Looking for the 21st Century:
A field guide to the contemporary urban landscape

Recently, I attended the opening of an affordable housing complex in the Bronx, the New York borough that was once the symbol of urban decay. Up on the roof of this impeccable new building was an impressive photovoltaic array. The 64 solar panels were donated by a company called BP Solar (a New Age offshoot of British Petroleum) as part of a program called “Solar Neighbors.” Every time a Hollywood star buys a solar setup from BP, the company donates a similar system to a low-income family. In this case, the celebrity purchaser was the actor Owen Wilson, star of The Darjeeling Limited. I stood on the roof pondering the peculiar nature of the transaction that brought these rows of deep blue glass rectangles to the Bronx, and thought: This is so 21st Century.

One of my projects, ongoing and open-ended, is figuring out what the twenty-first century looks like. What exactly separates the present from the past? What do I see every day on the street or highway that I wouldn’t have seen eight or nine years ago, back on the far side of the millennial divide? How do I get enough perspective to see clearly the world all around me? Nothing is harder, I think, than seeing and understanding the present.

While the gleaming new cities of the Middle East and Asia are dramatic symbols of the new millennium, the signs of change are less obvious in older cities like London, Paris, New York, San Francisco or even Los Angeles. I endeavor to identify a dozen symbols of 21st century urban life and use them to discuss architectural innovation, technological culture, celebrity culture, the environment, security, wealth and poverty, and the ongoing commercialization of pretty much everything.