Who

Ouroussoff is the architecture critic for the Times and a frequent source of angst among members of the profession. Still, along with the New Yorker's Paul Goldberger, he's one of the two most-read architecture critics in the city.

Backstory

Ouroussoff (it's pronounced oo-ROO-soff) attended architecture school with the intention of becoming an architect himself. He says that on realizing he'd be too impatient to labor on projects that could take years to come to fruition, he turned to writing instead. Ouroussoff first gained notice as the architecture critic at the Los Angeles Times, where he was a two-time Pulitzer finalist, earning praise for traveling to Iraq shortly after the start of the war to write a four-part series on Baghdad's skyline. He arrived at the New York Times in 2004 following the departure of Herbert Muschamp.

Of note

When Ouroussoff took over, many hoped he would offer up a more inclusive, populist view of architecture than his predecessor. Yet many in the architecture community contend that like the late Muschamp, Ouroussoff is too chummy with superstar architects and focuses too heavily on their work at the expense of less flashy practitioners. He's also been accused of being too equivocal at times, although he's taken a few strong stands during his tenure: He slammed the design for the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero, comparing it to the work of Nazi architect Albert Speer; and he expressed support for Aby Rosen's controversial plan to erect a Norman Foster-designed glass tower on Madison Avenue. A fave of architecture enthusiast Charlie Rose—he's been both a guest on the show and a fill-in host—Ouroussoff published his first book, Frank Gehry and the Bilbao Museum, in 2008.

Grudge

Among those Ouroussoff has enraged is Terry Riley, the former curator of architecture and design at MoMA. When Ouroussoff dismissed the department in one of his columns, Riley wrote an angry letter saying he detected "the odor of mendacity" in the column and accusing the critic of taking "the cheapest of shots" against him.

Habitat

The piece of architecture Ouroussoff himself inhabits is an apartment in SoHo.