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A stairway railing made of concrete, glass, and metal with people sitting in chairs. Gensler Visiting Critic

For more than 30 years, the Gensler family has helped provide vision, support, and a standard of excellence at AAP and the Department of Architecture.

The Gensler Visiting Critic program has allowed AAP to expand its faculty ranks with exceptional practitioners and industry thought leaders who immeasurably enrich the teaching and learning of our students on the Ithaca campus. This program has helped bring renowned national and international architects to campus to educate, exchange ideas, and build a powerful network of students, faculty, critics, and alumni. Each Gensler Visiting Critic has a full time appointment during the semester with teaching responsibilities, student engagement activity, and a community lecture. In many cases, a field trip or site visit is included for the students. This experiential learning opportunity has taken student from New York to Beijing and various places in between. Their presence is felt by our students who have a unique opportunity to connect with a leader in the field, while the critics engage with our outstanding students and see firsthand the caliber of an AAP education.

Below you will find a list of recent Gensler Visiting Critics from 2010–2023. Thank you for your generosity, leadership, and the indelible impact you have made at AAP.

Current Semester

A portrait of a man with short brown hair and blue eyes, wearing a dark green blazer over a mustard-colored shirt. He is smiling slightly and looking directly at the camera, set against a dark green background

Marc McQuade

Gensler Visiting Critic (fall 2024)

Architecture Background Office (ABO) is an architecture, interiors, and decorative arts firm that creates people-focused spaces. Marc McQuade, a licensed architect, started the firm in 2024 with the goal of creating beautiful, comfortable, productive buildings and with the belief that well-conceived and responsibly built architecture provides the background for positive shifts in the world.

McQuade approaches this new venture by drawing on over twenty years of experience working among recognized leaders in the design professions on projects that range widely in location, type, and size. Before launching ABO, McQuade was Associate Principal at Adjaye Associates and co-led the New York office. During his fourteen years there, he oversaw the design and construction of many significant projects located in North America: buildings, interiors, competitions, exhibitions, and furniture pieces. Some of which include: 130 William, an 800-ft tall residential tower in downtown Manhattan; Princeton University Art Museum; Richard Avedon Murals + Portraits, at the Gagosian Gallery; Webster, LA retail store; National Museum of African American History and Culture, in Washington DC; Sugar Hill, an affordable housing, pre-school, and children's museum in Harlem; Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure, a traveling exhibition; Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park, Detroit. Prior to Adjaye Associates, McQuade was an Associate at Stan Allen Architects and held positions at Mäder und Partner in Switzerland, and Loom Studio, California (now VeeV Design). 

McQuade is an American and Swiss citizen born in New York and raised there, as well as in the Bay Area. He received a Bachelor of Arts from U.C. Berkeley, where he competed nationally on the Cal Taekwondo team. After working for several years at an architecture firm in Switzerland, he attended the Princeton University Graduate School of Architecture, where he earned a Master's Degree and was honored with the Alpha Ro Chi Medal for leadership and service. He has taught architectural design at Princeton University and the University of Toronto and regularly participates on architectural juries and panels. He is editor of Authoring: Re-placing Art and Architecture, one of the founding editors of Pidgin magazine, and co-editor of the book Landform Building: Architecture's New Terrain with Stan Allen. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and two children.

Previous Semesters

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