The August 2023 Issue: Les Habitations Saint-Michel Nord

ON THE COVER: Les Habitations Saint-Michel Nord by Vlan Paysages. Photograph © James Brittain.

FEATURED STORY: “Set for Life,” by Katharine Logan. Neglected courtyards and rundown, anonymous buildings combined to make the residents of a Montreal social housing complex feel like outsiders in their own neighborhood. A new living street carved into the center of the revitalized complex gave Vlan Paysages the chance to create a place everyone—residents, municipal housing agencies, and the public treasury—could be proud of. 

Also in the issue: 

FEATURE:Risks and Rewards,” by Timothy A. Schuler. Design/build firms have been working on the edges of the profession for decades, but lately, public clients have been embracing design/build contracts as a way to control costs. Progressive design/build requires clients, designers, and builders to collaborate earlier in the process, which can streamline projects and get them done faster. But some worry that design is getting pinched in the sprint to the finish line.

NOW:Edited by Timothy A. Schuler.Pitching in to build a park in Green River, Utah; sea-level rise speeds up in the Southeast; a critic calls for a new approach to Dallas’s Dealey Plaza(online August 10); finding sustainable stone is now easier; a public garden designed for neurodivergence (online August 17), and an Alfred Caldwell plan inspires a wildlife refuge.

WATER: “Farm to Water Table,” by Lisa Owens Viani. Despite last winter’s drenching rains, California’s water supply remains in peril, and the state’s booming agricultural sector is both the most vulnerable and most voracious consumer. Can a plan that pays to fallow land help small farmers and recharge the groundwater (online August 24)?

GOODS: “Sun Screens, edited by Kristen Mastroianni. The shades that keep things cool.

THE BACK: “Soundscape Strategies,” by James P. Cowan. Sound design for outdoor spaces is a complex and sometimes counterintuitive undertaking. An acoustical engineer breaks down the best practices for shaping the way good and bad sounds move around landscape projects.

BOOK REVIEW: Edited byMimi Zeiger. “Access Measures,” by Sara Hendren. A review of The Architecture of Disability: Buildings, Cities, and Landscapes Beyond Access, by David Gissen (online August 3).

BACKSTORY: A beehive that buzzes by Atta Studio.

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