Fred A. Bernstein

Fred Bernstein has degrees in architecture (from Princeton University) and law (from NYU) and writes about both subjects. He lives in New York City and has two sons.

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The Undaunting Courage of Rio's Gay Crusader

The late David Miranda, in his prime

Published in Out
May 11, 2018
Glenn Greenwald: Life Beyond Borders

The controversial journalist and activist opens the (guarded) gate of his Rio de Janeiro home

Published in Out
April 18, 2011
Why Patti Smith and I Like the Smithsonian

Because of Hide/Seek, its brave and beautiful show on sexual identity

Published in Out
December 14, 2010
A Natural Spirit

In Central Washington State, Painter Leo Adams unveils his masterpiece: a house that gives new life to found objects

Published in Metropolitan Home
May 2003
Why Architecture Critics Must Ask About Embodied Energy

Because our lives depend on it!

Published Architect
October 31, 2019
Robert Irwin's 'Barcelona Pavilion for the 21st Century'

A thrilling installation at the Dia Center for the Arts explores tranlucency; it's like seeing snow for the first time.

Published in Blueprint
December 1998
Intellectual Property

Gallerist Max Protetch and Museum Director Irene Hofmann fill their Santa Fe home with art

Published in Departures
October 2018
Meet Chatham Towers, New York's Architects' AeriePublished in Curbed
March 1, 2019
Taking a Holistic Approach to Embodied Carbon

A sobering look at how designing a building to meet Passive House standards affects its overall energy use.

Published in Architectural Record
October 10, 2022
Negative Energy and (Dis)embodied Carbon VIDEO

Ignoring embodied carbon lets architects, developers and even architecture schools call wasteful buildings "green"

Published in Speeches / talks
November 11, 2021
Negative Energy and (Dis)embodied Carbon WRITTEN VERSION

Ignoring embodied carbon lets architects, developers and even architecture schools call wasteful buildings "green"

Published in Speeches / talks
November 11, 2021
Taking credit for trees planted elsewhere is a whole lot of embodied chutzpah

Can a house alone on a mountainside in British Columbia possibly be “climate positive,” as its architects and developer claim?

Published Dezeen
June 18, 2021
What Price Honor?

A temple to honor at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs damages perhaps the greatest modernist campus in the world. And it's by the campus's original architect, SOM

Published in Architectural Record
January 8, 2016
Altering the Definition of Green Could Weaken Efforts to Mitigate the Climate Crisis

Making buildings resilient does not slow climate change. Usually, the opposite is true.

 

Published ARCHDAILY
January 10, 2021
Sweet Sixteen Acres

My assessment of Ground Zero, in 2018

Published in Log
October 1, 2018
How Green Are Apple's Carbon-Sequestering Trees, Really?

Not as green as we might hope -- or as Apple might suggest

Published in The Architect's Newspaper
September 2007
A Park Grows in Moscow

Diller Scofidio + Renfro leads an international team of designers, working in the shadow of the Kremlin

Published in Blueprint
October 13, 2017
An Icon in Eclipse? Let the Empire State Building Continue to Shine

The Empire State Building risks being obscured by lesser towers

Published in The Huffington Post
November 28, 2014
American Architecture 1945-1970: From Post-War to Post-Modern

(all that in 2,500 words)

Published in A+U (Japan)
November 6, 2017
A Harbor Cruise, Under a Rainbow

Aboard the fireboat John J. Harvey

Published in The New York Times
July 26, 2002
Forget the Hype. Is Harvard's HouseZero Sustainable?

A very expensive experiment in creating an energy-efficient dwelling overlooks the impact of embodied energy

Published in Architectural Record
July 1, 2021
The Side of North Korea That Isn't Making Headlines

A country of candy-colored architecture. Who knew? (Oliver Wainwright did.)

Published in Introspective (1stdibs)
July 28, 2018
Architects Remember the 1964-65 World's Fair

One after another, architects who grew up in New York in the sixties recall how the fair inspired them

Published in Architectural Record
May 30, 2014
The Innovative Brooklyn Architects Paving the Way for a New Generation

Fourteen years after founding their experimental practice, the architects of SO–IL hit their stride

Published in Architectural Digest
February 14, 2022
The Punctured Sky: New York's Architectural Heritage

A history of New York City architecture: the last 150 years in 4,500 words

Published in Books
April 16, 2008
Gordon Matta-Clark's Indelible Influence on Architecture

His subtractive approach has countless applications

Published in Architectural Digest
November 25, 2017
How Diller Scofidio + Renfro Have Reshaped Manhattan's Contemporary Cultural Landscape

And What's Next for These Hometown Heroes?

