Erasure by Design: Racial Protocols of Displacement, Demolition, and Extraction examines how architecture, planning and design have enabled racialized forms of displacement and destruction. V. Mitch McEwen traces these processes across three sites: Southwest Washington, DC, North St. Louis and South Los Angeles.

Combining first-person narratives, archival research and architectural criticism, the book investigates urban renewal, demolition, extraction and the institutional narratives that shape the built environment. It also considers the Museum of Modern Art and Philip Johnson’s Glass House in relation to modern architecture’s histories and politics.