Dear June 8 roundtable participants - Tulane School of Architecture ...

The Architectural League
of New York
594 Broadway, Suite 607
New York, NY 10012
212.753.1722
info@archleague.org
www.archleague.org
President
Annabelle Selldorf
Vice Presidents
Paul Lewis
Leo Villareal
Michael Bierut
Ken Smith
Mahadev Raman
Michael Sorkin
Tucker Viemeister
Mitch Epstein
Secretary
Vishaan Chakrabarti
Treasurer
Nat Oppenheimer
Directors
Amale Andraos
Walter Chatham
Kevin Chavers
Arthur Cohen
Roger Duffy
Leslie Gill
Maxine Griffith
Frances Halsband
Hugh Hardy
Steven Holl
Wendy Evans Joseph
Craig Konyk
Frank Lupo
Thom Mayne
Richard Meier
Joseph Mizzi
Peter Mullan
Kate Orff
Gregg Pasquarelli
Lyn Rice
Mark Robbins
Susan Rodriguez
Aby Rosen
Karen Stein
Robert A.M. Stern
David Thurm
Calvin Tsao
Billie Tsien
Life Trustees
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Ulrich Franzen
Barbara Jakobson
Suzanne Stephens
Massimo Vignelli
Executive Director
Rosalie Genevro
Dear June 8 roundtable participants:
Thank you for accepting our invitation to participate in the June 8 roundtable, cohosted
by IBM, on the intersection of digital and information technologies and the
urban environment. An absolutely stellar group of individuals will take part (a list with
brief biographies is attached) and we are looking forward to a thought-provoking
discussion.
We intend for the roundtable to be an open-ended exploration of issues and
challenges that participants currently find compelling. Participants include
architects, engineers, government officials, technologists, information designers,
communications theorists, design journalists, among other areas of expertise, and
we think the conversation will be stimulating in its cross-disciplinarity as well as for
the specific topics addressed.
Greg Wessner, Cassim Shepard and I from the League will open and frame the
conversation by outlining the work the League has undertaken over the past few
years on architecture and pervasive computing and the new perspectives on these
topics that we have shared through Urban Omnibus. IBM’s Sharon Nunes will kick off
introductions with an overview of IBM’s Smarter Cities Initiative and the company’s
efforts to help build more intelligent, connected and sustainable cities. To guide the
ensuing conversation, we have asked several individuals with diverse perspectives
– Laura Forlano, Mahadev Raman and Jonathan Mallie – to pose questions that are
of current interest to them. Topics of discussion raised through their questions will
focus on the values we want to preserve in our cities as they become increasingly
overlaid and instrumented with digital systems; how cities can radically increase their
resilience; and how the accessibility of information is affecting the building industry.
Please come with your own questions related to the evolving relationship between
digital systems and the design of the built environment.
The discussion will take place at the Architectural League office, at 594 Broadway,
Suite 607, beginning at 3:30 pm on Wednesday, June 8. At about 5:45 we will walk
over to the Trespa Design Centre, at 62 Greene Street, for a reception and viewing
of the “City of Systems” short videos created by Urban Omnibus and made possible
by IBM as part of its commitment to use technology and information to help build
more sustainable and intelligent cities. If you would like a guest to join you at the
reception, please RSVP to Beth Schechner at beth.schechner@ketchum.com by
Friday, June 3rd.
I look forward to seeing you all next week.
Rosalie Genevro
Executive Director
Architectural League of New York

Participant Biographies:
Guruduth Banavar is Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of the Global Public Sector in IBM. In this
role, he is responsible for providing technical leadership across the Public Sector, with a particular focus on
IBM’s Smarter Cities initiatives to capture strategic opportunities, improve upon solutions, harvest core assets
and maintain a vital link to IBM Research. Previously, Dr. Banavar was the Director of IBM Research in India.
domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/banavar.index.html
Jake Barton is Founder and Principal of Local Projects, a media design firm for museums and public spaces.
