This week marks 81 years since the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Probing the legacy of these bombings, Nora Wendl foregrounds a lesser known event that occurred just a few weeks earlier, on July 16, 1945: the Trinity test. 🧵
Places Journal
@placesjournal.bsky.social
Architecture, landscape, urbanism. Independent nonprofit public scholarship on the built environment. Free & accessible to all. Read: http://placesjournal.org Sign up: placesjournal.org/newsletter Donate: https://placesjournal.org/donate/
From the Archive this month: Nora Wendl, on the legacies of the Manhattan Project and the nuclear-industrial complex; Lucy Sante, on the plunder of upstate New York to deliver water to NYC; and @timothyaschuler.bsky.social, on the the last stand of tallgrass prairie in America.
From the Archive: Fallout, Reservoir, Everywhere
This month's recommendations from the Editors.
mailchi.mp
"Who has the authority to decide whether, when, and where people should retreat? Who absorbs the loss of equity? And is the public willing to finance an exit from places where decades of policy encouraged residential growth?" On wildfire adaptation, in California and beyond:
When Fire Returns
Two wildfires ravaged the same California hills, 50 years apart. Can we continue to build, and rebuild, on land that will inevitably burn again?
placesjournal.org
In California, wildfire was here long before us, and it will be here long after we are gone. Can we continue to build, and rebuild, on land that will inevitably burn? A timely essay on wildfire adaptation and land stewardship. "Climate resilience cannot be a luxury good."
When Fire Returns
Two wildfires ravaged the same California hills, 50 years apart. Can we continue to build, and rebuild, on land that will inevitably burn again?
placesjournal.org
"The vast majority of disaster spending flows toward emergency response and recovery rather than long-term adaptation and risk reduction. If we privilege speed and capital above all else, inequality will widen. Resilience can't be a luxury good." —Emily Schlickman placesjournal.org/article/when...
“The conversation we should be having isn’t even really about wildfire policy. It’s about how we distribute risk; about who is allowed to profit from dangerous landscapes, who is wealthy enough to live with exposure, and who is left to absorb the consequences after catastrophe.” —Emily Schlickman
When Fire Returns
Two wildfires ravaged the same California hills, 50 years apart. Can we continue to build, and rebuild, on land that will inevitably burn again?
placesjournal.org
Two wildfires ravaged the same California hills, 50 years apart. Can we continue to build, and rebuild, on land that will inevitably burn again?
When Fire Returns
Two wildfires ravaged the same California hills, 50 years apart. Can we continue to build, and rebuild, on land that will inevitably burn again?
placesjournal.org
For 3 years, I followed one community through an endless cycle of floods, demolitions, and evictions, in a single Nairobi slum. For @placesjournal.bsky.social, my deep dive into how the city's poorest residents are being evicted in the name of "climate resilience" placesjournal.org/article/doub...
Doubly Displaced
Fleeing floods and drought in rural areas, Kenyans find precarious refuge along Nairobi rivers. Now, residents say the city’s Climate Action Plan is being weaponized against them.
placesjournal.org
"For thousands of people whose homes were flooded in 2024, their troubles didn’t end when the water receded. The government came for them next." @jacobkushner.bsky.social on the precarity of life in informal settlements outside Nairobi, where residents say climate action is weaponized against them.
Doubly Displaced
Fleeing floods and drought in rural areas, Kenyans find precarious refuge along Nairobi rivers. Now, residents say the city’s Climate Action Plan is being weaponized against them.
placesjournal.org
“A robust climate plan could connect people who are recovering from disaster—or escaping risky environments—with housing, jobs, transit and other forms of public support. But it would need to be backed by substantial funding, channeled through responsible agencies, and in Kenya that isn’t the case.”
Doubly Displaced
Fleeing floods and drought in rural areas, Kenyans find precarious refuge along Nairobi rivers. Now, residents say the city’s Climate Action Plan is being weaponized against them.
placesjournal.org
Nairobi’s poorest residents have long found uncertain refuge in settlements along the city’s rivers. As floods and drought in rural areas drive more Kenyans to Nairobi, many are forced to trade one environmentally precarious situation for another. @jacobkushner.bsky.social reports from Nairobi:
Doubly Displaced
Fleeing floods and drought in rural areas, Kenyans find precarious refuge along Nairobi rivers. Now, residents say the city’s Climate Action Plan is being weaponized against them.
placesjournal.org
Guts on the mind? Here's what the contents of an animal's digestive tract reveal about where they've been.
