Why do American cities feel less "alive" than their European counterparts?
It's because of something called the "missing middle".
A century ago, American cities looked completely different... (thread) 🧵
Millions make pilgrimages to Europe's centers every year. Architectural beauty is one thing, but they simply feel more vibrant and "alive" than American cities.
But why is that?
In the early 20th century, American cities were much like European ones. They had smaller footprints relative to population, and people lived centrally enough to walk or take elegant streetcars to work.
What happened? The "missing middle" was decimated...
Missing middle housing is simply medium-density housing that bridges the gap between single-family homes and high-rise apartments.
In America, there's very little in between.
Most American cities follow the same pattern: a cluster of downtown skyscrapers, then flat, urban sprawl for miles.
They're segmented between suburban areas where people live, and downtown areas where they work.
European cities have more medium-density areas that are mixed-use: people living, shopping, working and worshipping in the same place.
Urban communities come alive in these places.
Before the 1940s, US cities did have "middle" housing options that brought this gentle density — like the two-flats of Chicago or triple-deckers in Boston.
So what happened to America's missing middle?
Well, we demolished it — at least part of it.
From the 1940s, decades of freeway construction gutted many of these areas. Entire communities were displaced in places like Kansas City and Minneapolis.
Super highways cut through cities and shifted people out to suburbia. Inner city populations cratered:
521,000 lived in Minneapolis in 1950. This fell to 368k by the '90s, and never recovered (425k today).
This was the site of the new I-35W which gutted Minneapolis. It was decided that new highways must "go right through cities and not around them."
Then, car-friendly laws and strict zoning made it impossible to build anything other than single-family homes or downtown tower blocks.
In San José, 94% of residential land only allows single-family builds.
So, with everyone shifted to the suburbs, demand for places and amenities that create bustling urban communities evaporated — and everything got built around the motorcar.
Drive-thrus just don't do as much for the atmosphere as a cafe does in a local town square...
This wrecked America's urban fabric. Plus, suburban sprawl meant inner cities lost their tax bases and fell into spirals of decline.
Still, residential developers have no choice but to build single-family homes or downtown skyscrapers.
And towers don't fix anything — they're structures of inhuman scale that are even worse for community cohesion.
Changes are being made in some places. Minneapolis just relaxed its zoning laws to allow more multi-family homes to be built — but there's a lot left to do...
Restoring the missing middle might be the first step to recapturing that old vision of what American cities can be.
But can it ever undo the damage that was done?
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The 6th century Christ Pantocrator is the most recognized image of Jesus — but what about before then?
Well, that's where things get weird... (thread) 🧵
There are no physical descriptions of Christ in the Gospels. The first Christians were wary of idolatry and wanted to focus on his words and teachings.
But what do the earliest artistic depictions show us?
This is the Christ Pantocrator, a Byzantine icon kept in a small Mount Sinai monastery since the 6th century.
Its style (right hand raised, Bible in the left) became repeated around the world, and established his conventional appearance: bearded and long-haired.
You might recognize this as a movie set — it's actually a real place near Paris.
In the 1970s, one man had enough of modern architecture and did something radical.
He went back to Ancient Greece for inspiration... (thread) 🧵
It's called Les Espaces d'Abraxas, and it's unlike anything you've seen before.
It's a housing project built in the 1980s as a backlash against the dreary modernist blocks of the day...
After WW2, cheap, rectangular housing blocks addressed the need to build rapidly across Europe.
Modernism was the dominant style and most new Parisian suburbs were like this: tower blocks built with seemingly little regard for what it's like to live in them.
In 1685, someone painted this "3D" fresco in Rome — a masterpiece of Baroque art.
But what was the point of decorating buildings so lavishly?
It wasn't just to show off. It was believed that people could be transported by images... (thread) 🧵
In the 15th century, the printing press put translated copies of the Bible into people's hands across Europe.
Those who had previously relied on the Catholic Church to interpret it for them now argued the Church had taken too much liberty with the original text.
Martin Luther and John Calvin argued against things like the sale of indulgences, deciding it was time to get back to the text itself.
Religious art — of Jesus, Mary and the saints — became seen as unnecessary and idolatrous.
Hell has 9 descending circles — each corresponding to how severe your sins are.
The deeper you go, the worse things get.
This 700-year-old poem guides you through it... (thread) 🧵
In 1314, a poet imagined Hell like nobody before: a series of circles deep below ground, where things get worse the deeper you go.
Dante's Inferno (part of the Divine Comedy) takes him on a journey to the bottom with his guide, Virgil.
Why take this journey?
Dante explains he's drifting from the correct path of life. The only way to get back is by first traveling through Hell. Inscribed on the gate he enters: