Lewis McCrary
Crawfordsville
Articles by Lewis McCrary
The Conservative Urbanist
American baby boomers came of age as suburbia was becoming king, in a time of big cars, free parking, and the romance of the open road. American cities had started their long decline, and President Eisenhower inaugurated the 48,000-mile Interstate system as expressways carved up historic downtowns in the name of speed. For all the activism of the baby boomer generation, they largely supported the dismal state of the built environment they inherited from their parents.
Roger Scruton's Architectural Morality
Some of the his most under-appreciated contributions are on the relationship between everyday life and the built environment. Very few of us will ever be referred to in the adjectival form. Yet Roger Scruton (1944-2020) deserves such an appellation, and as early as 1985, “Scrutonian gusto” appeared in a snide 1985 Architectural Review piece.
Cities Don't Have to Be Accelerants for Pandemics
New urbanists offer a path to resilience during viral crises by easing our worst enemy: density. A bicycle rider wears a mask in Prospect Park in response to the spread of coronavirus on March 18, 2020 in Brooklyn. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images) The pandemic has come, and the great American cities are going quiet. Workers are emptying out to go to the suburbs, while other urbanites hunker down at home, passing the time in front of numerous flickering screens.
Getting New Urbanism Right
Lewis McCrary covered the state of New Urbanism, traditional architecture, suburbia, and more with City Journal assistant editor Charles F. McElwee. McCrary, executive editor of The American Conservative, began his career in journalism as an editorial assistant and later senior editor at the magazine. Before returning to TAC, he was managing editor of The National Interest and Robert Novak Journalism Fellow at the Fund for American Studies.
Golden Age of Classicism
SOUTH BEND, Ind.—A year and a half hence, about the time the leafy Notre Dame campus begins to display brilliant autumn hues, budding architects and their mentors will move into a new building near the ceremonial entrance to the sprawling university. Though it will be the newest addition to this 175-year-old institution, built atop a former parking lot, the classically inspired edifice will appear to passersby as if it has been there for generations.
The Big-Box Mirage
Since Amazon has changed the way many Americans buy things, most of the big-box retailers have struggled. Fox Business recently reported that Walmart and its ilk are battling mightily to “fend off retail apocalypse.” But before the zombies come, the superstore giants want you to gas up and bravely drive over to your local strip center—at least once more, dear consumers—as legacy retailers try to create a new paradise in their old parking lots.
A Nation Derailed
Passenger trains united a continent—can they do so again? When the wrecking crews came to New York’s Penn Station in the fall of 1963 there was no explosive-fired demolition, no great cloud of dust that settled to reveal the beaux arts station reduced to a pile of rubble. The terminal, which had resembled a great Doric temple, its main waiting room modeled on the Roman Baths of Caracalla, opened in 1910 and represented passenger rail at the height of its efficiency and elegance.
Bring Back Penn Station
Descending into the depths of the fluorescent-lit underground warren that is the country’s busiest passenger transit hub, Richard Cameron looked up and was shocked. An architectural drawing of New York’s formerly grand, neo-Roman Penn Station had been reproduced on a bulkhead above a stairway, accompanied by the caption “YOU ARE HERE.” “I almost crashed the escalator,” recounts Cameron, a Brooklyn architect who is the leading advocate for rebuilding the 1910 Beaux Arts terminal.
Why We Should Forget 9/11
If we continue to let 9/11 haunt America’s collective memory, and thus define its sense of purpose and orientation to the world, we should expect the next ten years to resemble the last. That may be the lesson of one of the better reflections on the 9/11 commemorations by David Rieff (for some time out on newsstands, it has today been made available online).
Savannah’s Squares Inspire New Urbanists
SAVANNAH, Ga.—Unlike the 20th-century experiment that reinvented much of America’s built environment as suburban sprawl, colonial-era experiments in city design have proven to be both highly adaptable and enduringly beautiful.
Modernism, Food, and Public Space
Even on a warm late summer evening, many streets of Midtown Manhattan’s east side feel oddly desolate. A few blocks south of Central Park, along what has been called “corporate row,” the modernist office towers lining Sixth Avenue enter a slumber, most of their workers having gone home. Yet as the wide artery reaches the corner of 53rd Street, there is life on the wide sidewalks, as dozens line up at food carts.
Google Doodles through Easter
It’s fascinating to watch for Google’s “doodles,” the modifications the search engine company periodically makes to its logo. Most of the time these temporary changes celebrate the birthdays of scientific or cultural figures, or nod at national holidays around the world. Other than the Gregorian New Year, there seems to be no observance promoted more by Google than Earth Day.
Why No Nobel Prize For Architecture?
