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Selected writings
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Selected writings

Jonathan Ochshorn


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animation gif based on Structural Elements cover

Structural Elements for Architects and Builders: available free online, as free PDF, and as low-cost paperback

animation gif based on Building Bad cover

Building Bad: How Architectural Utility is Constrained by Politics and Damaged by Expression (available open-access)

animation gif based on OMA's Milstein Hall cover

OMA's Milstein Hall: A Case Study of Architectural Failure (available open-access)


How Are Holes (Vertical Openings) Made in Floors (per IBC 2021–2024)? June, 2024.

OMA's Milstein Hall: A Case Study of Architectural Failure September 2023

Bad Building: Architecture's Aesthetics Should Support, Rather than Sabotage, a Building's Function, Op-Ed in The Architect's Newspaper, June 9, 2022

Building Bad: How Architectural Utility is Constrained by Politics and Damaged by Expression June 2021

Commentary on Cornell University's Fine Arts Library design proposal Summer 2010 – December 2020

Palestine & Academic Censorship: An Open-Letter to the Dean of Cornell Architecture October 2020

Structural Elements for Architects and Builders, Third Edition Sept. 2020

Writings on Cornell University's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic July 2020 – August 2020

Utility's Evil Twin: The Function of Venustas and the Fear of Reality March 2020

Sullivan's Eagle: Form and Function Artistically Considered March 2020

Experiencing Urban Infrastructure in Tianjin Spring 2019

Flexibility and its discontents: Colquhoun's critique of the Pompidou Center Spring 2019

Revisiting Form and Forces: A Critique of Graphical Statics April 2017

Koolhaas proposes temporary toilets and fire exits in "flexible" Milstein Hall as Rand Hall closes for two years, unpublished parody, April 2017.

Cornell, inspired by Trump, ridicules regulations; creates "alternative facts", unpublished parody, March 2017.

A Fulbright Journal: Five months in Tianjin, Late December Press (self-published), March 2017.

Structural Elements for Architects and Builders, Second Edition, Common Ground Publishing, Aug. 2015.

Structural element calculators | Bldg. technology calculators

Architecture's Dysfunctional Couple: Design and Technology at the Crossroads July 2014 (PDF version 1.2 MB)

Summary and Critique of LEED Reference Guides:
Version 4 (v4) Summer 2014 | 2009 Version Summer 2010 | Version 2.2 Fall 2007

A Probabilistic Approach to Nonstructural Failure April 2013

Critique of Milstein Hall July 2012 (in progress)

Stirrup Spacing in Reinforced Concrete Beams June 2012

Parody of Paul Goldberger's review of the Barnes Foundation move May 2012

Minimizing Heat Loss through Tapered Insulation August 2011

Determining the Average R-Value of Tapered Insulation Spring 2011

Thoughts on Milstein Hall Spring 2009

Approximate Derivation of Critical Buckling Load Spring 2008

What Sustainability Sustains Fall 2007

Designing Building Failures Summer 2006

Overcoming Ambivalence Fall 2005

Reexamining function (Design notes for design-build addition) Summer 2005

exhibition panel
Design Process as "Cause and Effect" | PDF version (as originally formatted)

Essays on 20th-century architectural technology:

brick image
Brick 1999
stone image
Stone 2000
steel image
Steel 2000
truss image
Truss 2002
curtain wall image
Curtain wall 1999



Dis-integrating Technology and Design Spring 1999

Disembodied Technology and Design 1993

On the Disappearance of Monolithic Walls: Meditations on a Brick 1992

Structures Teaching Polarities: Seven Teachers' Responses 1992

Teaching Technology: What Do Architects Need to Know About Structures? 1990

Separating Science from Architecture: Why Technology is Taught Outside the Design Studio 1989-1990

Structure vs. the Expression of Structure 1989

Fashionable Building: The Purpose of Architectural Education 1983