AAP Welcomes New Faculty and Endowed Fellows This Fall

Jose Castillo

Chair and Professor, Architecture

Jose Castillo is a cofounding principal and codirector alongside Saidee Springall of the architecture and urban planning office a|911. Their practice takes a multidisciplinary approach to architecture, urban design, mobility, and urban planning projects such as the expansion of the Spanish Cultural Center in Mexico City, the ARA Lázaro Cárdenas housing project, the Elena Garro Cultural Center, the Valentín Gómez Farías Pilares in Mexico City, and Providencia multi-family housing in Guadalajara. In addition, Castillo has taught extensively in Mexico, Spain, and the US, including at  Harvard GSD, the University of Pennsylvania, Tulane University, and the University of New Mexico. He holds a bachelor's degree in architecture from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City as well as a Master of Architecture and Doctor of Design degree from the Harvard GSD.

Castillo officially joined the Department of Architecture on July 1, 2024.

Tiffany Cheng

Assistant Professor, Design Tech

Tiffany Cheng is a Taiwanese American designer and builder whose work examines the performance potential of natural and biobased materials for smarter and more sustainable forms of making. Her doctoral research focused on developing 4D-printing processes to program biobased materials with bioinspired behaviors for application domains ranging from self-adjusting wearables and self-forming structures to self-regulating facades. As Research Group Leader at the Institute for Computational Design and Construction, Cheng led the Material Programming research group to investigate integrative computational fabrication methods for creating adaptive furniture and building systems. She has also practiced with Studio Fernando Vazquez, designing socially oriented projects ranging from bike facilities to neighborhood recreation centers, and worked with the MaP+S Group at the Harvard GSD researching material-driven manufacturing strategies for bespoke carbon-fiber building components.

Cheng officially joins the Department of Design Tech on January 1, 2025.

Cody A. Danks Burke

Director, Baker Program in Real Estate; Professor of Practice, Paul Rubacha Department of Real Estate

Cody A. Danks Burke's teaching is focused on real estate transactions and deal structuring, as well as equity and debt investing in real estate. In addition to his academic responsibilities, he is a Managing Director of The Agnew Company, a West Coast family office where he originates, underwrites, and manages the company's real estate investments. He also serves as a Strategic Advisor to Velocis, a Dallas-based real estate private equity firm. Previously, Danks Burke was a Senior Investment Officer at Cornell University's Investment Office where he managed a $1.5 billion portfolio of endowment investments in real estate and natural resources from 2006 to 2020. He has also held positions at the Partnership Fund for New York City, a private debt and equity fund that makes investments in New York City-based businesses, the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and in the offices of two Colorado members of Congress. 

Danks Burke, who was serving as the Baker Program's Acting Director, officially began this position on July 1.

Billie Faircloth

Associate Professor, Architecture; Cornell Atkinson Scholar and Senior Faculty Fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability

Billie Faircloth, FAIA, is a design leader who has transformed practice-based research and earned a national and international reputation for demonstrating its value, methods, and outcomes. As partner and research director at the Philadelphia-based architectural practice KieranTimberlake from 2008–24, Faircloth led the firm's Research Group, a transdisciplinary team recognized for applying research, design, and problem-solving processes from fields as diverse as environmental management, industrial ecology, chemical physics, materials science, and sculpture. Faircloth is currently an Adjunct Professor of Architecture at the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania. She has taught at several institutions including the Harvard GSD, the Royal Danish Academy, and The University of Texas at Austin. Her present work focuses on socio-technical interactions between building culture and the environment and architecture's outcomes as critical grounds for innovation.

Faircloth officially joins Cornell's faculty in January 2025.

Pamela Karimi

Associate Professor, Architecture

Pamela Karimi is a trained architect and historian of art and architecture with expertise in the modern and contemporary Middle East. Her interdisciplinary approach to research synthesizes insights from ecological, creative, and socio-political spheres, fostering a holistic understanding of how physical spaces, environmental factors, and societal forces interact and shape one another. Her current book project investigates the evolution of architecture and environmental transformations in arid regions from the Cold War era to the present. Other publications include Alternative Iran: Contemporary Art and Critical Spatial Practice and forthcoming books on Iran's 2022 "Woman, Life, Freedom" uprising and Asian art and architecture's cultural history. Karimi has curated exhibitions, including Black Spaces Matter, and received support from institutions, including the National Endowment for the Humanities. Prior to her appointment at Cornell, Karimi taught at UMass Dartmouth, Brandeis University, NYU, and Wellesley College. Her multifaceted career exemplifies her commitment to bridging academic research and real-world issues, fostering cross-cultural understanding, and nurturing the next generation of scholars and practitioners.

