Building for the Future
Inside the Gensler Family AAP NYC Center's new space on the fourth floor of the Tata Innovation Center. Anson Wigner / AAP
The Gensler Family AAP NYC Center has relocated to its new permanent home in the Tata Innovation Center on Cornell Tech's Roosevelt Island campus in New York City. The building, designed by Architecture alum Michael Manfredi's (M.Arch. '80) firm Weiss/Manfredi, includes AAP NYC's new fourth-floor 15,000-square-foot facility. The college's space offers two studios with the capacity to host 120 students, three classrooms, a conference room, 11 offices, and a fully equipped 1,000-square-foot workshop. With this move, the center also welcomes the first cohort from the Master of Design Technology program into the space this fall.
Over the next twelve months, incoming short-term endowed and long-term faculty will bring a breadth of knowledge and excellence to classrooms, studios, and labs across the college. Appointments span early-career educators, visiting critics, and department faculty — including a cohort that will further cement the Department of Design Tech's footing as it enters its second year. Learn more about them and the expertise they bring to our community.
Sibley Dome renovation. Anson Wigner / AAP
In Ithaca, the completion of the Sibley Dome renovation is on track, with an anticipated completion date of early 2026. When reopened, the dome will house new and renewed spaces that enrich and advance AAP's academic priorities, including a 110-seat circular auditorium, studios and workspaces, study nooks and meeting areas, and centrally located homes for the Cornell Mui Ho Center for Cities and the multicollege Department of Design Tech.
Ongoing support of the Sibley Hall revitalization and the affordability of a Cornell education for AAP students remains a top priority for the Office of Alumni Affairs and Development. Learn more:
Student Milestones and Opportunities
The Gensler Family AAP NYC Center welcomes its highest enrollment to date this fall, with 96 students attending. Across Architecture, Design Tech, and City and Regional Planning programming, the semester is filled with studio and site visits, professional and networking opportunities, and city tours and field trips. Plus, a brand new cross-disciplinary AAP NYC Precollege Program is set to launch at Cornell Tech in the summer of 2026. More information will soon be announced.
Art Associate Professor Jen de los Reyes will again lead LAND: Art, Ecology, and Environmental Activism this semester, which combines a survey of artists addressing land-based practices with hands-on cultivation and fieldwork. Anson Wigner / AAP
Applications for the Baker Program in Real Estate's new +1 pathway open this cycle, allowing Cornell students entering the program in 2026 to complete their undergraduate degree and earn the M.P.S. RE by adding just one year of study. Those interested in this option are invited to attend information sessions, which will be announced as the semester progresses.
In Rome, Architecture Senior Lecturer Luben Dimcheff will continue co-teaching a studio focused on designing contemporary architecture in historic urban landscapes with Maria Claudia Clemente and Francesco Isidori, founders of Labics, an award-winning Rome-based design office. Art Associate Professor Carl Ostendarp will lead the art studio and an advanced drawing course, and Visiting Lecturer Carolina Ciampaglia, a scholar of Italian cinema, will invite speakers on major modern and contemporary Italian film to Cornell in Rome.
Oh, the Places We'll Go!
CRP's International Planning and Development Workshop in Puerto Rico, March 2025. Natasha Keller / AAP
Across departments and programs, faculty embrace the college's emphasis on experiential learning, encouraging students to move beyond the classroom and consider ideas in the context of the field.
Each year, Cornell's Baker Program in Real Estate students attend the Cornell Real Estate Council Conference. This year's 43rd annual gathering (October 16–17) will bring together top industry leaders for keynote speeches, one-on-one interviews, and panel discussions focused on emerging trends and the future of real estate.
Gensler Visiting Critic Robert Hutchison will lead an architecture studio trip to the Pacific Northwest, and building on last year's architecture and planning studio in Nairobi, the Cornell Mui Ho Center for Cities will continue supporting the course Informal Futures: Housing in Mathare, Kenya this fall. The Kenya studio, led by Architecture Assistant Professor Felix Heisel, will collaborate with Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and the Technical University of Kenya to address the unique challenges and opportunities presented by informal housing, with a special focus on the Mathare neighborhood in Nairobi, including a site visit. Relatedly, the center will host Shiela Muganyi from Zimbabwe, who works with SDI, on campus in October. She will help support the Informal Futures studio, give guest lectures and seminars, and meet with AAP students and faculty.
Cornell students walked through Mathare 4B, an informal settlement in Nairobi, with community members, colleagues from Slum Dwellers International–Kenya, and peers from the University of Nairobi as part of a site visit. Claire Fisher / AAP
In mid-September, the Mui Ho Center for Cities and the Department of City and Regional Planning will collaborate on a field trip for all first-year CRP master's students to engage in climate justice issues in New York City during a multi-day event.
In Rome, students are set to embark on multiple field trips around the country to explore the vast history of Italy's art and architecture, modern and contemporary art collections and cultural institutions, the Venice Biennale, and the work of icons such as Carlo Scarpa and Alberto Burri. Destinations include Padula, Paestum, Naples, Herculaneum, Oplontis, Arezzo, Sansepolcro, Città di Castello, Milan, Varese, Vicenza, Possagno, Siena, and Venice.
Publications and Funding
View from the stacks in the Mui Ho Fine Arts Library. Anson Wigner / AAP
The Cornell Journal of Architecture is a critical journal of architecture and urbanism produced by the Department of Architecture since 1981. Judith Kinnard Early Career Design Fellow Emma Silverblatt and Associate Professor Val Warke, coeditors of Issue 13 on the theme "Missing," anticipate the publication of the next volume during the semester.
