MOST RECENT ARTICLES BY:

Justin Davidson

@JDavidsonNYC

  1. street view
    The Art on This Big Bushwick Project Is Not Just a Marketing PloyDenizen aims to engage with its Brooklyn surroundings.
  2. street view
    New York’s Approval System for New Building Is a Recipe for MediocrityIn Gowanus, we’re dredging for an idea everyone can live with.
  3. street view
    How Do You Chop 20 Stories Off a Too-Tall Building?The tower at 200 Amsterdam may have to come partway down.
  4. coronavirus
    A Pandemic Winter Is Coming to New York, and It’s Going to Be Unimaginably HardDuring the last surge, New Yorkers could at least spend a lot of time outdoors.
  5. street view
    A Pandemic Winter Is Coming to New York, and It’s Going to Be Unimaginably HardDuring the last surge, New Yorkers could at least spend a lot of time outdoors.
  6. symbolism
    An Architecture Critic Looks at Four Seasons Total LandscapingIt’s the perfect backdrop: Trump’s political run, begun on a golden escalator, ends in a razor-wire parking lot next to a sex shop.
  7. street view
    How Joe Biden Can Be the Amtrak President New York NeedsStart with a new Hudson River tunnel and build from there.
  8. street view
    Greenpoint’s New Public Library “Makes You Want to Move In”We paid a lot for it, but we got something worth having.
  9. music review
    A Concert Review! From a Cemetery. (This Is Not a Metaphor.)At Brooklyn’s Green-Wood, a moving performance that roved among the crypts.
  10. street view
    Two New Office Buildings Open, When Nobody’s Going to the OfficeMillions of new square feet. Pretty good architecture. Is anyone going to rent it?
  11. street view
    The Next Mayor’s Next CityBill de Blasio’s successor will get the chance to make New York life easier, nicer, and fairer — or just keep us going the way we were before.
  12. classical music
    The New York Philharmonic Wants You to Take a Walk in the ParkWith Soundwalk, Ellen Reid’s composition that changes according to your GPS location.
  13. urbanism
    Obviously, New York Is a Fiery Hellscape of Crime, Anarchy, and MiseryBicycling. Meeting friends in the park. Late-summer produce. Nightmarish.
  14. opera review
    Lise Davidsen’s Recital Provides the Hit of Joy Every Operagoer Is MissingA little of what fans are craving.
  15. cityscape
    COVID-19 Studies Are Proving That Density Is Not the EnemyThe real risk factor is different.
  16. cityscape
    New York Is Getting Loud AgainAs traffic and infrastructure work begin to return, the city sounds more like itself. But not quite the same as before.
  17. cityscape
    New York City Is Facing a Census EmergencyAnd if we’re undercounted, the results may be dire.
  18. cityscape
    The 15-Minute City: Can New York Be More Like Paris?And should it?
  19. cityscape
    Theaters and Malls Are Empty. Fill Them With Spread-Out Classroom Desks.Concert halls, armories, the Javits Center: They could serve as schoolrooms with kids widely spaced.
  20. cityscape
    For Blue-Sky Urban Ideas, It May Be Now or NeverAs the worst of the crisis (possibly) recedes, opportunity.
  21. cityscape
    The American Nursing Home Is a Design FailureEven before COVID, its dynamics were deeply flawed. But there are people thinking about how to fix it.
  22. performing arts
    The Precarious Future of High Culture in New YorkThe pandemic silenced the city’s symphony halls and grand opera houses. But will the (eventual) restart bring with it a reckoning?
  23. cityscape
    To Trumpers, the Shared Space of the Street Is an Unprivatized ThreatIt’s just [waves hands] that dirty area between the car and the front door, right?
  24. cityscape
    It’s Time to Do Away With Rush HourWhen the pandemic ends, let’s consider what we learned about shuffled work times and staggered shifts and keep the good parts.
  25. performing arts
    Jane Moss, Lincoln Center’s Artistic Director, Is Stepping DownAfter 27 years, she says, the shutdown got her thinking about moving on.
  26. the longest lives
