THE GREAT AMERICAN MAIN STREET

In the digital age, businesses come and go in the blink of an eye. But across the United States, towns large and small are rediscovering their commercial districts, building a solid economic base to ensure a prosperous future. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has announced five winners of Great American Main Street Awards, towns lauded for their commercial district revitalization efforts. One of them, Danville, Kentucky, has kept its downtown character intact by resisting sprawl and creating incentives to keep small businesses on Main Street.

THE NEW AMERICAN HOUSE 3

Marlon Blackwell is a rising star architect who lives and practices in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He is one of 30 showcased in the latest edition of The New American House. In the words of the publisher, Watson-Guptill Publications, "architects working at the beginning of the new millennium are looking anew at modernist plan types and styles, taking advantage of new and lighter building materials, and working with a fresh range of colors to enhance the sense of space in a wide variety of residential building types." Next week we'll look into this book and observe Blackwell's approach to this new modernism.

TEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE IN MANHATTAN

Twice a year since 1993, "New York Mercedes Benz Fashion Week" has been housed in a short-lived tent structure in a park in midtown Manhattan. This prefabricated facility is constructed in twelve days and stays open for only nine. Yet it holds four world class theaters, a showcase lobby, and numerous ancillary support spaces totally 65,000 square feet (6000 square meters). Next week, Andrew Formichella, of A Form Architecture PC, explains how this lesson in design and logistics has been providing his firm with insights to other potential applications and historical references.