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Keynote Speaker
James Howard Kunstler
Nationally recognized author and expert
James Howard Kunstler had written seven novels and countless articles and essays when the scene outside his window, on his street—on most of the cities and streets in America—caught his attention. " . . . the tragic landscape of highway strips, parking lots, housing tracts, mega-malls, junked cities, and ravaged countryside that makes up the everyday environment where most Americans live and work."
Stunned by the pervasiveness of this all-fronts assault, he wrote his first critique of American architecture and urban planning, The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-made Landscape (1993). Geography earned much attention and praise, launching him into the spotlight as a commentator on America’s hapless urban planning. "Kunstler provides an accessible overview that’s all the more interesting and effective for his frankly expressed and all-enveloping viewpoint" (Kirkus Reviews).
In characteristic fashion, Kunstler makes what has almost become a cliché about our wasted landscape, actually matter. "A land full of places that are not worth caring about will soon be a nation and a way of life that is not worth defending." Reminding us that we, in fact are where we live, he says, "The future will require us to build better places, or the future will belong to other people in other societies."
Kunstler's years of writing novels and articles for a variety of publications, including Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and Atlantic Monthly, developed in him a provocative, entertaining voice, a critical eye and the good sense to write from passion. This is true in person as much as it is in print.
The Christian Science Monitor noted, "Disturbing others’ sense of normality is something Kunstler does well . . . everyone who knows his work acknowledges his power to wake up a crowd." A masterful rhetorician, Kunstler hit a nerve and has been deftly carrying this message - and a host of others — to audiences ever since.
He followed Geography with Home from Nowhere: Remaking Our Everyday World for the Twenty-First Century in 1996. Mike Weilbacher of The Philadelphia Inquirer described it as a "deliciously wicked over-the-top nonfiction romp across the tortured terrain of suburban America. This book is a wonderful whack-on-the-side-of-the-head to an increasingly complacent country bent on turning everywhere into Nowhere."
The City in Mind: Meditations on the Urban Condition (2001) is Kunstler’s third book in this urban-planning trilogy. In it he examines eight cities - Paris, Atlanta, Mexico City, Berlin, Las Vegas, Rome, Boston and London - discussing the ways in which their design and architecture have shaped their cultures and successes.
Now training his eye on the oil crisis, Kunstler’s newest book, The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of the Oil Age, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-first Century (2005), expands on his past work on sprawl and automobile culture by exploring the sweeping economic, political and social changes that will result from the end of access to cheap fossil fuels.
Writing in American Scientist, Rutgers University biology professor David Ehrenfeld notes, "What sets The Long Emergency apart from numerous other books on this theme is its comprehensive sweep-its powerful integration of science, technology, economics, finance, international politics and social change-along with a fascinating attempt to peer into a chaotic future. And Kunstler is such a compelling, fast-paced and sometimes eloquent writer that the bookis hard to put down . . . Kunstler, like George Orwell, understands that being honest about the past and present is the only way to prepare ourselves for an uncertain future."
A seasoned journalist, he continues to write for The Atlantic Monthly, Slate.com, Rolling Stone, The New York Times Sunday Magazine and the Op-Ed page where he often covers environmental and economic issues. Mr.Kunstler has lectured extensively about urban design, energy issues and new economies for The TED Conference, Google, American Institute of Architects, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the International Council of Shopping Centers, The National Association of Science and Technology and other professional organizations as well as at numerous colleges and universities, including Yale, MIT, Harvard, Cornell, University of Illinois, DePaul, Texas A & M and Rutgers University among many others.
Kunstler aptly describes his lectures as "stand-up comedy with some dark moments." His audience knows he is dependably acerbic, witty, well-read and exceedingly alert, drawing from a tremendous store of hard facts and idealism that ends on a good note: Well-earned and reasoned hope.
SELECTED WRITINGS:
Nonfiction
- The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of the Oil Age, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-first Century (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005)
- The City in Mind: Meditations on the Urban Condition (Free Press, 2001)
- Home from Nowhere: Remaking Our Everyday World for the Twenty-First Century (Simon & Schuster, 1996)
- The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-made Landscape (Simon & Schuster, 1993)
Fiction
- The World Made By Hand (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2008)
- Maggie Darling: A Novel (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2004)
- Thunder Island (Bantam Books, 1988)
Selected Articles
- The Long Emergency, Rolling Stone Magazine, March 25, 2005.
