Author Archives: Charles

Meet the Straphanger tonight in Vancouver

By Charles | May 7, 2012

Taras Grescoe is a self-proclaimed straphanger:  He adores public transit so much, he spent the last couple of years riding systems around the world, from Bogota to Moscow. The resulting book–titled Straphanger, of course–is equal parts travelogue and manifesto. For Grescoe, the public bus is no Loser Cruiser. He argues… continue reading →

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Evolution, brain science and urban activism: vignettes from the BGLab

By Charles | November 15, 2011

The lessons from our three months of experimentation and learning at the BGLab in NYC are still percolating. I’ve been too consumed with book revisions and presentations (including the keynote at this year’s ASLA convention–a fairly messy writeup of which is here) to collect my thoughts. Although our workshops and… continue reading →

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Experimenting with the emotional city in NYC

By Charles | September 20, 2011

The city is a behavioral system. It alters how we feel, how we see each other, and how we act. This would be a terrible thought if it were not for a second truth, which is that the city is malleable. We can change it whenever we wish. These are the… continue reading →

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Experiment launches today: join us in NYC

By Charles | August 4, 2011

After months of effort by a cast of dozens, The BMW Guggenheim Lab has  opened in NYC. Now that we’ve christened the space with a first-class shindig (observed critically here) the lab team will spend the next three months conducting experiments, playing games, exploring unseen systems, fighting and confronting ideas of comfort… continue reading →

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The altruism dividend: a lesson from my brother

By Charles | June 5, 2011

What’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned in my research looking at cities and happiness? It’s that the our relationships with other people matter more than money, status or beauty. In fact, my friend Elizabeth Dunn showed in her work that money has the most power to buy happiness when you… continue reading →

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A radical collaboration: the BMW Guggenheim Lab

By Charles | May 7, 2011

Earlier this spring, curators at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum put five strangers from different countries and different disciplines in a room in New York, and asked us to think about what it means to be comfortable in cities. I’ll share more about this collaboration between a dizzying collection of… continue reading →

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