Any thought to the strategic trajectory of China and its according infrastructure must take into essential consideration the bleak reality of its environment. Polluted air in the capital, Beijing, and increasingly across all provincial capitals including Hong Kong, is a threat to its widely perceived inevitability to equal and then...

Tomorrow's Oscar nominations will set in motion the near certainty of a winning juggernaut for the film Lincoln across eligible categories. At least from the perspective of a rapt ticket-buying public, it is hard to imagine that any nominee from its admirable and assiduous team will fail to prevail among...

Syria endures as one of the world's greatest cultural crossroads. Its architectural and archeological record lends dignity and pride of place to its citizens and inspires millions outside its borders whether or not they ever visit in...

The Hurricane Sandy-toppled crane atop New York's tallest and most expensive developing hotel and residential tower known as One57 (i.e. 157 West 57th Street; the "One" apparently approximates just enough from an address perspective to excite the marketers...) shared the media spotlight right on...

Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Worship
Freedom From Want
Freedom From Fear

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
State of The Union Address
January 6, 1941

Success Spawns History Effacing Imitation

The world-renowned flagship store of Macy's at Herald Square -- backdrop to the namesake Thanksgiving Day parade since its advent 78 years ago -- is undergoing a $400 million interior renovation now rapidly unfolding in time for holiday 2012 shopping.

Countless throngs of...

The public square, even under autocracies, is a volatile place exposed constantly to the vicissitudes of taste, political will, and history's ever-evolving measure. Whether referring to artist, subject, or patron, change can come quick and judgment harsh: it's the price paid for all...

America does not build monuments to its living leaders or collectively defined heroes. George Washington's well-known aversion to such contemporary idolatry in due contrast to Europe's kings and conquerors is one big happy reason why.

This is not to mention the eternal risk of flying too close to the face...

The Salt Lake Tabernacle is one of the architectural masterpieces of the country and perhaps the world -- Frank Lloyd Wright

Mr. Romney is a former bishop of the ward in the Mormon Church -- one who has given what is estimated as tens of millions...

The advent of the Christian Holy Week seems a good time to examine the origins and significance of the namesake pose for the New York Jets new backup quarterback. It is the case especially this year, when the lunar calendar coincides with that...

Sadly, the pending scheme by Frank Gehry for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial proposed on a colossal four-acre site in the District of Columbia's civic epicenter is theme-park architecture. This term was coined by the late Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp in describing...

The opening next week of the new Apple flagship store along the eastern balcony of New York's Grand Central Terminal weaves together strands of classical architecture, landmark preservation and the edgiest of edgy new design solutions in a beautiful knot that puts an end once and for all to any...

Fervent debate about the barrier between Mexico and the United States promises to keep enlivening the primary season and the general election to follow. Unless Congressman ("It would end up fencing us in") Paul carries the nomination, such a physical divide is central to all GOP platforms on immigration policy...

Regardless of whatever else transpires around the world, there will soon be a daily onslaught of coverage about the tenth anniversary of the attacks that September day at the century's debut. It will include all manner of complaint and recrimination about the ground zero location itself, alongside calmer if sometimes...

The Architecture and Decoration of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.; June, 2011.
The nicknames ascribed to Mayor LaGuardia for the two great lions guarding the terrace of the New York's main research library (now called...

Demographers and scientists alike broadly predict that once the history of the 21st century is written, water will have emerged as the primary commodity driving the socioeconomic forces shaping world politics and the well-being of the global population estimated even by mid-century to exceed nine billion. (Almost a 30% increase...

Some well-analyzed celebrations of the role social media in galvanizing and fulminating the Cairene events of Egypt's Revolution have been tempered by others like Malcolm Gladwell and Frank Rich, pointing out that such tactics no matter their un-censorial rapidity should never be mistaken for the more profound strategic imperatives born...

Habitat for Humanity is poised to celebrate its 35th anniversary next year. It's America at its can-do volunteer best: A paradigm for the world especially as it is tied by its official mission to the kind of religious salvation that inspires so many today. Talk about currency.

When President...

"Big Dreams Create the Magic that Stir Men's Souls to Greatness..."

Legendary college football coach Bill McCartney set the standard high for all terrestrial pursuits with this oft-cited rhetorical chestnut.

When contemplating the quagmire over the Cordoba House in Lower Manhattan (as distinct from "Ground Zero"), and the unconstitutional...

Twenty-five years ago tomorrow, John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, joined with Mayor Ed Koch, Parks Commissioner Stern, and an array of musicians to inaugurate Strawberry Fields as a permanent public memorial. The date marked what would have been Lennon's 45th birthday and fell nearly five years after his murder on...