As architecture critic for The New York Times since 2004, Nicolai Ouroussoff is part of a venerable lineage of writers that includes Ada Louise Huxtable, Paul Goldberger and Herbert Muschamp. Together with AACP director Shumon Basar, Ouroussoff discusses the state of architectural criticism today and the politics of writing, addressing heterogeneous audiences and the quintessential, quirky traits of American journalism seen from home and abroad. Nicolai Ouroussoff was previously Los Angeles Times architecture critic, where he wrote a series on Baghdads destruction in the aftermath of the US invasion. He has also written for the New York Observer, Art Forum, Vanity Fair and various other publications.