The momentous passage of our new graduates from inside the walls of academia to the outside realities of the world serves as a meaningful occasion to reflect on their diverse experiences alongside the recent activities and initiatives at the school. Our work across the disciplines of the built environment shapes practice and scholarship in new ways and is of critical, enduring impact as cities emerge as the ground for interconnected transnational engagement and action towards climate change, social justice, inclusion, and progressive thinking. The following Semester in Review captures some of these recent highlights and shows the profound contributions of Columbia GSAPP’s faculty and alumni.
At our annual Alumni Forum last month, we celebrated GSAPP alum and Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp. Evan observed that “we have developed endless technology – but where are the ideas?” If anywhere, the answer can be found in the students and recent graduates of our school, whose ideas – about architecture and cities, about the environment, and also about what makes a community – will shape the built environment in ways we don’t yet know, but must aspire to help realize.
The density of Avery Hall continually produces this creative energy through the countless exchanges of ideas for which we love the school. At a time of increasing intolerance and radicalization, a time of violent folding back unto notions of identity that are not engaged towards new knowledge, the broadening of understandings and perspectives or the richness of encounters, we stand as a community formed not because of our sameness but because of our differences. It is a result of those differences in backgrounds and interests, and the diversity of positions and experiences they represent, that we come together around ideas that we debate in a spirit of openness, respect, and intellectual generosity.
With best wishes from Avery Hall,
Dean Amale Andraos, May 2017
GSAPP hosts the First 100 Days discussion series responding to the quick-changing political situation and encouraging open dialogue among faculty and students. Read the accompanying coverage “Rapid Response” in Metropolis.
The Avery Review marked Donald Trump’s inauguration with the special issue “And Now: Architecture Against a Developer Presidency”, in which the editors share a desire to open new lines of thought, to expand our professional purview, or to dispense with such disciplinary boundaries altogether. A printed edition will be released in the fall.
Professor Reinhold Martin’s essay “The Demagogue Takes the Stage” was published on Places Journal, and subsequently featured in The New York Times.
Architecture students post a “We Won’t Build Your Wall” sign in the studio windows overlooking Columbia’s Morningside campus. Third-year student A.L. Hu wrote an accompanying opinion piece on Archinect.
Who Builds Your Architecture? (WBYA?), coalition of architects, activists, scholars, and educators comprising GSAPP faculty and alumni, led a discussion on its work and the newly published A Critical Field Guide on fair labor practices in architecture.
Alumna Sharon Sutton (M.Arch ‘73) returned to Avery Hall in February to discuss her newly published book When Ivory Towers Were Black, in which she recounts the history of racial equity at Columbia during the tumultuous time of the late 1960s and early '70s. It was featured by Christopher Hawthorne in the Los Angeles Times, and Sharon Sutton joined Mabel Wilson on Episode #3 of the GSAPP Conversations podcast.
Professor Vishaan Chakrabarti discusses protest and urban space on WNYC Radio, specifically addressing the New York City’s need cultivate public spaces for civil discourse.
The exhibition Fight, Squat, Resist: Housing Alternatives of Social Movements organized by Studio-X Rio is presented at the Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam.
The Spring 2017 Semester was launched with the Architectural Narratives and Graphics Project of discussions and workshops regarding storytelling, photography and video, in order to give students new tools and frameworks for thinking about representation.
GSAPP’s Center for Spatial Research created the “Brain Index”, a twenty-four feet tall LED light installation with moving interactive monitors, in collaboration with Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute and the Graduate School of Journalism for Columbia’s newly inaugurated Jerome L. Greene Science Center. The project was featured in Scientific American.
The Center for Spatial Research also launches the “Conflict Urbanism: Aleppo” website, an open-source, interactive, layered map of Aleppo that features high-resolution satellite imagery from before and during the current civil war to explore geo-located data about cultural sites, neighborhoods, and urban damage.
The GSAPP Incubator hosts the ongoing series “How to Put Work Out There”, in which guests joing GSAPP faculty and staff to share ideas and experiences related to Communicating Ideas, Curating Materials, Publishing Platforms, Organizational Strategies, Social Media Use, Podcasting and Storytelling, and more.