Published in Architectural Digest
December 10, 2019
The Many Dimensions of Roberto Burle Marx

Should the great landscape architect be recognized for more than his astounding parks and gardens?

Published Architect
April 10, 2016
A Planned Expansion of the New Museum

OMA's design seems to hit all its marks

Published in Architectural Digest
June 27, 2019
Immigrant Architect: Elizabeth Diller (Poland)Published in Architectural Digest
February 16, 2018
My New App: Splainer

Uber and Tinder are just the app-etizers

Published in Metropolitan Home
May 31, 2016
Immigrant Architect: Sandro Marpillero (Italy)Published in Architectural Digest
March 9, 2018
Concrete Makes a Comeback

Following the lead of Tadao Ando, architects raise pouring concrete to an art form

Published in Interior Design
November 7, 2014
Immigrant Architect: Anda Andrei (Romania)Published in Architectural Digest
April 10, 2018
A Congress for the Many, or the Few?

By performing "constituent services," legislators short-circuit the democratic process, weakening separation of powers, equal protection, and other constitutional norms

 

Published in The New York Times
September 9, 2012
Glazing Over Manhattan

Too many glass buildings, and the city becomes just another shiny office park

Published in Architectural Record
May 9, 2013
A Fellowship of Fabulists

The zany artistic duo of Kahn & Selesnick spin fantastical worlds that captivate collectors and critics alike

Published in Introspective (1stdibs)
November 2021
Apple versus Bloomberg

Only one of them can be "the greenest office building in the world"

Published in Architectural Digest
November 27, 2017
Kali Is an Art World Sensation, 40 Years after She Hid Her Work Away
 
Published in Introspective (1stdibs)
January 1, 2000
Leslie Robertson obituaryPublished in The New York Times
February 11, 2021
Eero Saarinen's Better Half?

A new book gives Mrs. Saarinen too much credit, and its author, Eva Hagberg, too much space

Published in The Architect's Newspaper
September 12, 2022
Frederic Schwartz obituaryPublished in Architectural Record
April 29, 2004
Kristen Richards obituaryPublished in Architectural Record
July 2, 2021
A Country of Micro-cribs and Mega-mansions

America's housing disparity grows worse

Published in The Huffington Post
December 2, 2011
Grace Farms, by SANAA

A Gossamer Serpent in New Canaan

Published in Blueprint
June 20, 2018
Letting the High Line Be the High Line

The gentle architecture of Phase Three

Published in Architectural Record
September 10, 2014
NYU Law School Commencement SpeechPublished in Speeches / talks
May 9, 1994
Santiago Calatrava's Four Billion Dollar Mall

A review of the World Trade Center "Transit Hub"

Published in Blueprint
July 17, 2016
Commentary on Korach

Lessons on leadership from the Torah

Published in Synagogue
June 16, 2018
The End of Sixties Architecture

Some buildings just couldn't be saved

Published in The New York Times
October 31, 2004
Starchitects on the Buildings That Influenced Them Most

Ando, Meier, Scott Brown, Decq, and others talk about their inspirations

Published in Architectural Record
April 13, 2016
Bob Dylan's Mother

"He's a beautiful poet. But I don't think he was ever the greatest singer."

Published in The Jewish Mothers' Hall of Fame
November 23, 1990
Gene Simmons's Mother

The Holocaust survivor who birthed a rock star

Published in The Jewish Mothers' Hall of Fame
November 23, 1990
Harvey Fierstein's mother

"Is Harvey gay? I don't know. I don't sleep with him."

