Book Launches at the Graham Foundation in Chicago (5:30 pm, November 21, 2024) and the Museo Experimental El Eco in Mexico City (12 pm, January 26, 2025).
“At Home with the Collective: A Summit on Communal Housing,” convened at UIC Architecture in Chicago, Thursday, October 19 – Friday, October 20, 2023. This 2-day summit gathered speakers from around the world, local stakeholders and activists, as well as city officials who have radically rethought established norms of living, models of homeownership, and the formal, programmatic, material, and legal parameters of housing. Our ambition was to generate new knowledge that can confront the current struggle for affordability and speak to the potential of collective housing as a productive challenge for architecture.
“From House to Housing and from Old Infrastructure to Smart Living,” lecture and round table discussion at the Smart Cities Symposium, Casablanca, Morocco, June 8, 2023.
“Collective Bargaining for Collective Housing: Hilberseimer, Goldberg, and the Labor Union’s Struggle Towards New Typologies of Living,” lecture at ACSA 111th Annual Meeting, In Commons, March 31, 2023, 10:30-12pm.
Talk and round table to discuss the themed issue of The Plan Journal, vol. 7, no. 2, Fall 2022 on “The Right to Housing,” at ACSA Annual Meeting in St. Louis, March 31, 2023, 4-5:30pm.
“In Search of Félix Candela in Chicago,” lecture for We@UIC, February 15, 1pm … an introduction of the forthcoming edited volume on Félix Candela in Chicago.
“From the Existing City to Collective Housing,” in Reading Hilberseimer, ed. Florian Strob, Reihe Bauwelt Fundamente (Berlin: Birkhäuser, 2022), 99-113.
“Invention of a Metropolitan Architecture: From the Existing City to Interior Urbanism” lecture at the Bauhaus Dessau Conference Hilberseimer – Infrastructures of Modernity, October 28, 2021.
Roundtable discussion on “Public Space and Collectivity” at the Urbanism Beyond Corona Symposium hosted by the Urban Works Agency at the California Center of Art, Nov. 16, 9am (PST).
The Office of the Vice Chancellor of Research at UIC awarded Eisenschmidt the Creative Activity Prize for the book project Felix Candela in Chicago, 2020.
Review of The Good Metropolis in Architectural Record. Daniel Brook writes: “Eisenschmidt audaciously argues that a central tension in modern city-building has gone hiding in plain sight. While architects are by nature control freaks, sweating the details of their artifacts, the space where their creations are housed—the modern metropolis—is, by nature, out of control … All should eagerly tune in to his future broadcasts.”
The Good Metropolis Salon, a book launch and conversation on the productive tension between the city and architectural form, at UIC Architecture, South Lobby, A+D Studios, April 30, 6pm.
Lecture on the “Urban Optics and the Specter of a Beautiful Metropolis (I)” at the Bauhaus Beyond Borders conference at Northwestern University, Chicago, April 5-7, 2019.
Studio Offshore/Alexander Eisenschmidt, Lakeshore Hut Project, part of “Inscriptions: Architecture Before Speech” exhibition at Druker Design Gallery, Harvard Graduate School of Design, January 23 – March 11, 2018. Curated by K. Michael Hays and Andrew Holder.
Recipient of the 2018 UIC Teaching Recognition Award. Thanks to the faculty award committee, the Office of the Provost, and the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
Journal of Architectural Education (JAE 72:1) published the “City of Architectural Fiction” drawing (previously on view at Lisbon Triennale, 2016) as part of the Discursive Image series.
The College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts at UIC recognizes Eisenschmidt with the Silver Circle Award for teaching. Thanks to the graduating class of 2017 that selects the recipient.
Twentieth-Century Architecture (The Project(s) of Modern Architecture), co-edited with David Leatherbarrow, vol. 4 in The Companions to the History of Architecture, ed. Harry Francis Mallgrave (Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017).
The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) recognizes Eisenschmidt with the ACSA Creative Achievement Award for his “teaching, design, and scholarship … that advances architectural education.”
Citation of “Search for an Architectural Urbanism,” in The Form of Form(Zurich: Lars Müller and Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa, 2016), 118-119 and “Urbano Fantástico,” in O Mundo nos Nossos Olhos – The World in Our Eyes (Lisbon: Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa, 2016), 8-9.
Monument to Missed Opportunities for the 7th Ward, Chicago. Exhibited as part of “50 Designers, 50 Ideas, 50 Wards,” Chicago Architecture Foundation, May 24 – December 1, 2016.
Talk “City as Laboratory” and roundtable discussion on “Chicago’s Global History,” Cultural Center of Chicago, 78 E. Washington, October 16, 2015, 6pm.
A conclusion to the catalog and an introduction to the city: “A History of Chicago in Ten Architectures,” in Chicago Architecture Biennial: The State of the Art of Architecture, catalog (CAB Publishing, 2015), 153-159.