The exhibition Stagecraft: Models and Photos explored the synergy between architectural models and photography, and the renewed relevance of model photography as a wellspring of architectural innovation. (Reviews include Anthony Vidler writing for Architect’s Newspaper.)
GSAPP collaborated with the Columbia Law School to present New York Sea Level Rise Projections, at which participants reflected on how a range of projections in rising sea levels will affect a broad range of decisions in the built environment.
Cities and Climate Action: New Orleans, Rio, NYC, was a discussion about the critical role that cities play in driving the agenda on climate change, and the steps federal governments must take to assist cities in their efforts to respond to the vast environmental, economic, and cultural impacts. Participants included former and current city government officials alongside GSAPP faculty: Adam Freed, Jeffrey Herbert, Kate Orff, Rodrigo Rosa, Weiping Wu, and Michael Kimmelman. (Read an article on event in Architect’s Newspaper and a related feature on Rebuild by Design with Kate Orff on Archinect.
In early April, science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson presented his latest book, New York 2140, followed by a discussion with Professor Reinhold Martin.
Columbia News profiled Kate Orff and GSAPP’s Urban Design Program, with a particular focus on the program’s timely and important dedication to Climate Change and Social Justice.
The research and findings of the Urban Design Program’s ongoing Hudson Valley Initiative were presented in an exhibition at Mid-Hudson Heritage Center, Poughkeepsie, in January 2017, and featured in the Architect’s Newspaper.
Alumna Sharon Davis (M.Arch ‘06) presents her community-based work, including the Women Opportunities Center in Rwanda, during the conference Designing with Communities alongside Louise Braverman.
Studio-X Istanbul presents the exhibition Praygrounds by GSAPP faculty Ziad Jamaleddine and Makram el Kadi of L.E.FT Architects, reflecting their extensive research on the history of mosque design leading up to the firm’s own, celebrated Amir Shakib Arslan mosque in Lebanon.
Mabel O. Wilson and Mario Gooden of GSAPP’s Global Africa Lab co-organize the conference African Modernism(s): Past/Present/Future at AIANY Center for Architecture.
Virgil Abloh discusses how his architectural education continues to influence his work in fashion, art direction, and music. (See press coverage in Vogue, Dazed, and W, among others.)
Professor Mabel O. Wilson discusses race, memory, and architecture with the Architect’s Newspaper in the context of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).
Metropolis magazine features the research and installation on gender-neutral bathrooms by QSPACE, a queer architectural research organization founded by GSAPP alumni research and based in the school’s incubator.
The ongoing event series “Architecture Practice and the City” organized by GSAPP’s Studio-X directors and curators presented a discussion by architects Ammar Khammash of Amman and Mehmet Kütükçüoglu of Istanbul.
Studio-X Amman’s acquisition of the Janet Abu-Lughod Library is profiled in an extensive article by Zachary Sheldon for Jadaliyya*
Director of GSAPP’s Technology Sequence, Craig Schwitter, hosted Architecture + Technology: Pedagogy in an Age of Disruption to evaluate the current role and potential of technology, while interrogating the strategies by which it is being taught. The conference welcomed leading professionals and academics from international universities.
The Experimental Preservation course led by Jorge Otero-Pailos, Director of Historic Preservation, with faculty Andreas Keller collaborated with International Flavors & Fragrances and the J.P. Morgan Library and Museum to explore how smell influences our perceptions of space, memory, and experiences of buildings. The course’s research and experimentation was featured on Hyperallergic, The New York Times, and CBC Radio.
The main Spring 2017 exhibition at the Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery, Liam Young: New Romance features three recent films by the speculative architect Liam Young that highlight his innovative use of new technology and storytelling in the representation of architectural ideas. (See reviews in Wired, Vice Creators, and The Architect’s Newspaper.)
Dean Amale Andraos and faculty Julian Rose collaborated with the Aïshti Foundation in Beirut to present the conference Shaping Cities Through Art and Design, at which architects, designers, curators, critics, and journalists from the US, Europe, UAE, and Lebanon discussed the critical role of architecture and art in shaping the design of cities.