Through the Guts
What can plastic fragments found in an animal’s digestive tract tell us about the waters it has traversed?
placesjournal.org
"A history that’s only written to flatter our present leaves out the smaller stories, the reverberations of ambition and frustration, the minor hopes of making a living rather than ruling the world." Hua Hsu, on how Silicon Valley has changed since he grew up there, in the 1980s and ‘90s.
Silicon Valley Circuits
Route 85 in California now inspires dread. Some of us remember when it was a vision of the future.
placesjournal.org
"We romanticize the visionaries and tolerate the failures, so long as the next version works ... But a history that’s only written to flatter our present leaves out smaller stories, the reverberations of ambition and frustration, the minor hopes of making a living rather than ruling the world."
Silicon Valley Circuits
Route 85 in California now inspires dread. Some of us remember when it was a vision of the future.
placesjournal.org
Applications are closing soon for the On the Brinck | Places Prize on the American Southwest. The winner of the prize will receive an honorarium of $7,500 to research and write a major work of public scholarship, and deliver a public lecture @unm.edu. Submit by THIS FRIDAY, JULY 17! Details here:
On the Brinck | Places Prize: Call for Proposals 2026
We are pleased to announce that proposals are now being accepted for the latest round of the On the Brinck | Places Prize. Applications due July 17, 2026.
placesjournal.org
@longreads.com recommends Hua Hsu's latest, "Silicon Valley Circuits," on what the completion of Highway 85 in the 1990s meant for Silicon Valley, and how it has changed his own perspective on where he grew up.
Silicon Valley Circuits
Route 85 in California now inspires dread. Some of us remember when it was a vision of the future.
placesjournal.org
Longreads@longreads.com · 4w agoOur Top 5 this week: ㆍConcrete memories, @placesjournal.bsky.social ㆍGrief science, @newyorker.com ㆍCaptive cats, @thenarwhal.ca ㆍRelentless pain, @commonmag.bsky.social ㆍMyth meets reality, @theatlantic.com longreads.com/2026/07/10/t...
Applications for the On the Brinck | Places Prize are due 1 week from tomorrow! The prize supports ambitious public scholarship focused on the Southwestern U.S., in the spirit of J. B. Jackson. Learn more about the prize — and submit a proposal — here: placesjournal.org/news/on-the-...
"A history that’s only written to flatter our present omits the smaller stories, the minor hopes of making a living rather than ruling the world." From Hua Hsu: tales of old Silicon Valley, in the heyday of Tower Records, when apricots outnumbered microchips and Hwy 85 was a vision of the future.
Silicon Valley Circuits
Route 85 in California now inspires dread. Some of us remember when it was a vision of the future.
placesjournal.org
"My main frame of reference for my local surroundings was a poster my dad picked up in the '80s at an electronics store: a cartoon map highlighting the region’s noteworthy companies. Was Silicon Valley an idea, a spirit, a corporate hub, or an actual place? Was this where I was from?" —Hua Hsu
Places Journal@placesjournal.bsky.social · 4w agoRoute 85 now inspires dread in California commuters, but some will remember when it was a vision of the future. For those who grew up in Silicon Valley in the 1980s, change seemed self-evident. How often do we recognize the uniqueness of our circumstances? From New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu:
Route 85 now inspires dread in California commuters, but some will remember when it was a vision of the future. For those who grew up in Silicon Valley in the 1980s, change seemed self-evident. How often do we recognize the uniqueness of our circumstances? From New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu:
Silicon Valley Circuits
Route 85 in California now inspires dread. Some of us remember when it was a vision of the future.
placesjournal.org
"These museums will almost certainly be understood as a grand coda for the decline of the film industry. At the same time, many locals hope these projects will spark a renaissance of motion picture studios as a collective endeavor, and a renewed appreciation for LA’s centrality to this enterprise."
Museums and Megastructures
Los Angeles’s Academy Museum, Lucas Museum, and Geffen Galleries at LACMA test contemporary assumptions for museum design and the role of major cultural institutions.
placesjournal.org
“While we await their urban impacts, I’ll offer design verdicts: the Academy Museum delivers as promised. The Lucas takes the biggest risks, some of debatable urgency but laudable daring. And LACMA is a project for the ages, unless, somehow, its environs evolve to defy its masterful sight lines.”