    What I’ve Learned So FarLessons from artists and thinkers.
  27. cityscape
    Opening Up Everything Too Soon Is, Effectively, Age DiscriminationWithout universal testing, you’re locking up the elderly.
  28. summer in the city
    That Office AC System Is Great — at Recirculating VirusesDeep breaths may not be calming.
  29. thinking about the future
    What Socially Distanced Live Performance Might Look LikeTo institutions and artists and audiences alike.
  30. you heard it here first
    Listen to Phil Kline’s ‘Every Night at 7,’ a Tribute to Our Evening RitualNew Yorkers’ shouting-and-pot-banging celebration of essential workers, turned into music.
  31. classical music
    Revisiting Franz Schubert, a Poet of SolitudeFew composers have ever rendered loneliness as lovingly as he did or surrounded it in such a halo of compassion.
  32. cityscape
    How Do We Rethink Public Space After the Pandemic? Start With Rolls of Tape.This is a chance to test new ideas for the urban fabric without expensive build-outs.
  33. extremely local news
    The West Side Rag Is the Hyperlocal Site We All Wish We Had Right NowBreaking news from Zabar’s Country.
  34. cityscape
    The Return of Fear in New YorkThe city, a child of disaster, remembers its past.
  35. cityscape
    De Blasio’s Street-Closure Mini-Program Was Pathetic, and Now It’s OverGrudgingly implemented, on far too small a scale, and prematurely ended.
  36. streaming opera
    Streaming Now: The Metropolitan Opera’s Tristan und IsoldeA 2016 production with familiar tropes.
  37. coronavirus
    The New York Philharmonic, Closed Till September, Is Winding Down Musicians’ PaySalaries will be cut back gradually through May 31, and the summer is under negotiation.
  38. opera review
    Streaming Tonight: A Tale of Two Tones in the Met’s La TraviataMichael Mayer’s production makes the sparkly life so unsexy and over-sugared, the last act’s bleakness comes off as refreshingly spare.
  39. opera
    The Metropolitan Opera Is Furloughing Its Orchestra, Chorus, and TradesThey’ll retain health and instrument insurance, but not their salaries.
  40. coronavirus
    The Leader of the Free World Gives a Speech, and She Nails ItA speech with compassion and forthrightness — imagine that.
  41. vulture recommends
    The Best Operas You Should Stream While They’re FreeA week at the virtual Met Opera is a week without duds or off nights.
  42. cityscape
    How Real Architecture Inspired Westworld’s Futuristic CitiesThe meaning behind season three’s deluxe urban dystopia, agleam with prosperity and gentrified to a high polish.
  43. coronavirus
    Arts Organizations Are Heading Into Crisis. A Few Things Might Mitigate It.Performers and staff, already living close to the edge, have little margin for a long layoff.
  44. coronavirus
    Close the Theaters. Close the Opera. Close the Concert Halls. Now.Yes, it will be brutal to the performing-arts economy. It’s also necessary.
  45. coronavirus
    A Roman’s Account of Life Under Coronavirus LockdownIt’s an economic disaster, but there’s still a sense that the disease is someone else’s problem.
  46. cityscape
    The Sunnyside Yard Master Plan Is a Mirage of a Better CityNew York City’s plan for the city’s heart is the best of all worlds. Whether it can actually exist in ours is another question.
  47. cityscape
    Coronavirus Threatens Everything That Makes New York GreatThe city thrives on human entanglement. What happens if a pandemic drives its residents into isolation?
  48. cityscape
    Farm Livin’ Is the Life for Me, Ja? Rem Koolhaas Tries Out Country LifeFor “Countryside, the Future,” a city boy goes to the sticks.
  49. cityscape
    L.A.’s Beguiling Idea: An African-American Arts DestinationIn South Los Angeles—formerly known as South Central—Destination Crenshaw will be an elevated park amid the traffic arteries.
  50. opera review
    Opera Review: Great Voices and Coked-Up Staging in the Met’s AgrippinaJoyce DiDonato leads a cast that’s directed at a frantic pace.
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