Recognized as a leader in interactive design for physical spaces, Local Projects is partnering with Thinc Design
as lead exhibition designers for the National September 11th Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center;
other projects include interactive design for Storycorps, six films for the Beijing Olympics, media design for the
Official New York City Visitors Information Center and work for clients including jetBlue and the Tribeca Film
Festival. www.localprojects.net
David Benjamin is a principal of the architecture firm The Living and director of the Living Architecture Lab
at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. The Living’s ongoing
investigation of open source research and design includes recent projects such as Living City (a platform for
buildings to talk to one another), Amphibious Architecture (a cloud of light above the East River that changes
color according to conditions underwater), Living Light (a pavilion in Seoul that displays air quality and collective
interest in the environment), and Proof (a series of design studios at Columbia that explore testing as a design
methodology and evolutionary computation as an exploration technique). www.thelivingnewyork.com
Andrew Blum is an independent journalist whose work is inspired by his interest in the relationship between
place and technology. He is a contributing editor at Metropolis, a correspondent at Wired and a consulting editor
at Urban Omnibus. His forthcoming book will examine the physical infrastructure of the Internet. Since 1999,
his articles and essays have appeared in Metropolis, Wired, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Business
Week, Travel & Leisure, Print, ID, Popular Science, Architectural Record, Slate, Surface, Dialogue, The Globe
and Mail, The National Post and Interior Design. www.andrewblum.net
Jennifer Broutin is a designer based in New York City with professional experience in architecture, exhibition
design, and architectural publication. She teaches at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture,
Planning and Preservation, the Pratt Institute, and the New York City College of Technology. Broutin is a partner
in Fluxxlab, a research and design studio focused on innovative energy solutions and sustainable practice and
is also associated with Empire, a project that anticipates design opportunities by stimulating latent desires.
www.fluxxlab.com
Vishaan Chakrabarti is the Marc Holliday Professor of Real Estate Development and the Director of the Real
Estate Development program in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia
University. The founding principal of VCDC, an urban design firm based in Manhattan, Chakrabarti was formerly
an executive vice president of Related Companies, running design operations for the firm’s development
portfolio including Moynihan Station. From 2002 to 2005, he served as the director of the Manhattan Office for
the New York Department of City Planning. Prior to this, Chakrabarti was an associate partner at Skidmore,
Owings & Merrill. www.arch.columbia.edu/programs/real-estate-development
Amanda McDonald Crowley is the executive director of Eyebeam, a New York City-based art and technology
center that supports digital research and experimentation. McDonald Crowley has worked extensively as a
curator and cultural worker in her native Australia and in Europe and Asia. From 1995 to 2000, she was Director
of the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT), and has worked with many other organizations and
projects including Electronic Media Arts Australia, the International Symposium for Electronic Arts 2004, and
as co-chair of the working group that curated the exhibition and symposium “conVerge: where art and science
meet.” www.eyebeam.org
Benjamin de la Peña is Associate Director for Urban Development at The Rockefeller Foundation. de la Peña
has extensive expertise in urban planning, change management, leadership development communications
and innovation technologies. He previously served as Associate Director for Implementation at Smart Growth
America and worked with communities across the US to implement progressive and innovative development
strategies. www.rockefellerfoundation.org

Anna Dyson teaches design, technology and theory at the School of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute and is Director of the Center for Architecture, Science and Ecology (CASE), host to the Built Ecologies
graduate program. She has worked as a design architect and product designer in several offices in Canada,
Europe and the United States. As Director of Materialab and then CASE, she has directed interdisciplinary
systems research sponsored by the US DOE, NYSTAR and NYSERDA.
www.arch.rpi.edu
Wendy Feuer has been Assistant Commissioner for Urban Design & Art at the New York City Department of
Transportation since June of 2007. At DOT Feuer has overseen the international competition for NYCityRack,
participated in the publication of Active Design Guidelines with the Departments of Health, Design and
Construction and City Planning, launched the Urban Art Program in the fall of 2008, and served as part of a
team to produce the DOT Street Design Manual in May 2009. www.nyc.gov
Jim Fletcher is an IBM Distinguished Engineer and Chief Architect for the Tivoli Industry Solutions. In this
role, Fletcher has overall responsibility for the architecture and technical direction of Tivoli’s Industry Solutions
including Smarter Buildings and Datacenters. During his career at IBM, he has served in technical leadership
positions in areas of networking and pervasive computing. Prior to his role in Industry Solutions, Fletcher was
Chief Architect in the area of IT Service Availability and Performance Management. He holds over 25 patents,
has published over 40 articles in technical journals, and coauthored three books. He is an IBM Master Inventor
and member of the IBM Academy. www.ibm.com
Laura Forlano is a writer, researcher and consultant based in New York City. Currently, she is a Postdoctoral
Associate in the Interaction Design Lab in the Departments of Communication and Information Science at
Cornell University. Forlano’s research is on the role of information technology in supporting open innovation
networks in urban environments with a specific emphasis on the use of mobile, wireless and ubiquitous
computing technologies to support collaboration. In 2008-2009, she was a Kauffman Fellow in Law at the
Information Society Project at Yale Law School. Since 2007, Forlano has been an Adjunct Faculty member in
the Design and Management department at Parsons and the Graduate Programs in International Affairs and
Media Studies at The New School. She has also been active in research on public policy issues related to
telecommunications and information technology. Forlano received her Ph.D. in Communications from Columbia
University in 2008, a Master’s in International Affairs from Columbia University, a Diploma in International
Relations from The Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor’s in Asian Studies from Skidmore College.
