Allison has written about cities, design, and architecture for numerous publications including The MIT Technology Review, Wired, Politico, A+U,  Metropolis, the San Francisco Chronicle, and City Lab. She was previously Editor-at-Large for GOOD and Sunset magazines. From 2006-2008, she was Senior Content Lead for the global design and innovation firm, IDEO, where her focus was on the built environment.

Allison was lucky enough to start Dwell. She was Editor-in-Chief (and founding senior editor) of the modern design and architecture magazine, which won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2005 under her tenure.

Allison began her editorial career in book publishing with stints at Random House, Oxford University Press, and Chronicle Books. She has edited numerous titles on design and culture including Airstream: A History of the Land Yacht and Hatch Show Print: The History of a Great American Poster Shop. She is author of several books including Prefab and Trailer Travel: A Visual History of Mobile America and has contributed to numerous others including Cars: Accelerating the Modern World (V&A, 2019) and The Future of Public Space (SOM, 2018).

She has lectured at the Architectural League of New York, the New Zealand Architectural Festival, the Commonwealth Club of California, Stanford University, UCLA, Google, and the Hearst Lectures at Cal Poly among others. Allison received her B.A. in History from UCLA, her M.A. in Art History from U.C. Davis, completed her PhD coursework in American Studies at New York University. She has taught at U.C. Davis, the Pratt Institute, the New School, Stanford University, and University of California, Berkeley. She lives in San Francisco.