Spring 2025 Graduate Studio Selection

The “Big Projects Studio” is a sponsored studio developed in partnership with Gensler and CannonDesign—where students, faculty, and professional architects work together to deepen our collective understanding of the social, economic, aesthetic, environmental, and other impacts of “big projects.” The partnership leverages collaborative relationships to create new knowledge and offers students the opportunity to learn and gain experiences from Studio partners.

The focus of this spring’s iteration of the Big Projects Studio will center on one of New York State’s biggest projects: Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York. Planned in 1961 and constructed from 1965-76 at a cost of $2 billion (~$11 billion in 2024), the Empire State Plaza was an ambitious effort to reshape Albany and expand the footprint of the State Capitol by constructing a vast new government, civic, and cultural center to serve both the city and State. Upon its completion, the resulting complex—largely executed by New York City-based firm Harrison & Abramovitz—stood as a monumental expression of not only the economic power and cultural prowess of the State of New York, but also as a symbol of international exchange, represented by the style and manner of its architecture.

And while Empire State Plaza remains objectively impressive as an architectural and urban ensemble, it also stands as a colossal reminder of the harmful urban policies and practices of its era. To make room for its construction on a site adjacent to the existing Capitol, 7,000 Albanians—a diverse mix of mostly working and lower-middle class residents—were evicted from their homes, and more than 400 businesses were shuttered. In all, 1,150 structures were demolished to clear a total of 98.5 acres across 40 city blocks. But those forcibly relocated weren’t the only negatively impacted. The Plaza divided neighborhoods—from each other, from their parks, from urban amenities, and from downtown. Its edges were—and remain—severe, not only in their relentless architectural and urban nature, but in the way they turn their backs on their surroundings. In other places, blocks were decimated for the construction of an urban highway spur (providing direct, in-and-out access), enormous berms of inaccessible and over-manicured landscapes, massive parking garages, and never-to-be-built housing (both public and market-rate). And while the greatest harm was inflicted on residents of a now-bygone (though still-remembered) era, the disastrous urban effects of the Plaza and its encompassing urban renewal footprint continue to negatively affect Albany in innumerable physical, environmental, social, cultural, and economic ways still today. In this studio, we will explore architectural and urban concepts for a twenty-first-century remake of these 98.5 acres, offering a new generation of “big project”-scaled solutions for this most iconic—and infamous—big project in New York State history. Further, partially funded travel will offer students the chance to participate in site-based learning, and to present research and design solutions in professional settings at both Gensler New York and CannonDesign Buffalo.

Buffalo’s 19th century formation can be described as a product of artificial water movement in response to emergent intercontinental markets—typical hallmarks of a modern industrial city. This option studio is part of the 2024-25 Banham Fellowship and frames the built environment as “transactions.” Students will examine themes of modernity (infrastructure-scale earthwork, naturalization, control) and reconsider architecture as indexes and provocations of transaction–an event that is temporary rather than a monument that is fixed. Through careful study of texts and precedents students will design architectures on an existing Buffalo water feature that foreground contingency and impermanence.

The medium for this exploration will be light timber framing, a nod to Tonawanda’s history as a major lumber port and an effort to familiarize students with a specifically American and pervasive tradition of construction. Students can expect to make detailed drawings akin to industry shop drawings that show details of tectonics and assembly, as well as large scale models. Work from this studio will contribute to the Banham Fellowship exhibition in Hayes Hall at the end of the Spring semester.

After decades of 'form follows finance', our industry has entered a slow death spiral as it embraces technology that will be our demise. Ironically, our world is falling apart and is in desperate need of design as a mechanism to solve humanitarian and societal issues. The complexity of resource scarcity, climate collapse, political instability and economic volatility are simply challenges looking for innovative and bold solutions. It is time to turn our back on "capital A" architecture and embrace design for good. 

Please note: This is a live studio that responds to active humanitarian challenges. 