Published in The Jewish Mothers' Hall of Fame
November 21, 1990
A Proposal for the Next New York World's Fair

It will be great for the city's economy, its infrastructure, and its reputation

Published in Design Observer
November 13, 2011
Diller Scofidio + Renfro's Amazing Continuous Surface Building

Their new Columbia Medical School study center caps decades of experimentation

Published in Blueprint
November 9, 2016
Rauschenberg and Johns

Two great artists as lovers

Published in Out
February 16, 2010
Queen for a Day

Events of the summer of 1969

Published at fredbernstein.com
October 14, 2016
To Live or Die Inside: Introduction to Unatanneh Tokef

What does it mean to be "inscribed in the book of life?" My interpretation.

Published in Speeches / talks
October 4, 2016
The Ethereal Architecture of Sou Fujimoto

Perhaps Japan's most innovative architect, Fujimoto makes buildings that resemble clouds and forests.

Published in The Wall Street Journal
October 18, 2014
Nara: The Town That Time Forgot

A quiet alternative to Kyoto

Published in The New York Times
November 13, 2006
Being Frank Gehry

With the triumphs have come many disappointments

Published at fredbernstein.com
September 2, 2015
D'var Torah on Behar

Let's give the land a rest

Published in Speeches / talks
May 13, 2014
It's the Architecture, Not The Architect, I'm Rooting For

Give Calatrava a chance!

Published in Architectural Record
December 10, 2013
The Parenting of Low Expectations

Foreword to "52 Weeks of Parenting Wisdom: Effective Strategies for Raising Respectful, Happy Kids" by Meg Akabas

Published in 52 Weeks of Parenting Wisdom
December 13, 2012
Panama Highway, A Noose Around Casco Viejo's Neck?

An old city gets an unwelcome new neighbor

Published in Architectural Record
October 26, 2012
U.S. Flops at Shanghai Expo

Another embarrassing U.S. pavilion, courtesy of a shortsighted Congress

Published in Los Angeles Times
August 5, 2010
Stitching Together a New Life in Riverdale

Surviving the Holocaust with needle and thread

Published in The New York Times
August 8, 2008
Pecha Kucha

Around the world in 20 slides

Published in Culture + Travel
September 5, 2008
How Green Is My Renovation?

A roundtable of experts on making existing houses greener

Published in Metropolitan Home
April 7, 2008
Turning Steel Into Lace

Living rent-free, Cal Lane makes her mark

Published in The New York Times
January 20, 2008
Rediscovering a Heroine of Chicago Architecture

Many of Frank Lloyd Wright's most evocative drawings were by Marion Mahony Griffin

Published in The New York Times
January 20, 2008
Glass House, Great Performance

Merce Cunningham animates Philip Johnson's estate

Published in Interior Design
August 25, 2007
Remembering the Royalton

Mourning Phiippe Starck's Miracle on 44th Street

Published in Interior Design
September 21, 2007
Greetings from Resisterville

A town where Vietnam draft avoiders have made a difference

Published in The New York Times
November 20, 2004
High Hopes and Worthless Land

My father's bad investment

Published in The New York Times
November 6, 2005
A Brief History of the Twin Piers: What Might Have Been

Published in FredBernstein.com
January 25, 2007
Post-Renovation Depression

The contractors are gone. So why do I feel blue?

Published in The New York Times
February 22, 2007
The Town the Boom Forgot

Tired of high real estate prices? Consider the alternative

Published in The New York Times
June 25, 2006
Billy Doesn't Live Here Anymore

The incredible saga of the bakery founder's loft

Published in The New York Times
January 27, 2007
Are McMansions (Finally) Going Out of Style?

There's evidence that the size of new homes in America has peaked

Published in The New York Times
October 1, 2005
Me and My Geiger Counter

Was I being practical, or paranoid?

Published in The New York Times
June 22, 2002
Unloading His Books, But Not His Conscience

Amazon is now the place to sell used books -- but with unexpected consequences

Published in The New York Times
April 11, 2002
Legacies Passed from Father to Son

Gustavo Bonevardi in the West Village

Published in The New York Times
December 3, 2006
A Loft in Boston's Chinatown

Sam Davol, the cellist for the Magnetic Fields, and his wife, Leslie, move north

Published in The New York Times
November 22, 2007
The World Is Going to Hear of This Boy

An interview with Leah Adler, Steven Spielberg's mother

Published in The Jewish Mothers' Hall of Fame
December 15, 1990
Do Ask, Do Tell

David Mixner moves to Livingston Manor, New York

Published in The New York Times
July 17, 2007
Shaving My Wallet Better Than My Face

