In this age of information, the slow and the still, the 'holy and the firm' are at risk. Whatever we call it--infrastructure, architecture, urban beauty--we are free-riding on the efforts of our fathers to make cities places to be proud of. Swept into our satellite- and cable-fed digital dreams, tied together by wire and radio waves, we are increasingly deaf to the value of a cared-for and life-affirming physical environment and increasingly blind to the harm its decline is doing us. Behind all this, it is often said, lie changing 'values' and the 'laws of economics.' This tenth volume of Center: Architecture and Design in America goes back to the basics, exploring the theme of economic value, its nature and relationship to other values, to what we do, and ultimately to what and how we build. Center 11 will continue the theme.
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