Byron Bell is a Registered Architect in the States of Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York as well as a Registered Planner in the State of New Jersey. He received his B.A. from Princeton University in 1957 and his M. Arch. from Columbia University in 1962. Mr. Bell has been a partner in Bell Donnelly Architects and Planners since 2006 following serving as partner and principal in a number of predecessor firms. His works include projects for Columbia University, The Century Association, Council on Foreign Relations, American Museum of Natural History, The Grolier Club and Manhattan School of Music. He has served on the NIAE and Van Alen Boards for 32 years, and is currently an emeritus trustee. Mr. Bell was named First Alternate for the Paris Prize in Architecture in 1962, received the William Kinne Fellows Memorial Fellowship in 1963, and was elected both as an AIA Fellow and to the National Academy of Design in 1995.

  Matthew Blesso is Founder and CEO of Blesso Properties, a widely-publicized innovative and socially conscious development company founded in 1998. The firm’s projects have garnered six design awards and broken numerous pricing records. The company prides itself in conceiving and executing unique investment concepts with a focus on art and design   Matthew is also President and Co-owner of 3rd Ward, an art and design center based in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Matthew is an adjunct professor at NYU, where he also is the recipient of the Bart Lawson Humanitarian Award. Matthew has a strong commitment to philanthropy and community reinvestment and is dedicated to providing continued support and raising funds for various organizations and communities around the world. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for Worldwide Orphans Foundation, the Executive Committee of Citizen Housing and Planning Counsel, NYU Schack Real Estate Institute, the Van Alen Institute, and Spaceworks. We previously served as the founding member and the chair of the Leadership Board of the Fourth Arts Block. To date, Matthew and Blesso Properties has raised or donated over $250,000 to various philanthropic causes. Matthew is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York, the New York Landmarks Conservancy, the Municipal Arts Society, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the Urban Land Institute and the New York Preservation Archive Project. Prior to founding Blesso Properties, Matthew Blesso worked for five years as a commercial lender at BHF Bank (now PB Capital) and Societe Generale. Matt earned a BA in Economics with a minor in Finance from the University of Rochester (cum laude) and Masters in Real Estate Development from New York University.  

Stephen Cassell is principal and co-founder, with Adam Yarinsky, of Architecture Research Office, a New York-based firm practicing modern architecture and visionary urbanism. The practice has completed more than seventy-five projects nationwide for clients such as Goldman Sachs, Princeton University, Prada, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The firm’s portfolio of work includes civic, academic, commercial, residential, and conceptual architecture. Winner of the 2011 National Design Award for Architecture and the 2010 Academy Award for Architecture, Architecture Research Office has received numerous honors and frequent media coverage. Recent work includes the renovation of Union Square’s historic pavilion and a new modern building at the park’s northeast corner; a riverfront education center and recreational pavilion in Beacon, NY; a new entrance building at Brooklyn Botanic Garden; a theater complex in Lower Manhattan; and a museum dedicated to the life and work of the American sculptor Donald Judd. Architecture Research Office was a member of the 2007-2009 AIA Latrobe Prize project team that reconceived the New York-New Jersey harbor in response to rising sea levels. The firm’s vision for Lower Manhattan was the centerpiece of Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront, an exhibit at The Museum of Modern Art. Stephen Cassell holds an undergraduate degree in architecture from Princeton University and received his Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Stephen has twice served as the Shure Professor at the University of Virginia and as the Friedman Professor at the University of California at Berkeley. He has also taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Princeton, Syracuse, and the Rhode Island School of Design. He has lectured widely throughout the United States and abroad.

Andrew Darrell is a senior executive at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), an international environmental organization that partners with business, government and communities to create practical solutions to the most pressing environmental challenges. At EDF, he serves as New York Regional Director and Deputy Director of EDF's Energy program. His work focuses on clean energy for cities, buildings and transport. He is a member of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Sustainability Advisory Board and on the leadership committee of the Campaign for New York's Future. He was appointed to serve on a New York State commission that recommended a congestion pricing plan for New York City, and he played a key advisory role in shaping PlaNYC 2030, which seeks a 30% reduction in greenhouse gases economy-wide in New York City.. Before joining Environmental Defense Fund, he was founding Executive Director of the Hudson River Park Alliance and the Waterfront Park Coalition, both dedicated to reinventing the New York City waterfront for public use. After attending Georgetown University and the University of Virginia School of Law, he worked as an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell and consulted on energy efficiency projects. He is also a trustee of the New York League of Conservation of Voters Education Fund and of International House in New York City.

