Across campuses that span Ithaca, New York City, and Rome, the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP) opens the Spring 2026 semester with the announcement of special guests, new course and program offerings, and events that will challenge and inspire the college community.
Department of Art
The department is set to present remarkable exhibitions and lectures. The Teiger Mentor in the Arts program continues due to a generous $500,000 gift from Teiger Foundation. This semester, interdisciplinary artist Mary Mattingly, who cares deeply about water and believes in the power of public art, will take up the role, leading a graduate-level class and delivering a lecture about her art on April 9. In addition, Jeffrey Gibson, a multidisciplinary Indigenous American artist (Choctaw/Cherokee) known for blending Native American traditions with pop culture, queer theory, and modernist aesthetics in vibrant sculptures, paintings, and installations, will be the guest speaker for the John A. Cooper Visiting Artist Lecture Series on March 24.
Strauch Early Career Fellow in Art Mark Anthony Brown Jr. will lecture on his practice, which is research-driven and interdisciplinary. He will exhibit his work in the Bibliowicz Family Gallery and give his talk in April.
The exhibition A Book Is a Conversation With a Stranger in the Future, curated by Art Lecturer Carla Liesching, Faye Pamintuan (M.F.A. ’26), and Melaina Thompson (B.F.A. ’26), will continue the recurring AAP tradition of such exhibitions and explore the idea of books as a conduit for human connection.
Department of Architecture
The architecture department will offer two new option studios that will travel to the Midwest and the West Coast this semester. Kim Yao, principal at New York’s Architecture Research Office and a recognized educator, is the Spring 2026 Gensler Visiting Critic and will co-teach Museum of the City: Columbus with Architecture Professor Andrea Simitch. The studio will explore the vernacular cultural landscape of this Indiana city, culminating in a project that both serves the community and reflects its unique architectural heritage.
Also offered is the advanced urban design option studio Reparative Urbanism: Los Angeles River Basin, led by Architecture Professor Milton S. F. Curry. Curry’s studio will focus on analysis, research, and speculations on the future of the 51-mile engineered waterway and adjacent lands that cut across multiple municipalities in Los Angeles County and its immediate surroundings.
In addition, the Preston H. Thomas Memorial Lecture Series will feature Marlon Blackwell, Joshua Ramus, and Michael Maltzan, as well as “Building Research,” a symposium curated by Assistant Professor David Costanza. Kim Yao will deliver the Gensler Visiting Critic Lecture, and the HAUS student-curated symposium will feature Gökçe Günel as the keynote lecturer.
Department of City and Regional Planning
CRP will offer a number of workshop classes this semester that tackle critical global planning issues and provide students with hands-on planning practice. Examples include Climate Justice and Adaptation in Cities led by CRP Associate Professor Linda Shi and Postdoctoral Fellow Julian Hartman’s Innovation, Transportation, and Housing in Boston, which will focus on the Allston Multimodal Project and Beacon Park Yard.
Assistant Professor Madison Lore, a planning scholar who specializes in urban data science, joins the department this semester and will teach an urban data science class to upper-level undergraduates and graduates, as well as a quantitative methods class for second-year URS students.
Speakers for CRP’s spring colloquium series will include CRP Visiting Professor Sainan Lin from Wuhan University discussing China’s transition from state-led redevelopment to state-enabled co-production in urban renewal and Professor Erin Benay of Case Western Reserve University examining murals and public art in the Rust Belt as instruments of urban development and community activism. Students from CRP Professor Mildred Warner’s Fall 2025 course will present “Everyone Can Ride the Aging Train,” which shows how an aging lens in planning at both local and national scales can support inclusive and cross-generational approaches in a divided society.
Department of Design Tech
Associate Professor James Weaver, who has a recent joint appointment in Design Tech with Cornell Engineering, will teach Special Topics in Design Technology: Introduction to Additive Manufacturing. The course will be structured around weekly modeling and fabrication tutorials using state-of-the-art 3D printers, and will emphasize interdisciplinary and collaborative group activities.
Design Tech students and faculty will participate in the 2026 Biodesign Challenge. This international education program introduces the intersection of biotechnology, art, and design and connects students to a global network of leaders in academia, industry, and entrepreneurship who are defining the field.
Design Tech Volumes 02 will issue a call for contributions this semester. The annual publication documents the work and activities of the department’s faculty and students.
Paul Rubacha Department of Real Estate
Every year, Baker Program in Real Estate students take learning beyond the classroom, applying their knowledge and gaining fresh insights through immersive treks to international and US cities. This spring, both first- and second-year cohorts will travel to London, exploring one of the world’s most influential real estate markets. Also this semester, the department will host a research symposium exploring current issues shaping today’s rapidly evolving market. Faculty and graduate students will come together to share insights, challenge assumptions, and exchange ideas that bridge research and practice in a time of unprecedented change.
