Michael Sorkin

Architecture Critic

Michael Sorkin (1948–2020) was Principal of the Michael Sorkin Studio, a global design practice working at all scales with a special interest in the city and green architecture; President and founder of Terreform, a non-profit institute dedicated to research into the forms and practices of just and sustainable urbanism; and Co-President of the Forum and Institute for Urban Design. He was Distinguished Professor of Architecture and Director of the Graduate Program in Urban Design at CCNY, author or editor of numerous books on architecture and urbanism, and architecture critic for The Nation. In 2013, he won the National Design Award as “Design Mind.”

ArchitectureMay 21, 2014

Good Enough?

The amount of affordable housing in New York City is shrinking, and Mayor de Blasio’s development plans might not reverse the trend.

Michael Sorkin
ArchitectureApril 2, 2014

What’s Behind the ‘Poor Door’?

Inclusionary zoning laws are among the few tools left to ensure the creation of affordable housing.

Michael Sorkin
ArchitectureFebruary 19, 2014

Big MoMA’s House

MoMA’s new expansion plans represent avant-gardism at its most deracinated.

Michael Sorkin
ArchitectureFebruary 4, 2014

Bull in China’s Shop

The urbanization of China and infusion of Western forms amounts to a second Cultural Revolution.

Michael Sorkin
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ArchitectureDecember 18, 2013

The Fungibility of Air

Real estate has become an extractive industry, mining the air for property.

Michael Sorkin
November 19, 2013

Exchange: Trials and Designs

Bing Wang and Michael Sorkin
ArchitectureOctober 8, 2013

Presidents and Libraries

A blueprint for the Barack Obama presidential library.

Michael Sorkin
September 18, 2013

Marshall Berman 1940–2013

No one has been more loving or lucid in his depiction, criticism and celebration of urbanity.

Michael Sorkin
ArchitectureAugust 27, 2013

Drawing the Line: Architects and Prisons

A call for architects to refuse to design chambers of living death.

Michael Sorkin
ArchitectureJuly 2, 2013

Ground Zero Sum

The architecture of the new World Trade Center buildings emphasizes that their business is none of ours.

Michael Sorkin