2021 UMASS Architecture Fall Lecture Series

UMass announces the Fall 2021 Department of Architecture lecture series. The series includes 5 speakers who represent a broad spectrum of the discipline of architecture.

All lectures begin at 5:30 EST. Three of the lectures will be conducted remotely via the Zoom Webinar platform, while two lectures will be hosted in the Design Building Atrium. All lectures are free and open to the public.

Registration is required for remote lectures. Please visit the UMass Events Page and click on the calendar date of the lecture you’d like to attend.

September 22: Brian Tibbs, AIA, NOMA, NCARB. Brian Tibbs is a partner at Moody Nolan, the largest African American owned firm in the country recently recognized with the 2021 AIA Architecture Firm Award. Brian directs the Nashville office operations where he leads projects across the country including the Music City Center, the Jacob Javits Convention Center, and the new Boston Convention Center hotel.

October 07: Sylvia Lavin, PhD. Sylvia Lavin is a professor of History and Theory of Architecture and the co-director of the Program in Media and Modernity at Princeton University. As an architectural historian and cultural critic, much of her recent work presents a counter-narrative of post-modern architecture in the United States by addressing the underlying conditions that shaped architectural practice from the post-modern period through the present. As part of the Five College Architectural Theory Seminar, Sylvia will be speaking on the work of Cedric Price in a lecture titled: A Work on Paper, a Plantation, and a Polariser:  An Environmental History of Cedric Price’s Generator.

October 20: Esra Akcan, PhD. Esra Akcan is the Michael McCarthy Professor in the Department of Architecture at Cornell University. Her research on modern and contemporary architecture and urbanism foregrounds the intertwined histories of Europe and West Asia, and offers new ways to understand architecture’s role in global, social and environmental justice. Also part of the Five College Architectural Theory Seminar, Esra will be speaking about relationships between human rights and architecture in a lecture titled: Human Rights, Reparations and Architecture.

November 10: Billie Faircloth, FAIA. As a partner at the innovative and award winning architectural firm KieranTimberlake, Billie Faircloth leads a diverse, interdisciplinary teams of professionals that includes architects but also materials scientists, chemical physicists, and environmental managers among others. She has played a key role in the research and development of technology for high-performance design including Tally, an industry standard for life cycle analysis.

November 17: Katherine Williams, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP. Finally, Katherine Williams is an architect and writer whose experience includes work at traditional architecture firms, community development, and managing commercial construction for a general contractor. She currently serves as a Senior Project Manager for construction at a DC University. In addition to professional practice, Katherine writes about architecture and development and about the experience of African Americans, and specifically black women architects, within the field of architecture. She was the NOMA magazine editor from 2009-2014 and recently published Melvin Mitchell’s book African American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities.