Journalists and architects will explore role of the media in shaping public understanding of architecture and urban design

Contact: Mary Kate O’Brien, Communications Director, SU School of Architecture

The Syracuse University School of Architecture will host the symposium “UPSTATE: Writing the City” on Nov. 15 at The Warehouse, its center in downtown Syracuse at 350 W. Fayette St. Participants, including 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.

“Writing the City” will examine the ways in which print media, in particular, both sustain and challenge orthodoxies about urban development and help form the public’s perceptions of cities, urban design and real estate development. 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 media outlets 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 a catalyst 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 Mark Robbins, dean of the School of Architecture.

The symposium is organized into moderated sessions and will include brief presentations by speakers, followed by discussion. It coincides with the exhibition “Syracuse Builds,” a survey of a dozen new building, landscape and infrastructure projects currently in progress in the city of Syracuse and on the SU campus.

Participants are:
Janet Abrams, University of Minnesota Design Institute
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
Alex Frangos, The Wall Street Journal
Christopher Hawthorne, The Los Angeles Times
Julie Iovine, The Architect’s Newspaper, The New York Times
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
Michael Sorkin, Michael Sorkin Studio

“Writing the City” is a program of UPSTATE: A Center for Design, Research, and Real Estate at the SU School of Architecture. Established in 2005, the mission of the center is to engage innovative design and development practices, addressing critical issues of urban revitalization. The symposium is organized with the participation of the Goldring Arts Journalism Program at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. The Architect’s Newspaper is the media sponsor. This event has also received generous funding support from The Gifford Foundation. The event and the reception, which follows in the Architecture Gallery, are free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Mary Kate O’Brien, communications manager of the School of Architecture, at (315) 443-2388 or mcobrien@syr.edu. For information on parking at The Warehouse, call (315) 443-8238.