Anjulie Rao
@anjulierao.bsky.social
I write about the built environment. Bylines in a lot of places.
Anjulierao.info
Anjulierao.info
Uh this is a weird moment to ask but if you’re planning on participating in any kind of “exodus” I’m writing a book about that and would love to talk to you
November 5, 2025 at 2:22 AM
Uh this is a weird moment to ask but if you’re planning on participating in any kind of “exodus” I’m writing a book about that and would love to talk to you
I like to believe that Chicago stands firmly in the “a better world is possible” camp. Sending love and solidarity to anyone voting for that premise today.
November 4, 2025 at 3:56 PM
I like to believe that Chicago stands firmly in the “a better world is possible” camp. Sending love and solidarity to anyone voting for that premise today.
What is this on whitehouse dot gov
November 3, 2025 at 2:47 PM
What is this on whitehouse dot gov
My new essay is up at @dwell.bsky.social: in the depths of postpartum depression, I found solace in the IKEA Catalogue Museum. www.dwell.com/article/the-...
The Unexpected Healing Power of the Ikea Catalog
After I brought home my first child, poring over archival issues of the now-defunct publication transported me out of dark feelings and a chaotic household.
www.dwell.com
October 30, 2025 at 11:29 PM
My new essay is up at @dwell.bsky.social: in the depths of postpartum depression, I found solace in the IKEA Catalogue Museum. www.dwell.com/article/the-...
Reposted by Anjulie Rao
🚨🚨🚨 Major announcement!!!
I am extremely pleased to announce that HAA is searching for a senior, endowed position in premodern art or architecture. The subfield is wide open. Please spread the word and encourage curious scholars to write to me with questions! 🚨🚨🚨
cfopitt.taleo.net/careersectio...
I am extremely pleased to announce that HAA is searching for a senior, endowed position in premodern art or architecture. The subfield is wide open. Please spread the word and encourage curious scholars to write to me with questions! 🚨🚨🚨
cfopitt.taleo.net/careersectio...
William S. Dietrich II Professor of Premodern Arts and/or Architecture
Click the link provided to see the complete job description.
cfopitt.taleo.net
October 30, 2025 at 9:30 PM
🚨🚨🚨 Major announcement!!!
I am extremely pleased to announce that HAA is searching for a senior, endowed position in premodern art or architecture. The subfield is wide open. Please spread the word and encourage curious scholars to write to me with questions! 🚨🚨🚨
cfopitt.taleo.net/careersectio...
I am extremely pleased to announce that HAA is searching for a senior, endowed position in premodern art or architecture. The subfield is wide open. Please spread the word and encourage curious scholars to write to me with questions! 🚨🚨🚨
cfopitt.taleo.net/careersectio...
This might be a long shot but: I'm looking to speak with architects/developers who have worked on affordable housing projects that required (or got feedback to include) some type of 'historic complement' aesthetic—massing, materials, etc—for a story. Recommendations appreciated! thanks!
October 29, 2025 at 4:09 PM
This might be a long shot but: I'm looking to speak with architects/developers who have worked on affordable housing projects that required (or got feedback to include) some type of 'historic complement' aesthetic—massing, materials, etc—for a story. Recommendations appreciated! thanks!
Reposted by Anjulie Rao
ICYMI: Chicago's new public developer, the Residential Investment Fund, has a Request for Information for private developers interested in a potential partnership!
The RIF has access to a $135m revolving fund to build permanently mixed income housing. Learn more: www.chicagorif.com/work-with-us
The RIF has access to a $135m revolving fund to build permanently mixed income housing. Learn more: www.chicagorif.com/work-with-us
Work with Us | Residential Investment Fund
www.chicagorif.com
October 27, 2025 at 2:52 PM
ICYMI: Chicago's new public developer, the Residential Investment Fund, has a Request for Information for private developers interested in a potential partnership!
