Projects and publications

Our faculty, researchers, and students engage in purposeful research that tackles complex societal challenges and generates transformational impacts both locally and globally.

Faculty research is catalyzed by diverse partnerships with public, nonprofit and private partners and prominent public, nonprofit and industry funding sources. Outcomes include peer-reviewed publications, books and evidence-based action in new plans, policies, designs, and programs in Buffalo and beyond. The breadth of our impact spans the fields of inclusive design, food systems planning, material and build systems development, and climate resilient design.   

Built Work
  • Urban Renewal and School Reform in Baltimore
    8/18/20

    Urban Renewal and School Reform in Baltimore examines the role of the contemporary public school as an instrument of urban design. Bridging facets of urban design, development, and education policy, this book contributes to an expanded agenda for understanding the spatial implications of school-led redevelopment and school reform.

  • Making Bibelot: Casting material research within cultural frameworks
    9/4/19

    Bibelot gives a detailed account of the entire process and the working assumptions behind a terra cotta installation built by the authors, which explores untapped potential material to expand design and manufacturing possibilities. The project also demonstrates how bridges could be built between practice and material research without sacrificing the cultural significance of architectural artifacts.

  • LIGHT/STATION
    2/1/18
    Chris Romano’s project Light/Station transformed an abandoned gas mart into a striking 1,545-square-foot design studio, green room and conference facility for Buffalo-based Torn Space, a critically acclaimed, avant-garde theater company.
  • Rehab projects: 120 Summit Ave & 320 Florida Ave
    10/12/16
    Working in close collaboration with the Buffalo Chapter of Habitat for Humanity, Professor Edward Steinfeld’s studio developed proposals for new-build homes to be assembled by Habitat volunteers.
  • He, She, It
    9/26/15
    He, She & It is a collection of three distinct buildings for three different spatial needs, collaged into a single structure. The 1500 sq ft building houses work spaces for a painter, a ceramist/silversmith, and a greenhouse. Each space offers an atmosphere which differs radically from the others.
  • Church and Parish Center Santa Maria Assumpta
    9/1/15
    The project for the new Santa Maria Parish Center in Bonavista offers a specific solution to the needs of the program and the liturgy taking as a starting point two premises recurrent throughout the history of the Catholic Church: monumentality and mystery.
  • Tipico Coffee (Cafe Fargo)
    2/27/15
    Café Fargo is a formerly neglected corner store converted into a small coffee shop in a residential neighborhood of Buffalo, NY. The former store, built in 1929, is a monolithic brick addition to the corner of a 3-story brick house built around 1880.