Oculus at Large: Inside Urban Housing

As cities grow, we hear a lot about urban-scale plans for developing greener, healthier neighborhoods. But how do we think about healthy housing at the scale of individual dwellings, and what are the future possibilities? This panel discussion brings together experts in housing to discuss raising the bar on standards for livability, including the use of sustainable materials, accessibility across generations, and the integration of nature and fresh air as part of the interior landscape for every urban dweller. Small design decisions can yield an enormous benefit to residents. Experts will discuss case studies that address both new construction and retrofitting.

Registration and attendance is free.

Agenda:
5:30-6:00 – Registration
6:00-7:30 – CEU Panel
7:30-8:30 – Cocktail Reception

Speakers:
Elizabeth J Kennedy, ASLA, NYCOBA-NOMA, Founder, Elizabeth Kennedy Landscape Architect
Karen Kubey, Visiting Associate Professor, Pratt Institute; Adjunct Associate Professor, Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
Brian Loughlin, AIA, APA, Director of Planning and Urban Design, Magnusson Architecture and Planning; Co-Chair, AIANY Housing Committee, Division Chair, APA Housing & Community Development; Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture and Real Estate Development, Columbia GSAPP
Nicolas Savvides, Founder, We Build Us

Moderator:
Molly Fulghum Heintz, Editor in Chief, Oculus; Chair of the MA Program in Design Research, Writing & Criticism, School of Visual Arts

About the Speakers:
Molly Fulghum Heintz is the editor in chief of Oculus, the quarterly publication of AIA New York, and the chair of the MA program in Design Research, Writing & Criticism at the School of Visual Arts. She is co-founder of the editorial consultancy Superscript and has served as an editor at Fast Company and The Architect’s Newspaper, with bylines in Design Observer, The Art Newspaper, AIGA Voice, and Studies in the Decorative Arts, among other publications.

Elizabeth J Kennedy is the founder of Elizabeth Kennedy Landscape Architect (EKLA). Black-owned and woman-run, EKLA is the longest-surviving such firm in the country. Its longevity is intrinsically tied to Kennedy’s tenacity and her belief in the importance of service—to clients, to the community, the emerging professionals she trains, the profession, and the process of design. The work she directs quietly challenges mainstream assumptions about the aspirations and needs of underrepresented voices in the face of systems and biases that have long dispossessed the less powerful of spaces and rendered the people who use them invisible. Best known for work that counters this invisibility, Kennedy's projects at the intersection of social justice and design exemplify landscape architecture’s potential to engage a broader critical understanding of place and identity. It’s from this perspective and standpoint that Kennedy teaches, directs, critiques, frames, collaborates, and edits—whether in her studio or through national debate.

Karen Kubey is an urbanist specializing in housing and health. She is the editor of Housing as Intervention: Architecture towards Social Equity (Architectural Design, 2018) and served as the first executive director of the Institute for Public Architecture. Kubey co-founded the New York chapter of Architecture for Humanity (now Open Architecture/New York) and co-founded and led the New Housing New York design competition. Holding degrees in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley and the Columbia University Graduate School for Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), Kubey began her career as a designer of below-market housing. She has received support from the New York State Council on the Arts and MacDowell. Currently a Visiting Associate Professor at Pratt Institute and an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia GSAPP, she was a 2019-20 Faculty Fellow in Design for Spatial Justice at the University of Oregon.

Brian Loughlin is Director of Planning and Urban Design at Magnusson Architecture and Planning (MAP), co-chair of the AIANY Housing Committee, APA Housing and Community Development Chair, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture and Real Estate Development at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Before joining MAP, he worked for over fifteen years in public housing.

Nicolas Savvides is an experienced designer and construction project management specialist with history working along all sides of the construction and real estate process. Savvides began his career after receiving his Bachelor of Architecture with concentrations in Urban Planning and Sustainability from Cornell University in 2014. He began his practice of community-based design and construction implementation as a project manager at ReNew Lots Artist and Market Incubator as well as a teaching artist at Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, Youth Design Center, and at the New School. Since 2018, Savvides has worked as an architectural designer and construction manager in architecture offices and as a representative of New York State running infrastructure resiliency projects. Currently, Savvides works as a senior project manager of high end residential projects in New York City. He also runs We Build Us, a mission-based construction and real estate project management consultancy through which he is an advisor to UNIVERSE CITY,  an ecological public health laboratory based in East New York’s Industrial Business Zone.