Gregg Pasquarelli organizes his presentation of recent work according to seven "rules" of architecture that he and his colleagues at SHoP were taught, but have productively disobeyed for nineteen years:

Don't have more than two partners
Don't build in ones hometown
Don't work with developers
Don't be nice
Don't talk about beauty
Don't get involved in means and methods
Don't try to do it all

He illustrates their successful violation of all these warnings with discussions of recent work, including the East River Esplanade South and Pier 15 projects (2011), the Seaport District, Porter House (2003), the Domino Sugar Refinery, the Botswana Innovation Hub in Gaborone, a project for three museums wrapped inside a civic building, Barclays Center in Brooklyn (2012), and the residential tower at 111 West 57th Street.