Shop Talk with Mr. Wright When I was a young man I boxed Golden Gloves. Before a bout, my coach took my hands and checked
Month: November 2026
Observe – Design – Intervene Observe Somewhere around 3200 to 2500 BC, people in what is now northeast Scotland sat down with hard stone and
Two pieces of underground railroad sit on a short run of rail at the edge of a mowed field, with a wall of trees behind
On kings, ministers, and what the grown-ups owe their grandchildren There is a coin in my grandmother’s button tin that has no business being there.
The Automaker’s Case for High-Speed Rail A Bright Meadow Group look at the industrial build-out behind a national rail network. The Keystone Network, The Lone
A confession first. I am the District 13 Raven. Pennsylvania bird. Labor-loving, liberal, ink-black from crest to tail. My candidate lost this month, and my
Most people who cross onto Neville Island use the Fleming Park road bridge and never give the railroad trestle beside it a second look. That’s
Interdependence, Energy, and the Architecture of Separation From thirty thousand feet on a clear night, a continent looks like a nervous system. Cities glow where
Scarf weather update: the gray wool one with the frayed corner, because Wednesday morning felt like a morning that had stayed up too late. I’m
Colonial Revival Design Free Classic Georgian Farmhouse Italianate Queen Anne Thought Experiments Victorian Homes
Old Plan, New Trim
A navy blue house sits behind a wall of round fieldstones on a New England road, two stories tall, with cream trim, orange doors, and
A Bright Meadow Group ODI reading of the Iron Age paired spoons Somewhere around the third century BC, a bronzesmith in Britain made a pair
A Bright Meadow Group analysis in the Continental Spine series Stand on an overpass above I-5 at rush hour in Los Angeles and you’re looking
The Picket Lines of 2026, So Far I meant to keep this short. Just a roll call, a nod to the brothers and sisters standing
Johnstown made iron and steel for about 140 years. Cambria Iron opened in the 1850s, rolled rails for railroads pushing west, became Cambria Steel, passed
The house has settled in for the night, and I have a volume of Jefferson’s letters open on my knee, which is a risky way
A Wasteland Bought Back By late October the creek above Adams Falls is barely moving. It slides out from under a small arched footbridge, pools
The Roman Dodecahedron as a Traveler’s HearthA Bright Meadow Group thought piece Observe In 1991 hikers in the Ötztal Alps came across a man who
Twenty pieces, one design for repairing the republic Earlier this year, in “Democratic Drift,” Nathaniel Leery described a bend in an old river where the
A diagnostic technician in medicine who does the job moderately well gets a hospital office as a career baseline. A diagnostic technician who does the
’Twas the night before midterms, when all through the state,Not a pundit was stirring; the hour was late.The ballots were stacked at the courthouse with
The Birmingham Bridge and the highway it was built to wait for Walk the riverfront trail at the Pittsburgh Technology Center, along the old rail
A two-stroke engine runs on premix: a tank of gas with a measured splash of oil. The ratio is set for the size of the
I grew up waiting for the bomb. I mean the real one, the kind that turns Indianapolis into a glass parking lot some Tuesday afternoon