Leading journalists headline symposium on media, architecture

Leading journalists headline symposium on media, architectureNovember 06, 2007Mary Kate O’Brienmcobrien@syr.edu

The Syracuse University School of Architecture will host the symposium “UPSTATE: Writing the City” on Thursday, Nov. 15, at The Warehouse, the school’s home in downtown Syracuse, located at 350 W. Fayette St. Leading national journalists and academics will explore the role of the media in shaping public understanding of architecture and urban design in relation to strategies for urban revitalization. At issue is the current state of American urbanism and the relationship between public policy, politics and the marketplace in determining decisions affecting the civic realm.

The event probes the critical role that the media can play in bridging the gap between public understanding of the design disciplines and specialized knowledge in architecture, landscape architecture and urban design. “The media have often been catalysts in the debates affecting the development of the U.S. city, both in smaller, weaker markets, such as Syracuse and Cleveland, and in denser or rapid growth regions represented by New York, Los Angeles and Phoenix,” says School of Architecture Dean Mark Robbins.

World-renowned sociologist Saskia Sassen from Columbia University, the symposium’s keynote speaker, kicks off the discussion on Wednesday, Nov. 14, at 4:30 p.m. in the main auditorium at The Warehouse. A noted scholar of the effects of globalization on the world economy, Sassen will speak on “The Global City: A New Frontier.”

The symposium itself begins the following day at 12:30 p.m. and will feature brief presentations by the speakers, followed by moderated discussions, and includes a reception at the end of the conference at 6 p.m. It coincides with the exhibition in the Architecture Gallery “Syracuse Builds: After the Master Plan,” a survey of a dozen new building, landscape and infrastructure projects currently in progress in Syracuse and on the SU campus.

Symposium participants include:

• Janet Abrams, University of Minnesota Design Institute
• Fred Bernstein, freelance architecture critic for The New York Times
• Robert Campbell, The Boston Globe;
• Jonathan Capehart, The Washington Post
• Dana Cuff, UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design
• Julia Czerniak, UPSTATE at the SU School of Architecture
• Nan Ellin, Arizona State University School of Public Affairs
• Christopher Hawthorne, The Los Angeles Times
• Julie Iovine, The Architect’s Newspaper
• Johanna Keller, Goldring Arts Journalism Program, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
• Sean Kirst, The Post-Standard
• Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer
• Jonathan Massey, SU School of Architecture
• Mark Robbins, SU School of Architecture
• David Rubin, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications

“Writing the City” is a program of UPSTATE: A Center for Design, Research, and Real Estate at the SU School of Architecture and is organized with the Goldring Arts Journalism Program in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. UPSTATE’s mission is to engage innovative design and development practices, addressing critical issues of urban revitalization.

The symposium, which is free and open to the pubic, is sponsored in part by the Community Preservation Corp., The Gifford Foundation and the Central New York Community Foundation. The Architect’s Newspaper is the media sponsor.