GSAPP Incubator Open Sessions: Making Space for Intersection

What role do gender and sexuality play in the preservation, design, and management of urban space today? Debates regarding gender-specific bathroom use and housing discrimination based on sexuality (among others) call forth architectural responses. And more public displays of solidarity with LGBTQ+ people, be they monuments or historic designations, require the intervention of planners and designers alike. But pinning questions of the public good — access, inclusivity, respect, and safety — to the needs of more specifically defined groups, however expansive and porous their definitions may be, doesn’t come without challenges. As designers and urbanists engage with LGBTQ+ identity, Intersections, a special series on Urban Omnibus, asks what is motivating their work, what it means, and who it is for. The projects investigated here highlight the challenges of working in and with LGBTQ+ identity today, and teach us about the potentially powerful effects of public work with a personal touch.

The Intersections series will be introduced by its guest editor Jacob R. Moore, with presentations by contributors Jen Jack Gieseking and Oscar Nuñez, and moderated by writer and former Incubator member Marty Wood.

This event is co-organized by Columbia GSAPP Incubator and Urban Omnibus, a publication of The Architectural League of New York.

Jacob R. Moore is a critic, curator, and editor in architecture, based in New York. His work has been exhibited internationally and published in various magazines and journals including Artforum, Future Anterior, and the Avery Review, where he is also a contributing editor.

Jen Jack Gieseking is an urban cultural geographer, feminist and queer theorist, environmental psychologist, and American Studies scholar engaged in research on co-productions of space and identity in digital and material environments. His second book project, A Queer New York, will be accompanied by an interdisciplinary digital project, “A Queer New York: Mapping Lesbian and Queer NYC History.” He is Assistant Professor of Public Humanities in American Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Along with Jay Shockley , he contributed to the National Park Service’s 2016 report, LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History.

Oscar Nuñez (also known as Oscar Nñ) is the Community Education Program Manager at The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP). He is a graduate of the City and Regional Planning Master’s Program at Pratt Institute. While completing his studies at Pratt, Oscar worked with various community-based organizations, including CUP, on issues dealing with planning, design, and community education and engagement. He is the co-founder and resident DJ of Papi Juice, a Brooklyn-based art collective with an aim to celebrate the lives and art of queer and trans people of color.

Marty Wood is a writer and critic in art and architecture. He has contributed to publications such as Metropolis, The Architect’s Newspaper, and Resonant City. He currently organizes the conference series Facades+ for the Architect’s Newspaper.

If you are not a member of the GSAPP Incubator or NEW INC community and would like to attend this event, please RSVP.