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Emma Silverblatt

  • Visitng Critic
  • Judith Kinnard Early Career Design Fellow
Curriculum Vitae (CV)

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Academic Research Areas

  • Architectural design
  • Architectural history
  • Architectural practice
  • Architectural theory
  • Collaborative practice
  • Housing
  • Participatory and collaborative planning
  • Urbanism
  • Public spaces
  • Architectural writing
Emma Silverblatt is an architectural designer whose work explores design activism, public engagement, and participatory production. At Cornell, Silverblatt teaches theory and community-engaged courses, and coedits the Cornell Journal of Architecture. Her multidisciplinary firm, post-, expands the boundaries of spatial practice to interactive media, events, writing, and installations. Her research focuses on alternative forms of housing, grounded in the belief that design has the agency to advance housing as a human right.
Silverblatt previously worked at a number of internationally recognized firms, most recently as an associate at SO – IL, where she led major projects including the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in Cleveland, Ohio, and coordinated Urban Design Forum and Van Alen Institute’s Neighborhoods Now initiative in Jackson Heights, delivering pro-bono design/build services for three years. Prior to that, as a designer at REX, Silverblatt worked on the Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center, where she was responsible for developing the marble facade and theater interior scopes.
She holds a B.S. in Architecture from The Ohio State University and an M.Arch I with Commendation from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
A woman with long

Academic Research Areas

  • Architectural design
  • Architectural history
  • Architectural practice
  • Architectural theory
  • Collaborative practice
  • Housing
  • Participatory and collaborative planning
  • Urbanism
  • Public spaces
  • Architectural writing
  • Gridded pattern of brown and tan stripes in the background with silhouette of people in foreground
  • Interior view of library with benches in foreground and book stacks in background.
  • City street with pergola style seating area constructed with wire and colorful bags.
  • Futuristic blue geometric sculpture in foreground with a sunset in the background.
  • Interior of art gallery with red vinyl-lined enclosure and speakers mounted on wall

REX, The Perelman Performing Arts Center. image / Laurian Ghinitiou

SO–IL, Cleveland Public Library MLK Flagship Branch (2025). image / Jonathan Kurtz

SO–IL, Tulcingo Bakery Street Seat, a volunteer-constructed, public seating area in Jackson Heights, Queens, part of Neighborhoods Now. image / Cameron Blaylock

post-, Phase Change (2024), interactive public light installation, Canal Convergence Festival, AZ. image / Peter Speyer

post-, Echo Chamber (2024), immersive AI conversation booth, part of the Cornell Council for the Arts Freedom of Expression exhibition. Anson Wigner / AAP

Publications

  • Appreciating Value: Reassessing the Potential of Manufactured Housing

    Silverblatt, Emma, and Reese Greenlee. 2025. In AIA/ACSA Intersections 2025: New Housing Paradigms, AIA/ACSA Intersections Research Conference, Paper Proceedings.

  • Systemic Radical Change

    Silverblatt, Emma. 2020. In Shelter for All: Homelessness in New York City, The Urban Design Forum.

  • Il Redentore

    Silverblatt, Emma. 2020. In Andrea Palladio in Los Angeles 01, Vol. 01. Pax Monographs.

Classes

  • Analysis I: Buildings, Drawings & Texts

    ARCH 2301

  • Analysis II: Architecture, the City, and Landscape

    ARCH 2302

  • Engaged Option Studio: Close to Home

    ARCH 4101/4102/5101/5115

  • Special Topics in the Theory of Architecture: Public Spaces & Where to Find Them

    ARCH 3308/6308

  • Special Topics in the Theory of Architecture: Visions of Utopia

    ARCH 3308/6308

Selected Awards, Grants, and Fellowships

  • Cornell AAP Curricular Innovation Grant

    2025

  • Cornell AAP Engaged Research Grant

    2025

  • Cornell Einhorn Faculty Fellow in Engaged Scholarship

    2024–25

  • Florence Hoard Community Award, Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services

    2024

  • Urban Design Forum Forefront Fellow

    2018–19

Selected Exhibitions and Presentations

  • Appreciating Value: Reassessing the Potential of Manufactured Housing

    AIA/ACSA Intersections 2025: New Housing Paradigms, AIA/ACSA Intersections Research Conference, Austin, TX, 2025.

  • Phase Change

    Canal Convergence, Scottsdale, AZ, 2024.

  • Echo Chamber

    Cornell Council for the Arts Freedom of Expression exhibition, Ithaca, NY, 2024.

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