Featured Articles (aka Fred’s Favorites)

A Box of Fresh Air
In Racine, Wis., a climate-controlled structure of glass, steel and concrete offers a sweeping view of Lake Michigan -- and the future
The New York Times / 
August 25, 2010
Surrendering to the Landscape
A house in Idaho by Tom Kundig lets nature lead
The New York Times / 
January 7, 2009
Why Architecture Critics Must Ask About Embodied Energy
It's no longer business as usual
Architect / 
October 2019
Learning from Burning Man
The playa has a lot to teach us about city planning
Architect Magazine / 
April 2008
Controlling Growth by Controlling Water
In Bolinas, hooking up to H2O can cost more than $300,000
The New York Times / 
October 9, 2005
Drawing Closer to an Old Friend
Loving the Empire State Building in the Aftermath of 9/11
The New York Times / 
October 11, 2001
Being of Sound Mind, and a $55 Consultation
When an "online lawyer" wrote my will
The New York Times / 
May 16, 2002
World on a String
A puppeteer loses his touch to Parkinson's Disease
The New York Times / 
November 9, 2003
Unloading His Books, But Not His Conscience
Am I hurting authors by selling my used books on Amazon?
The New York Times / 
April 11, 2002
Saving Fallingwater From a Fall
Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece is drooping
The New York Times / 
March 11, 1999
When Modern Married Money
A blueblood family hires Richard Neutra, with mixed results
The New York Times / 
February 3, 2002
Me and My Geiger Counter
Worrying about radiation after 9/11
The New York Times / 
June 27, 2002
Uninspired? A Blue-Chip Firm Looks Inward
SOM hires experts to critique the work of its own architects
The New York Times / 
September 29, 2002
Charleston: The Case of the Missing Neighbors
Charleston's grandest houses are empty
The New York Times / 
October 22, 2004
Glenn Greenwald: Life Beyond Borders
A profile of the crusading journalist (before he met Ed Snowden)
Out / 
April 2011
Side Pocket
Paley Park Turns 50
Landscape Architecture / 
May 2017
A Hand Up, A Hand Down
How programs designed to help women landscape architects have helped, and hurt
Landscape Architecture / 
June 2015
Minimalish
The architecture and design of Dufner Heighes
Introspective Magazine / 
June 2017
Buildings as Logos
How graphic designers represent architecture
Design Observer / 
June 2014
A Congress for the Many, or the Few?
"Constituent Services" are a form of low-level corruption and a violation of Equal Protection
The New York Times / 
September 9, 2012
Marty Margulies Collects
A real estate developer tells how he purchases art, and why
Art Basel Magazine / 
December 2014
Greece's Colossal New Guilt Trip
A new home for the Elgin Marbles?
New York Times / 
January 18, 2004
America's Housing Disparity
Micro-cribs and mega-mansions grow further apart
The Huffington Post / 
April 1, 2019
Why Is New York So Ugly?
Gum on the sidewalks, black snow, empty plastic newsboxes, and more
Huffington Post / 
September 17, 2006
The Side of North Korea That Isn't Making Headlines
Oliver Wainwright's look at the Hermit Kingdom's candy-colored architecture
Introspective (1stdibs) / 
July 28, 2018
American Architecture: 1945-1970
Twenty-five years in 2,500 words!
A+U (Japan) / 
November 2017
A Park Grows in Moscow
Diller Scofidio + Renfro leads an international team of designers in the shadow of the Kremlin
Blueprint / 
October 2017
Dilller Scofidio + Renfro's Triumph
Their new building for Columbia Medical School caps decades of experimentation
Blueprint / 
October 2016
To Live or Die Inside (Remarks on Rosh HaShanah 5777)
My comments on the Unatanneh Tokef
Congregaton Kolot Chayeinu / 
October 2016
Santiago Calatrava's Four Billion Dollar Mall
A review of the World Trade Center "Transit Hub"
Blueprint / 
July 2016
My New App: Splainer
My thoughts about a on-line culture in which everything and everyone is rated. I don't mind the loss of privacy, but what about the loss of serendipity?
Metropolitan Home / 
May 2016
The Many Dimensions of Roberto Burle Marx
Should the great landscape architect be recognized for more than his astounding parks and gardens?
Landscape Architecture / 
April 2016
What Price Honor?
A temple to ethics at the United States Air Force Academy defaces a triumphantly modernist campus by SOM
Architectural Record / 
January 2016
Not All Couples Are Same-Sex or Opposite-Sex
Can the law transition?
The Huffington Post / 
June 16, 2015
An Icon in Eclipse?
The Empire State Building risks being obscured by lesser towers
The Huffington Post / 
November 28, 2014
Concrete Makes a Comeback
Architects learn to make the hard stuff soft
Interior Design / 
November 2014
Architects Remember the 1964-65 World's Fair
For architects who were born in the 1950s, it was a formative experience
Architectural Record / 
May 2014
Frederic Schwartz
A tribute to the architect and public citizen
Architectural Record / 
April 2014
It's the Architecture, Not The Architect, I'm Rooting For
Why not give Calatrava a chance?
Architectural Record / 
December 2013
Glazing Over Manhattan
Is the city becoming a hall of mirrors?
Architectural Record / 
May 2013
Rauschenberg and Johns
Two great artists as lovers
Out / 
February 2010
Poll Watching (and Worrying) in Philadelphia
My experience the day Obama was elected
fredbernstein.com / 
November 5, 2008
Pecha Kucha
Around the world in 20 slides
Culture + Travel / 
September 2008
Stitching Together a New Life in Riverdale
Surviving the Holocaust with needle and thread
The New York Times / 
August 8, 2008
How Green Is My Renovation?
A roundtable of experts on making existing houses greener
Metropolitan Home / 
April 2008
The Punctured Sky
A history of New York City architecture
Books / 
April 2008
Rediscovering a Heroine of Chicago Architecture
Marion Mahony's contribution to the early work of Frank Lloyd Wright
The New York Times / 
January 20, 2008
In Costa Rica, Built for Books and Breezes
The New York Times / 
October 4, 2007
Remembering the Royalton
Mourning Phiippe Starck's Miracle on 44th Street
Interior Design / 
September 2007
Do Ask, Do Tell
Gay activist David Mixner moves to Livingston Manor, New York
The New York Times / 
July 17, 2007
Not in My Front Yard
An "alien pod" tries to land on West 15th Street
The New York Times / 
June 22, 2007
Post-Renovation Depression
The contractors are gone. So why do I feel blue?
The New York Times / 
February 22, 2007
Billy Doesn't Live Here Anymore
A transgender baker and a gay "straight guy" are roommates
The New York Times / 
January 27, 2007