Book Talk: Alan Dunn: The Cartoonist as Architectural Critic

Architectural historian Gabriele Neri presents his new book on Alan Dunn, the American cartoonist whose work appeared regularly in The New Yorker and Architectural Record from the 1920s through the 1970s. The book explores how Dunn’s cartoons can be regarded as an unconventional form of architectural criticism, expanding the boundaries and broadening the audience for public debate on architecture. In recognition of this achievement, Alan Dunn received the AIA Architecture Critics’ Citation in 1973—two years before the same honor was awarded to Jane Jacobs. Neri will be joined in conversation by Leopoldo Villardi, Managing Editor of Architectural Record, and Rob Wilson, illustrator and graphic designer.

Speakers:
Gabriele Neri, Author: Alan Dunn: The Cartoonist as Architectural Critic
Leopoldo Villardi, Managing Editor, Architectural Record
Rob Wilson, Designer and Illustrator

About the Book:
Alan Dunn: The Cartoonist as Architectural Critic (MIT Press, 2026) is the first in-depth study of American artist Alan Dunn (1900–1974), whose incisive cartoons mocked twentieth-century architecture and urban environments, expanding the field of architectural criticism. Drawing on his pioneering expertise in the relationship between graphic satire and architecture, Gabriele Neri retraces Alan Dunn’s path from painter to renowned cartoonist, offering an unconventional perspective on architectural and urban transformations—and on their perception within society. Featuring 200 carefully selected images, including Dunn’s correspondence, unpublished cartoons, preliminary sketches, watercolors, and rare photographs, Alan Dunn demonstrates the critical potential of caricature and cartoons for architectural history. Through Neri’s deft analysis, the book also reveals the complex intersections of architecture with media, publishing, commerce, society, art, and politics. As Lewis Mumford once wrote of Dunn: “Shall I say that he is obviously a better architect than the architects whose fashionable clichés and grim follies he exposes? Or shall I say that his urbane satiric style, deft but merciless, puts him in a class by himself; for this is what has been missing from contemporary criticism in all the arts. All this is true; but it is not enough.”

About the Speakers:
Gabriele Neri, Ph.D., is an architectural historian, curator, and architect. He is Associate Professor of Architectural History at Politecnico di Torino, Italy. He was a Weinberg Fellow at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University in New York (2022) and teaches at the Accademia di architettura, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), in Mendrisio, Switzerland. He currently serves on the Scientific Committee of MAXXI Foundation, Rome. He has authored numerous monographs and curated exhibitions devoted to architects and designers such as Pier Luigi Nervi, Louis Kahn, Umberto Riva, Vico Magistretti, and Riccardo Dalisi. His essays on the history of architecture, design, and engineering have been published in books, exhibition catalogues, and international journals and magazines, including Architectural Record, Casabella, Domus, Architectural Review, Lotus International, Journal of the IASS, Il Disegno di Architettura, Bauwelt, Archi, and Rassegna di architettura e urbanistica. Since 2011, his articles on architecture have appeared regularly in the cultural pages of the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.

Leopoldo Villardi is a Brooklyn-based writer and the managing editor at Architectural Record, where he stewards the magazine’s residential coverage, including the annual issue of Record Houses; administers the Design Vanguard award program, a showcase of emerging talent that first began in 2000; and keeps Record’s monthly print issues organized. He has contributed to several books on architecture and coauthored Robert A.M. Stern’s autobiography Between Memory and Invention. Leo is a New York State Council on the Arts grant recipient for his research on modernist Kenneth Warriner. Trained as an architect, Leo holds a master’s degree in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices in Architecture (MS.CCCP) from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation and a bachelor of architecture (B.Arch.) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s School of Architecture.

Rob Wilson is a New York City-based designer and illustrator from West Texas. Known for his wit and refined visual style, he has developed books, campaigns, and special projects for clients including The New York Times, Valentino, Penguin Random House, NYCxDesign, Design Within Reach, and The Wall Street Journal. His work has been recognized by AIGA, Communication Arts, Graphis, American Illustration, and the Type Directors Club.