DIALOGUE

NEWS
Metropolis is sad to report the deaths of Paolo Soleri and Grady Clay, both of whom were important voices who championed walkable, mixed-use cities. Soleri designed the experimental city Arcosanti in the high desert north of Phoenix. His philosophy of “arcology”—architecture coupled with ecology—was a vision of cities in which cars are not needed and the natural landscape is preserved.

Clay, a journalist who coined the phrase “new urbanism” in an article for Horizon magazine, warned of the chaos that the interstate highway system would pose to cities.

Self Imprisonment?
FROM TOM LUTHER

Fascinating, but in the manner of gawking at a bad wreck (“It’s a Small World,” by Karrie Jacobs, p. 34). The consequences of restrictive zoning never cease to amaze. Do they come with a community exercise wheel and food-pellet dispenser? Who cleans the cage? I believe it is illegal for prisons to be this confining, but slavery is so much simpler now that it is voluntary. Imagine what a power failure is like in such a structure. Or is this new economy incapable of anything beyond subsistence?

I fondly recall the rent-a-dump years as well, and I am willing to admit any offering to the market no matter how ridiculous. After a few years in five or six of these unsustainable disposable shoeboxes, the value of my ten-foot ceilings and fenced yard in the ’burbs will be indisputable.

Just ask a condo owner.

Express Yourself
FROM TEMENOUZHKA ZAHARIEVA

The logic of the statement “We limit our understanding of ourselves, as well as our knowledge of things around us, through the language we use” (“Emotional Ties,” by Susan S. Szenasy, p. 16), suggests that artists—who most often express themselves best with images, but have poor language dexterity—have a limited knowledge. We should accept images as a form of language, too. Still, I do agree that for most of us who are not gifted artists it is of great importance to learn to express our emotions in the best possible way.

CORRECTIONS
In the April 2013 article “Smart Building Blocks” (p. 72), Gensler was not credited as the architect of the PNC Tower in Pittsburgh. The building was designed by both Gensler and the engineering firm Buro Happold.