The Department of Design Tech will celebrate the release of its inaugural Design Tech Volumes 01: On Transdisciplinarity this fall, edited by faculty Marirena Kladeftira, Marcelo Coelho, Daniel Leithinger, and Design Tech Chair and Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture Jenny Sabin, with content coordination by Mercy Moses Akande. The publication captures the work and teaching of department students and faculty, including highlights from the spring Design Tech exhibition and public panel discussion.
A digital publication created for Art Assistant Professor Leeza Meksin's recent Professional Practice course by the M.F.A. in Creative Visual Arts student cohort is now available. The catalog features writing about each of their practices by artist and curator Will Hutnick and images from both the all-faculty critique in October and the group exhibition at Ortega y Gasset Projects in Brooklyn this past spring. The PDF can be requested from the Department of Art.
Master of Fine Arts in Image Text students will participate in Printed Matter's NY Art Book Fair from September 11–14 at MoMA PS1 in Queens, New York. While in the city that week, they will also present a group exhibition at Microscope Gallery on West 29th Street.
The Cornell Mui Ho Center for Cities annually provides AAP tenure and tenure track faculty with competitive seed funding to support new research that informs action on the ground and leads to more ambitious and sustained research on cities and urban issues. The center has funded four faculty seed grants for 2025–26: Tiffany Cheng, Design Tech; María González Pendás, Architecture; Felix Heisel and Billie Faircloth, Architecture; and Pamela Karimi, Architecture.
Mark Your Calendar
Art Lecturer Carla Liesching shares her image-text assemblages that confront colonial legacies and mythologies during a lecture in Milstein Hall, spring 2025. Anson Wigner / AAP
This semester, the college is introducing new lecture events and welcomes a number of special guests. The Lawrence S. Ng Cornell in Rome Lecture Series will feature outstanding practitioners in the field based in Europe speaking on architecture and urban design. Additionally, Michael Manfredi (M.Arch. '80) and Susan Rodriguez ('81, B.Arch. '82) will present a Rubacha Featured Speakers lecture on October 23 in the Abby and Howard Milstein Auditorium on Cornell's Ithaca campus. The Entrepreneurship Lecture and Workshop series will also continue, giving students the opportunity to learn from and engage with highly successful entrepreneurs in their field.
Lectures
8/28: Dave Kelsey (M.B.A. '95), Cofounder and Managing Principal, Hamilton Investment Partners (RE)
9/4: Richard Baker '88 (RE)
9/4: Robert Hutchison, Gensler Visiting Critic (Arch)
9/5: Barbara Summers: Remaking the City from the Margins (CRP)
9/9: M.F.A. Artist Talk (Art)
9/10: Chuck Hoberman: Transformable Design — Building Structures that Change Themselves (DT)
9/11: Dana Schneider, Senior Vice President, Director of Energy and Sustainability, Empire State Realty; and Madhura Kharche (M.P.S. RE '21), Senior Associate, Empire State Realty Trust (RE)
9/12: Robert Balder: Climate Justice — New York City Through Time (CRP)
9/18: Radhi Dhir, CEO, India JLL (RE)
9/23: Marisa Morán Jahn: Art and Micropublics (Art)
9/25: Daniel Moritz ('03), Principal, The Arker Companies (RE)
9/25: Claire Weisz, Strauch Visiting Critic in Sustainable Design Lecture (Arch)
9/26: Jayme Breschard: Forging Resilience — Leading Climate Adaptation Through Innovation and Collaboration (CRP)
10/2: Teiger Mentor in the Arts Lecture: Erika Ranee (Art)
10/2: Prashant Kamath, Director Real Estate Valuation and Advisory Services, Houlihan Lokey (RE)
10/3: The Peter Eisenman Lecture Series endowed by Elise Jaffe + Jeffrey Brown (Arch)
10/3: Professor Emeritus Richard Booth (CRP)
10/8: Talia Moore: A Taxonomical System for Bio-Inspired Design Strategies (DT)
10/23: Rubacha Featured Speakers Lecture — Michael Manfredi (M.Arch. '80) and Susan Rodriguez ('81, B.Arch. '82)
10/24: Danny Pearlstein: Congestion Relief and New Yorkers' Fight for Affordable, Reliable Public Transit (CRP)
10/28: Michael Wang: Human Nature (Art)
10/29: Janet Echelman (DT)
11/4: Maria Park — Field Diagram (Art)
11/14: Jordan Exantus: Unwriting History — Navigating Intersectionality and the [Un]intended Consequences of Planning in Majority "Minority" Communities (CRP)
11/19: Philip Beesley (DT)
11/21: Associate Professor Jeffrey Chusid (CRP)
Exhibition view of Exquisite Corpse by Visiting Critic Ryan Whitby in the Bibliowicz Family Gallery. Anson Wigner / AAP
Exhibition Highlights
9/1–18: Marcos Escamilla-Guerrero (M.S. AAD '24) and Jaeha Kim (M.S. AAD '21) — Data/Migration/Design
9/15–25: Magnum O-pspsps, curated by Michael Morgan (M.F.A. '26) and Elina Ansary (M.F.A. '25)
9/22–10/16: Anson Wigner — Floating in the Clouds of the Cold War
10/20–11/13: Onome Olotu (M.F.A. '26) — identidades suprimidas (Suppressed Identities)
11/17–12/3: Structural Systems Fall 2025 class exhibition, led by Nathaniel and Margaret Owings Distinguished Alumni Memorial Professor in Architecture Mark Cruvellier
Additional lectures, exhibitions, and events are added throughout the semester. Stay up-to-date on all that AAP has planned this fall by visiting our website.
