Inside Johannesburg’s infamous Ponte City Tower shaped by apartheid, urban decay and renewal. Before arriving at Ponte City Tower, my taxi driver spent the ride warning me how dangerous the neighborhood was. Even in daylight, he said, he disliked driving through the area known as… Read More »Inside Ponte City Tower
The first part of my trip to South Africa was spent exploring Cape Town. My friend Robynne, who now lives in London, is from there and was back visiting her parents before the wedding and my friend Nicara, just moved back to Durban. We decided… Read More »Exploring Cape Town: Things to do and Impressions
My trip to South Africa almost didn’t happen. Between a war rerouting flights through the Middle East and unpaid TSA agents walking off the job, I didn’t know if I was even going to be able to get out of New York. I had been… Read More »South Africa: Getting There & Back
My goal was to pass all the architecture licensure exams (AREs) by my birthday last September. That didn’t happen. After my two-week whirlwind of taking all six exams last May, I took a week or two off and restarted studying on weekends starting May 31st,… Read More »On the Path to Architect Licensure: Taking the AREs, Again
New Museum Extension (Toby Devan Lewis Building) How can a building be so new, but at the same time feel so old? That’s what the extension to the New Museum, designed by OMA, feels like. Closed for the last few years, it opened to the… Read More »New, Already Old Museum
For the last few years, my aunt and uncle have rented a house in Palm Springs. My family members have joined them, but I’ve never had the chance until this year. It was my first time going to Palm Springs and my second time going… Read More »Mid-Century Modern Haven: Palm Springs
Walking around Bed Stuy East of Pratt, you notice a clear departure from the classic Brooklyn brownstone architecture. The facades feel busier. The details feel added rather than original and the architecture speaks a different language. That’s because this area overlaps with a large Hasidic… Read More »Hasidic Architecture in Bed Stuy
Every year, my goal is to read 52 books. 52 books for 52 weeks of the year. This year I came up 10 short. The first few months of the year were consumed by studying for the AREs (blog post). From January 20th until the… Read More »Reading Resolutions: A Reflection of 2025 Reads
Moving In From the time I graduated in May 2024 until September 2025, I was living at my parents’ house on Long Island. Thankfully, I have parents who were willing to have a 34-year-old around their house for a year. It wasn’t easy, as I’ve… Read More »From Living at Home to Living in NYC
A few weekends ago was the NYC Marathon and my new apartment is right on the marathon route. We had front row seats as thousands of runners, who had been training all year, flew and sometimes walked by. We even got to see the elite… Read More »Marathon Day in NYC