American Dirt.

Decorating early: since Labor Day doesn’t have a visual, it’s time to say BOO.

Brookfield Park, where porous pavement meets a new enemy: the human foot.

Destination parks: the reviving yin to a small town’s yang?

Wheeling University: tiny schools trim their budgets, then their lawns.

Columbus Riverfront: a city known for its buildings tries to design water.

Hybrid strip mall: a retail/wholesale beast in the suburban jungle.

Great American State Fair: a retrospective montage ~250 hours later.

Beatley Library: is lounging with a magazine in 2026 what we call “post-postmodern”?

Downtown Tempe sprouts a new skyline of its own, but where’s the street energy?

Silver Avenue SE in Albuquerque: a bike boulevard with bones…and a bark (and a bite).

Ethnic news rack: it’ll survive as long as there’s a fish to wrap.

Sideways subdivision: Sin City homebuilders find new ways to pack ‘em in.

Turnstile jumping: a mundane crime faces new hurdles in effective prevention.

Sedona strip mall: a business incubator can’t count its chicks before they hatch.

Clifton, Virginia: a rail town alerts suburbanites to the hazards of its history.

Capitol complex: Arizona rolls out the green carpet for postcard views. But at a price.

Underground garage design: if it’s bad, it has the battle scars to show it.

Interpretive sign at Badwater Basin: flinging salt on a geopolitical wound.

Tread strips: on stairways, fools rush in, when angels fear to intervene.

Mid-century signage: seven-decade survival on a sleepy Sonoran street.

On-street parking restriction: if it looks funny, it probably doesn’t come from the City (which is humorless).

Marley Station: beloved dead mall shines neon on a new culprit. (MONTAGE)

Ukrop’s: an old Richmond family grocer re-enters the market. As a real estate developer.

Chain restaurant architecture: years after closure, the branding stamp remains.

Kaufman’s cladding is coming down in Wheeling.  Here’s what it reveals.

New stop sign: is it engineering?  Planning?  Marketing?

Treacherous stairway: do civic structures sacrifice safety for showiness?

Bailey’s Crossroads might sound like “cow country”. But the only cows nearby are between two slices of bread.

Downtown Billings housing: a humble mid-rise is still a start.

Dead-end exit lane: when a road is not a street.  (Or an alley.  Or a stroad.)

Potty paucity: private providers offer relief to those who need to relieve themselves.

Martinsburg snowmen: a decorative effort that pays for itself.

The Spot: a strip mall food hall that might defy the odds.

Old Town Greenwood: in 2016, is it finally ready for the urban glow-up?

Dying wing in a healthy mall: the Sears phenom all over again?

Panic buying: when winter gusts blow the food right off the shelves.

Artifacts along the PA Turnpike: a busy travel path shows how rural America does not (and must not) change easily.

Drugstore clinics: bringing health care to the spot where we buy $8 milk?

Competitive rest area: fodder fodder everywhere, but not a drop to drink!

Gym reinvention: because how people work it (and twerk it) affects the bottom line.

Commercial conversion from home to monastery? Really makes you rub the Chin.

Lodging crisis?  No problem!  Let’s cut a hotel out of a cornfield.

A tale of two tunnels: how an obsolete rail tunnel in VA and SC became a modern quirky amenity.

Outdoor deck at an airport: they can be great. So why so uncommon?

Eastgate Shopping Center: getting ready for The (chopping) Block.

Montana State Capitol: in small, remote cites, the front yard is the state’s ballroom gown.

Art installation at a Starbucks: as unique as the tragedy it commemorates. Yet also typical.

Dunbar, West Virginia: the least effective pedestrianized downtown ever?

The lapse lingers a little longer.

Famous flight of stairs: how a horror classic spawned an ascendent DC attraction. (Even if the movie depicts a descent.)

Hagerman, Idaho: a farm town punching above its tourist weight class. Would you vacation there?

Two Sides of Main Street: South Carolina’s capitol blocks an artery.  One side gets gangrene.

Contraflow: a forced one-way street can promote safety or confusion.  Context is key.

The Block closed: another once-lucrative food hall clears the way for a higher use.

Misattributed quotation on a campus carving: did the correction only complicate it?

Tiny manufactureds in Boise: trailers or tiny homes?  Both?  Neither?

Rural single-screen: how does the Clayton Theatre in Dagsboro, Delaware survive 75 years?

White-on-blue directional signs: they might be everywhere, but are they a gold standard?

Campus creep: when a large, rooted institution needs to grow…there goes the neighborhood.

Williamsburg restrooms: how the colonists did—and still do—their business.

Animal accommodations: in the Reflecting Pool, everything is (fiscally) ducky.

Flying projectiles and French pastries: not exactly a familiar pairing!

Good from all angles? Why the Murat Temple (Old National) in Indy gets a pass.

Back entrance: why some big buildings beautify their butts.