www.lauraforlano.org
Neil Freeman is an urban planner and artist. His work has appeared in The Believer, Black Book and Next
American City, and in exhibitions in Chicago, London, New York and Cambridge. www.fakeisthenewreal.org
Richard Garber is Assistant Professor at NJIT’s New Jersey School of Architecture, where he teaches design
studios and directs an on-campus design and manufacturing laboratory, FABLAB. His work uses computer
simulation and computer numerically-controlled hardware to generate innovative design, construction and
assembly solutions. Garber was previously a project manager at SHoP Architects and at Greg Lynn FORM.
www.njit.edu/news/experts/garber.php
Adam Greenfield is the founder and managing director of Urbanscale LLC, a New York City-based urban
systems design practice focused on “design for networked cities and citizens.” He is the author of Everyware:
The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing (2006), and the forthcoming The City is Here for You to Use, and,
with Mark Shepard, Urban Computing and Its Discontents. www.urbanscale.org
Ilana Judah leads FXFOWLE’s sustainability workgroup Team Green, which researches and disseminates
information on the latest advancements in green architecture technologies, products, policies and philosophies.
She participates in Mayor Bloomberg’s New York City Green Codes Task Force on the Climate Change
Adaptation Committee. Ilana is a Steering Committee member of AIA-NY’s Committee on the Environment
(COTE), a member of ASHRAE’s New York Sustainability Committee, as well as an active member of the New
York Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. www.fxfowle.com
Todd Kimmel is Director and Business Development Manager for the Trespa Design Centre, which he
established in New York in 2007 for the global supplier of façade design solutions. Trained as a civil engineer,
Todd worked earlier in his career in construction management and architectural materials, including managing
façade system installations on commercial buildings such as the Metreon Building in San Francisco.
www.trespa.com/na/

Laura Kurgan teaches architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at
Columbia University, where she is Co-Director of the Spatial Information Design Lab (SIDL) and Director of
Visual Studies. Her work explores issues and topics ranging from digital mapping technologies to the ethics and
politics of mapping, new structures of participation in design, and the visualization of urban and global data.
www.l00k.org
www.spatialinformationdesignlab.org
Greg Lindsay is a contributing writer for Fast Company and the author of Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live
Next (with John D. Kasarda). Aerotropolis asserts that the cities native to our globalized era are cities effectively
orbiting their airports, rather than the other way around. He was previously a contributing writer for Fortune and
an editor-at-large for Advertising Age. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street
Journal, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Financial Times, McKinsey Quarterly, Time, Wired, Travel + Leisure,
Condé Nast Traveler and The Daily Beast. Lindsay is a visiting scholar at New York University’s Rudin Center
for Transportation Policy & Management. www.greglindsay.org
Jonathan Mallie is a founding principal of SHoP Construction, established in 2007. Mallie currently serves
as Managing Director of SHoP Construction and as an associate principal of SHoP Architects, where he was
their first full-time employee hired in 1999. Mallie received a Bachelor of Science in Design from the University
of Florida (1996), and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University (1999) where he graduated with
Honors for Excellence in Design. Through his years at SHoP, Mr. Mallie has engaged in the usage of emerging
technologies as a means to facilitate communication and information sharing with fabricators and builders,
thus promoting a hands-on approach towards the design and construction process. Together with his partners,
Mallie has developed integrated design and construction platforms that have instituted transparent working
environments and enabled seamless exchanges of information to take place amongst project stakeholders.
