F. Philip Barash works to shape more vibrant and just places.

Through journalistic and narrative writing, I expose stories about the changing American landscape. By facilitating urban planning projects, I contribute to shared places and social infrastructures of communities. And in my public curatorial and teaching practice, I engage contemporary issues that affect the built and natural environments.

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Common themes across my work include architecture and landscape, placemaking and public art, community engagement and civic projects, and equity and spatial justice.

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Philip Barash 10/16/21 Philip Barash 10/16/21

Obama Presidential Center: guiding principles for a future landmark

Before a center dedicated to the legacy of the first African-American President could become a reality, it required multiple stakeholders to share a unified vision. A Request for Proposals signaled clear intentions and an ambitious vision.

Philip Barash 10/14/21 Philip Barash 10/14/21

OlmstedNow: an inclusive vision for the greater Boston Olmsted bicentennial

Frederick Law Olmsted is central to how we think about and use public spaces. Ahead of his bicentennial, ideas about shared places, shared wellness, and shared power are central to a public engagement campaign.

Philip Barash 10/13/21 Philip Barash 10/13/21

How an equitable place governance pilot in Boston is shifting power balances

If Boston has any hope of altering development dynamics to center community interest and spatial justice, we need to continue shifting the power balance.

Philip Barash 10/12/21 Philip Barash 10/12/21

ONGOING | An expanded vision for coastal resiliency in New England

A climate change consortium is scaling up its vision for coastal resilience and environmental justice.

Philip Barash 10/7/21 Philip Barash 10/7/21

The state of art with the statesman of architecture: Stanley Tigerman on the Chicago Architecture Biennial

The Chicago Architecture Biennial recently announced a theme for its inaugural year. The theme, “The State of the Art of Architecture,” pays homage to a landmark 1977 conference organized by architect Stanley Tigerman at the Graham Foundation for the Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

Philip Barash 10/7/21 Philip Barash 10/7/21

Charlestown Navy Yard: visitor-centered vision for transforming an iconic site

An iconic national park, Charlestown Navy Yard is a rich site of intersecting histories of independence, power, race, and labor. Today, it is reinvigorating its storytelling and visitor engagement approach.

Philip Barash 10/6/21 Philip Barash 10/6/21

The new park in the park: musings on Maggie Daley Park

Maggie Daley Park, and others like it, teach the vogue curriculum of creativity and innovation. But the older parks had their own pedagogical approach. They were a Cliff’s Notes of the urban experience, a compressed and variegated lesson in history, social class, real estate economics, race and anatomy.

Philip Barash 10/6/21 Philip Barash 10/6/21

Some barbarian or another is always at the gate

Design swept the 20th century like an invading horde. It leveled craft guilds and their stratified structures of apprenticeships. It endangered masons and clothiers and ironsmiths and poets by demystifying production. It shattered the idea of the artist, the genius, the creator, the One, in favor of a repeatable universe of objects, images, and places, without an end in sight.

Philip Barash 10/5/21 Philip Barash 10/5/21

Designer of the moment: Sarah Herda, director of the Graham Foundation and co-curator of the Chicago Architecture Biennial

Sarah Herda set out to become an architect. That she didn’t turns out for the best: a series of high-profile gigs, culminating with the Graham Foundation, have marked Herda’s march toward the intellectual center of design. When the first architecture biennial in North America launches in October, Herda will have finally arrived at her destination.

Philip Barash 10/3/21 Philip Barash 10/3/21

Stakes — and payoff — for Chicago’s architecture biennial are sky-high

The city's image as an architect-maker isn’t just a bit of local lore. It gives Chicago-based architecture firms a marginal advantage when they compete for work overseas. In an international real estate marketplace, being a Chicago firm is shorthand for something important.

Philip Barash 9/30/21 Philip Barash 9/30/21

Open House Chicago: citywide festival of architecture and community

A free-of-charge festival of architecture and community spaces, Open House Chicago is a highlight of the city’s calendar. The Chicago event reinvented the traditional festival model by partnering with community-based organizations on planning, governance, and public education.