Sharon Davis earned her Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts from Trinity College and has a Masters Degree in Business from New York University. Sharon graduated from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, where she received a Lucille Smyser Lowenfish Memorial Prize. Sharon has worked on architectural projects ranging in scope from residential interiors to commercial ground-up construction. She is particularly interested in sustainable design and urban renewal. Sharon has previous experience in finance as a portfolio manager, and she has served on the Board of Directors for organizations in the fields of education, social issues and the environment.

Susannah C. Drake is the Principal of dlandstudio, an award winning multidisciplinary design firm. dlandstudio’s recent public projects include the Gowanus Canal Sponge Park, the Brooklyn Bridge Pop-up Park, the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls in Lilongwe, Malawi and the security for the New York City Police Department headquarters in lower Manhattan. Susannah received a Bachelors of Arts Degree from Dartmouth College and MArch and MLA degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is the recipient of grants from the Graham Foundation, The James Marston Fitch Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts for research on campus landscapes and large scale urban infrastructure projects. Susannah is the past president and a current trustee of the New York ASLA, a director of the Fine Arts Federation, serves on the campus design advisory board at Dartmouth College and is on the Directors Council of New Yorkers for Parks. Susannah is a visiting professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She is a registered landscape architect and a registered architect.

Roger Duffy is a Design Partner in the New York office of SOM. His projects range from the design and planning of academic and athletic buildings, to architecture for cultural institutions, corporate and commercial clients, and transportation authorities. Among Mr. Duffy’s key initiatives are the creation of the campus design – SOM Education Lab – and the launching of SOM Journal, an annually published book of SOM’s best work as selected and critiqued by an independent jury of artists, designers, and critics. Mr. Duffy’s designs for the Kuwait Police Academy were included in the Venice Biennale, “Next”. His work has been featured in numerous publications, including A + U, Architectural Record, bob / International Magazine of Space Design, Casabella, Casamica, International Design Magazine, Metropolis Magazine, The New York Times, The Walrus, and The Washington Post. A Fellow of the AIA, Mr. Duffy is a board member of the Architectural League and served on the board of the Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University (2000-2006). He has lectured on design at Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, National Building Museum, Netherlands Architectural Institute, University of Pennsylvania, University of Toronto, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Fines Arts. He has taught seminars and served on design juries at Chicago Athenaeum, Cooper Union, Florida International University, and Harvard University. Experimentation and collaboration characterize Roger Duffy’s projects worldwide. Mr. Duffy’s design approach is rooted in a deep understanding of the unique qualities of each client’s program, site, and aspirations. His interest in making art integral to his designs has led to collaborations with a wide range of artists. Light is a critical aspect of his work, as is innovation in sustainability. Mr. Duffy brings his unique sense of the conjoining of art, science, and architecture to all of his design work.

 Bio coming soon.

Jonathan is a principal at Rogers Marvel Architects, a multidisciplinary practice he founded in 1992 with Rob Rogers. Rogers Marvel Architects is a firm of over 40 architects, landscape architects, urban designers, preservationists, and product designers dedicated to critical design thinking in the public and private realms. Jonathan has taught design studios for over nineteen years at schools such as Columbia, Harvard and Parsons, and is currently a visiting critic at Syracuse University. He is a former board member of the New York Chapter of the AIA and currently serves on the preservation committee of the Municipal Art Society, the streetscape committee for the New York City Art Commission, and the boards of the Van Alen Institute and Buckminster Fuller Institute. He has been a member of the NYSCA Architecture, Planning and Design panel since 2006. His current projects include a 40 acre park for Governors Island, the redevelopment of McCarren Pool in Brooklyn, and a two block redevelopment in Oklahoma City. Jonathan holds a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College and a Master of Design from Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Mohsen Mostafavi, an architect and educator, is the Dean and Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He was formerly the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University. Previously, he was the Chairman of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. Dean Mostafavi serves on the steering committee of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the board of the Van Alen Institute, and on numerous university committees including the Harvard University Committee on the Arts, as well as the Committee on Common Spaces. He has served on the design committee of the London Development Agency (LDA), the RIBA Gold Medal, and is currently involved as a consultant on a number of international architectural and urban projects. Mostafavi received a diploma in architecture from the AA in 1976 and undertook research on counter-reformation urban history at the Universities of Essex and Cambridge. Previously, he was Director of the Master of Architecture I Program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Mostafavi has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Cambridge University, and the Frankfurt Academy of Fine Arts (Städelschule). His research and design projects have been published in many journals, including The Architectural Review, AAFiles, Arquitectura, Bauwelt, Casabella, Centre, and Daidalos. Some of his publications include: On Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time (with David Leatherbarrow, MIT, 1993), which received the American Institute of Architects prize for writing on architectural theory; Approximations (AA/MIT, 2002); Surface Architecture (MIT, 2002), which received the CICA Bruno Zevi Book Award; Logique Visuelle (Idea Books, 2003); Landscape Urbanism: A Manual for the Machinic Landscape (AA Publications, 2004); Structure as Space, (AA Publications, 2006); and Ecological Urbanism (Lars Müller Publishers 2010).