Jonathan has also taught at multiple universities including the University of Florida’s Graduate School of
Architecture’s Global Lab, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation,
Miami University of Ohio, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is a registered architect in the State of
New York. www.shop-construction.com/
Sharon Nunes is Vice President, IBM Smarter Cities Strategy & Solutions. Previously, Nunes was Vice
President of Big Green Innovations and launched IBM’s program in Advanced Water Management in 2009
as part of IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative. Nunes has held numerous executive positions leading new growth
initiatives in IBM including a special assignment as Vice President of Technology, working with IBM’s Chairman
and the senior executive team to set the technical agenda for the company. Nunes launched and led IBM’s
Computational Biology Center, and was one of the executive leaders of the Life Sciences business unit in its
start-up phase. She received her PhD in Materials Science in 1983 from the University of Connecticut. She
has held numerous academic advisory board positions, was a National Academy of Engineering “Frontiers of
Engineering” fellow and was a member of the National Academy of Engineering “Engineer of 2020” advisory
board. She was also elected to the University of Connecticut’s Academy of Engineering for distinguished
engineers. www.research.ibm.com/theworldin2050/bios-Nunes.shtml
Nat Oppenheimer is a structural engineer at Robert Silman Associates with extensive experience in new
construction, renovation, historic preservation and sustainable engineering. He teaches structural engineering
at Princeton University, and serves on the boards of the Salvadori Center and the Architectural League.
www.rsapc.com
Elisa Orlanski Ours is Vice President of Planning & Design for Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, and
directs Corcoran Sunshine’s Planning and Design department, which she founded in 2007. Trained as an
architect, she has previously worked in architecture firms and as a construction manager.
www.corcoransunshine.com
Bruce Schaller is Deputy Commissioner for Planning and Sustainability at the New York City Department
of Transportation. He oversees agency planning, design and implementation of the transportation elements
in Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC and key elements of DOT’s Sustainable Streets Strategic Plan. Previously,
Schaller was Principal of Schaller Consulting, where he consulted with a variety of government, institutional,
and private clients on identifying transportation needs, developing effective transit programs, taxicab regulation,
transit fare policy, road pricing, transportation finance, customer communications and bus rapid transit.
www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/about/schallerbio.shtml

Kenneth Schwartz is Dean of the School of Architecture at Tulane University, and formerly department
chair and professor of architecture at the University of Virginia. Ken is also a founding principal of CP+D
(Community Planning + Design) and Schwartz-Kinnard, Architects. Ken has served as a planning
commissioner and member of the Board of Architectural Review for the City of Charlottesville, on the
University of Virginia Master Planning Committee and on the Art and Architecture Review Board for the
Commonwealth of Virginia. He is a Past President of the National Architecture Accrediting Board and recent
board member of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. architecture.tulane.edu
Sylvia Smith formed and leads FXFOWLE’s Cultural/Educational Studio. Smith’s current work includes
the design of SUNY Purchase’s Center for Integrated Technology Learning, the design for the HealthCare
Chaplaincy in Lower Manhattan, a large school in Hunters Point South for the NYC School Construction
Authority, and a master plan for the National University of Rwanda.www.fxfowle.com
Brian R. Steinwurtzel is a principal of the Newmark Holding’s portfolio. Newmark Knight Frank owns and
operates approximately nine million square feet of real estate in the United States. Prior to joining Newmark
Knight Frank, Brian was an equity research analyst for Triene Inc., a Goldman Sachs Ventures’ firm, and a
management consultant at PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP. www.newmarkkf.com
Anthony Townsend is the Director of Technology and Development of the Institute for the Future, and
focuses his research on the impact of new technology on cities and public institutions. His interests span
several inter-related topics: mobility and urbanization, innovation systems and innovation strategy, science
and technology parks and economic development, and sustainability and telework. www.iftf.org/user/20
Claire Weisz is a founding partner of New York design firm WXY Architecture + Urban Design, which carries
out a wide range of design projects at all scales, including the new bench system The Zipper, the Times
Square Visitors Center (with Local Projects), and the Nanhe River Landscape Bridge. Weisz was on the
founding board for the Design Trust for Public Space and served as its co-executive director and is on the
faculty of NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. www.wxystudio.com
Tom Wright is Executive Director of Regional Plan Association (RPA) where he has directed such projects
as the Draft Vision Plan for the City of Newark (2006) and A Region at Risk: The Third Regional Plan for the
New York-New Jersey-Connecticut Metropolitan Area (1996). Wright lectures widely on growth management
and regional planning and is a Visiting Lecturer in Public Policy at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson
School of Public and International Affairs. www.rpa.org