Allison Arieff

Allison Arieff (born October 29, 1966 ) is an American writer on design, and is currently the editorial director for The Urbanist, the magazine of urban planning and policy think tank the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR). She writes an architecture and design blog, "By Design", for the OpEd section of The New York Times.
Early in her career, she held editorial positions at Random House, Oxford University Press and Chronicle Books. In 2000, Arieff helped found the architecture and design magazine Dwell, and in 2002, following the departure of founding editor Karrie Jacobs, she was promoted to editor-in-chief. During her tenure the magazine expanded its readership, and received a number of awards, including a National Magazine Award for general excellence. She left the magazine in 2006. She has been an editor at Sunset, worked at Good magazine and was a senior content provider for the design and consulting firm IDEO from 2006-2008.
Arieff holds a B.A. in history from University of California, Los Angeles, and an M.A. in art history from University of California, Davis. She completed her PhD coursework in American studies at New York University.
She is the sister of writer Adrienne Arieff.