Dupont Hall at the University of Delaware, by architect Allan Greenberg, 2006 Driehaus laureate. (Wikimedia Commons) There is no Nobel or Pulitzer Prize for architects or urban planners. Such an omission is not necessarily surprising, since the design field is neither pure art nor practical or theoretical science.
Roger Scruton Appointed New Urbanism Fellow at TAC
The American Conservative is pleased to announce that distinguished English philosopher Sir Roger Scruton, who senior editor Rod Dreher has called “a gift and a wonder,” has been appointed the magazine’s New Urbanism Fellow. Upon accepting the role, Scruton commented: It is a great honor to be invited to take up this fellowship. Conservatism is based in the desire to protect a shared home.
Drivers Declare War on Walkers
Over the last decade, it’s become safer to drive and more dangerous to walk. That’s the conclusion of a new report on pedestrian safety released earlier this week, which documents that from 2007 to 2016, “The number of pedestrian fatalities increased 27 percent … while at the same time, all other traffic deaths decreased by 14 percent.” Alarmingly, this is not just a medium-term trend, reports the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA).
Drivers Declare War on Walkers
Over the last decade, it’s become safer to drive and more dangerous to walk. That’s the conclusion of a new report on pedestrian safety released earlier this week, which documents that from 2007 to 2016, “The number of pedestrian fatalities increased 27 percent … while at the same time, all other traffic deaths decreased by 14 percent.” Alarmingly, this is not just a medium-term trend, reports the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA).
Taxing Endowments Will Hurt Red States More Than Elites | RealClearEducation
Taxing Endowments Will Hurt Red States More Than Elites The GOP delights in taking a swipe at the Ivy League, but the policy will affect plenty of small colleges who serve Midwestern constituents.Read Full Article »
Perspective | Taxing college endowments will hurt red-state kids more than coastal elites
CRAWFORDSVILLE, IND. — As the Trump tax code overhaul bill proceeds through Congress, some conservatives are salivating at the prospect of imposing a levy on large university endowment funds. Among these advocates of raiding the coffers of the liberal Ivy League, it’s easy to detect a policy motivated at least in part by animus — “admittedly more of a targeted culture-war jab,” as Ross Douthat writes in the New York Times.
The Yelp Index of Economic Growth
dennizn / Shutterstock.com Words on the Street highlights the best writing on the built environment we’ve encountered recently at New Urbs. Post tips at @NewUrbs. Using Yelp to Track Economic Growth The advent of big data, in the form of massive databases augmented with crowd-sourced information, adds a new dimension to our ability to track and measure local economies. One of the most exciting sources is Yelp, which tracks and publishes user reviews of millions of businesses.
Who Are the Most Influential Urbanists?
Words on the Street highlights the best writing on the built environment we’ve encountered recently at New Urbs. Post tips at @NewUrbs. The results are in, and Planetizen readers have chosen the “Most Influential Urbanists” of all time. And, yes, we mean all time. Names on the list date back as far as 498 BCE, but there’s also no shortage of contemporary thinkers, activists, planners, and designers in the final list of 100.
The Making of Horizonal America
Words on the Street highlights the best writing on the built environment we’ve encountered recently at New Urbs. Post tips at @NewUrbs. If there is one truth about the second half of the 20th Century it is that, by all accounts, we started moving out rather than up; horizontal rather than vertical. Not only through the process of suburbanization, the building of massive highways, and the rapid capital flight from cities, but also in how we designed everything from our homes to our workplaces.
The Surprisingly Walkable Jersey Shore
CAPE MAY, N.J.—New Jersey is the punchline of many jokes, with opinion polls confirming that the Garden State has the most negative reputation of any state in the nation. This ranking is deserved in some respects, at least when assessing the dismal condition of the built environment in many parts of the state.
Don’t Miss This Post-Election Conversation
With only about a month until Election Day, it’s time to start preparing for the important foreign-policy battles that will take place in the new White House. Whether it’s the administration of Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, the country will still face an array of challenges abroad—not least a potential conflict with Russia in Syria—and the usual calls for military intervention.
What Is a Suburb, Anyway?
Walking through Washington’s Capitol Hill neighborhood one afternoon a few years ago, I remarked to a friend that the streets surely must represent the epitome of good urban design. A neighborhood of mostly two- and three-story handsome brick townhouses, punctuated by the occasional mid-rise apartment building, it was dense enough to support convenient corner stores; my apartment there was a short walk from drugstores, restaurants, supermarkets, parks, and transportation downtown.
The American Conservative
Despite his recognition as one of the great modernists of the 20th century, postwar architect Louis Kahn claimed to be inspired by the crumbling edifices of the ancients.
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