A Meditation on Building

By DAVID W. ORR

In the United States and many other parts of the world, people with enough money can build whatever they choose. Zoning laws and various land-use restrictions are more often than not simply paper barriers, permeable by those with enough cash to buy connections. So deals are cut, and casinos spring up in places like mangrove wetlands along the Mississippi coast — gambling with nature, which owns the house, so to speak.

Highways crash through prime woodlands. Suburban housing

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First Person

4 Rules of Lateness
Notes From Academe

Coal Into Honey
Commentary

Skeptical of Slippage

Past Coverage

Teaching Design That Goes From Cradle to Cradle - July 23, 2004
Green Building at Oberlin Is a New Dream House for Environmental Studies - January 21, 2000
Tropical Forests and the Human Effect - July 6, 2001
Life in the Lap of Luxury as Ecosystems Collapse - July 30, 1999
A Renovation for the U. of Michigan and a New Building for Central Michigan U. - September 23, 2009

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