The RIF has access to a $135m revolving fund to build permanently mixed income housing. Learn more: www.chicagorif.com/work-with-us
The RIF has access to a $135m revolving fund to build permanently mixed income housing. Learn more: www.chicagorif.com/work-with-us
This whole White House demolition saga has big “Dwight Schrute buys replica of Uday Hussein’s desk” vibes
October 22, 2025 at 9:43 PM
This whole White House demolition saga has big “Dwight Schrute buys replica of Uday Hussein’s desk” vibes
I’ve covered extensively the “return to office” as it has played out in architectural work; design is sold as a means to ‘attract’ workers back is some kind of red herring. It was never about magnanimity or workplace happiness. The beer taps and pod seating were sticks dressed as carrots
There is an actual life-changing conflict between WFH being cheaper and more efficient, an entire layer of middle managers who need to have meetings to feel alive, and the commercial real estate cabal that runs all cities. It’s going to get so fucking weird.
remote work is like birth control or UBI atp where there’s overwhelming research consensus they improve quality of life for people they apply to, yet access is impeded or blocked by the ruling class because the thought of marginalized ppl having rich full lives makes steam come out their ears
October 16, 2025 at 6:46 PM
I’ve covered extensively the “return to office” as it has played out in architectural work; design is sold as a means to ‘attract’ workers back is some kind of red herring. It was never about magnanimity or workplace happiness. The beer taps and pod seating were sticks dressed as carrots
For the upcoming EVERYTHING CHICAGO symposium on Friday, I’ll be moderating a panel about public space, featuring some of the city’s most important shapers of the public realm. 9:30am! Driehaus museum! Register to attend (or just show up) www.eventbrite.com/e/everything...
October 14, 2025 at 4:40 PM
For the upcoming EVERYTHING CHICAGO symposium on Friday, I’ll be moderating a panel about public space, featuring some of the city’s most important shapers of the public realm. 9:30am! Driehaus museum! Register to attend (or just show up) www.eventbrite.com/e/everything...
I had a baby on Wednesday. Idk. Take the Tylenol.
September 23, 2025 at 8:41 PM
I had a baby on Wednesday. Idk. Take the Tylenol.
At this point, I wonder if states making childcare free would be akin to mass affordable housing construction in terms of attracting new residents.
September 9, 2025 at 5:32 PM
At this point, I wonder if states making childcare free would be akin to mass affordable housing construction in terms of attracting new residents.
Everyone’s wondering if or when this charming city might be invaded by masked bozos but in the meantime take a look at the dahlias and zinnias my neighbor planted on her corner
September 3, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Everyone’s wondering if or when this charming city might be invaded by masked bozos but in the meantime take a look at the dahlias and zinnias my neighbor planted on her corner
I’m giving myself parental leave from 9/15-10/20. This means, for the first time in a decade, I won’t be publishing a review or big feature about the Chicago Architecture Biennial when it opens. Kinda sad, but openings are for onlookers. I’m in this game for Chicago. So please stay tuned. Xo
August 30, 2025 at 5:11 PM
I’m giving myself parental leave from 9/15-10/20. This means, for the first time in a decade, I won’t be publishing a review or big feature about the Chicago Architecture Biennial when it opens. Kinda sad, but openings are for onlookers. I’m in this game for Chicago. So please stay tuned. Xo
I wrote about WEAPONS, a story about community horrors. It’s a fun-scary movie, but while we are currently experiencing waves of our own community “disappearances,” the movie makes us ask who will keep us safe when dark forces arrive.
www.dwell.com/article/weap...?
www.dwell.com/article/weap...?
In “Weapons,” There’s No Community in Suburbia
Set in an upper-middle class enclave where 17 kids disappear, filmmaker Zach Cregger’s latest thriller asks us to confront the notion that small towns breed shared safety.
www.dwell.com
August 29, 2025 at 6:04 PM
I wrote about WEAPONS, a story about community horrors. It’s a fun-scary movie, but while we are currently experiencing waves of our own community “disappearances,” the movie makes us ask who will keep us safe when dark forces arrive.
www.dwell.com/article/weap...?
www.dwell.com/article/weap...?
My low-level two cents but “civil debate” happens all the time, especially in college classrooms (?!) it’s just that young people now have a much more accurate reading of the stakes involved even if they’re personal, familial…likely than not far more broad-reaching than one’s interior experience!
I will never understand how American elites managed to convince themselves that uncivil debate — not fascism, not impunity and not widespread indifference to facts — is the defining problem of our time.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/o...