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Featured Presenter
Donovan Rypkema
Principal of Place Economics and nationally-renowned speaker and consultant on historic preservation issues.
Donovan Rypkema is principal of PlaceEconomics, a Washington, D.C.-based real estate and economic development-consulting firm. The firm
specializes in services to public and non-profit sector clients who are dealing with downtown and neighborhood commercial district
revitalization and the reuse of historic structures. In 2004 Rypkema established Heritage Strategies International, a new firm created
to provide similar services to world-wide clients. He also teaches a graduate course in preservation economics at the University of Pennsylvania.
Rypkema began his consulting practice in Rapid City, South Dakota and relocated to Washington, DC in 1985. He has performed real estate and economic
development consulting services throughout the United States for State and local governments and non-profit organizations with interests in a broad
range of properties, from National Historic Landmark Structures to Main Street commercial centers. His specific fields of consultation include:
feasibility analyses for real estate development; training in community-based development; economic revitalization of downtowns and neighborhood
commercial centers; and the rehabilitation of historic structures.
Prior to 1985, Mr. Rypkema was involved in the direct development and management of residential, office, retail and National Register properties. He
completed appraisals of over 1500 properties including residences, office and apartment buildings, farms, ranches and athletic facilities. His background
includes teaching pre-licensing and continuing education courses for real estate professionals.
Rypkema was educated at Columbia University where he received a Masters of Science degree in Historic Preservation. He has lectured widely on economic and
preservation issues relating to rehabilitation, community development and commercial revitalization. Mr. Rypkema’s short courses and workshops have been
delivered to architects, bankers, developers, preservationists, planners, and downtown managers. He is author of several publications including Community
Initiated Development, The Economics of Rehabilitation, and the Downtown Real Estate Development Series. His articles have appeared in the Journal of the
American Planning Association, Architectural Record, The Journal of Commercial Bank Lending, The Responsive Community, Urban Land, Real Estate Finance,
Investment Decisions, Places, Preservation Forum, Vital Speeches, the Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society and others. In Washington he has served
on the Boards of Directors of North Capital Neighborhood Development Corporation and the Washington Council of Agencies.
Rypkema has worked with such groups as the Urban Land Institute, the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, the American Planning Association, the International
Downtown Association, International Town and City Centre Conference, the World Monuments Fund, the Center for Livable Communities and hundreds of other
international, national, statewide and local organizations.
Rypkema worked with the U.S. Army’s Office of Historic Properties creating strategies for the redevelopment of historic buildings on active Army posts. As
part of this effort he has written a Feasibility Assessment Manual to be used at the installation level Army-wide.
In recent years Mr. Rypkema has conducted statewide studies of the economic impact of historic preservation in Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana,
New York and Maryland and a citywide study in Philadelphia.
An updated edition of Rypkema’s book, The Economics of Historic Preservation: A Community Leader’s Guide, was published by the National Trust for Historic
preservation in 2005 and is widely used by preservationists nationwide. In 2006 the Russian Center for Heritage Trusteeship translated and published a
Russian edition of the book.
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Featured Architect
Will Bruder
Award winning and world renown architect.
For 40 years, Will Bruder has explored inventive and contextually exciting architectural solutions in response to site opportunities and user needs. Will is
a craftsman in his concern for detail and building processes, and a sculptor in his unique blending of space, materials, and light.
Self-trained as an architect, Will has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Supplementing his studio art
education were studies in structural engineering, philosophy, art history, and urban planning, followed by a full architectural apprenticeship under Gunnar
Birkerts and Paolo Soleri. Subsequent to becoming registered, Will opened his own studio in 1974. Most of Will’s 450 commissions have celebrated the craft
of building in ways not typical in contemporary architecture, striving to invent form specific to function and client aspirations. Through his creative use
of materials and light, Will’s ability to raise the ordinary to the extraordinary is renowned.
