Since 1988, New York-based architect Michael Bell has created a series of projects and essays that explore architectural and urban design for California, New York, and Texas -- the three most populous regions of the United States and, coincidentally, the three states in which he has lived and practiced. The first monograph on the architect, Michael Bell: Space Replaces Us; Essays and Projects on the City, includes both design work and writings.

Bell has organized and designed two important installations, both of which include his work: "Endspace: Michael Bell and Hans Hofmann," at the University Art Museum, Berkeley, and "16 Houses: Owning a House in the City," at DiverseWorks in Houston, which featured his seminal Glass House @ 2 Degrees. Other projects included are an urban renewal scheme for a huge site in Far Rockaway, New York, and a series of residential projects, including the Ghent House, a modernist glass house currently under construction in upstate New York. Complementing the design projects are three major essays: "Having Heard Mathematics: The Topologies of Boxing," "Eyes in the Heat: RSE," and "New York City."

Michael Bell is an architect practicing in New York and an associate professor of architecture at Columbia University. He has also taught and lectured at Rice University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Southern California Institute of Architecture. He is the author of a monograph on Stanley Saitowitz; the editor of 16 Houses: Designing the Public's Private House; and the coeditor of Slow Space.