From the Blog
Political Hardball: Part 2 Updated
By Martin C. Pedersen
Section 433, safe, For Now
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Park Avenue's Hoffman Auto Showroom is lost
Greatest Hits
Metropolis connects big ideas to design, encouraging industry-wide debates. Take a look at eight pioneering articles from the past 30 years.
Complexity and Composition
September 1985
When William Mitchell wrote about computer aided design in 1985 it was still a brave new world. No wonder his text reads like promotional copy from a World's Fair. It was prescient nonetheless.
Download PDF (7.6 MB)
Future Perfect
June 1987
Street smarts combined with training in gerontology and industrial design give Patricia Moore a unique feeling for what the aged and disabled need.
Download PDF (1.2 MB)
The Stillness of Space
January/February 1988
Long Revered in the Orient as a potent philosophy of design, feng shui now is reaching a Western audience, thanks to practitioners like Sarah Rossbach.
Download PDF (2.2 MB)
The Design of Garbage
December 1988
Long time contributing editor and columnist Karrie Jacobs continues to be a prescient voice in Metropolis. In 1988 she was the first to chide package designers for contributing to a landfill crisis. The cover (shot at the Fresh Kills landfill) and the story made a strong statement about the magazine's mission.
Download PDF (6 MB)
Access: Special Universal Design Report
November 1992
Inspired by the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) and the first universal design conference (1992) Metropolis celebrated the civil rights legislation and foresaw a built environment designed for everyone - regardless of ability or disability, size or age. Two decades later, we're still hoping.
Download PDF (10.5 MB)
Ben Katchor Illustrations
May 1995 / September 1996
Ben Katchor, the graphic illustrator, has contributed a column to Metropolis since 1998. Prior to that, he illustrated our May 1995 cover on urban manufacturing; and in September 1996, for our deep-dive into sustainability, he drew up predictions for the city of 2030.
Download PDF (0.5 MB)
Architects Pollute
October 2003
When architect Ed Mazria proved the correlation between the built environment and global warming, he told us, "This is the most important moment in the history of architecture." He wasn't exaggerating.
Download PDF (1.2 MB)
Collaboration in Seattle
October 2004
How do you cover a story that has been told over and over again? Metropolis editors went for the counterintuitive approach: include every member of the big collaborative team, starting with the star architect to the project architects, clients, donors, engineers, interior-, graphic-, lighting-, product-designers, and those who use the building.
Download PDF (3.6 MB)
Most Shared Stories
- The Fourth Science
- It?s a Small World
- Finding Mies
- Ready for Prime Time
- Healing Machine
- Dreams Unfulfilled
- Confessions of a Generalist
- The Design Art of Jorge Pardo
- On the Road with the Rudy Bruner Award: Via Verde ? Bronx, NY
- IDEO Takes on the Government
ELSEWHERE ON THE SITE
2011 Metropolis Conference Videos Now Online
This year’s ICFF conference featured a cast of “design entrepreneurs” who are reinventing their practices through creative approaches to the new economy.
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