especially if you are Indigenous to this island … In Guam, an average of one person per day is diagnosed with cancer, while every other day, one person dies of it. If you are Chamorro, you are always coming back from burying the dead.”
In a place like Guam, one of the oldest colonies in the world, intimacy & empire are always colliding. To grow up on this island, exposed to unchecked radiation from U.S. military activity, is to know death not as an interruption but a condition of daily life.
From human rights lawyer Julian Aguon:
From human rights lawyer Julian Aguon:
Grief and Empire on the Island of Guam
In a militarized territory like Guam, everything is political, even cancer.
placesjournal.org
October 15, 2025 at 10:08 PM
“Brokenheartedness is a byproduct of having been raised in Guam, especially if you are Indigenous to this island … In Guam, an average of one person per day is diagnosed with cancer, while every other day, one person dies of it. If you are Chamorro, you are always coming back from burying the dead.”
"Blessed is the Spot"
by Julian Aguon, international human rights lawyer
In a territory like Guam, contaminated by decades of unchecked radiation from U.S. military activity, everything is political, even cancer.
Read more: placesjournal.org/article/bles...
by Julian Aguon, international human rights lawyer
In a territory like Guam, contaminated by decades of unchecked radiation from U.S. military activity, everything is political, even cancer.
Read more: placesjournal.org/article/bles...
October 15, 2025 at 7:46 PM
"Blessed is the Spot"
by Julian Aguon, international human rights lawyer
In a territory like Guam, contaminated by decades of unchecked radiation from U.S. military activity, everything is political, even cancer.
Read more: placesjournal.org/article/bles...
by Julian Aguon, international human rights lawyer
In a territory like Guam, contaminated by decades of unchecked radiation from U.S. military activity, everything is political, even cancer.
Read more: placesjournal.org/article/bles...
In a place like Guam, one of the oldest colonies in the world, intimacy & empire are always colliding. To grow up on this island, exposed to unchecked radiation from U.S. military activity, is to know death not as an interruption but a condition of daily life.
From human rights lawyer Julian Aguon:
From human rights lawyer Julian Aguon:
Grief and Empire on the Island of Guam
In a militarized territory like Guam, everything is political, even cancer.
placesjournal.org
October 15, 2025 at 5:00 PM
In a place like Guam, one of the oldest colonies in the world, intimacy & empire are always colliding. To grow up on this island, exposed to unchecked radiation from U.S. military activity, is to know death not as an interruption but a condition of daily life.
From human rights lawyer Julian Aguon:
From human rights lawyer Julian Aguon: