View – History – Flatten layers: Part 1. The Russell Square Aeroplane

One summer morning a jetplane flew south over central London, gear down, seatbelts on, devices off. Thousands of feet below, traffic flowed around Russell Square. An open top bus turned into Bedford Way, plunging its passengers into the shade of the tall university buildings. Thanks to the aristocrats whose names the streets wear, this part … Continue reading View – History – Flatten layers: Part 1. The Russell Square Aeroplane →

A park in your imagination

There's a patch of wasteland near my work that some people say could be a city park. I'm not sure if this is even the right place for a park. As Jane Jacobs wrote in The Death and Life of Great American Cities: "Parks are volatile places. They tend to run to extremes of popularilty … Continue reading A park in your imagination →