Falling for the Infinity Razor

Published in The New York Times
April 13, 2007
A Road Trip Back to the Future

Visiting Paul Rudolph's Buildings in New England

Published in The New York Times
March 25, 2007
Up in the Attic, Millennium Style

Gorgeous interiors, up (under) the roof

Published in The New York Times
March 29, 2007
Art Above and Below, With Life in the Middle

At home with Ann Brashares and Jacob Collins

Published in The New York Times
January 4, 2007
An Island Where Millions Aren't Enough

The high price of Bermuda real estate

Published in The New York Times
September 10, 2006
In Marfa, a New Interior With an Old Soul

Why Barbara Hill is one of my favorite designers, ever

Published in The New York Times
October 12, 2006
A Makeover Too Far

The conspicuous consumption of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Published in Dwell
October 29, 2006
Making a Neighborhood Safe for Kids

A brilliant way to privilege underprivileged children

Published in The New York Times
September 17, 2006
Ice Hotel Quebec-Canada

A review of the cold accommodations

Published in The New York Times
December 17, 2006
Pretty Profits from Ugly Houses

How HomeVestors went national

Published in The New York Times
February 19, 2006
A Poor County, Rich in Modern Architecture

Visting the Rural Studio's buildings in Alabama is one of the world's great architecture pilgrimages

Published in The New York Times
December 25, 2005
Private Lives

The difficulties of saving New Canaan's modernist architecture

Published in Metropolis
August 6, 2005
An oasis in a toxic world

A haven for "multiple chemical sensitivity" sufferers is threatened

Published in The New York Times
July 9, 2005
Daring Design in a Laid-Back City

Thanks to Rem Koolhaas, Porto, Portugal will never be the same

Published in The New York Times
June 19, 2005
Move the United Nations to Ground Zero

The Freedom Tower could become a true symbol of freedom

Published in The New York Times
April 24, 2005
Get Ready for the High Line

How Robert Hammond and Joshua David Saved the Elevated Railway

Published in Surface
December 25, 2004
Mildred (Mickey) Friedman obituary

The great critic, curator and connector

Published in Architectural Record
September 5, 2014
Peter Eisenman in Verona

A review of the architect's 2004 Castelvecchio installation

Published in Architectural Record
December 6, 2004
Restoring Louis Kahn's

The Yale University Art Gallery gets an extensive, but faithful, renovation

Published in The New York Times
November 7, 2004
Where Are All the 60's Buildings Going?

Baby boomers lead the charge to tear down 60's architecture

Published in The New York Times
October 31, 2004
Frank Lloyd Wright Stays Busy in Buffalo

45 years after his death, three buildings by Wright are in the works

Published in The New York Times
September 6, 2004
The Death of Nest

A quirky magazine's farewell

Published in The New York Times
August 17, 2004
Will the U.S. Be at the 2010 Shanghai Fair?

A world's fair pavilion costs less than an Apache helicopter -- and Shanghai 2010 is approaching

Published in Architecture
August 6, 2004
On Campus, Rethinking Biology 101

Transgender students gain rights, and respect, in college

Published in The New York Times
March 7, 2004
Greece's Colossal New Guilt Trip

Bernard Tschumi's New Acropolis Museum was designed to settle a score

Published in The New York Times
January 18, 2004
Not Your Daddy's SOM

Roger Duffy remakes the mega-firm

Published in Metropolis
December 24, 2003
Married or Not, It's a Full House

The lives of Steven Lofton, Roger Croteau, and their foster children

Published in The New York Times
November 19, 2003
World on a String

A puppeteer copes with Parkinson's disease

Published in The New York Times
November 19, 2003
Architecture's Quiet Soul

A profile of artist and memorial designer MAYA LIN

Published in Blueprint
November 4, 2003
Let's make New York un-gateful

A proposal for improving New York's streets.

Published in The New York Daily News
November 4, 2003
A Neglected Modernist Masterpiece

Pier Luigi Nervi's bus station at the George Washington Bridge deserves respect

Published in Oculus (Journal of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects)
November 2, 2003
Santiago Calatrava, from the Canary Islands to Manhattan Island

Santiago Calatrava's opera house at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands is dominated by a winglike canopy nearly 200 feet tall.

