The writing
Three pieces on the firm and nine on the buildings, written for this site, and then the channels where everything else appears.
Each building on this site has two or three pieces of its own here, and the firm has three. They are written in the same voice as everything else on this site and they keep to the same facts. What they add is the mechanism: how a decision on one of these buildings was actually reached, in the order it was reached.
111 West 57th Street
The Courtyard That Shaped 111 West 57th Street
Eleven links in one chain, 23 September 2026Why a narrow lot made a tall building, and the order everything else followed in.
Read the piece →Steinway Hall, Restored Element by Element
Eight elements, 23 September 2026Limestone, copper, a lantern and a gilded interior, restored inside the same job as the tower.
Read the piece →Building 111 West 57th Street Through One Opening
One continuous argument, 23 September 2026A site with no yard, a street that could not be one, and a hoist that set the schedule.
Read the piece →The Brooklyn Tower
The Brooklyn Tower Was Laid Out Around the Bank
Five levels, read upward, 23 September 2026Reading a supertall upward from the banking hall it was placed around.
Read the piece →Excavating Beside a Bank That Could Not Move
Six readings, 23 September 2026Prisms, tilt and cracks: what an excavation beside a landmark reads before it digs.
Read the piece →The American Copper Buildings
How the American Copper Buildings Skybridge Moves
Four things that cross the gap, 23 September 2026Four things had to cross a gap that opens and closes in the wind.
Read the piece →The Ground Under the American Copper Buildings
Two things the site asked, 23 September 2026A power plant site and a river, and the two projects that came before the towers.
Read the piece →Walker Tower
Walker Tower and the Frame Built for Machinery
Five gifts, five costs, 23 September 2026Five things a telephone exchange handed to its conversion, and the price of each.
Read the piece →Widening the Windows on a Ralph Walker Facade
Three trades, one decision, 23 September 2026One line on a drawing, three trades, and a facade that stayed Ralph Walker's.
Read the piece →JDS Development Group
Why JDS Development Group Builds What It Develops
Four objections, one turn, 23 September 2026Four objections to holding three functions in one company, and the one I cannot fully answer.
Read the piece →JDS Development Group Has No House Style
Seven practices, two cities, 23 September 2026Seven practices across two cities, chosen after each site had stated its problem.
Read the piece →The Landmark Is Part of the Job
Three cases, one rule, 23 September 2026Three designated structures and the rule that put each inside the scope.
Read the piece →Elsewhere, under the same name
Everything else I publish goes out on the channels below, under my own name, and none of it is repeated here.
Long form essays on how these buildings were solved
One piece at a time, at length, with the reasoning intact.
- The Order in Which a Project Becomes Legal
- What Slenderness Actually Costs a Floor Plate
- Building a Supertall Out of a Landmark Savings Bank
Shorter pieces, one constraint at a time
A single mechanism per post, on the site that carries his name.
- Why Floor Area Counts Differently Than It Measures
- Why Floor Height Is a Structural Decision in a Slender Tower
- What a Retained Facade Asks of the Structure Behind It
Mechanism by mechanism, written to be searched
The same subjects, structured for somebody arriving from a search.
- Why Excavation Beside a Landmark Is Designed Backward
- What a District Boundary Through a Lot Does to a Building
- Why Peer Review Is Bought on a Building With Few Precedents
Press profile and the subjects he covers
For anyone approaching him in a press capacity.
Open the channel →about.meA one page profile on about.me
Name, role and the firm, in one place.
Open the channel →CrunchbaseThe firm record on Crunchbase
JDS Development Group as an organisation.
Open the channel →LinkedInProfessional profile on LinkedIn
Career record and the firm.
Open the channel →JDS Development GroupJDS Development Group, the firm's own site
Projects, people and current work.
Open the channel →