Richard Plunz

Richard Plunz (born October 18, 1943) is an American architect, critic, historian and the Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, New York. He holds professional and post-professional degrees in engineering, architecture, and urbanism from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.[1] He also serves as a Professor in the Earth Institute of the same university. Plunz chaired the Division of Architecture and directed the Urban Design Program at the Graduate School of Architecture at Columbia University.[2] He is the founding director of the Earth Institute's Urban Design Lab.

Academic Career

Plunz was born in Schenectady, New York and studied architecture from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, where he received his B.S. in Engineering and M. Arch. Plunz started his career at Penn State and Rensselaer, where he developed pioneer research in hospital design and public secondary education related to inner city contexts. He moved to Columbia University in 1971 and in 1977 became chairperson of the Division of Architecture, with oversight on the renewal of the professional Master’s curriculum. In 1992, Plunz became director of the Urban Design Program, one of the most substantive curricula in the field - a position he held until 2015. He currently continues his research with a team of dedicated collaborators at the Urban Design Lab, which he founded in 2005, in the Earth Institute at Columbia University. At the Urban Design Lab, Plunz addresses the challenges of contemporary urban life, from sustainable urban infrastructure to development of the contemporary city. “No one else has the resource base that the Earth Institute represents in New York,” says Plunz, adding that, “to be part of that and to be able to collaborate with people with different backgrounds is very important. There is also a huge new learning curve given the difference between the academic background of my colleagues and my own. It makes it interesting.” [3]

Research

In 1970 Plunz conducted research in digitized environmental modeling for the low income neighborhood of Mantua, in West Philadelphia. He developed anthropological field techniques towards built form considerations and initiated long-held research interests related to housing design and development of sustainable higher density alternatives to the suburban single family house. Plunz continued his involvement in the anthropology of buildings with an extensive study on two-century-transformation of the utopian industrial community of San Leucio, Caserta, in Southern Italy, which he published in 1973.

Beginning in 1974, he completed a fourteen-year project on the urban expropriation of the High Peaks Region of the Adirondack Park in New York State, Two Adirondack Hamlets in History: Keene and Keene Valley (1999), with the support of the J.M. Kaplan Fund.[4] Plunz's study focuses on the Keene and Keene Valley areas histories, cultures, and urbanizations, and has significance for communities in the Adirondacks and elsewhere[5]. In 1974 Plunz, along with Suha Özkan began a 40 year study in Turgutreis, Turkey, a small town on the Bodrum Peninsula, published in 2015. The study focuses on the evolution of a new municipality, as it gained municipal status in 1967,[6] through documenting the stories and photographs of fifteen families[7]. The book was celebrated at Studio-X Istanbul in 2016 and is influential to future urban studies. He has worked on Urban Development in Accra, Ghana: an Implementation Toolkit (2011), which was part of the Millennium Cities initiative to develop "strategic analysis of development potentials for the Ga Mashie and Nima neighborhoods in Accra"[8].

Public Appearances

Plunz is a general speaker in the public sphere. In 2010, Plunz inspired Josh Fox's documentary GasLand[9], which explores the environmental consequences of the fracking petroleum extraction industry.[10] Fox was intrigued by Plunz and the Urban Design Lab's 2009 publication "Hancock and the Marcellus Shale: Visioning the Impacts of Natural Gas Extraction Along the Upper Delaware," which detailed the effects of natural gas drilling on the Delaware River watershed[11]. The documentary was ultimately controversial[12]. In 2008 Plunz served on the jury for the a design competition for post disaster provisional housing (What if New York City)[13]. In 2010 Plunz spoke at the Congressional Black Caucus' forum on the Haiti Earthquake Recovery[14]. In 2013, Plunz's groundbreaking design proposal from 1971, Alternative Suburbia, was featured in an exhibit at the Institute for Public Architecture, "Low Rise High Density."[15] In 2016, Plunz was the invited guest on the Brian Lehrer Show, "A House Divided: The Dual Histories of Home Ownership in NYC," [16] in which he discussed the role of housing architecture in New York City. In April 2017 Plunz spoke on urban agriculture and food systems with Dana Boyer[17].

Personal life

Plunz lives in New York with his wife Maria Paola Sutto and a daughter, Sarah Sutto-Plunz.

Awards and honors

Plunz received the Andrew J Thomas Award from the American Institute of Architects for his pioneering work in housing.[18] Furthermore, he has been supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the J.M. Kaplan Fund, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the United States Public Health Service, and the Ford Foundation.[19]

Publications

Plunz is the author of numerous academic articles and books, most notably Zoning and the New Horizontal City (1993), The Urban Lifeworld: Formation, Perception, Representation (2005), Urban Climate Change Crossroads (2010), Sustainable Food Systems for Future Cities: The Potential of Urban Agriculture (2014), and A History of Housing in New York City (1990, revised 2016)[20]. He most recently published City Riffs: Urbanism, Ecology, Place (2017)[21], which is an anthology of essays and interviews written between 1993 and 2014.[22].

References

  1. ↑ Plunz, Richard (2017). City Riffs: Urbanism, Ecology, Place. New York City: Lars Müller Publishers. p. 159.
  2. ↑ https://www.lars-mueller-publishers.com/richard-plunz
  3. ↑ http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2915
  4. ↑ http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2915
  5. ↑ Plunz, Richard (1999). Two Adirondack Hamlets in History: Keene and Keene Valley. Fleischmanns, New York: Purple Mountain Press. pp. Cover.
  6. ↑ Plunz, Richard; Özkan, Suha (2015). Turgutreis 1974. Istanbul: Literatür. p. 2.
  7. ↑ "Turgutreis 1974 (İngilizce)". D&R (in Turkish). Retrieved 2017-06-07.
  8. ↑ Urban Design Lab (2011). Urban Development in Accra, Ghana: an Implementation Toolkit. New York City: The Trustees of Columbia University in New York City. p. 2.
  9. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4060906/
  10. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1558250/?ref_=nm_flmg_tk_1
  11. ↑ candice. "The Gas Menagerie". Truthout. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
  12. ↑ "Sparks Fly Over 'Gasland' Drilling Documentary". NPR.org. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
  13. ↑ "Design Competition - Urban Post-Disaster Housing Prototype". www1.nyc.gov. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
  14. ↑ https://www.c-span.org/person/?richardplunz
  15. ↑ http://cfa.aiany.org/index.php?section=calendar&evtid=5705
  16. ↑ http://www.wnyc.org/story/dual-histories-home-ownership-nyc
  17. ↑ http://www.sustainablehealthycities.org/virtual-forum-richard-plunz-dana-boyer-discuss-urban-agriculture-food-systems/
  18. ↑ https://www.coam.org/media/Default%20Files/actualidad/agenda/docs/Semana%20Arqtra%202016/cv_richard_plunz.pdf
  19. ↑ http://urbandesignlab.columbia.edu/our-team/richard-a-plunz/
  20. ↑ https://www.waterstones.com/book/a-history-of-housing-in-new-york-city/richard-plunz/kenneth-t-jackson/9780231178358
  21. ↑ "Richard Plunz - The Earth Institute - Columbia University". earth.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-12.
  22. ↑ Plunz, Richard (2017). City Riffs: Urbanism, Ecology, Place. New York City: Lars Müller Publishers. p. 10.
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