Places Journal@placesjournal.bsky.social · last mo.Together, the Academy Museum, Lucas Museum & LACMA's Geffen Galleries — all in Los Angeles, all erected in the past five years, all gargantuan — test contemporary assumptions about museum design and the role of major cultural institutions. But are they what the city needs right now?
Less than three weeks left to apply for the latest round of the On the Brinck | Places Prize, our collaboration with the University of New Mexico School of Architecture & Planning, supporting ambitious public scholarship on the American Southwest. Submit by July 17, 2026. Application details here:
On the Brinck | Places Prize: Call for Proposals 2026
We are pleased to announce that proposals are now being accepted for the latest round of the On the Brinck | Places Prize. Applications due July 17, 2026.
placesjournal.org
"These museums gently pique their publics, not through ostentatious materials or seriousness of affect, but by going big and making a sport of art, or at least curious stadia of its venues ... tousling art world bobs and suburban mullets equally, if not lightly." Joe Day, on LA's newest museums:
Museums and Megastructures
Los Angeles’s Academy Museum, Lucas Museum, and Geffen Galleries at LACMA test contemporary assumptions for museum design and the role of major cultural institutions.
placesjournal.org
Together, the Academy Museum, Lucas Museum & LACMA's Geffen Galleries — all in Los Angeles, all erected in the past five years, all gargantuan — test contemporary assumptions about museum design and the role of major cultural institutions. But are they what the city needs right now?
Museums and Megastructures
Los Angeles’s Academy Museum, Lucas Museum, and Geffen Galleries at LACMA test contemporary assumptions for museum design and the role of major cultural institutions.
placesjournal.org
A trio of new museums in Los Angeles hovers between architecture and urbanism, art and entertainment. Together, the Academy Museum, Lucas Museum & LACMA's Geffen Galleries test contemporary assumptions about the role of cultural institutions. But are these gargantuan museums what the city needs now?
Museums and Megastructures
Los Angeles’s Academy Museum, Lucas Museum, and Geffen Galleries at LACMA test contemporary assumptions for museum design and the role of major cultural institutions.
placesjournal.org
This spring, our critics take on fascism at home, revolution in Black bookstores, climate change in augmented reality, gentrification as metaphor, and more, including a posthumous book by the historian James C. Scott. Read the latest edition of Bookshelf, our seasonal book review roundup:
Bookshelf: Spring 2026 | Book Reviews in Places Journal
Recent books on fascism at home, revolution in Black bookstores, climate change in augmented reality, gentrification as metaphor, and more.
placesjournal.org
"This design history of Mussolini’s Italy moves beyond the usual focus on monuments to show how fascism also took hold within the home ... The conversation it starts is important for anyone interested in examining historical and contemporary fascism." — Ecem Sarıçayır, review of "Furnishing Fascism"
Places Journal@placesjournal.bsky.social · 2mo ago"Bookshelf: Spring 2026" is here! Browse our seasonal roundup of reviews of recent books on buildings, landscapes, and cities. This spring, our critics’ roundtable takes on fascism at home, revolution in Black bookstores, climate change in augmented reality, gentrification as metaphor, and more.
"An essential reference for the design community and beyond, this volume responds to a growing urgency within our disciplines to develop the frameworks needed to pursue spatial justice. It’s a call for all of us in education to rethink our curricula." —Elgin Cleckley, review of "Spatial (In)Justice"
Places Journal@placesjournal.bsky.social · 2mo ago"Bookshelf: Spring 2026" is here! Browse our seasonal roundup of reviews of recent books on buildings, landscapes, and cities. This spring, our critics’ roundtable takes on fascism at home, revolution in Black bookstores, climate change in augmented reality, gentrification as metaphor, and more.
"This book is a resource for those looking to foster public design initiatives to reclaim spaces once dominated by Confederate monuments. Landscape-based narratives have caused harm, the authors show. Landscape-based narratives can heal, they promise." — Moriah Ulinskas, review of "Empty Pedestals"
Places Journal@placesjournal.bsky.social · 2mo ago"Bookshelf: Spring 2026" is here! Browse our seasonal roundup of reviews of recent books on buildings, landscapes, and cities. This spring, our critics’ roundtable takes on fascism at home, revolution in Black bookstores, climate change in augmented reality, gentrification as metaphor, and more.