JOHN PORTMAN THE ARCHITECT WHO BUILT A CITY FROM THE INSIDE OUT When Architecture Stopped Facing the Street — and Built a New One Above It By  Arindam Bose    | Architect / Designer Spotlight | BeEstates Intelligence ⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡ ⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡⬡ Introduction: When Architecture Decided to Become a City Some architects design buildings. Some architects design experiences. John Portman designed cities — and then built them inside other cities. In a profession that placed the building at the centre of its ambitions, Portman asked a different and more unsettling question: what if the building was not enough? What if the city itself had become hostile — its streets dangerous, its sidewalks abandoned, its downtown corridors emptied of the middle class that had fled to the suburbs — and what if architecture was the only instrument left with enough ambition to bring them back? Where Renzo Piano taught buildings to breathe light, Portman taught...