Will’s architecture has been widely published in more than 1,000 books and periodicals in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Most recently, his work was
featured in the year 2000 publications 10 x 10, Designing the New Museum, and The New American Museum II. He has won more than 50 awards, including the
Governor’s Art Award, 2004, Chrysler Design Award, 2000, Academy Award in Architecture, 2000, National Design Award, Environmental Design Finalist, 2000, and
has also exhibited and lectured widely. Recent teaching positions include the William Henry Bishop Visiting Professor, Yale University, 2003 and 2006, Thomas
Jefferson Chair at the University of Virginia, 2001, Visiting Critic at Washington University, 1998, Visiting Professor at M.I.T., 1996, the Goff Scholar’s
Chair at the University of Oklahoma, 1996, and Visiting Critic at Cableworks in Helsinki, Finland,1993. In 1996, Will was honored as Educator of the Year by
the Arizona AIA.
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Born |
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28 August 1946, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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Education |
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Bachelor of Fine Arts—Sculpture 1969
University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee
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Apprenticeship |
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Paolo Soleri Cosanti Foundation
Scottsdale, Arizona, 1967-68
Gunnar Birkerts Associates Architects
Birmingham, Michigan, 1969-70
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Private Practice |
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Obtained registration and opened design studio — Feb. 1974
Registered in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Wisconsin, and NCARB Certified
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Recent Works |
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Dail/Henkel US Headquarters R&D Facility
Scottsdale, Arizona - 2006
One Scottsdale / DMB A-3 Mixed Use Project
Scottsdale, Arizona - 2006
Cbd101 Masterplan Mixed Use Project
Glendale, Arizona - 2006
Agave Branch Library, Phoenix, Arizona — 2004
TAXI 2, Denver, Colorado - 2005-2007
TAXI 3 Office Complex/TAXI Master Plan
Denver, Colorado – 2007
Will Bruder+Partners Ltd. Studio, Phoenix, Arizona - 2006
Feigin Residence, Reno, Nevada—2006
Pool House, Reno, Nevada—2005
Sky Arc, Marin County, California—2005
Pond House, Cave Creek, Arizona—2005
Hercules Library, Hercules California—2003-2007
Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada—2003
Temple Kol Ami, Scottsdale, Arizona—1992-1994, 2002-2003
Phoenix Central Library, Phoenix, Arizona—1989-2004
The Vale, Tempe, Arizona—2002-present
Loloma 5, Scottsdale, Arizona—2004
Riddell Residence, Wilson, Wyoming—2002
Madison Central Library, Madison, Wisconsin—2002-present
Portland Main Library, Portland, Maine—2001-present
Heller Residence, Ridgeway, Colorado—2001
Private Residence, Pride's Crossing, Massachusetts—1999
Byrne Residence, Scottsdale, Arizona—1999
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale,AZ-1999
Teton County Library, Jackson, Wyoming—1997
Matthews Residence, Red Feather, Colorado—1997
Mad River Boat Trips, Jackson, Wyoming—1996
Riddell Office Building, Jackson, Wyoming—1995
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Selected Honors/Awards |
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Governor’s Art Award - Artist of the Year
State of Arizona—2004
National Design Award Finalist
Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Institution — 2000
Chrysler Design Award - 2000
Academy Award in Architecture
American Academy of Arts and Letters — 2000
Artist of the Year, Scottsdale Cultural Council — 2000
Educator Award, AIA Arizona — 1996
Rome Prize—Advanced Design Fellowship (6 month) Study Sabbatical to the American Academy in Rome, Italy—1987
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Recent Publications |
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The Green House 2005, Modern House III 2005, Jewish Identity in Contemporary Architecture 2004, American Synagogues 2003,
The Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture 1998, 2004, Chicago Tribune 23 July 2003, New York Times 20 July 2003, GA
Document 46, 53, 75, GA Houses 22, 26, 40, 44, 45, 48, 55, 56, 65, 76, 86, 87, 90, GA Project 86, Abitare July 2004, Center 12:
The Good Building 2003, Korean Architect 2001, 10x10 2000, UME 10 1999, Library Builders, Academy Editions 1997, Phoenix Central
Library 1998, Architectural Record April 1993, Oct 1995, March 1996, April 1999, Sept 2001, Architecture, April, July, Oct1 995,
Sept 1997, June 1999, July 2003, May 2003, Architectural Review March, April, June 1996, Nov 1997, June 1998, A+U June 1997,
l'architecture d'aujourd'hui October 1996, Phaidon Architecture Today1997, LOTUS 97, Archis July 1996, Metropolis March 1996,
Ambiente May 1995, Interior Design Magazine Jan/Feb1995, Metropolitan Home March/April 1995, March 1995, Dec 1995, Ascent 1995.
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