What Goes Up

“Easily one of the best architecture critics around … Sorkin is a flaneur with a sense of public purpose.”
—Guardian

“America’s most invigorating writer on architecture.”
—Observer

“Sorkin is a formidable opponent of the banal, the ugly, the stupid and the vapidly posturing which, he argues, are all around us.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Michael Sorkin secures his claim to succeed Jane Jacobs … He brings to bear an eye every bit as acute, a pen nearly as trenchant, and a political understanding perhaps a little bit more sophisticated of the never-ending struggle over New York’s neighbourhoods.”
—Times Literary Supplement

“Sorkin is one of the most intelligent writers on architecture today.”

—Library Journal

“What Goes Up is a series of pithy and piquant essays on the twin problems facing New York and many other large cities: affordability and climate change.”
—Bennett Baumer, Indypendent


“Through masterful language and sentence crafting, he weaves together complex ideas, such as the role media and new technologies play in our digital age and their impact on privacy issues, as well as the new context this sets up for the creation of architecture and public space … The need for a critical voice has never been more important. Witness, chronicler, and analyst, Sorkin provides a framework in his writing for critical evaluation of the architectural process and works to ensure that the city remains a place for people.”
—Architecture Boston