POSTCARD FROM THE CYCLADES Dear ArchitectureWeek, Traveling in the Greek Isles often entails long trips on a ferry. Any tedium, however, in a journey through the Cyclades is amply offset by gorgeous views of passing islands, each dotted with tableaus of striking white, boxlike buildings. In port towns, these buildings generally stand out as individual cuboids with streets and alleys between them. — Published 2004.0915
	POSTCARD FROM OVIEDO Dear ArchitectureWeek, With its 263-foot- (80-meter-) high spire visible from most parts of town, La Catedral de Oviedo serves as a city symbol and directional landmark in the heart of Oviedo, Spain (not to be confused with Orvieto, Italy!). The cathedral stands on one side of a historic square with government buildings lining the other sides. The street is closed to motor vehicles, but is always busy with pedestrians. The church continues to hold services and is a popular site for weddings and baptisms. — Published 2004.0818
	POSTCARD FROM VARANASI Dear ArchitectureWeek, Hindu legend says Varanasi is the city of Shiva, founded at the dawn of creation. History says it is one of the world's oldest living cities with a continuous religious, cultural, and intellectual tradition going back to the 6th century BC. Mark Twain said during a visit: "Benaras is older than history, older than tradition, older than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together." — Published 2004.0721
	POSTCARD FROM SAN SALVADOR Dear ArchitectureWeek, I am writing from San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, the smallest Central American nation. Its fragmented city layout illustrates the contrasts and extremes that are common in Central American life today. — Published 2004.0623
	POSTCARD FROM THOMASVILLE Dear ArchitectureWeek, Visiting Thomasville, in southwestern Georgia, to help judge the 2004 Chrysalis remodeling awards (announced June 11, 2004 in Atlanta, during the Southern Building Show), I was pleased to discover a diverse and venerable built environment. — Published 2004.0526
	POSTCARD FROM EUGENE, OREGON Dear ArchitectureWeek, The Chapel of Second Chances is an open-air structure intended for second-wedding ceremonies and the renewal of vows. Designed and built by my architecture students at the University of Oregon in Eugene, it illustrates the design potential of reused materials. Besides recycled romance, it will shelter workshops and other educational events. — Published 2004.0421
	POSTCARD FROM SAN FRANCISCO Dear ArchitectureWeek, The exhibition Art Deco 1910-1939 has opened at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco and will be on view until July 4, 2004. Although entire buildings cannot be brought into the museum, the exhibit successfully captures the essence of the deco style through films, drawings, furniture, models, posters, and reconstructed rooms. — Published 2004.0414
	POSTCARD FROM HALEBID, INDIA Dear ArchitectureWeek, During a drive of four hours from Bangalore, India's hub of information technology, one seems to slip gently back in time. The landscape gradually changes as we move through groves of coconut and banana trees. Past rocky outcrops scattered with temples, and with the coffee-growing hills of Chikmanglur on the horizon, one reaches Halebid — the site of the ancient city of Dwarasamudra, the 12th- and 13th-century capital of the Hoysala empire. Repeated invasions have left few traces of the once flourishing city, now known as Halebeedu or "the ruined city." One survivor is the Hoysaleswara Temple, built in the mid-12th century. It is set among ancient trees and verdant lawns and gleams like a gem in the afternoon light. — Published 2004.0331
	POSTCARD FROM ROME Dear ArchitectureWeek, Rome is an intensively occupied, definitively urban city. After thousands of years of concentrated human development and redevelopment, there is much hardscape, where the stony facade of one building is connected to the brick wall of the next by more stone, in the form of cobbled streets and other pavements. — Published 2004.0303
	POSTCARD FROM PERU Dear ArchitectureWeek, On my round-the-world bicycle tour, I cycled through the Andes, surrounded by snow-capped peaks and deep valleys, where I found some great examples of Peruvian vernacular. Latin American design is strongly influenced by centuries of Spanish rule. The street-and-plaza urban language was imported from Europe, and with subtle modifications, it provides the predominant urban landscape here. — Published 2004.0211

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