James S. Russell, FAIA, is an award-winning independent journalist, with a focus on architecture and how it is intertwined with the growth and development of cities. He has written extensively about architecture as a cultural force, climate change issues, housing, transportation, and urban design for Bloomberg CityLab, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among many other publications. He wrote for nine years about architecture and cities as the architecture critic at Bloomberg News. He is a contributing writer and a former editor at Architectural Record magazine, the chief publication for practicing architects.
His book, The Agile City: Building Well Being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change, was published to acclaim by Island Press. He is at work on Cloud City, a book about Seattle as a nexus of city culture and business culture as they are enmeshed in the key urban issues of our time. He has been elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
He also has been a research director, urban-strategy consultant, and teaches at Stanford University’s program in New York City.