Success as an Assigning Editor
In addition to having 20 year of experience running editorial teams as a Managing Editor, I have managed individual freelancers on stories and projects, written a couple hundred of my own bylined articles (check out the Writing tab), and helped my editorial staffs to manage their workload in any way that my services were needed.
Editor, Product and Project Management blogs at Toptal
As part of the Publications team for worldwide talent company Toptal, I worked with project managers and product managers in the staffing company’s network on article development and publication. Together, we explored topics in product management and project management, developing story ideas and writing original articles. I also interviewed internal and external experts to develop new topics to cover.
Embracing an “Aha!” Moment: Building Trust to Effect Change
I worked with talent network expert and product manager Jerry Gutierrez on his story idea: What happens when you have a big idea but not the authority to make it happen? Earning trust is the key to influencing without authority.
Assigning Editor Work at Architect magazine
In addition to running the day-to-day operations for Architect magazine, I acted as the assigning editor for Aaron Betsky, one of our most successful columnists. I worked with hand-in-hand with Mr. Betsky—who became the president of the School of Architecture at Taliesin while we worked together and is now the director of Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture + Design—on his award-winning column from September 2016 to June 2019—for about 90 columns and articles—before handing him off to another editor when I started working on a company-wide content reorganization and moved to California. I helped him select topics to write about and prioritized the order of those topics, top edited and line-edited his text for revisions, proofread it all before publishing it, and gathered and edited all images used in the stories.
Here are of the best of those columns and articles …
A Religious Experience: Emre Arolat’s Sancaklar Mosque
The outskirts of Istanbul are the site of a rare moment of spiritual awe in architecture.
Rebuilding Notre Dame? It’s Complicated
How faithful should we be to the 19th-century version of the cathedral we love?
The Move: Diller Scofidio + Renfro Produce a Movable Spectacle at a Gigantic Scale
Aaron Betsky visits the Shed, designed with the Rockwell Group serving as collaborating architect and now under construction at New York City’s Hudson Yards, and finds one of the best architectural “moves” he’s seen in a while.
The Modern Furniture Maven: Appreciating Florence Knoll
The design force behind the furniture giant brought life to the modernist utopia that midcentury corporate America represented.
Singing the City Alive
Aaron Betsky writes that in the City That Never Sleeps a Mile-Long Opera evoked the loneliness embedded in our architecture.
Cloudy Visions: SPUR Tries to Imagine the Bay Area’s Future
Aaron Betsky writes that the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association’s four scenarios are believable and interesting, but they don’t go far enough. What we need is both more serious research and true visions.
Oslo … Unfortunately … Goes Global
Aaron Betsky writes that the Norwegian capital’s Fjord City plan is well done but generic.
Remembering Charles Paterson: The Man Who Made Himself at Home in Aspen
Aaron Betsky writes that while he will miss the man and his buildings, he is comforted in Paterson’s example of how we can all find a place for ourselves in the modern world.
Glittering Prizes for Sober Buildings
It’s not enough to be pretty any more. Now you have to make a difference to get the top recognition in architecture.
The Pond as a Deadly Device and Other Architectural Terrors
Theo Deutinger draws the ways we kill, harm, and exclude—with beauty.
Shut Up!
Why we need to do something about noise in public space.
Good Architects Steal, Bad Architects Copy Themselves
A recent book by the Why Factory in Delft show you how and why to copy and paste architecture.
Mind Your Knitting
On his first trip back to Frank Lloyd Wright’s famed house in years, Aaron Betsky sees Fallingwater as a masterpiece of weaving.
The Man Who Taught Architecture: A Memory of Vincent Scully
Aaron Betsky explains how he has been trying, for most of his life, to live up to the challenge issued by our greatest of architecture teachers.
Waiting to Be Weinsteined: When Will Accusations of Sexual Harassment Arise in Architecture?
Aaron Betsky re-examines one of his architectural heroes and wonders when the industry’s comeuppance will arrive.
Let’s Entomb Our Past Evils in Good
While Aaron Betsky agrees that we should no longer be honoring Confederate generals and sympathizers, he does wonder if there is a more forceful solution than just removing the monuments.
Make No Bad Plans
In an age where the screen has replaced the pen and paper, Aaron Betsky explains why sexy plans still matter.
Craft Hides in Plain Sight
A recent visit with Olson Kundig’s Jim Olson showed Aaron Betsky that the more you spend, the harder it is to see the cost.
Making Invisible Infrastructure Visible
In reviewing designs for both the Los Angeles River and Houston’s Buffalo Bayou, and discussions on what to do about it, Aaron Betsky sees that the solutions to our infrastructure problems need to go more than skin deep.
Tattoos and Tombs: Carlo Scarpa’s Great Small Architecture
After having visited Scarpa’s work in Venice for years, Aaron Betsky ventures north this year to finally experience the architect’s famous Brion Cemetery.
Road Trip Through America’s Great Open Spaces
On a semi-annual migration from Wisconsin to Arizona, Aaron Betsky and his travel companions marvel at the vast American landscape.
You Gotta Have Faith
The Catholic Church constructs follies for pilgrims to the Venice Architecture Biennale.