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FRed Bernstein

@fred_a_bernstein

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Journalist and generalist.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iGpex50Iu5T67CsaCQoKEaooxbDLCPi9-YV4ttOoUsA/edit?tab=t.0

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A friend just sent me this picture; forgive me for posting it, but I so rarely like pictures of myself. This is the Pritzker Prize dinner at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in June 2014. by @fred_a_bernstein

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a year ago

"Pandemic Architecture: NYC Dining Sheds 2020–2024," a new book by Penny Hardy (@psnewyork), captures the singular moment when restaurants were forced onto the streets of New York City to survive. Interiors once hidden from view were turned inside out, and the street shifted from a space of transit into a place for gathering, dining, and connection.
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Conceived, photographed, and designed by Hardy, the book documents these structures as more than emergency shelters. They were expressions of resilience, humor, fear, ingenuity, and self-expression—a city improvising in public, restaurant by restaurant and block by block.
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At once a visual archive, design study, and portrait of a city under pressure, Pandemic Architecture captures the moment when New York’s sidewalks and curbs became stages for survival—and when the city’s gritty, punk, DIY spirit reappeared in plain sight.
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Thanks to Erica Ackerberg for reviewing Pandemic Architecture in the @nytimes! by @fred_a_bernstein

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2 days ago

by @fred_a_bernstein

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8 days ago

Ford Student Center, Amherst College, by Herzog and de Meuron by @fred_a_bernstein

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23 days ago

Riverside Park by @fred_a_bernstein

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2 months ago

It's hard to believe that 25 years have passed since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. My sons weren't born yet; now they're grown men.

The LINK IN BIO will take you to the rather amazing story of my involvement in the competition for the design of the 9/11 memorial.

In brief: My Twin Piers proposal was chosen as one of nine finalists in the competition, and was the favorite of some of the judges, including Maya Lin, but was then disqualified on grounds that had nothing to do with the merits of the design.

I am posting this because it's probably the most interesting thing that's ever happened to me. But I'm posting it in August because September belongs to the thousands of victims and their families. I'm less than a footnote. by @fred_a_bernstein

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2 months ago

Architecture buffs? by @fred_a_bernstein

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2 months ago

Biddeford, Maine. Impromptu memorial and anti-ICE protest. by @fred_a_bernstein

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3 months ago

Happy Fourth of July from the Museum of the City of New York. Joe Macken’s model of every single building in all five boroughs is a trip, and worth a trip. by @fred_a_bernstein

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3 months ago

I have spent a lot of time the last few years writing about buildings that are advertised as “greener” than they really are. I have analyzed claims made about a “zero energy” house at Harvard, Apple’s campus in Cupertino and the new JPMorgan Chase headquarters in Manhattan, among other buildings. Along the way, I have been thanked, publicly and privately, for helping to advance the conversation about what really makes buildings sustainable. My goal isn’t to embarrass anyone. It’s to debunk claims that make people think we’ve achieved more, in terms of reducing the effects of buildings on climate change, than we have. Such claims breed complacency, and complacency is the last thing we need during a crisis.

For years, the Obama Presidential Center, scheduled to open next week in Chicago, has presented itself as “a model of sustainable development” that “pushes the boundaries of what is possible” and “sources 100 percent of its electricity needs from renewable energy.” Those phrases, on the Center’s website and in press releases (and in articles based on those press releases), suggest a building that harnesses sun or wind power to produce as much electricity as it requires. In reality, the Center has enough solar panels to meet less than 3 percent of its energy requirement -- a kind of demonstration project -- and no wind turbines. At least 97 percent of its electricity will come from the same grid that serves every other building in Chicago.

The Center’s spokesman says that the 97 percent will come from sustainable sources, from which “good electrons” will be mixed in with the “bad electrons” in the grid. But she has declined in almost a year of email conversations to reveal the source of that renewable power. That has led me, sadly, to wonder if such a source exists.

I can’t prove a negative, so I am still waiting for the Obama Center to tell me where its electricity is coming from. I do know that the Center’s leadership considered generating more than 3% or the building’s energy on-site but decided against it. And I know that the Center issued a request for proposals ... by @fred_a_bernstein

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4 months ago

I finally got to spend some time in the new LACMA. i’ll have much more to say later. by @fred_a_bernstein

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5 months ago

Good morning, Las Vegas by @fred_a_bernstein

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5 months ago