Benjamin Marcus
Benjamin Marcus is an architect, graphic designer, and illustrator in private practice in NYC. In addition to his writing on architecture, Benjamin writes about film and its relation to architecture, and has been a guest educator on film at Portland State University. With a lifelong interest in Judaica, he is currently working on the illumination with his original artwork of the Five Megillot (the Biblical books of Esther, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and the Song of Songs), in a multi-year private commission, as well as research into the architecture of the Tabernacle. Benjamin earned his BA in Philosophy from NYU and his Masters in Architecture from SCI-Arc.
Revenge by (Mis)Interpretation
May 2023:The promise offered by the Liberal Arts—to expose young minds to the enduring questions and lasting ideals that have made possible society’s greatest achievements—has today been brought into doubt by a generation of students too young even to know what they repudiate. Motivated not by experienced consideration, but by ideologically based social trends, our once-stalwart […]
Read Article »A Hatred Outside of Man
March 2023:There is no rationality in the Nazi hatred: it is hate that is not in us, it is outside of man.. We cannot understand it, but we must understand from where it springs, and we must be on our guard. If understanding is impossible, knowing is imperative, because what happened could happen again.
Read Article »The Act of Seeing
March 2022:Trips to Israel began for me in the 1970s, when I traveled with family for my brother’s and later my own Bar Mitzvah, at the ancient site of Masada. I’ve returned numerous times to marvel at the prolific development of the country as well as witness the unfolding history and varied, natural beauty of her […]
Read Article »Just Because You’re Paranoid
June 2023:The show is Rabbit Hole, the first and closest update I’ve seen to the paranoia flicks of the last golden age of movie-making.
Read Article »The Persistence of Wonder
February 2023:This is the unlikely report of survival—of an artform, of the methodologies that inform it, and the body of knowledge, that it gives form to. It’s a report about the persistence of illumination: the decorative illustration of religious manuscripts, but also the endurance of interpretation in an age that often claims to be beyond history. […]
Read Article »Making History in Manhattan
August 2022:“…there is a surprisingly rich and layered heritage of modern buildings proving our connection to contemporary architectural thinking which makes me wonder why we have so lost touch with this spirit. So many current new buildings can’t make up their minds what they want to be other than parochial regionalism… the meek wallpaper contextualism of […]
Read Article »
