Thresholds Revisited: Ghost Wards: The Flight of Capital from History

Mitchell Schwarzer’s 1998 essay highlights urban landscapes of the United Stated ruptured by development models prioritizing speed and newness. Schwarzer explains that capitalism’s aversion to history, and the ease with which the social and economic culture of the United States facilitates this flight from the past, results in an urban environment marked by historical dislocation. In revisiting the original text, Schwarzer reflects on the historical particularities of urban development in the United States while James Heard offers additional commentary tying historic preservation to the formalization of financial logic. Together, the pair ask a simple question: what does money have to do with architecture? MITCHELL SCHWARZER IN CONVERSATION WITH JAMES HEARD