Joan Ockman is an architectural historian, critic, educator, and editor. From 1994 to 2008 she was Director of the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she taught architectural history, theory, and design for more than two decades. She has also held teaching appointments at Yale, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, Graduate Center of City University of New York, the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam, and the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she was Clarkson Visiting Chair in 2007. Among her numerous publications, her award-winning book Architecture Culture 1943-1968: A Documentary Anthology, originally published in 1993, is currently in its fifth edition. In 2003 she was honored by the American Institute of Architects with an award for collaborative achievement. She served as acting director of the Van Alen Institute in 2009.

Mark Robbins is Executive Director of the International Center of Photography in New York City. Robbins served as dean of the Syracuse University School of Architecture and the University’s Senior Advisor for Architecture and Urban Initiatives, Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington DC, Curator of Architecture at the Wexner Center for the Arts and Associate Professor in the Knowlton School of Architecture. His work has been exhibited in the Quito Biennale, the Atlanta Contemporary, the Adelaide Festival in Australia, the Museum of Modern Art in Saitama, Japan, the Wexner Center and the Clocktower Gallery of the ICA in New York. His publications include Households, Monacelli Press and Angles of Incidence, Princeton Architectural Press. He received a fellowship in the visual arts from the Radcliffe Institute and a Rome Prize from the American Academy and is a recipient of grants from the NEA, the Graham Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the State Arts Councils of Ohio and New York.

Martha Rosler is an artist who works with multiple media, including photography, photo-text, sculpture, video, performance, and installation. Her interests are centered on the public sphere and landscapes of everyday life—actual and virtual—especially as they affect women. Related projects focus on housing, on the one hand, and systems of transportation, on the other. She has long produced works on war and the “national security climate,” connecting everyday experiences at home with the conduct of war abroad. Other works, from bus tours to sculptural recreations of architectural details, are excavations of history. Recent work includes If You Lived Here Still: An Archive Exhibition, a touring show based on If You Lived Here…, a ground-breaking cycle of exhibitions and forums on housing, homelessness, and the built environment that she organized in 1989 at Dia in New York. Originating at e-flux gallery, in New York, it has recently been exhibited at CASCO Center for Art, Design and Theory in Utrecht, Netherlands and will travel to La Virreina in Barcelona. Recent solo exhibitions include those at Portikus, Frankfurt; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Centro Jose Guerrero, Granada; and the International Biennial of the Moving Image, Geneva. She was a founding member of United Nations Plaza School, Anton Vidokle's project in Berlin, Mexico City, and New York. Rosler has recently participated in a billboard project organized by the MAK Center/ Schindler House in Los Angeles. Her work has also been included in many group exhibitions, including at Skulptur Projekte Münster 07 and documenta 12, Kassel, in 2007; the Venice Biennale; Tate Modern, London; and Centre Pompidou, Paris; and many other international and national venues. Rosler has published 17 books of photography, art, and writing, in several languages; her essay book Decoys and Disruptions was published by MIT Press in 2004. She received the Spectrum International Prize in Photography in 2005 and the Oskar-Kokoschka Prize in 2006; she was the United States Artists Nimoy Fellow in 2008 and a Civitella Ranieri Fellow in 2009.

Stan Allen
Paola Antonelli
Diana Balmori
Kadambari Baxi
Michael Bell
Christine Boyer
Robert Davis
Susan Fine
Robert Fox, Jr.
Mildred Friedman
Shelly Friedman
Leslie Gill
Richard Gluckman
Abby Hamlin
Marion Imperatore
Robert Kupiec
George Leventis
Kevin Lippert
Peggy Loar
Michael Manfredi
Mary Miss
Sherida Paulsen
Michael Rock
Susan Rodriguez
Andrew Ross
Pamela Samuels
Craig Schwitter
Peter Slatin
Lisa Strausfeld
Gong Szeto
Marc Tsurumaki
Karen Van Lengen
Anthony Vidler
Peter Wolf