Karrie Jacobs

New York

Writer and Editor at Freelance

Writer: architecture, design, cities. I follow people who tell me things I don't already know. Bluesky:@karrieurbanist.bsky.social & Threads: karrieurbanist.

Featured in: Favicon

curbed.com Favicon

metropolismag.com Favicon

architectmagazine.com Favicon

hemispheresmag.com Favicon

untappedjournal.com Favicon

elledecor.com Favicon

msn.com

latimes.com Favicon

dwell.com

eyemagazine.com + 2 more

Articles

Norman Foster’s 270 Park and the Rise of the New Office Building

1 week ago | thenation.com | Karrie Jacobs

Books & the Arts / June 16, 2025 Cubicles in the Sky Norman Foster’s 270 Park and the rise of the new office building. Norman Foster’s 270 Park and the Rise of the New Office BuildingThe building’s dramatic and dazzling feats of architecture make it appear as if it were hovering above the street. But is that a good thing? Ad Policy 270 Park Avenue in New York City. (Spencer Platt / Getty images) This article appears in the July/August 2025 issue.
How Should Los Angeles Rebuild After the Fires?

1 month ago | thenation.com | Karrie Jacobs

In the Aftermath Rebuilding Los Angeles after the fires. How Should Los Angeles Rebuild After the Fires? In the aftermath of this year’s catastrophic fires, architects and urban planners begin to consider how to rebuild. Ad Policy Altadena, California, after the January 2025 fires. (Brandon Bell / Getty Images) This article appears in the June 2025 issue.
How Atlanta Became a Walkable City

Mar 17, 2025 | thenation.com | Karrie Jacobs

Books & the Arts / March 17, 2025 Sunbelt Ringstrasse Atlanta’s Beltline and the effort to re-create pedestrian cities. How Atlanta Became a Walkable City The Beltline and Georgia’s experiment in pedestrian spaces. Ad Policy A restaurant on Atlanta’s BeltLine trail.(John Greim / Getty) This article appears in the April 2025 issue. To me, Atlanta has long been the invisible city.
Can New York’s Most Famous Street be Turned into a Park?

Oct 29, 2024 | thenation.com | Karrie Jacobs

Books & the Arts / October 29, 2024 Can New York’s Most Famous Street be Turned into a Park? The effort to transform Broadway into a pedestrian space.
The Battle to Remake Gowanus Canal

Jul 29, 2024 | thenation.com | Karrie Jacobs

Thank you for reading The NationWe hope you enjoyed the story you just read, just one of the many incisive, deeply-reported articles we publish daily. Now more than ever, we need fearless journalism that shifts the needle on important issues, uncovers malfeasance and corruption, and uplifts voices and perspectives that often go unheard in mainstream media.
What’s the Deal With Manhattan’s Pencil-Thin High Rises?

Jun 3, 2024 | thenation.com | Karrie Jacobs

Dear reader,I hope you enjoyed the article you just read. It’s just one of the many deeply-reported and boundary-pushing stories we publish everyday at The Nation. In a time of continued erosion of our fundamental rights and urgent global struggles for peace, independent journalism is now more vital than ever. As a Nation reader, you are likely an engaged progressive who is passionate about bold ideas. I know I can count on you to help sustain our mission-driven journalism.
An Ode to Garages

Jun 3, 2024 | untappedjournal.com | Edwin Heathcote |Karrie Jacobs |Jarrett Fuller |Charlie Weak

One of my earliest memories is of my grandpa Jim, my mom’s dad, helping me build a pinewood derby racer in his garage in Juniata, Nebraska. I vaguely remember him showing me how he used an old band saw and belt sander to shape the racer’s aerodynamic body, whittling down compartments under the nose to fit weights so that the car would accelerate more rapidly.
In Search of Domestic Kintsugi

May 28, 2024 | untappedjournal.com | Edwin Heathcote |Karrie Jacobs |Jarrett Fuller |Eva Hagberg

In 1972, construction workers were finishing off the last elements of a remarkable new building in Tokyo. The Nakagin Capsule Tower was a space-age construction, a tall pile of seemingly random arranged concrete boxes, each perforated by a single porthole window, rising above the crowded streets of Ginza like a Brutalist stack of Lego. The following year, workers began dismantling the wooden structures of the Grand Shrine of Ise, a couple of hundred miles to the west of Tokyo.
The Perils of the Landscapes We Make

May 6, 2024 | untappedjournal.com | Karrie Jacobs |Jarrett Fuller |Eva Hagberg |George Kafka

Roughly a decade ago, I interviewed an engineer named David Winter about the trio of newly constructed hills on Governors Island. Today the hills, thick with vegetation, look like they’ve always been there.
We Check in With Dwell’s First Editor-in-Chief About a House 20 Years in the Making

Mar 8, 2024 | dwell.com | Karrie Jacobs

View 13 PhotosThe seed of an idea planted when Karrie Jacobs helped start our publication finally comes to fruition in her own Catskills home. View 13 PhotosFrom where I sit when I write, I can see the hamlet of Andes, New York, a small town (population 1,301) nestled between steep hills. This house I share with my husband, Ed Kratt, sits near the top of one of those hills, on roughly 50 acres that were once part of a dairy farm.