This episode explores the tensions between public and private space through a close look at New York City’s ground floor, and is a part of our 2023–2024 research theme: On the Ground.

Architect Sol Camacho reads from Lina Bo Bardi’s seminal text, Vitrinas. Artist Alvaro Barrington discusses the storefront as a threshold between life and work. Canal Street Research Association further explores their inquiry into billboards and the “facadification” of Manhattan in conversation with artists Nick Poe and Gabriela D’Addario, and Levi Eichenstein, CEO of Red Rock Outdoor. Journalist Nathan Kensinger and UPENN Media Studies professor Shannon Mattern engage in a conversation on their respective works on the transformation of the city’s streets and sidewalks. Architect Germane Barnes expands on his long-standing research project Porch Politics.

Threshold was originally published through Montez Press Radio.

SOUND CREDITS:

Brown, Barry Alexander (Director). (2010). Sidewalk 

Cohen, Jem (Director). (1996). Lost Book Found 

Fitzgerald, Kit and Sanborn, John with Van Tieghem, David (Directors). (1982). Ear to the Ground

Houston Jr., Otis. (2020). I Like Where I Stay. On AMERICA

Wilson-Tanner. (2022). Sun Room. On 69