Sat Nov 1st, 1:50pm @ Greene Gallery:

“CITIZENS”

On Saturday, November 1, 2014, the Rensselaer Positions Series’ fourth discussion, “Citizens” took place in the Greene Gallery. Executive Director of the Architectural League of New York, Rosalie Genevro, along with RPI SoA faculty Brendan Moran, and student Mallory Buckner (B.Arch.) joined students for a conversation on the role of architects as civic figures within a rapidly urbanizing world.. “Citizens” poses the following questions:

What are the roles of architects as civic figures within a rapidly urbanizing world? How might architects further influence the day-to-day municipal decisions that shape the functions of urban life and civic engagement? What are the paramount civic matters about which architects have failed to engage collaboratively with city officials in recent years, and how might both groups begin to address them now? Can students of architecture also address said questions as well, even while in academia?

A student-led round-table discussion followed the three guest speaker presentations.

About the Participants

Rosalie Genevro is the executive director of The Architectural League of New York. In her over 20 years as executive director, Genevro has pursued the League’s mission – to nurture excellence and engagement in architecture, design and urbanism – through consistent innovation in the content and format of live events, exhibitions and publications, both in print and online. She has conceived and developed projects that have mobilized the expertise of the League’s international network of architects and designers toward applied projects in the public interest, including Vacant Lots, New Schools for New York, Envisioning East New York, Ten Shades of Green, Worldview Cities, and Urban Omnibus.

Brendan Moran is an architectural historian and theorist who teaches at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture. His interests lie in the role of research within education, in particular within the context of the research university. Moran has been an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, as well as a lecturer at the Yale School of Architecture, and an Adjunct Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Associate Professor at Syracuse University. He holds a Ph.D. in Architecture History and Theory from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, a Masters in Environmental Design from the Yale School of Architecture, and Princeton University.

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The Positions Series is a collection of student-led discussion events taking place at the Rensselaer School of Architecture. It is sponsored jointly by the RPI chapters of the student organizations AIAS and NOMAS. Students Miguel Lantigua-Iona (B.Arch), Allison Clark (M.Arch I), Elias Jackson Darham (M.Arch I), Carlos Felix (B.Arch), Emily Klein (B.Arch), Mallory Buckner (B.Arch), and Dillon Webster (B.Arch) have been instrumental in the formation of the Positions Series. With a conversational basis, this forum for discussion aims to examine imperative matters regarding the field of architecture, its pedagogy, and practice. Each gathering opens with a set of carefully-articulated initial questions, and is followed by discussion and debate. The series seeks to create an intellectual friction by encouraging all participants and observers to define their positions on issues of pertinence to the field of architecture.

All Positions Series events are free and open to the public.