Alison Iven Alison Iven

What I ready today April 3

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What I read today April 1

Pinterest brings a phone-free festival experience to Coachella, Pinterest

  • There are events that are phone free and my boyfriend keeps telling me the Masters tournament in Augusta too - are we hearing anything from clients with a similar message of phone free environment? like there's been a trend to do Instagram walls and i was wondering if there is a trend the other direction - like are we too chronically online that we're now designing spaces to unplug (perhaps beyond wellness)

A Generation Homesick for a World They Never Knew, The Next Big Think

  • What [Gen Z is] abandoning is the idea that social has to be the center of gravity for everything.

  • Social media didn’t just reduce our time together. It flattened the texture of how we connect. Everything got optimized- the photo, the caption, the timing of the post. And when you optimize human connection, you sand off exactly the parts that make it feel human.

If you have good taste and excellent discernment, this is your time to shine., Design Observer

Two Former USPS Facilities Now Have Massive Rooftop Gardens, Metropolis

  • “red maples, London plane, and tulip trees that are expected to reach heights and widths of 40 to 50 feet.” — incredibly impressive infastructure/structural engineering to hold up these large trees and all the soil required for them (coming from a

How Scotts Miracle-Gro evolves marketing as gardening goes year-round, Marketing Dive

  • Scotts Miracle-Gro recently secured the naming rights to the soccer stadium where the Columbus Crew play. — “Playing on real natural grass is a sweet spot for the Scotts brands.” — interesting take and makes way more sense having seen the giant grow lights at the stadium

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What I read March 23

"In 2016, there was no way any of us could have charged for a link round-up.”

  • Frankly, in 2016 there is no way any of us could have charged money for a link round-up! I honestly still think it’s a bit of a weird thing. But now the act of recommendation/curation is a real, undeniable service. So I suppose people are happily paying up for the pleasure of not binge-reading Twitter anymore. It used to be like “please show me cool things!” Now it’s like “I will protect you from the horrors and also endless choice.”

What Happened When a MAHA Activist and a Yale Scientist Worked Together, NY Times

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What I read March 23

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what i read today March 14

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What I read today March 9

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What I read today Feb 27

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What I read today Feb 16

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What I read today Jan 30, 2026

Schools, airports, high-rise towers: architects urged to get ‘bamboo-ready’, The Guardian

  • replacing mass timber as the thing to talk about?

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What I read today Jan 19 2026

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What I read today Nov 6, 2025

‘I Love It Here’: This Former Mortuary Is Taking New Residents, NYT

  • comment gold here: It's worth noting that commercial-to-residential conversions work best with buildings built before air-conditioning. This is because AC-allowed commercial buildings to become thicker/further from windows. Residential floorplans with super-deep units and multiple windowless rooms don't work/sell. Older buildings were built for natural light and natural ventilation.

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What I read today Oct 9

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What I read today Oct 1

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What I read today Sept 8

Verdigris: The Color of Oxidation, Statues, and Impermanence, The Paris Review

Lately, I’ve found myself becoming increasingly skeptical about the value of authenticity as a goal. According to the logic of our time, it is important to be “real”. What is real? Real is authentic, unadorned, unchanged. Often, the “real” meaning is the primary one. What something “really” means is what it meant, according to traditionalists. This argument has big implications when it’s applied to things like the Bible or the Constitution. When applied to art, the stakes are much lower. But the logic still feels strange. It discourages appreciation for change, for the slow evolution of things.

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What I read today Aug 27

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What I read today Aug 25

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What I read today July 31

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What I read today July 21

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What I read today July 1

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What I read today June 30

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