“There is a void at the heart of our culture, a nihilism that has robbed us of our dreams,” reads the Praxis Society’s Master Plan.

Company Town

Inside the Praxis Society, a Silicon Valley–backed start-up attempting to build a city in the Mediterranean

By Jack Sullivan

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CHOP CHOPPISH SHOP

One night in early June, I was sharing an elevator with an older man wearing a finely pressed suit, black Oxfords, and a heavy watch, to the high reaches of the Yale Club in Midtown Manhattan. He was headed to an event on the rooftop, and asked what I was here for.

“A start-up is throwing a dinner party,” I said. “They’re building a new city in the Mediterranean.”