In Conversation: Tracing the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies
Thursday, October 3 | 6pm
Friday, October 4 | 10am to 3pm
Betts Auditorium | School of Architecture
Tracing the ideas and cultural impact of the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (IAUS), this symposium brings together former instructors, fellows, and students alongside architectural historians. The two-day event kicks-off on Thursday, October 3 at 6pm with a keynote presentation by Kim Förster, and continues all-day on Friday with a series of thematic conversations that focus on the Pedagogy, Publications, and Events at the IAUS. Discussion participants include Diana Agrest, Stan Allen, Peter Eisenman, Mario Gandelsonas, K. Michael Hays, Laurie Hawkinson, Jonathan Kirschenfeld, Sylvia Lavin, Joan Ockman, Mónica Ponce de León, and Pat Sapinsley.
Lectures made possible by the Jean Labatut Memorial Lectures in Architecture and Urban Planning Fund.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Thursday, Oct 3 | 6pm
Welcome and Introduction
Mónica Ponce de León
Opening Lecture
Kim Förster
Friday, Oct 4 | 10am to 3pm
10am
Welcome + Introduction
Courtney Coffman
Opening Conversation
Peter Eisenman with Mónica Ponce de León
11am
Discussion: Pedagogy
Stan Allen, Moderator
Jonathan Kirschenfeld
Pat Sapinsley
12pm LUNCH
1pm
Discussion: Events
Sylvia Lavin, Moderator
Diana Agrest
Laurie Hawkinson
2pm
Discussion: Publications
K. Michael Hays, Moderator
Mario Gandlesonas
Joan Ockman
3 pm
Closing Comments
Mónica Ponce de León
Diana Agrest, FAIA, is an internationally renowned architect well known for her unique and pioneering approach to architecture and urbanism developed both in practice and theory, through work, writing and pedagogy. She is a full time Professor at The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union, and has taught at Princeton University, Columbia University, and Yale University. Additionally, she is a founder and principal of Agrest and Gandelsonas Architects in New York, and develops her own individual projects as well. Diana has been involved in the design and building of projects ranging from urban design projects and master plans to parks, civic and residential buildings, single family houses and interiors in the US, Europe, South America and Asia since 1970 and which have received numerous awards. She was a Fellow of the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York City from 1972 to 1984. She has written, produced and directed her own feature documentary film “The Making of an Avant-Garde: The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies 1967-1984 ” Her books include: Architecture from Without: Theoretical Framings for a Critical Practice; Agrest & Gandelsonas: Works; The Sex of Architecture (edit. Agrest, Conway, Weismann); Places and Memories and A Romance With the City. Her work has additionally been featured in various publications and exhibitions–including the SoA’s Spring 2024 exhibition, “Fabric Object.” She graduated with Diploma Architect from the University of Buenos Aires School of Architecture and Urbanism in 1967 and did post-graduate studies at the Centre de Recherche d'Urbanisme, and at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, VI Section in Paris, France from 1967 to 1969.
Stan Allen is an architect working in New York and the George Dutton ’27 Professor of Architecture at Princeton University School of Architecture. From 2002 to 2012 he was Dean of Princeton University School of Architecture. He holds degrees from Brown University, The Cooper Union, and Princeton University. His architectural firm, SAA/Stan Allen Architect, has realized buildings and urban projects in the United States, South America, and Asia. Responding to the complexity of the modern city in creative ways, Allen has developed an extensive catalog of innovative design strategies, looking in particular at field theory, landscape architecture, and ecology as models to revitalize the practice of architecture. Parallel to this larger scale work, he has recently completed a number of private houses and artists' studios in the Hudson River Valley. Since 2008, he has received three P/A Awards, five AIA Awards, the John Q. Hejduk Award from The Cooper Union, and an Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2011, Allen was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows and in 2012 he was inducted into the National Academy of Design. He was one of 12 architects chosen to represent the US in the 2016 American Pavilion at the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale, and his work was also featured in the 2017 Chicago Biennial, Make New History. Among his many publications, is his most recent book, Saturated Objects, published in 2022 by Park Books. In 2023, Allen was a Fellow at the Writer’s Institute, CUNY Graduate Center.
Peter Eisenman, FAIA, is an internationally recognized architect and educator whose award-winning large-scale housing and urban design projects, innovative facilities for educational institutions, and series of inventive private houses attest to a career of excellence in design. Prior to establishing a full-time architectural practice in 1980, Mr. Eisenman worked as an independent architect, educator, and theorist. In 1967, he founded the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (IAUS), an international think tank for architecture in New York, and served as its director until 1982. Mr. Eisenman is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Among other awards, in 2001 he received the Medal of Honor from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and the Smithsonian Institution’s 2001 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture. He was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2004 Venice Architecture Biennale. He received the Gold Medal for Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2020. Most recently, he was the Charles Gwathmey Professor in Practice at the Yale School of Architecture, and his academic career also includes teaching at Cambridge, Princeton, Harvard, and Ohio State universities. Previously, he was the Irwin S. Chanin Distinguished Professor of Architecture at The Cooper Union, in New York City. He is also an author of several seminal books including: Written Into the Void: Selected Writings, 1990-2004 (Yale University Press, 2007) and Ten Canonical Buildings, 1950-2000 (Rizzoli, 2008). Mr. Eisenman holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University, a Master of Science in Architecture degree from Columbia University, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Cambridge University (U.K). He also holds honorary Doctorates of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois, Chicago, the Pratt Institute in New York, and Syracuse University. In 2003, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Architecture by the Università La Sapienza in Rome.