Published in The New York Times
October 26, 2003
Mama's Meatballs

Published in The New York Blade
October 10, 2003
From the Torch to the Toes, Digital Insurance

How the Statue of Liberty could be recreated, after a disaster

Published in The New York Times
September 11, 2003
Pierwise, One Person's Wreck Is Another's Art

Saving two rusting piers in the Hudson River

Published in The New York Times
September 4, 2003
One campus, two faces

Princeton goes Gehry -- and Gothic -- at the same time

Published in The Princeton Alumni Weekly
January 21, 2003
The Man With the List at Architecture's Party

Profile of Reed Kroloff, an advisor to architecture competitions.

Published in The New York Times
January 11, 2003
This Child Does Have Two Mothers... And a Sperm Donor with Visitation

Published in NYU Review of Law and Social Change
November 4, 1995
Irish Pride Meets Gay Pride

The gay backstory of New York's Irish Hunger Memorial

Published in The Advocate
October 6, 2002
A Store that Thinks Different

Tekserve lives the Apple slogan

Published in The New York Times
June 20, 2002
Daddy, Why Are You So Old?

How I became a middle aged father.

Published in The Advocate
May 28, 2002
Memorials fit for a city

Architects get busy after 9/11

Published in Blueprint
February 22, 2002
City Folk

A review of the new American Folk Art Museum, designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.

Published in World Architecture
February 22, 2002
When Modern Married Money

Blue blood meets white architecture in New England.

Published in The New York Times
February 3, 2002
Drawing Closer to an Old Friend

Thoughts on the importance of the Empire State Building after September 11

Published in The New York Times
October 11, 2001
Mission 66

An endangered species at the National Parks: modernist architecture

Published in Architecture
December 15, 2000
Being of Sound Mind, and a $55 Consultation

Can a website write me a new will?

Published in The New York Times
December 14, 2000
Take-Off

A review of The Full Monty on Broadway

Published in The Independent on Sunday (London)
October 29, 2000
An Online Peek at Your Politics

Do my neighbors need to know which candidates I support?

Published in The New York Times
October 4, 2000
The House That Harry Potter Built

A magical new building in SoHo

Published in The Independent on Sunday (London)
July 10, 2000
Is That Your Final Answer?

My life as a juror.

Published in California Lawyer
May 1, 2000
The Men from Bubbling Magma

Climbing a volcano in Bali.

Published in The Washington Post
June 14, 1998
Ball Games

My life as a sissy

Published in The Advocate
June 15, 1994
Behind the Gray Door: Williams, Secrecy, and the Federal Grand Jury

Published in NYU Law Review
January 1, 1994
A Facade Like No Other: Once Temporary, Now a Treasure

The badly damaged 1993 exterior of the Storefront for Art and Architecture in Lower Manhattan, by Steve Holl and Vito Acconci, will be restored

Published in The New York Times
June 19, 2008
A NIGHT OUT WITH Richard Chamberlain -- and (for the first time) Martin Rabbett

The veteran actor comes to dinner with the man who has spent decades hiding in plain sight

Published in The New York Times
July 13, 2003
Empty Nest Syndrome

For children of minimalists, only more is more

Published in T Magazine (The New York Times)
November 7, 2009
Architect Alison Killing Uses the Latest Technology to Pinpoint Forced Labor Camps in China

The architect was awarded a Pulitzer Prize last month for her investigative work

Published in Architectural Record
June 28, 2021
Commentary: No Man Is an Island

What if New York City treated Barry Diller's $120 million fantasy park as an experiment, but not a monument?

Published in Architectural Record
May 28, 2021
Phoenix Central Library Receives AIA’s 25-Year Award

Since it opened in 1995, Bruder has been able to bring the building into the 21st century without compromising his architectural vision, of which flexibility was a key part

Published in Architectural Record
May 31, 2021
Treacherous Transparencies: Thoughts and Observations Triggered by a Visit to Farnsworth House

In 2014, after accepting the inaugural Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron drove from Chicago to Plano, Illinois, to visit -- and criticize -- Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Farnsworth House 

Published in Architectural Record
November 1, 2016
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