Mark Hinshaw

Mark Hinshaw is a retired architect and city planner who lived in Seattle for more than 40 years. For 12 years he had a regular column on architecture for The Seattle Times and later was a frequent contributor to Crosscut. He now lives in a small hill town in Italy.

The Year of Living Pandemically — Italian-Style

The First Wave of Covid hit like a freight train. Then came a second wave, even worse. But the government has adapted and neighbors have turned out to help small businesses.

Working with the Land: New In US, Centuries-in-the-Making in Italy

The practices that seemed dramatically innovative in the U.S. have been in use for centuries here. One simply does not build inside, or near, a floodplain.

Can Weyerhaeuser’s Iconic HQ be Saved and Repurposed?

While most of the old Weyerhaeuser campus in Federal Way could well be demolished and replaced with pedestrian commercial uses, this building could instead be re-purposed and acquire a new life.

Is that all there is? Bellingham’s Attempt to Reclaim its Waterfront

These ambitious waterfront projects normally deploy the resources of large cities. Even then, as in Seattle, these efforts are littered with setbacks, political stumbles, litigation, and misguided public-sector largesse.

Postcard from Italy: A Town of Music

The couple is determined to make the best of the limitations imposed during the pandemic. With performance venues closed, they have turned to the medium of the internet.

Italian Diary: View from a Cold December

Although there is a modest ant-vax movement in Italy, it doesn’t seem to feed itself on fantastical conspiracy theories about Bill Gates’ plans for world domination, 5G towers, and nefarious nanotechnologies. Since Italians appreciate their medical system, they trust their doctors to offer sound advice.

Letter from Italy: Another Lockdown — Mezza Mezza

We are not homebound. We get all our daily needs met by the shops within our village. There is none of the toilet paper shelf-clearing that appears to be happening in the U.S. again. Deliveries happen every day; we have noticed no big change in the availability of goods and services.

‘The 15-Minute City’: Desirable, But Not So Easy To Pull Off

In fact, this kind of community was built in many places in North America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were called Streetcar Suburbs.

Taken for a Walk: The Mythologies of Car-free Communities

The New York Times recently featured a development project in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area that claims it will be car-free. Its future 1000 residents will be provided with...

Letter from Italy: A Deflated Country Locks Down Again

One friend in the Italian countryside represents the generation that feels like their formative years of socializing and dating are being stunted. He may put on smiling face but he is noticeably distraught.

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