Anjulie Rao

The Unexpected Healing Power of the Ikea Catalog After I brought home my first child, poring over archival issues of the now-defunct publication transported me out of dark feelings and a chaotic household.

My new essay is up at @dwell.bsky.social: in the depths of postpartum depression, I found solace in the IKEA Catalogue Museum. www.dwell.com/article/the-...

🚨🚨🚨 Major announcement!!!
I am extremely pleased to announce that HAA is searching for a senior, endowed position in premodern art or architecture. The subfield is wide open. Please spread the word and encourage curious scholars to write to me with questions! 🚨🚨🚨

cfopitt.taleo.net/careersectio...

This might be a long shot but: I'm looking to speak with architects/developers who have worked on affordable housing projects that required (or got feedback to include) some type of 'historic complement' aesthetic—massing, materials, etc—for a story. Recommendations appreciated! thanks!

Work with Us | Residential Investment Fund

ICYMI: Chicago's new public developer, the Residential Investment Fund, has a Request for Information for private developers interested in a potential partnership!

The RIF has access to a $135m revolving fund to build permanently mixed income housing. Learn more: www.chicagorif.com/work-with-us

This whole White House demolition saga has big “Dwight Schrute buys replica of Uday Hussein’s desk” vibes

I’ve covered extensively the “return to office” as it has played out in architectural work; design is sold as a means to ‘attract’ workers back is some kind of red herring. It was never about magnanimity or workplace happiness. The beer taps and pod seating were sticks dressed as carrots

Panel description: 9:30 AM — Common Chicago: Public Space Ideas about transforming shared outdoor environments into spaces for collective life, moderated by journalist and critic Anjulie Rao. Panelists include Chicago practices: Ross Barney Architects, Future Firm, Resolver Studio, Site Design Group, Studio Becker Xu.

For the upcoming EVERYTHING CHICAGO symposium on Friday, I’ll be moderating a panel about public space, featuring some of the city’s most important shapers of the public realm. 9:30am! Driehaus museum! Register to attend (or just show up) www.eventbrite.com/e/everything...

I stand firmly in my belief that Fort Wayne is a great town where you can still buy a reasonable house for $250k right next to a beautiful bikeable greenway that will take you to both a Saarinen campus and fabulous Burmese food

I had a baby on Wednesday. Idk. Take the Tylenol.

Reader Institute for Community Journalism and Chicago Reader Careers - Chicago Reader Updated September 4, 2025 Editor in Chief | Sales Representative | Freelance information | Future Internship Opportunities Editor in Chief Independent journalism is the lifeblood of the Chicago Reader...

We're looking for a new EIC at @chicagoreader.com, so if you know a great candidate, tell them to apply! (To be clear, I have nothing to do with the hiring process.) chicagoreader.com/about/career...

At this point, I wonder if states making childcare free would be akin to mass affordable housing construction in terms of attracting new residents.

A photograph of a large bush of zinnias and dahlias in bloom on a street corner in Chicago

Everyone’s wondering if or when this charming city might be invaded by masked bozos but in the meantime take a look at the dahlias and zinnias my neighbor planted on her corner

I’m giving myself parental leave from 9/15-10/20. This means, for the first time in a decade, I won’t be publishing a review or big feature about the Chicago Architecture Biennial when it opens. Kinda sad, but openings are for onlookers. I’m in this game for Chicago. So please stay tuned. Xo

In “Weapons,” There’s No Community in Suburbia Set in an upper-middle class enclave where 17 kids disappear, filmmaker Zach Cregger’s latest thriller asks us to confront the notion that small towns breed shared safety.

I wrote about WEAPONS, a story about community horrors. It’s a fun-scary movie, but while we are currently experiencing waves of our own community “disappearances,” the movie makes us ask who will keep us safe when dark forces arrive.

www.dwell.com/article/weap...?

Again I chalk the hand-wringing up to the relentless belief that young people aren’t “real people” who don’t already have values, who haven’t been exposed to other ways of thinking. It’s why we will put them in charge of DOGE or tech startups but not take them seriously as students

My low-level two cents but “civil debate” happens all the time, especially in college classrooms (?!) it’s just that young people now have a much more accurate reading of the stakes involved even if they’re personal, familial…likely than not far more broad-reaching than one’s interior experience!

Author Event: Sam Bloch with Anjulie Rao | City Lit Books This cozy bookstore with staff-curated selections, book clubs, and other events.

If you're in Chicago, come to City Lit Books nxt Friday, 9/5, where I'll be in conversation with author (& Oak Park native!) @samkbloch.bsky.social about his new book, SHADE. We'll be chatting about the wild politics of city cooling, greenspace, and more! www.citylitbooks.com/events/33125...

I would read a 5,000-word story about this

Officially, I have begun a very strange process called Assembling A Book Proposal.

Working with editorial advisors @zachmortice.bsky.social, @anjulierao.bsky.social , and @katewagner.wehwalt.net and with the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago Review of Architecture (ChiRA) will seek to generate erudite, humorous, and hyperlocal writing on the built (and unbuilt) environment.

Once again, criticism shows people how to look, a way of seeing, a path toward developing one’s own practices. There’s a whole lotta people who would rather you believe that your eyes deceive you, your feelings betray you, that how you experience the world is inconsequential. Don’t give in to them.

Trump’s Politics of Urban Disgust The president’s unprecedented takeover of Washington, DC law enforcement weds a crime crackdown to a gilded vision for remaking the capital.

Trump's pledge to "scrape away the filth" in Washington has a historical echo in the Gilded Age–era movement known as City Beautiful. He is remaking some of its ugliest moments: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Also your friendly reminder that my mayoral campaign will include revamping the air and water show to feature blimps, hot air balloons, boat rides, zip lines, and surfing.

I flipped the switch on the ceiling fan just as the military aircrafts flew overhead and have never been so terrified. Happy Air and Water Show weekend to all.

We haven’t heard from NEOM in a while I wonder how that’s going.

New York, NY – Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, candidate for Mayor of New York City, today announced ‘Zohran’s Law,’ a plan to protect the city’s rent-stabilized apartments from being occupied by high-income individauls, ensuring these limited, affordable units go to New Yorkers who actually need them. Under Cuomo’s proposal, when a rent-stabilized apartment becomes vacant, the incoming individual income would be capped so that the annual rent makes up at least 30 percent of that income. For example, if an apartment rents for $2,500 a month ($30,000 per year), the new tenant’s income could not exceed $100,000. New York City is in the grip of a housing emergency. The city does not have enough units, and the drastically low vacancy rate is driving up prices, squeezing families, and forcing many to leave in record numbers.

In urban policy, it is considered bad for someone to be rent-burdened (spending at least 30% of their income on rent). But Cuomo's newly proposed law would *require* that people be rent-burdened. Absolutely insane.

This is the encouragement I need! Thank you!

There are too many people in my life insisting that I’ll start driving again once I have a kid. No amount of child fatalities in car wrecks data convince them otherwise, so now I’m just acting purely out of spite and want reccs for e-bikes and easy carriers to drag my screaming infant onto the bus.

The Obama center rising from Promontory Point, blue skies, with the lake and beachfront in the foreground

Seeing the Obama Center rising from the Point is startling. Not so much that it’s ugly, but it really does begin to resemble some type of magnificent tomb; a crushing weight that says very little…but somehow so loudly.