Karimi officially joined the Department of Architecture on August 1, 2024, and will be teaching in the History of Architecture and Urban Development program.

Vishaan Chakrabarti

Thomas J. Baird Visiting Critic, Architecture

Vishaan Chakrabarti is the founder of PAU | Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, a Manhattan-based architecture firm dedicated to building ecological, equitable, and joyous communities. He leads PAU's cultural, institutional, infrastructure, and public space projects including Brooklyn's Domino Sugar Refinery, Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Princeton's Hobson College, New York's Pennsylvania Station, and the FAA's new air traffic control tower prototype. As former Manhattan Planning Director, he helped to save the High Line, extend the number 7 subway line, advance Moynihan Station, rebuild the East River Waterfront, and reincorporate the streets at the World Trade Center. He taught at Columbia for a decade and served as the Dean of the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley. Chakrabarti is the author of A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America (Metropolis Books, 2013) and The Architecture of Urbanity: Designing for Nature, Culture, and Joy (Princeton University Press, 2024).

Stephanie Lee

Strauch Early Career Fellow, Architecture

Stephanie Kyuyoung Lee is the founder of the Office of Human Resources, a critical design studio. Previously, she was the 2022–24 Architecture Fellow at Bard College. Lee studied anthropology and studio art at Wesleyan University and completed her Master of Architecture at Rice University. She worked as a senior designer at Carlo Ratti Associati (IT/US) and collaborated with artist Lee Bul. She was selected as a Future Architecture Fellow (2020) and recently completed residencies at Art Omi and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Art Center. She is the recipient of several grants, including the Independent Projects Grant sponsored by the Architectural League and New York State Council on the Arts, and has exhibited at Haus der Architektur in Graz, Austria, and citygroup gallery in New York. Her work has been published in The Funambulist, PLAT, and Archifutures (dpr-barcelona, 2020).

Marc McQuade

Gensler Visiting Critic, Architecture

Marc McQuade established Architecture Background Office in 2024 with the goal of creating buildings that are beautiful, comfortable, and productive, with the belief that well-conceived and responsibly built architecture provides the background for positive shifts in the world. 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 in North America, including buildings, interiors, competitions, exhibitions, and furniture pieces. 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. 

Christiana Moss

Strauch Visiting Critic in Sustainable Design, Architecture

Christiana Moss, FAIA, is an ecologically focused, climate-driven architect working at the intersection of the natural and built environments. Her firm, Studio Ma, has been recognized for its sensitive, tech-adaptive, and regeneratively inspired approach to complex projects including embassies, campuses, nearly-net-zero offices, and museums. Ma sees all architecture as fundamentally part of a larger ecological system, and her work frames sustainability through the lenses of water, heat, history, and human experience. Significant projects include a student life master plan for the University of California, Berkeley; a New Embassy Compound in Praia, Cabo Verde; a regenerative research facility for Arizona State University; Scottsdale's storied Museum of the West; and multiple campus projects around the United States. From her earliest projects working with Phoenix's 4,000-year-old water canals to her most recent work, which uses state-of-the-art technology mixed with ancient architectural principles to reduce heat and increase environmental regeneration, Moss has sought to design the built environment to bring balance, equity, and joy to the world.

Pamela Sneed

Visiting Critic and Teiger Mentor in the Arts, Art

Pamela Sneed is a New York City-based poet, performer, visual artist, and educator. She is the author of Funeral Diva (City Lights, 2020) and Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom than Slavery (Fordham University Press). Funeral Diva won the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for lesbian poetry. Sneed has toured poetry and performance works domestically and abroad. Her recent show, A Tribute to Big Mama Thornton, premiered in 2024 at the Torpedo Theater in Amsterdam. She won a 2023 Creative Capital award in literature as well as a 2024 NYSCA grant in poetry. Her visual work has appeared in group shows at the Ford Foundation, Company Gallery, and more.