Alexandra Lange
Architecture & design critic

2018 in architecture: The good, the bad, and the urbanism

Illustration by Alyssa Nassner.

The world may be careening toward environmental calamity and our democracy may be in jeopardy, but fear not, your brave correspondents Mark Lamster and Alexandra Lange are here again, bringing you their annual architecture and design awards for the—yes!—ninth year in a row.

It has been a memorable year for them both, as they are each authors of new and critically acclaimed books, his a biography of that irascible wit (and sometime fascist) Philip Johnson, hers an exploration of how the design of toys, schools, and playgrounds shapes our kids and ourselves. The best holiday gift you could give them is a visit to your local indie bookseller to purchase one or both of these fine titles. And now on to who’s been naughty and nice…

2 LAZY 2 START FROM SCRATCH AWARD
BIG’s Oakland stadium proposal features the apartments and waterfront park from their Manhattan projects, snow-dusted pines from the Rockies, and a gondola worthy of a Disney theme park. There’s got 2B a baseball diamond in there somewhere.

THANK GOD IT’S OVER AWARD
Our long national nightmare of media speculation and mayoral grovelling ends with HQ2 split between New York and Washington.

NO AWARD BECAUSE HE’D CONSIDER IT CLUTTER AWARD
Dieter Rams, whose message of “Less, but better” has never seemed more timely.