PROJECT PAGE: https://www.byline.com/project/23 Now that more of us live in cities than anywhere else in the world, we might well call the 21st century the urban century. But which cities can best lead us forward into this urban century? Where, in other words, is the city of the future? In this series of in-depth reports at the intersection of urbanism, architecture, travel, and culture, I’ll search the Pacific Rim with its 20th-century-grown metropolises looking ahead like Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver, and Sydney; its compact but bustling city-states like Singapore and Hong Kong; its fast-developing capitals like Jakarta and Bangkok; lower-profile but nevertheless inventive “sleeper” cities like Wellington and Santiago; and of course its Asian megacities like Seoul, Tokyo, and Shanghai. Each of these cities, and many others along the Pacific Rim, have important lessons to teach every other. I’ll seek them out through extensive on-the-ground exploration and in-depth conversations with those who know these fascinating urban places best. For each $2000 we raise over the next two months here on Byline, I’ll go report on another city, beginning with Los Angeles and Seoul and moving onward to other chosen by you, the backers — with whom I’ll also keep a larger conversation going about the direction our urban world should take. Thanks very much indeed, and let me say how forward I look to finding the city of the future together.

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