Kim Förster is Lecturer in Architectural Studies at The University of Manchester and member of the Manchester Architecture Research Group (MARG). In his work, Förster focuses on social, cultural, political, and economic issues in relation to architecture in a broad sense, as object and process, a critical perspective on architectural institutions, cultural production, and alternative pedagogy since the 1960s, and more broadly the histories and theory of architecture in 19th and 20th century. His current project deals with architecture and the environment, i.e. notions of ecology, archives of energy transition, and the politics and economies of sustainability at different spatial scales over the last five decades. Exploring these complex, often ambiguous, if not paradoxical issues from a interdisciplinary perspective, having an academic background in English and American Studies, Geography and Pedagogy, he bases his socio-historical research on institutional analysis and discourse analysis, archival research
Mario Gandelsonas, who joined the faculty in 1991, is an architect and theorist whose specializations include urbanism and semiotics. He was the director of CAUI (Center for Architecture, Urbanism and Infrastructure) from 2007-2013 and the Principal researcher of the project “Twenty First Century Infrastructure” funded by Princeton University’s Global Collaborative Research Networks initiative. His work, which includes residential, institutional, and urban design projects, has received numerous design awards. In 2003 his firm won an international competition for the Urban Design of the Xu Jia Hui district in Shanghai, which was completed in 2004. In 2005 his firm developed a Master Plan for the South Amboy Greenbelt. In 2006, Mr. Gandelsonas was elevated by the AIA to The College of Fellows, an honor awarded to members who have made significant contributions to the profession. He was honored for advancing the science and art of planning and building by advancing the standards of architectural education, training and practice. In 2007 his firm developed a Transit-Oriented Development study for Main Street in Woodbridge, NJ, and a new Vision Plan for the city of Des Moines, IA. In 2010, his firm, Agrest & Gandelsonas Architects, completed construction of the Pappajohn Sculpture Park located in downtown Des Moines IA as a showcase for the “art of our time” that is free and accessible to the entire community. Most recently Gandelsonas has organized for CAUI workshops on mobility infrastructure, at Princeton, on energy infrastructure in Shanghai and on water infrastructure in Paris and Los Angeles. Gandelsonas has been published extensively and is a frequent contributor to architectural journals. His most recent book, Shanghai Reflections: Architecture, Urbanism, and the Search for an Alternative Modernity, examines the transformation of the old city of Shanghai into a modern metropolis from a broad cultural and architectural perspective. In 1999, his book, X-Urbanism, Architecture and the American City, was published by Princeton Architectural Press. Other publications include The Urban Text (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1991) and Agrest and Gandelsonas, Architects (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1994).
K. Michael Hays is the Eliot Noyes Professor of Architecture Theory and Co-Director of the Master in Design Studies Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), where he has taught since 1988. In addition to teaching, he advises doctoral students on the history and theory of architecture. Prior to the GSD, Hays held academic appointments at numerous institutions including Princeton University, along with Columbia University, Cornell University, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), among others. His research and scholarship focus on critical theory, modernism, and the legacy of poststructuralism in architecture. Hays has played a pivotal role in the development of architectural theory. He was founding editor of the journal Assemblage and the first Adjunct Curator of Architecture at the Whitney Museum. His notable publications include Modernism and the Posthumanist Subject (MIT Press, 1992), Architecture Theory since 1968 (MIT Press, 1998), Architecture’s Desire (MIT Press, 2009), and, most recently with Andrew Holder, Inscriptions (Harvard University Press, 2022). Hays received his Master of Architecture degree and his Ph.D. in the History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Art from MIT.
Laurie Hawkinson is an architect and co-founder of SM+H and Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation. Her diverse body of work spans scales and typologies, expanding beyond architecture’s conventional boundaries. At SM+H she led the design for the Corning Museum of Glass, North Carolina Museum of Art Amphitheater and Master Plan, the Wall Street Ferry Terminal, the Land Port of Entry at Massena NY for the GSA, the Zerega Avenue Emergency Medical Services Station for the City of New York. She currently leads the Energy Advancement Innovation Center project; an experiential hub for energy research and technology incubation at The Ohio State University. She holds an undergraduate and master’s degrees in fine arts from the University of California at Berkeley and received her professional degree in Architecture from the Cooper Union where she is recipient of the John Q. Hejduk distinguished alumni Award. She is a member of The Contemporary Arts Council at The Museum of Modern Art and a founding member of the Board of Directors at The Wooster Group. She currently serves on the Public Design Commission for New York City. Laurie is a Registered Architect in New York State.