Trauma-Informed Design: There is a growing need for architects to understand how traumas impact the human experience and perceptions of the built environment. Architects must be mindful of the range of clients and occupants that might enter and use the spaces they design – from genocide survivors to combat veterans, to refugees, to domestic-violence and sexual-assault survivors, to targets and witnesses of racially or religiously motivated aggression, to victims of bullying. We must also understand how buildings might inadvertently re-traumatize these individuals or purposefully contribute to the healing process. As such, this studio will focus on the emerging and evolving field of trauma-informed design. The course will include research on trauma-informed design, analyses of case studies, brainstorming on innovative approaches, and the design of a trauma-informed building.

Contrary to the commonly held belief that cities are agents of ecological degradation, recent research has found that urban areas are surprising refuges for biodiversity. These urban environments, evolving more rapidly than their rural counterparts, have become hubs of evolution where species quickly adapt to new environments, forming complex and dynamic ecosystems. However, despite this flourishing urban biodiversity, this remains largely ignored in traditional approaches to architecture, urban design and planning, which have typically focused on accommodating human needs while neglecting the diverse communities of species that also inhabit the city. 

This design research studio will investigate the integration of green infrastructure with environmental sensing for multispecies urban environments. We will explore the design of spaces that embrace the needs of more than human citizens and provide a variety of ecological services, such as habitat support, stormwater management, and climate regulation. We will develop environmental sensing strategies that monitor urban ecosystems and enable the design of responsive, data-driven urban landscapes. Our site is the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, a 29-mile protected and landscaped route for pedestrians and cyclists. Currently under development, when completed the Greenway will connect Brooklyn’s waterfront, parks and open space, commercial and cultural corridors, and new tech and innovation hubs. We will make multiple trips to New York City to visit the site and meet with representatives from the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, the non-profit organization managing the development and stewardship of the Greenway.

Co-registration with the Spring 2025 Situated Technologies Intellectual Domain seminar is highly recommended but not required.

Despite declining student populations, the rapid urbanization and limited land availability in cities suggest that 'vertical' schools could provide a practical solution for educational spaces. The concept of a learning environment within a tower may seem contradictory to our traditional learning culture, which values open fields, playgrounds, and repetitive classrooms. However, conventional school settings across various cultures have struggled to adapt to the profound socio-cultural shifts in recent decades. Today's learners are heavily engaged in social media and utilize online resources, accessing a wealth of knowledge from global sources. The once textbook/teacher-centered learning has swiftly transitioned into a ubiquitous realm, incorporating learning and evaluation from multiple sources. Embracing the enduring paradox that creativity thrives beyond the confines of classrooms, the vertical school presents an opportunity to challenge the learning environments established centuries ago.

In Seoul, Korea, the educational infrastructure encounters an added layer of complexity due to the contemporary emphasis on the college entrance process. Beyond school hours, a vertical architecture emerges through the privatization of extracurricular learning. Parents invest in unregulated after-hours private tutoring, driven by its commercial nature. However, the architectural presence of these private institutes, a significant aspect of the educational landscape, remains notably absent from discussions on education efficacy and the mental well-being of young minds, despite its profound influence on the cityscape in a vertical form. The prevalence of private learning in Korea exemplifies this trend, where the vertical school serves as evidence of architecture's failure to adequately cater to the needs of young students.

Running parallel to the declining student population and rapid urbanization, the impact of an aging society on urban areas emerges as another crucial social trend relevant to vertical schools. The future transformation of vertical spaces holds promise in providing compelling solutions, necessitating not just traditional academic programs but also lifelong learning initiatives and cultural activities tailored to support vibrant and healthy retired communities. This inherent adaptability, allowing these spaces to evolve into ‘something else,’ presents an innovative framework intersecting public education, amenities, cultural infrastructure, and private investment. Together, these elements significantly shape the urban dynamics within the city.

In this context, the studio will explore the challenges of ‘Vertical School’ posed by diverse private institutions housed in tall buildings.