So, it is the beginning of the New Year. Out with the old, in with the new. Firming up, slimming down, running a tighter ship. Many of you will use this time to get your health and bodies into better shape. I, too, try to keep up with that.

As a young American architect in Europe, I remember many frustrating visits to the States. I specifically am reminded of being saddened at the sight of a number of large retailers from my childhood on a familiar road in Warren, OH, that had recently gone out of business and whose empty buildings and vast parking lots were left behind as lonely reminders of more prosperous times.