Arnold W. Brunner Grant

Beatriz del Cueto is a licensed conservation architect, Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, Fellow of the James Marston Fitch Foundation, and the Henry Klumb Award recipient for 2012. She is principal and partner of Pantel, del Cueto & Associates, founded in Puerto Rico in 1990 to provide consultation in matters related to the built patrimony and topics such as history, archaeology, and traditional architecture. She holds a Master of Arts in Architecture with a concentration in Historic Preservation, and a Bachelor of Design, both from the University of Florida at Gainesville. Del Cueto has been a participant and lecturer at the Preservation Institute: Nantucket and was awarded postgraduate studies at the UNESCO Architectural Conservation Program of the International Center for the Study and the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) in Rome, Italy.

The goal of del Cueto’s project, “An American Design and Construction Firm in Cuba at the end of the 19th century: Purdy & Henderson,” will be to better understand the degree of success of North American construction means and methods brought to Cuba at the turn of the twentieth century, as found in the Cuban projects of Purdy & Henderson. Del Cueto will research historical documents pertaining to Purdy & Henderson structures from 1900 through the 1950s, as well as the original buildings in Cuba, most of which have survived. Del Cueto will also document the particularities of Purdy & Henderson’s designs and building technologies and discuss why and how these buildings have survived, sometimes with a lack of maintenance for more than 50 years, without major repairs. Ultimately, del Cueto’s project will provide insights and a blueprint of successful international collaboration in the building field between North and Latin America.

Wanda Liebermann is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Florida Atlantic University. She was trained as an architect at the University of California at Berkeley (M.Arch) and practiced architecture in the San Francisco Bay Area for a dozen years, focusing on commercial, multi-family, and custom residential projects. In 2013, she received a Doctorate of Design from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, with a Minor Field in Science and Technology Studies. Drawing on her multidisciplinary background, her research focuses on theories and practices of architecture and urbanism in the context of the politics of disability rights and identity in the US and European Union.

Liebermann’s project, “Right to the River: A Critical Geography of the New River in Broward County, Florida,” will explore how individuals have shaped the urban life and landscape of Broward County’s riverfront. Liebermann will begin her study by conducting a series of original critical mappings to disclose material and political conditions. A primary goal of Liebermann’s project is to create longitudinal visual documentation of the physical alterations to the New River as it has been reimagined as a device of hydrological control and real estate. Further mappings will investigate water quality, private property vs. public access to the river, housing patterns, real estate value, income, and regional forms of official segregation and its traces today. She will then piece together narratives of the river through interviews with individuals with professional and local knowledge, with a particular interest in the nexus of race and class in spatial ordering. Through juxtaposition and synthesis of scientific data, observational analysis, and ethnographic research, the project aims to disclose a previously untold cultural geography of the river. Liebermann will produce articles for publication, discussing planning and design opportunities at the river’s edge as indicated by the research.

Joel Sanders is the Principal of Joel Sanders Architect, as well as a Professor of Architecture at Yale University. Prior to joining the Yale faculty, he was the Director of the Graduate Program in Architecture at Parsons School of Design and an Assistant Professor at Princeton University. Sanders received both a B.A. and M.Arch from Columbia University. He frequently writes about the intersection of art and design and is the author of three books. An active member of the design community, he serves on committees and panels on behalf of the American Academy in Rome, MacDowell Colony, American Institute of Architects, Architectural League, and the GSA Peer Review. Sanders is also a co-chair of Van Alen Institute’s Program Leadership Council.

The goal of Sanders’ project, “Stalled!: Social Equity & Public Restrooms,” is to develop an open-access website that documents a two-year interdisciplinary design-research project dedicated to the creation of safe, sustainable, and inclusive public restrooms for all people, irrespective of age, gender, race, religion, and disability. The website will be comprised of two parts: the first will situate this issue within a broad historical, cultural, and political context; the second will use text, diagrams, and drawings to present guidelines for desegregated restroom prototypes that can be adopted by cultural institutions and municipalities and implemented in renovation and new construction projects. The website will disseminate this work for free to a wide audience.

The Center for Architecture, in partnership with AIANY, awards scholarships and grant awards throughout the year, for architectural students, architectural student journals, and practicing architects. All grants are open to applicants nationwide.

From Church of Studius to Mosque of Imrahor and Beyond: Architectural Heritage in VR

Restoring the Rustbelt: Historic Preservation amid Urgan Decline, Clevland, Ohio: 1970-1985

Distributed Housing Infrastructure for Regional Sustainability

Architecture and the Sherman Antitrust Act

Le Corbusier’s Response to World War II: His Proposals for Refugee Housing

Exposure, Explanation, Evolution: the Professional and the Personal in Architectural Education

Unearthing Building Potential: A Design Primer for Rammed Earth and Compressed Earth Block Systems

4D Lightful Gardens

Mapping Urban Flow: A Dynamic Cartographic Analysis of Hydrologic Cycles in New York City 

Sustainable Housing in Rwanda

Bird-Friendly Glass Testing Flight Tunnel

Sunny Side Up

Archiculture

Unfinished Spaces: Cuba’s Architecture of Revolution