[1] Lifson was the interim Director of the Shanghai-based American Academy in China, an urban design think tank and studio.
[7] A report by Lifson on the impending auction of Mies van der Rohe's modernist masterpiece Farnsworth House on the Fox River in Plano, Illinois, inspired people across America to donate money to preserve the house in its original location.
[8] [9] In 2007 he was a fellow in the USC/Annenberg Getty Arts Journalism Fellowship in Los Angeles and later became the Associate Director of the program.
[11] In 2008/9 he was an Annenberg Fellow in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California to study the Specialized Journalism of Architecture.
He conducted the last interview with the American writer, oral historian, actor and radio host Studs Terkel.