Welcome to FROM THE DESK OF ECF. This is my notebook / love affair with cities, culture, and the spaces in between.
I’m Ethan. I’m a creative strategist, urban planner, and spatial designer based in New York. After growing up in a little Florida beach town, I’ve spent the last several years living in the big city of my dreams.
Think of this blog as my fun side street off the main avenue. A handwritten corner of the internet where I share thoughts on places I love, things I notice about culture, designs that delight, and the rituals and atmospheres that shape how we live.
These are notes from subway rides and hotel lobbies. From gallery openings and forgotten stairwells. From Fifth Avenue to faraway islands. Some entries are playful, others more serious, but all of them are honest and probably half-polished. Sometimes that’s good. I like grit.
I started this Substack over two years ago because I believe storytelling is placemaking, too. And while my daily work involves strategy decks and site plans, this space is where the softer ideas live. The ones that feel like moodboards, memories, or postcards to a friend.
It has become a creative outlet. A proof of concept. A way for me to build my own community. Something that the younger version of me would be proud of, honestly.
I hope you’ll read along, and maybe even see the city a little differently.
For more of what makes me curious:
