Cocktails & Conversation: Jordan Rogove and James Russell

Cocktails & Conversation is a series of dialogues about design that brings an architect together with a critic, journalist, curator, architectural historian, or colleague to discuss current architecture and urban design issues. For this program, Jordan Rogove, FAIA, will present a new paradigm for disaster relief housing, using his work after the devastating Lahaina fire in Hawaii as a case study. He will be joined in conversation with journalist James S. Russell, FAIA Emeritus, over a custom-crafted cocktail to be enjoyed by all attendees. A cocktail for each attendee is included in the ticket price.

Speakers:
Jordan Rogove, FAIA, Co-founder, DXA Studio
James S. Russell, FAIA Emeritus, Architectural Journalist

About the Speakers:
Jordan Rogove is Partner and co-founder of DXA Studio which he established with Wayne Norbeck in 2011. His work in New York includes a wide range of new and restored multi-family residential buildings throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn, including the conversion of the Mount Pleasant Church on the Upper West Side. His work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2018, 2022 and 2023. Rogove has also contributed to socially minded and humanistic projects internationally, including collaboration with the Clinton Health Access Initiative to develop architectural solutions helping to eradicate malaria in Namibia. He is the co-founder, with Wayne Norbeck, and COO of Liv-Connected, established in 2019 to provide innovative, well-designed, and affordable factory-built modular housing for single-family households. In 2024, in response to FEMA’s RFP to provide emergency disaster relief housing for Hawaiians displace by the devastating 2023 fire in Lahaina (Maui), Liv-Connected was deployed to provide emergency disaster relief housing for over 100 households in four months. Jordan was educated at Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture, where he is currently an Affiliate Professor of Practice, and is on the Board of Directors of the NY Council of SARA (Society of American Registered Architects).

James S. Russell is an award-winning journalist focusing on architecture and urban issues. His articles on design, climate change, housing, transportation, and cities have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg CityLab, The Economist, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Russell was the first architecture critic for Bloomberg News and a former editor at Architectural Record, where he continues as a contributing editor. As the Director of Design Strategic Initiatives at the NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC), his team created a series of architectural handbooks focusing on equitable access, resource management, and environmental topics. In 2011, his book, The Agile City: Building Well Being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change, was published by Island Press. He was educated at the University of Washington (B.A. Environmental Design) and Columbia University (M. Arch) and teaches at Stanford University’s program in New York City (SiNY).