The recently established Baker Program +1 Pathway offers undergraduates an accelerated route to earn a master’s in real estate by completing one additional year of study. Those interested in learning more are invited to attend information sessions, which will be held later this spring.
Gensler Family AAP NYC Center
Launched last fall with Peter Eisenman’s conversations with architects Bernard Tschumi, Steven Holl, and Nader Tehrani, the Island Editions series continues this spring in New York with Cynthia Davidson speaking with Elizabeth Diller, Toshiko Mori, and Gale and Ira Drukier Dean J. Meejin Yoon. In April, Annabelle Selldorf will deliver the L. Michael Goldsmith Lecture. Recipient of the 2016 Medal of Honor from the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter and named one of the TIME 100 most influential people in 2025, she is the principal of the New York City-based Selldorf Architects, which she founded in 1988.
Additional insights will be provided through the spring lecture series titled ar·ti·fi·ci·al·i·ty curated by Architecture faculty Jesse LeCavalier and Florian Idenburg.
This summer, City Visionaries, a New York City-based program for high-achieving and high-potential high school students interested in the creative fields that shape the development of cities and communities, is set to welcome its first cohort. Milton S. F. Curry, program director and professor of architecture, and Sydney Boyd, program manager, will host a virtual information session on February 9 and an in-person open house on Cornell Tech’s Roosevelt Island campus in New York City on March 9.
Cornell in Rome
Architecture faculty members Luben Dimcheff, Maria Claudia Clemente, and Francesco Isidori will lead this semester’s architecture studio in Rome, focusing on developing methodologies for working in complex urban contexts. The site of investigation will be Ostia Antica, the ancient harbor city of Rome. City and Regional Planning faculty and students will continue their engagement with Rome’s urban fabric by extending their analysis to three additional neighborhoods, building on a core component of the planning curriculum at Cornell in Rome.
Further deepening these experiences, the semester’s academic excursions will take students across Italy, offering unique opportunities to explore history, architecture, and urban development firsthand in Siena, with visits to Arezzo, Sansepolcro, and Città di Castello; Milano, Italy’s capital of design and innovation; and Matera, Padula, Paestum, Pompei, and Napoli, for an in-depth look at Southern Italy’s architectural heritage and archaeological treasures.
A special academic event commemorating the influential architectural theorist Colin Rowe, whose work continues to inspire generations of designers, will be held in April. Additionally, details will be provided in the weeks ahead for the second speaker in the Lawrence S. Ng Cornell in Rome Lecture Series.
Cornell Mui Ho Center for Cities
Center for Cities is in the process of conducting a search for a Postdoctoral Associate in Just and Equitable Cities, as part of its Just and Equitable Cities initiative. While at AAP, the postdoctoral associate will contribute to research and teaching on informal settlements in sub-Saharan Africa.
The center’s internship program has expanded and will offer students a variety of opportunities to support climate resilience and environmental justice efforts in New York City and in Africa this spring and summer. Host organizations include NYC municipal offices and civil society organizations, and three cities in sub-Saharan Africa with Slum Dwellers International offices (Accra, Ghana; Harare, Zimbabwe; and Nairobi, Kenya).
And stay tuned! The Good City podcast is set to release the first episode of season two this spring. Episodes will explore topics such as loneliness in cities, decarbonization, and alternative urban housing options.