August 28, 2025 at 3:24 PM
My low-level two cents but “civil debate” happens all the time, especially in college classrooms (?!) it’s just that young people now have a much more accurate reading of the stakes involved even if they’re personal, familial…likely than not far more broad-reaching than one’s interior experience!
If you're in Chicago, come to City Lit Books nxt Friday, 9/5, where I'll be in conversation with author (& Oak Park native!) @samkbloch.bsky.social about his new book, SHADE. We'll be chatting about the wild politics of city cooling, greenspace, and more! www.citylitbooks.com/events/33125...
Author Event: Sam Bloch with Anjulie Rao | City Lit Books
This cozy bookstore with staff-curated selections, book clubs, and other events.
www.citylitbooks.com
August 26, 2025 at 3:50 PM
If you're in Chicago, come to City Lit Books nxt Friday, 9/5, where I'll be in conversation with author (& Oak Park native!) @samkbloch.bsky.social about his new book, SHADE. We'll be chatting about the wild politics of city cooling, greenspace, and more! www.citylitbooks.com/events/33125...
I would read a 5,000-word story about this
Anyway, this was particularly striking because we were just talking about mid-baritaria getting killed by Landry as our swan song and he glided right past the environmental costs of the Meta AI data center in north Louisiana, for example, to propose AI making up for the NWS in hurricane prediction
August 25, 2025 at 8:00 PM
I would read a 5,000-word story about this
Officially, I have begun a very strange process called Assembling A Book Proposal.
August 25, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Officially, I have begun a very strange process called Assembling A Book Proposal.
Reposted by Anjulie Rao
Working with editorial advisors @zachmortice.bsky.social, @anjulierao.bsky.social , and @katewagner.wehwalt.net and with the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago Review of Architecture (ChiRA) will seek to generate erudite, humorous, and hyperlocal writing on the built (and unbuilt) environment.
August 24, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Working with editorial advisors @zachmortice.bsky.social, @anjulierao.bsky.social , and @katewagner.wehwalt.net and with the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago Review of Architecture (ChiRA) will seek to generate erudite, humorous, and hyperlocal writing on the built (and unbuilt) environment.
Once again, criticism shows people how to look, a way of seeing, a path toward developing one’s own practices. There’s a whole lotta people who would rather you believe that your eyes deceive you, your feelings betray you, that how you experience the world is inconsequential. Don’t give in to them.
it's no coincidence that the role of "helping people understand how to think through what art means" is being eliminated at the same time a bunch of assholes are trying to convince us that art doesn't mean anything
I occasionally copy edited Siskel back in the day at Chi Tribune. Yes. This ongoing diminishment of critics is a travesty.
As @samadams.bsky.social has said, if Ebert and Siskel launched their show now, it would be just two empty chairs. 👎👎
As @samadams.bsky.social has said, if Ebert and Siskel launched their show now, it would be just two empty chairs. 👎👎
August 20, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Once again, criticism shows people how to look, a way of seeing, a path toward developing one’s own practices. There’s a whole lotta people who would rather you believe that your eyes deceive you, your feelings betray you, that how you experience the world is inconsequential. Don’t give in to them.
Reposted by Anjulie Rao
Trump's pledge to "scrape away the filth" in Washington has a historical echo in the Gilded Age–era movement known as City Beautiful. He is remaking some of its ugliest moments: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Trump’s Politics of Urban Disgust
The president’s unprecedented takeover of Washington, DC law enforcement weds a crime crackdown to a gilded vision for remaking the capital.
www.bloomberg.com
August 15, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Trump's pledge to "scrape away the filth" in Washington has a historical echo in the Gilded Age–era movement known as City Beautiful. He is remaking some of its ugliest moments: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Also your friendly reminder that my mayoral campaign will include revamping the air and water show to feature blimps, hot air balloons, boat rides, zip lines, and surfing.
I flipped the switch on the ceiling fan just as the military aircrafts flew overhead and have never been so terrified. Happy Air and Water Show weekend to all.
August 14, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Also your friendly reminder that my mayoral campaign will include revamping the air and water show to feature blimps, hot air balloons, boat rides, zip lines, and surfing.