Placemaking

I am very affected by place. Actually I think everyone is. Probably more than they realize.

Our surroundings act on us. Some foster chaos, others encourage enchantment. Broad landscapes, beautiful artwork, and ancient architecture fill people with awe. Office buildings with drop ceilings and an unimaginative palette of gray, screeching subways, and... See more

Where a city is positioned on this AM <-> PM scale fundamentally influences not only it’s sleep cycle, but informs it’s core identity of the city, and the people who live there. The AM city sees itself as disciplined and regimented, addicted to the dopamine of early morning workouts, fuelled by caffeine and nourished by Açaí breakfast... See more

Like the impressionists, we see a magical sense of ambiance in cities that never sleep; places where we don’t have to pick between living as morning larks or night owls, a place where dawn-to-dusk and dusk-to-dawn can flourish simultaneously and cross pollinate; where the vice of darkness and virtue of mornings can be experienced in equal amounts.

In contrast to Berlin's nachtgestalten (rough translation: c reatures of the night ), Sydney is home to a lively dawn chorus of early morning run clubs, beachgoers and surfers. Bondi at sunrise could be mistaken for a beach in Europe during sunset; crowded to the brim, hundreds of people basking in the warm glow of first light.

Doing work in a coffee shop, drinking coffee on a terrace and walking around—often to many of the tourist sites or local hot spots—for an extended period isn’t living in a place. It’s a working vacation, often part of a series of working vacations, typically for the relatively privileged among us.

This is all to say: it’s worth listening when a place calls to you. It’s worth thinking about whether the place you live enables your goals or stands in their way. And it’s worth noticing what surroundings speak of enchantment, cultivate the conditions you feel at home in, and aim toward them. Life is more malleable than we think. It’s a surprise t... See more

Why we love cities that never sleep.

When 90s nightlife icon Chloë Sevigny recently complained about all the Lululemon athleisurewear and public dogwalking taking over New York, what she was on some level protesting against was a certain genre of bourgeois AM wellness culture flooding the streets of her city.

Sevigny’s criticism resonated with a lot of people, because the truth is that... See more

Some places are morning cities, and some places come alive at night. Every city has it’s own distinct circadian rhythm, and Berlin and Sydney represent the two extremes of that scale.

A few other examples of AM cities: Portland, Stockholm, Boulder, Colorado, Vancouver.

A few other examples of PM cities: Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Madrid, New York Cit... See more