Essays

Essays on the deeper patterns shaping cities, culture, and civic life. Written for those who know there’s more at stake than policy and planning alone.

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A wide Boise commercial corridor lined with traffic, parking lots, and roadside businesses shows a built environment organized for speed, storage, and throughput.

A World Built for Having

The Expedition In May of 1920, Robert Limbert set out on an...

A major Boise traffic corridor lined with parking lots and commercial uses illustrates growth built for speed rather than rooted place.

The Beanstalk and the Root

We take it for granted, but driving across a modern city is...

A Boise neighborhood and intersection sit beneath the foothills, showing how the city’s built environment and surrounding landscape work together to orient people in place.

The Built World as Our First Compass

In December 1873, London simply vanished. A thick “pea-souper” fog, heavy with...

Pedestrian street with outdoor café seating and historic buildings in a European town square.

Why We Vacation in the Places We Refuse to Build

The Great American Irony Every year, millions of Americans perform a strange...

Historic black-and-white photograph of a large early 20th-century home on Harrison Boulevard in Boise, lined with leafless trees and covered in fresh snow, circa 1915–1920.

The Unfinished Work

In May 1903, Theodore Roosevelt stood in Boise and offered a perspective...

Front porch of a historic North End Boise home at dusk, with warm interior lights visible through windows and a clear path leading from the sidewalk to the entry.

The Ordering Principle

Building the hardware of the external mind Part 3 of 3: Building...

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