This panorama is from the 15th floor of one of Ballston’s westernmost buildings, looking east back towards Rosslyn and DC. Bailey’s Crossroads is in the distance at upper right.

Hover your cursor over the image for a labeled version, or click to make it bigger.

Sitting on the ledge of the Dupont Circle fountain and watching humanity roll by is one of DC’s great pleasures. When the weather is nice and the community is out, there’s no other place I’d rather be.

Yesterday evening my wife and I did exactly that. We saw a girl on a tightrope slackline, a huge toga party bike ride, salsa dancing, chess, a harp player, and more. I snapped this handful of cellphone pictures of the activity.

Better than a private lawn.

Downtown Bethesda has a pretty impressive central clump of buildings, no?

In this picture Wisconsin Avenue runs from left (north) to right (south).

Photo from a plane window. It’s a couple of years old, but I just found it on my hard drive.

Here are two pictures of the same block of H Street, taken 10 years apart.

H Street NE between 5th and 6th streets.

One of the world’s rarest and stinkiest giant flowers is blooming now at the US Botanical Gardens. But if you want to to see it, you have to act fast. It will likely wilt in just a few days.

The titan arum can reach 10 feet in height, smells like rotting dead flesh, and can go decades between blooms. When a bloom does happen, it’s a big draw at the usually-quiet botanical garden.

I went yesterday and took a few pictures. I barely noticed the smell.

I’m a sucker for roadside scenic overlooks. There are two on the GW Parkway in North Arlington, looking out across the Potomac. Driving along the parkway in a rental car last weekend, my wife and I decided take a look. Who knew you get a view like this, with the Washington Monument and Rosslyn together?

You have to step over the wall and walk into the grass to get this view. Don’t tell anyone.

My Washington, DC bloggers license requires me to publish at least one cherry blossom-related post each spring. I skipped it last year, and now I only have 9 fingers.

Seriously though, I grumble about tourists as much as anyone, but the Tidal Basin during cherry blossom week truly is a joy. Here are some pictures.

The Library of Congress is often said to have the 2 most most beautiful rooms in Washington. Unfortunately they’re notoriously hard to photograph, because the Library doesn’t allow photography during reading hours.

But a couple of weekends ago they hosted an open house, during which cameras were allowed. I took the opportunity and ended up with these pictures.

By the way, after the library my vote for next most beautiful room in DC goes to Saint Matthew’s Cathedral. I’m a sucker for red marble.

What’s the best vacation for an urbanist? Exploring a new city, of course. So here’s a slideshow of 42 pictures of Albany, New York, taken from a visit last summer.

Albany is a unique city. Since it’s the capital of New York and core city to a metro area of nearly a million people, it has some big city amenities, including some skyscrapers. But it’s deceptively small; that metro area includes Troy and Schenectady, which are sizable urban cores on their own. Albany the city has fewer than 100, 000 people, and although downtown is nice, it’s tiny.

I expected Albany to be a peer to Richmond, VA, but in reality I found it to be much more similar to Harrisburg, PA. All nice cities with strong cores, but in different size classes.

Albany does have some truly beautiful historic architecture. Unfortunately much of it was destroyed by the awful urban renewal era state capitol complex, but much of what survives is extremely high quality.