Lectures and Exhibitions Calendar
Select Lectures
1/22: James Eisenberg (B.S. URS ’96, M.P.S. RE ’02), President, Urban American (RE)
1/30: Thomas J. Campanella: Designing the American Century — How Two Cornellians Changed the Face of Urban America (CRP)
2/4: Island Editions: Elizabeth Diller + Cynthia Davidson (AAP NYC)
2/5: Preston H. Thomas Memorial Lectures: Marlon Blackwell (ARCH)
2/6: Age-Friendly Planning Workshop Class: Aging, Gender, and Inclusive Planning (CRP)
2/12: Maia Woluchem and Marina Otero Verzier: Architecture, Planning, and International Law — Design and Environmental Impact of Data Centers (organized by the Architectural League in partnership with AAP NYC)
2/16: Ignazio Marino (for CRP): Former Mayor of Rome, transplant surgeon, and public policy expert, offering insights on urban governance and civic transformation (ROME)
2/19: Tien-Yueh Kubach (’99), Managing Director, Tishman Speyer (RE)
2/26: Preston H. Thomas Memorial Lectures: Joshua Ramus (ARCH)
2/26: Karl Mistry (M.P.S. RE ’04), CEO of Toll Brothers (RE)
2/27: Davarian Baldwin: The Campus as Planning Apparatus — Land Control, Labor Management, and Local Governance (CRP)
3/3: Iftikhar Dadi (ART)
3/5: Gensler Visiting Critic Lecture: Kim Yao (ARCH)
3/6: Sainan Lin: From Redevelopment to Co-Production — Urban Renewal and Community Governance in China (CRP)
3/9: Island Editions: Toshiko Mori + Cynthia Davidson (AAP NYC)
3/10: Ilana Harris-Babou (ART)
3/11: George Adamopoulos: Runtime Error: Creative (Mis)use of Science and Technology (DT)
3/12: Kenyattah Robinson (’06), President & CEO, Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District (RE)
3/13: Erin Benay: Sharing the Same Park Bench — Art as Urban Development in the Rust Belt (CRP)
3/17: Catherine Telford Keogh (ART)
3/20: Frank E. Tolbert: Planning in Practice — Subregional Transportation Planning and Professional Skills in Contemporary Urban Planning (CRP)
3/24: John A. Cooper Visiting Artist Lecture Series: Jeffrey Gibson (ART)
3/26: HAUS Symposium: Gökçe Günel, Keynote Lecturer (ARCH)
4/8: Preston H. Thomas Memorial Lectures: Michael Maltzan (ARCH)
4/9: Island Editions: AAP Dean J. Meejin Yoon + Cynthia Davidson (AAP NYC)
4/9: Teiger Mentor in the Arts: Mary Mattingly (ART)
4/10: Ed Fields & Noel Didla: As Goes the South (CRP)
4/14: Strauch Early Career Fellow: Mark Anthony Brown Jr. (ART)
4/15: Nervous Systems: Growing Objects: From Lamps to Lungs (DT)
4/16: Celebration of the Legacy of Colin Rowe (ROME)
4/17: Nikhil Anand: Amphibious City — Stormwater Drains and the Making of Gray Futures (CRP)
4/20: Heike Hanada (for Architecture): Renowned German architect known for her minimalist design approach and for completing the extension of the Bauhaus Archive Museum in Berlin (ROME)
4/23: L. Michael Goldsmith Lecture: Annabelle Selldorf (ARCH / AAP NYC)
4/23: Simone Mangili (for CRP): Sustainability advocate and urban strategist with extensive experience in global urban development projects (ROME)
4/24: Fern Tiger (CRP)
4/30: Francisco Rencoret, Chairman, and Nico Garcia, Chief Financial Officer, Territoria (RE)
5/1: Ben Frost: Why Is Housing Hard? — Reflections on 25 Years in Housing Advocacy (CRP)
Details To Be Announced
Preston H. Thomas Memorial Lectures symposium: “Building Research,” curated by Architecture Assistant Professor David Costanza (ARCH)
ar·ti·fi·ci·al·i·ty lecture series curated by Jesse LeCavalier and Florian Idenburg (AAP NYC)
Lawrence S. Ng Cornell in Rome Lecture Series (ROME)
Exhibitions
Bibliowicz Family Gallery
1/26–2/12: Planet Stranger by Melaina Thompson (B.F.A. ’26)
2/16–3/5: A Book is a Conversation with a Stranger in the Future curated by Art faculty Carla Liesching, Faye Pamintuan (M.F.A. ’26), and Melaina Thompson (B.F.A. ’26)
3/9–3/26: A House that Holds the Weight of Small Things by Noah Gear (M.S. AAD ’25), Danielle Mitchell (B.Arch. ’26), Kenath Mitchell (B.Arch. ’26), Tarjanee Manan Soni (M.S. AAD ’25), and Edozie Onumonu (M.Arch. ’26)
4/6–4/23: A Lay of a Land by Strauch Early Career Fellow in Art Mark Anthony Brown Jr.
Additional lectures, exhibitions, and events are added throughout the semester. Stay up to date on all that AAP has planned this spring by visiting our website.
Sibley Dome Renewal
The Sibley Dome renovation project, which includes the addition of a 112-seat, circular auditorium; open, light-filled studios and workspaces; a collaborative commons with study nooks and meeting areas for the entire AAP community; and new, centrally located homes for the cross-disciplinary Cornell Mui Ho Center for Cities and the multicollege Department of Design Tech, is now entering its final stages. Partial occupancy is expected in early spring, with the full auditorium complete by summer. Then, get ready for the iconic Green Dragon Cafe to reopen in its original central location on Sibley’s lower level in time for the Fall 2026 semester!