Jonathan Kirschenfeld and his firm are internationally recognized for design excellence over a wide range of environmentally and socially sustainable projects. The firm has exceptionally strong credentials in the areas of social housing, childcare centers, recreation facilities and performance venues. Mr. Kirschenfeld and his firm were recognized as a 2017 Social Design Circle Honoree by the prestigious Curry Stone Prize. He was the recipient of the inaugural 2014 HH Richardson Award for Public Architecture given by NY State Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and the firm's supportive housing work has been recognized by the NYC Chapter of the American Institute of Architects with the 2013 Andrew J. Thomas Pioneer in Housing Award. Aside from his role as principal, Mr. Kirschenfeld lectures widely and is Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University's GSAPP. He was Visiting Professor at the University of Bologna in 2012-13 and has taught at Pratt Institute and New Jersey Institute of Technology. Mr. Kirschenfeld has been twice selected as first-alternate for the Rome Prize, and is Founder of the Institute for Public Architecture (IPA), a not-for-profit organization at the forefront of social impact design. Jonathan was an Oberlin College student at the IAUS in 1976.
Sylvia Lavin is a Professor of History and Theory of Architecture at Princeton University. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Art and Archaeology at Columbia University after having received fellowships from the Getty Center, the Kress Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council. Prior to her appointment at Princeton, Lavin was a Professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA, where she was Chairperson from 1996 to 2006 and the Director of the Critical Studies M.A. and Ph.D. program from 2007 to 2017 The MIT Press published Lavin’s first books Quatremère de Quincy and the Invention of a Modern Language of Architecture and Form Follows Libido: Architecture and Richard Neutra in a Psychoanalytic Culture in 1992 and 2005. Her books include, Kissing Architecture, published by Princeton University Press in 2011 and Flash in the Pan, an AA publication from 2015. Notably, her recent exhibition catalogs, based on her curatorial work, include: Everything Loose Will Land: Art and Architecture in Los Angeles in the 1970s, an exhibition supported by the Getty Foundation in Los Angeles, New Haven, and Chicago; and Architecture Itself and Other Postmodernists Myths at the Canadian Center for Architecture in the Fall of 2018. Lavin is the recipient of an Arts and Letters Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Joan Ockman is an architectural historian, critic, and educator. She is currently Director of Doctoral Studies at Yale School of Architecture, where she was the Vincent Scully Visiting Professor of Architectural History from spring 2020 to spring 2024. She also holds appointments as Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design and at Cooper Union School of Architecture. Previously she taught for over two decades at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and served from 1994 to 2008 as director of its Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture. A graduate of Cooper Union, her involvement with architecture began at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York, where she edited multiple publications, including Oppositions journal and the Oppositions Books series, from 1976 through 1983. Among her book publications are Architecture School: Three Centuries of Educating Architects in North America (MIT Press, 2012); The Pragmatist Imagination: Thinking about Things in the Making (Princeton Architectural Press, 2000); and the award-winning Architecture Culture 1943–1968: A Documentary Anthology (Rizzoli, 1993).
Monica Ponce de León is a professor and dean of the School of Architecture at Princeton University and founding principal of MPdL Studio. From 2008 through 2015, she was the dean of Taubman College at the University of Michigan. For over 12 years, Ponce de León taught at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard, where she became a professor and served as the Graduate Program coordinator and was director of the Digital Fabrication Lab. Prior to her appointment at Harvard, Ponce de León was an assistant professor at Northeastern University. She has been a visiting professor or scholar at various institutions across the United States, including SCI-Arc, Rhode Island School of Design, and Georgia Tech, where she was the first Thomas W. Ventulett III Distinguished Chair in Architectural Design. In recognition of her extraordinary contributions in academia, Ponce de León received ACADIA’s distinguished teaching award. As a practitioner, she has been honored with the National Design Award in Architecture from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian National Design Museum; the Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the USA Target Fellow in Architecture and Design from United States Artists; and the Young Architects and Emerging Voices prize from the Architectural League of New York. She has additionally received 13 Progressive Architecture Awards, 14 awards from the American Institute of Architects, as well as the prestigious Harleston Parker Medal from the Boston Society of Architects. In 2016, she was inducted into the National Academy of Design. Ponce de León has a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard, as well as a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Miami.
Pat Sapinsley is a recognized climate tech leader who brings two decades of experience in the climate solutions industry, connecting startups to sources of funding, customers, channel partners and business mentors. Previously, she led the Urban Future Lab at NYU Tandon where she is now an Advisor. (She is also an Advisor to RA Capital Planetary, to Climate Lead, to AirCompany and is an investor in climatetech.)She was recently a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome, and is currently an advisor to a consortium of philanthropies, a venture capital firm and several startups. A former practicing and academic architect, she has used her knowledge of buildings’ energy use to focus on climate solutions. Pat holds a Master of Architecture from Harvard University. She has been on the investing team at Good Energies, an early climate focused VC and has been a Visiting Scholar at the Wyss Institute at Harvard.