Abandoned subdivision near Dallas, TX

Today being Halloween, I bring you a graveyard of dreams: an abandoned sub-division somewhere on the Southern side of Dallas, Texas. Judging by the size of the trees in the scraped lines that once anticipated streets, I would guess this development went under during the 2008 financial crisis and has been slowly mouldering ever since, nature working hard but not yet able to erase the marks scored upon it by the economics of humanity.

Gateway to Chem-Bio, University of Arizona, Tucson

This remarkable gateway into the chemistry and biology region of the University of Arizona it filled with scientific allusions: a dividing cell, an ionic crystal solid, a microscope, DNA, a virus, corn, a gel digest, etc. In honor of the upcoming holiday, however, I will point you toward the skeleton in the center left.

University of Arizona Student Union, Tucson

The Student Union at the University of Arizona is one of those inside-out buildings that only make sense in warm, dry climates: it is not so much a solid building as a lacework of shops, rooms, and walkways, full of interesting passages, catwalks, and unexpected openings to the sky.

Rooftop solar panels, University of Arizona, Tucson

With its dry cloudless skies and lower latitude, Arizona is an ideal place for solar energy, and I saw great racks of panels in many places, on top of roofs and above parking lots.

Tucson, AZ skyline

Tucson, Arizona is the flattest big city that I can ever recall visiting. With more than half a million people, there still seemed to be nothing even vaguely like a skyscraper. Instead, the city seems to spread uniformly in all directions until it laps up against the mountains on its sides.

Alewife Sunset, Cambridge, MA

Sunset over the parking garage at the Alewife T in Cambridge.

Boston container terminal

The last bit of land that you see before crossing the harbor and landing at Logan when coming from the South: the colorful "legos" of Boston's container shipping terminal.

Head Island Causeway tidal flow, Boston

Head Island is no longer an island, but merely a little bump in about a mile of causeway cutting off a small bay from the ocean---except for two small bridges through which water is still allowed to flow. This means that as the tide changes, a boiling current runs in or out beneath the bridges, equalizing the water back and forth. Here we see the tide is coming in, and hence water is rapidly streaming from the harbor into the little cut-off bay.

Sloop, Boston Harbor

A much more sedate inhabitant of Boston Harbor.

Racing across the channel, Boston Harbor

Somebody's little pleasure craft, rocketing across the main channel in Boston Harbor. At first I thought it was going up the channel, but then remembered my childhood and "red right returning" and realized the channel is going from bottom left to top right in this image.

Marina near Boston

Serried ranks of boats packed in a marina just a little South of Boston.

A lot full of boats, Boston

The quality on this one is not so good, but I want to share it anyway because of its mystery and intrigue: why are all of these boats scattered so haphazardly around this parking lot?

Salt marsh South of Boston

A spit of salt marsh, still showing sharp grooves from ditching done in decades past.

Route 3 Development, Boston, MA

Swirling highways at the split between Route 3 and Route 128, South of Boston, with an old quarry turned business park nestled in their curve. I particularly like the construction project at the center, with the building rising white and wooden, one-floor, two-floors, three-floors, done, around its whirl.

South Boston Waterfront

The South Boston waterfront is a curious zone of old harbor activities and frothy new development. The incredibly long dingy old military warehouse, sandwiched between the cruise ship terminal and one of the largest dry-docks on the East Coast, is now a high-tech hub filled with startups like Ginkgo Bioworks.

Logan Airport, Boston, MA

Logan Airport from above, at this moment every terminal jam-packed with airplanes.

Tobin Bridge, Boston, MA

The Tobin Bridge, carrying Route 1 over one of the many tendrils of Boston Harbor, a particularly industrial zone. In the upper left, you can see a bulge where the toll-booths (and nastiest traffic jams) used to be before everything was converted to electronic payments.

Middlesex Fells Exit, Boston, MA

The exit off Interstate 93 near the Middlesex Fells is an unusual perfect circle over the highway. On the bottom right of the highway, the rugged parkland of the Fells begins, and if you look closely, you can see the concrete tower that marks its first hill, site of a number of my fond memories. My mother knew it as a girl as well, and told me they called it "the monkey tower," as people apparently weren't any more respectful of its hygienic state then either.

Windmills at Dusk, Western Massachusetts

The scattered elements of a wind farm gleam red in the setting sun.

Bahá'í House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois

Just North of Chicago, along the edge of the lake, stands a great gleaming temple: this is apparently one of only ten Bahá'í Houses of Worship in the world, serving as a focus for this obscure syncretic faith across all of North America.

Land of cul-de-sacs, near Chicago

Only one line snakes all the way through this development, while all the rest peel off into a fractal structure of cul-de-sacs.

Budding development near Chicago

New developments throwing out their loops and cul-de-sacs, in advance of the houses that are to come.

Club under construction, Chicago O'Hare

I just find this half-buried Admiral's club sign funny.

Suburban Chicago Water-Park

A small octagonal splash-pad near Chicago O'Hare Airport, its surrounding trees forming a little protected pocket of semi-seclusion in the middle of the great city.

Chicago Beach

A beach on the North side of Chicago, packed with people beating the summer heat.

Dubuque, Iowa

The city of Dubuque, Iowa wraps itself around a curve in the Mississippi. The surprisingly crisp visual edges of the city are actually a feature of its terrain: around Dubuque the hills and valleys become much steeper and the whole lighter area of city is on a low portion of plain by the river.

Watercourse, Iowa

The mown green line of a watercourse snakes a smooth organic line between fields outside of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Small farm near Cedar Rapids, Iowa

This farm looks very "classical" to me, with a small hour and a big red barn.

Cornhusks on the fence, Iowa

Fencing filled with cornhusks, blown around on the fields after the harvest.

Wooden pumpkin, Iowa City

A Halloween pumpkin carved of wood instead of the familiar gourd. Good idea given the ravenous squirrels around our neighborhood, who usually make short work of any pumpkin we put out.

Northwestern at Dawn, Chicago

Northwestern University in Chicago, glowing in the dawn light below my descending red-eye flight.