Human Environment
Public and private places and buildings, including cities, monuments, parks and reservations
How to Assemble a Giant
A new museum exhibit presents one of the largest dinosaurs ever found
June 18, 2012 |
By Brian Switek
Googie: Architecture of the Space Age
The futurist design movement that divided critics and and swept the nation with space age coffee shops.
June 15, 2012 |
By Matt Novak
A Toast to the Astoria Hotel in St. Petersburg, Russia
A Russian icon in the Art Nouveau style on St. Isaac‘s Square near the Neva River, the Astoria evokes a Belle Époque world gone by
June 13, 2012 |
By Susan Spano
Can Brown Bears Survive in the Pyrenees?
The keepers of sheep and cows helped eliminate the Pyrenean brown bear in the first place, and shepherds are not thrilled to see France's largest predator return
June 12, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
Prospero’s Island in the South Pacific
Was it Bermuda—or the dreamy French Polynesian island of Huahine—that inspired the setting for Shakespeare's The Tempest?
June 11, 2012 |
By Susan Spano
A Serious Look at Funny Faces
A history of caricatures exposes the inside jokes
June 08, 2012 |
By Henry Adams
Jaipur via The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
A delightful new film takes viewers to India’s picturesque western state of Rajasthan
June 07, 2012 |
By Susan Spano
On the Cheese Trail in the Pyrenees
Make a fuss in the road and stomp your feet, and someone will appear. Spit out some gibberish about “fromage a vendre,” and that should do it. You'll get your cheese
June 07, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
1923 Envisions the Two-Wheeled Flying Car of 1973
As cars got larger in the 1920s, the "Helicar" was presented as the solution to congested city streets
June 06, 2012 |
By Matt Novak
Passion in the Poconos
Home of the heart-shaped tub, the Pennsylvania mountains once rivaled Niagara Falls as a honeymoon destination
June 01, 2012 |
By Susan Spano
Sharing Pork Chops With Jackson Pollock
Richard Field was an undergrad with gumption when he visited the painter at his Long Island home. Nearly 60 years later, Field recalls the memorable affair
June 01, 2012 |
By Henry Adams
The New Hot Item on the Housing Market: Bomb Shelters
The cold war may be over, but sales of a new breed of bomb shelter are on the rise. Prepare to survive Armageddon in style
June 2012 |
By Abigail Tucker
Where Lance Remains the King
Among the peaks, cirques and summits of the French Pyrenees, the greeting call to an American on a bike may always be "Armstrong!"
May 31, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
Sleep Like a Pauper, Eat Like a King
Between grocery stores, wine shops, artisan bakeries and farm stands, I regain each calorie I burn in style and taste
May 29, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
“I Was Looking Forward to a Quiet Old Age”
Instead, Etta Shiber, a widow and former Manhattan housewife, helped smuggle stranded Allied soldiers out of Nazi-occupied in Paris
May 25, 2012 |
By Karen Abbott
Big Things Ahead… But Keep Your Shirt On
Americans in the 1940s had wondrous expectations about the post-war world. Meet one author who advised them to curb their enthusiasm
May 25, 2012 |
By Matt Novak
Where Did Jackson Pollock Get His Ideas?
A talented painter who died poor and forgotten may have inspired the influential American artist's work in ceramics
May 24, 2012 |
By Henry Adams
Tasting France’s Finest Wines
Sauternes is a cute little village near Bordeaux that would likely have been just another manure-splattered cow town if dumb luck, microclimatology and royal wineries had not showered the region in fortunes
May 24, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
Resistance to Nazis in a Land Riddled with Caves
We wondered if the cave's tenants cooked inside or out, if they peered down at the valley and if they wrapped all glassware and metal in cloth to prevent reflective giveaways to the Nazis below
May 22, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
A Medieval Castle in the Making
The construction of a medieval fortress in France is answering important questions about 13th-century building techniques
May 21, 2012 |
By Susan Spano
