Jeff Byles, an author, editor, and architecture journalist, is the Interim Executive Director of Van Alen Institute in New York. Byles has written about architecture, urbanism, and culture for The New York Times, The Village Voice, Metropolis, Modern Painters, Cabinet, The Believer, and other publications. He is the author of Rubble: Unearthing the History of Demolition (Harmony Books, 2005), named a Best Book of the Year by The Village Voice and Time Out New York. Among more recent projects, he co-edited The New York 2030 Notebook (Institute for Urban Design, 2008) and is co-author of A History of Design from the Victorian Era to the Present (Norton, 2011). Byles studied English literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He holds a MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Alaska, Anchorage. For two years he was managing editor at The Architect’s Newspaper, and most recently served as Van Alen Institute’s Director of Research. Jeff has lectured widely on architecture and urbanism at venues including the National Building Museum, 92nd Street Y, New York Public Library, Skyscraper Museum, Storefront for Art and Architecture, Center for Architecture, and The Kitchen.