Karrie Jacobs

@KarrieUrbanist

January 26, 2017

Regarding Refugees

 

Back in October, when I walked into the small gallery at MoMA that housed an exhibition called “Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter,” the thing that caught my attention was a Dorothea Lange photo called Young Mother, a Migrant taken in California in 1937.  It’s not the same one you see above, but similar.  It was a reminder that once, in our own country, millions of people became what relief organizations now call  Internally Displaced Persons [IDPs]. 

Read more →

January 19, 2017

Prospect Park on the Day Before the Inauguration

IMG_2530

January sunrise in Prospect Park’s Long Meadow.

One of the things I’ve been working on lately is trying to understand Prospect Park for what it is, a work of engineered nature.  I’ve been trying to figure out how to write about a place I visit daily, how to analyze a familiar landscape that was willed into being, conjured from swampy ground and farmland, 

Read more →

April 1, 2016

Zaha Hadid: A Memory

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Zaha Hadid’s Moon System sofa for B&B Italia, London 2007

 

Confession:  I have still never set foot in one of Zaha Hadid’s buildings.  Nor have I ever written about her except in passing.  I think I met her once, briefly, at a conference where we were both speakers, but if the discussion went beyond the bare minimum, I have no recollection of it.

Read more →

January 14, 2015

Regarding Manmade Nature

LA River, Under 6th StThe view from the middle of the LA River, near the 6th Street Bridge.

Right now, I’m writing a piece for Architect Magazine on the LA River.  It won’t be out for a couple of months, but I thought I’d mention it because it’s tied to pretty much everything that’s been of interest to me in the past couple of years:  what it means to be a 21st century city

Read more →

September 24, 2014

Everything Changes. Everything Stays the Same

1 WTC from Fulton

1WTC as framed by Fulton Street.  (Photo by Karrie Jacobs.)

For one thing, my website looks somewhat different.  It was recently overhauled and fine tuned by Greg and Patricia of Kind Company.  It’s now a bit crisper and a lot more functional, although the overall look (courtesy of Randy Hunt) remains the same.

For another thing, I’m now writing with increasing regularity for Fast Company‘s Co.Design website. 

Read more →

May 15, 2014

Where I’ve Been and What I’ve Been Doing

BBVA Compass Stadium (designed by Populous), H0uston (as seen from MFAH design curator Cindi Strauss’s vintage red Mercedes).

It’s been so long since I’ve posted anything on this blog that I’ve forgotten how Word Press works.  (And Flickr is a complete mystery to me.) Where have I been?  Mostly right here, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  (Although we’re relocating to Downtown Brooklyn in the very near future. Too many hipsters!)  I’ve also been on Twitter a lot. 

Read more →

September 11, 2013

9-11-13

1 WTC from Sixth Avenue in Chelsea on a June evening. (Photo by Karrie Jacobs.)

Yesterday I was mostly thinking about the primary elections here in NYC.  And not about the twelfth anniversary of 9-11.  Then, last night, we emerged from a party at Pravda, thrown by Pentagram, in honor of a book of drawings (of Joe McCarthy!)  by Arline Simon (Emily Oberman’s mom!), and saw the Tribute in Light framing a fat crescent moon. 

Read more →