Book Talk - Building Ghosts: Past Lives and Lost Places in a Changing City

“Building ghosts” are the idiosyncratic remnants or imprints of demolished buildings, left behind on the sides of neighboring structures. Mostly seen in older Northeastern cities with rowhomes or party-wall adjacencies, they can reveal remarkable things, such as an old staircase going up the side of a building or plaster traces left by a set of shelves in an attic gable. As history in our changing cities is erased and remade, these ghosts can be ephemeral or enduring. They can be quickly revealed and replaced in a neighborhood seeing rapid change or unveiled and never re-covered in a neighborhood that has not seen new construction in a long time. For this event, author Molly Lester and photographer Michael Bixler will discuss their new book, Building Ghosts: Past Lives and Lost Places in a Changing City (Temple University Press, November 2024) and the ghosts that reveal new truths and provocations about the changing city.

This event will be held at the Center for Design Philadelphia, 1218 Arch Street, Philadelphia PA 19107.

Registration is not required for in-person events, however it is helpful for our planning. Light refreshments will be served.