Defensive architecture was the answer to the 1968 riots in Baltimore. How will architecture respond to the urban uprisings of 2015?

A cutting-edge conservation tool uses light to erase 50 years of damage to Harvard University’s famed murals by Mark Rothko.

Where I travel the country to discover whether green buildings truly perform once people move in.

A startling new archive illuminates how bigotry shaped the landscape of American real estate.

This short story was selected by Roxane Gay as a 2015 Wigleaf Top 50 (very) Short Fiction winner.

Ploughshares called this “The Best Short Story I’ve Read in a Lit Mag This Week.”

Why women are left to defend themselves with shrubbery.

Inside a stunning Chesapeake Bay home for the New York Times Style Section.

“If it hadn’t been for the ferret attack, we never would’ve gotten busted.”

Making the switch from nonfiction to fiction writing.

A 2013 Pushcart Prize nominee for fiction.

“The Lewis or Clark of today is sitting safely behind a laptop and instead of mapping terra incognita, he is placing red pin tabs over his favorite tattoo parlors.”

Reinventing a building’s function, or bringing it back to life, is not an easy prospect. So what does it take to keep a city nimble and alive?

In which I argue that it’s time to challenge our path dependent thinking about cities and come up with new models for living.

Boxing champion Joe Gans was one of the most celebrated athletes of his time. So why do so few people remember his name?

The story of how one church restored the world’s largest set of Tiffany stained glass windows still in the original setting.

Five weeks and too many cities to count: Stories from that time I worked for a rock band on tour.