beach chair on coast

Quick Hot Summer

I’ve left Rome for three destinations this summer, each time coming back with newfound appreciation and newfound frustration for my adopted home. A week in Abruzzo, leading a summer school in the village of Castelvecchio Calvisio, was a pleasant retreat from the noise and heat of the city. Walking from the nearly empty village out into the countryside was a joy, but the lack of broadband internet grew tiresome quickly. …

Project for Public Space Great Places

Urban Placemaking Case Studies

We encounter great projects more and more frequently in our real and virtual explorations and I’ve always wanted to file them away for future reference and to share with students and colleagues. So I’m going to start linking and commenting here with the occasional blog post, categorized according to the sustainable city themes that are applied: water, green, mobility, waste, urban fabric, energy, or community, plus tags for the geographical …

Inside the Venice Architecture Biennale

Reporting from the Biennale di Venezia

This will almost certainly be a multi-post series as the Architecture Biennale contains far too much for a short post and our short attention spans. In this first post, some background and general impressions, and a promise to follow up with more specific accounts of the installations, research stations and national pavilions. I first experienced the Biennale in 1985, and I remember seeing Aldo Rossi’s “Progetto Venezia” gateway and wandering …

Reviewing Augustus’ Tomb

Yesterday I checked out the restoration in progress at the Mausoleo di Augusto, Augustus’ tomb. I was lucky to get in. On December 21st, when they launched the invitation to Roman residents to join free guided tours, I had jumped online and booked before they “sold” out. Now they’ve extended booking through the summer but it is again sold out. The 50-minute tour was well-organized and the group of about …

Roman Winter, Roman Pandemic

A year ago this week I attended the last social event pre-pandemic, a vernissage of an exhibit of ceramics at my studio/gallery space. And then for a few days I lived in paranoia as it became clear that the Coronavirus was spreading at events like that. Thankfully no one took ill there, but for the next two months we watched the country, and the world change. Lockdown turned my vibrant …

Year, Next. Action.

Buon anno, happy new year, auguri, yada yada yada* and good riddance to 2020. Like most Italians we stayed home in the family, respecting the Covid-19 lockdown and the ban on fireworks. From the explosive sound of our neighborhood, this ban was about as well-enforced as parking regulations. For the past few years Rome has put on a pretty impressive New Year’s Festival but this year they had to think …

Goodbye Via Alessandrina

This post is a reflection on a road which from the 16th century until recently traversed the Imperial Fora in central Rome. It wasn’t a great road like Via Giulia, and in fact in recent years it was often closed, abandoned, overgrown. But like any road it was a connection, it offered a path for people in the city. Until the 1930s it was the central artery of the Quartiere …

Conversations on Rome and Architecture

As part of my teaching for the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Rome Program in Architecture this year I have worked hard to bring as many voices as possible into the (virtual) classroom. My small group of students, working from home (in California for the most part) are already feeling isolated during these difficult times and listening to me for hours on end isn’t going to solve that. I have …

Piazza Tevere Rising

I spent a blissful hour lounging on the banks of the Tiber today, taking in the September sun after several days of rain. I had put off my “site inspection” of the much awaited urban beach but I chose an excellent day to visit. The recent installation of grass, beach chairs and cafe furniture along the left bank between Ponte Sisto and Ponte Mazzini should be seen as a pilot …