Over the next two weeks, Next City will unroll short profiles of 77 people, places and ideas that have changed cities this year. Together, they make up our 2012 Disruption Index. Forefront subscribers can download the Index in full as a PDF, complete with beautiful designs and graphics by Danni Sinisi. Readers who make a $75 donation to Next City will have a full-color printed copy of the Index mailed to them.

It’s almost quaint to think that there could still be a paper of record in 2012, and yet the New York Times has held onto the title. Its architecture critic similarly retains a vaunted sense of authority, even in an age where a dozen architecture critics are a blog’s throw away. So it was anticipated relatively closely when, in July 2011, the paper named former art critic and foreign correspondent Michael Kimmelman as the latest in an impressive list of writers to play that role.

Months later, Kimmelman kicked off his era with something of a surprise: His first article as architecture critic was about a new public housing project in the Bronx, and much more about the process of integrating it into the neighborhood than any architectural intricacies. Pieces since have focused on New York’s changing bike networks, its public spaces, its relationship with the Occupy movement — not exactly the post-and-beam makings of a traditional architecture column. And though criticized at times for not focusing enough on the field, Kimmelman’s tenure has so far shown that the urban context of architecture is just as nuanced and important as the buildings themselves.

Nate Berg is a writer and journalist covering cities, architecture and urban planning. Nate’s work has been published in a wide variety of publications, including the New York Times, NPR, Wired, Metropolis, Fast Company, Dwell, Architect, the Christian Science Monitor, LA Weekly and many others. He is a former staff writer at The Atlantic Cities and was previously an assistant editor at Planetizen.