SHoP Architects, founded by alumni Gregg Pasquarelli (M.Arch ‘94), William Sharples (M.Arch '94) and Chris Sharples (M.Arch '94), designed the innovative 3-D printed 2016 Design Miami Pavilion and a terra-cotta installation for 2017 Milan Design Week.
Faculty Dominic Leong (MS AAD ‘03) receives the Architectural League’s 2017 Emerging Voices Award.
Alumnus Mustafa Faruki (CC '01, M.Arch '10) and his firm theLab-lab won the 2017 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects
Faculty Jing Liu (SO-IL) was shortlisted for the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture.
In the newly-launched weekly podcast GSAPP Conversations, produced in collaboration with ArchDaily, Dean Amale Andraos speaks with faculty members about their professional and pedagogical work, while students engage visiting architects on specific projects and experiences. Past guests include Juan Herreros, Christian Kerez, Sir Peter Cook, Hilary Sample, among others.
Dean Amale Andraos was named the 2017 Game Changer in Architecture by Metropolis magazine, and selected for the cover of January 2017 issue.
Professor Kenneth Frampton received an honorary degree from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. His archive spanning 40 years of teaching at Columbia GSAPP was acquired by the Canadian Centre for Architecture, with an exhibition dedicated to his pedagogy opening on May 31, 2017.
GSAPP faculty and alumni won thirteen 2017 AIA New York Design Awards.
2017 AIA National Awards include Payette for the Milken Insititute School of Public Health; alumnus Arlen Li (M.Arch ‘83) was the associate principal on the project. LMN won for the Cleveland Civic Core project; Chris Eseman (MSAAD '83) was the senior principal for the project. SOM won for the Philadelphia 30th Street Station District Plan; alumnus Anthony Vacchione (M.Arch '78) was the managing partner, Derek Moore (M.Arch '98) and Jennifer Pehr (MSUP '10) were the senior planners, and Jenny Joe (MSUD '10) was the urban designer.
Faculty Mimi Hoang and Eric Bunge (nArchitects) won the 2017 AIA Institute Honor Award for their Carmel Place project, a modular housing project developed in response to Mayor Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan calling for new options in the city’s housing market.
Six GSAPP alumni and two Columbia alumni were elevated to the AIA College of Fellows in 2017 in recognition of their significant contributions to the profession of architecture and society: Anthony Alofsin (Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, '83 and '87); Patrick J. Burke III (School of General Studies, '89); Thomas Butcavage (M.Arch '88); Martin Felsen (MSAAD '94); Kevin Hom (M.Arch '74); David Hughes (BA '74); Timothy Johnson (MSAAD '92); Michael Plottel (M.Arch '88).
Dean Amale Andraos and alum Dan Wood (WORKac) and faculty Adam Frampton (Only If) were winners in the 2017 RPA Fourth Plan Design Competition.
Professor Steven Holl won two 2017 P/A Awards, for Hunters Point Library in Queens and Maggie’s Centre Barts in London.
New York City’s 35th Annual Awards for Excellence in Design for 2017 recognized the work of several GSAPP alumni and faculty members. The projects include Bomb Squad Building by Rice+Lipka: Lyn Rice (MSAAD '94) and Astrid Lipka (MSAAD '00); Greenpoint Library & Environmental Education Center by Marble Fairbanks and SCAPE: Scott Marble (M.Arch '86), Karen Fairbanks (M.Arch '87), and Director of GSAPP Urban Design Kate Orff; FIT New Academic Building by SHoP Architects: William Sharples (M.Arch '94), Chris Sharples (M.Arch '90), and Corie Sharples (M.Arch '94); The Cubes Administration & Education Building by faculty members Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano of LO-TEK; 40th Police Precinct by BIG: Beat Schenk (MSAAD '00).
Professor Laura Kurgan, Director of GSAPP’s Center for Spatial Research, was interviewed for Bomb Magazine.
Historic Preservation Faculty Adam Lowe and his firm Factum Arte were profiled in the New Yorker magazine.