NORTHERN STAR

Creating dramatic architecture can be challenging in icy climates where people insist first on protection from the elements and satisfy their taste for beauty through the natural environment. So the urban landscapes in central Alaska have tended to remain simple and resilient — until recently. Now, in a collaboration between Minnesota firm Hammel, Green and Abrahamson Architects and Fairbanks firm GDM, the expansion of the University of Alaska's Museum of the North has broken with this tradition and created a stunning building that has captured international attention (photo by Nic Lehoux Photography). Next week journalist Jo Baker will show us around.

FIELD GUIDE TO SPRAWL

Words such as "city," "suburb," and "countryside" no longer capture the reality of real estate development in the United States. Most Americans inhabit complex metropolitan landscapes layered with tracts, strips, malls, office parks, and highways. Widespread dissatisfaction with speculative building notwithstanding, these replacements for traditional neighborhoods require their own descriptive vocabulary. Next week urban historian and architect Dolores Hayden will give us words to describe a few kinds of sprawl (photo by Jim Wark).