Round-table discussion on Urbanization with Adriaan Geuze, Wiel Arets, Vedran Mimica, Martin Felsen, and Kees Lokman at IIT Architecture, March 23, 2015, 1:30pm.
Keynote at the “After Empirical Urbanism” symposium, University of Toronto, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, March 1, 2015, 1:30pm.
Chicagoisms makes Architecture Boston (AB) List of top books to read in 1914, followed by Koolhaas’ Delirious New York and Wolfe’s From Bauhaus to Our House.
“The Export of Metropolitan Architecture” lecture at the AA in London, UK (10/28), the University of Kent, UK (10/29), Hochparterre in Zürich, CH (10/30), the OfficeUS at the Venice Biennale, IT (10/31), and Pro qm in Berlin, DE (11/03).
“A New Visionary;” lecture at the “Instruments for Urban Production” symposium in conjunction with the book launch of The Petropolis of Tomorrow and hosted at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, April 25, 2014, 6pm.
Chicagoisms exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, Kurokawa Gallery, April 24, 2014 – January 4, 2015. Co-organized and curated with Jonathan Mekinda; exhibition design by Studio Offshore (Eisenschmidt) in collaboration with graphic designer Matthew Wizinsky.
CONVERSATIONS ON THE CITY: This is an ongoing series of conversations on topics related to the contemporary city. The core of these dialogues lies in the pursuit of an architectural urbanism, in identifying different forms of engagements with the city, and in formulating the project of architecture as that of the city. Recordings of conversations include: Martin Felsen, Winy Maas, Stanley Tigerman, Bernard Tschumi (published in City Catalyst with AD), Andrew Zago, and Elia Zenghelis.
“The New Visionary,” a talk at the Opening Keynote Session at the AIAS Forum in Chicago: “Prospects for an Evolving Profession,” Fairmont Chicago, December 30, 2013, 4pm.
Chicagoisms: The City as Catalyst for Architectural Speculation, eds. Alexander Eisenschmidt with Jonathan Mekinda (Zürich: Scheidegger & Spiess/Park Books, 2013).
Over the duration of the exhibition City Works, the models traveled throughout the gallery, visiting different parts of the panorama’s visionary history, and, finally, came together to create a new collective project of the city – one that is intended as Provocation for Chicago’s Urban Future.
Gallery Talk, at the occasion of the exhibition City Works: Provocations for Chicago’s Urban Future at the Expo 72 Gallery, September 18, 2013, 5:30pm.
Panorama of a Visionary Chicago, produced first for the 13th Architecture Biennale in Venice (2012) and redesigned and expanded for a display at the city of Chicago’s Cultural Center Expo 72 Gallery, measuring 160′ in length.
“Wish you were here!” This project explores spatial, organizational, and material ingenuities born out of the forces and pressures of the contemporary city.
Panel discussion and interview on the exhibition “City Works” for the Venice Architecture Biennale at the Arts Club of Chicago, December 4, 2012. The panel was moderated by Sarah Herda (Director of the Graham Foundation).
“Importing the City into Architecture,” a conversation with Bernard Tschumi, conducted on July 13, 2011 in New York and published in City Catalyst, Architectural Design, #219 (2012), 130-135.
Public lecture for the official lecture series at John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto, November 15, 2012.
Book Launch of City Catalyst at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (September 22, 2012, 1pm) and Launch Party at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Architecture (October 5, 2012, 6pm).
International conference on the state of visionary urbanism, in collaboration with and hosted at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, 10am-6pm, September 22, 2012 (over 200 attendees, 3 panels, 15 speakers, 3 moderators). Event is featured in full length at Radio WBEZ-NPR.
“Fantastisches Berlin. Die Entdeckung einer Neuen Metropole,” in August Endell 1871-1925: Architekt und Formkünstler, eds. Nicola Bröcker, Gisela Moeller, Christiane Salge (Berlin: Michael Imhof Verlag, 2012), 326-335; a collection of essays on the works of August Endell. Reviewed in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Kunstchronik.
Invited by David Chipperfield, director of the 13th Venice Biennale, Eisenschmidt designed and curated an exhibition that re-envisions a series of Chicago’s urban environments. The installation is a collaborative effort of 5 teams that involves a large model of a visionary Chicago (12’x12′, produced by David Brown, Studio Gang, Stanley Tigerman, and UrbanLab) as well as an encompassing drawing (100’ long) that creates a visual backdrop. The outside of the screen (produced by the Visionary Cities Project/Alexander Eisenschmidt) is a panorama of a Phantom Chicago, entirely composed of unbuilt visionary proposals for the city.
VC: Catalog of Visionary Architectures for Chicago was part of the official reference display at the Museum of Contemporary Art for the exhibition Skyscraper: Art and Architecture Against Gravity, June 30 – Sep 23, 2012.
Design and implementation of a new format for reviews in architecture at the Journal of Architectural Education, 2012-2013. For the first time, the section is curated around themes rather than media.
Review of The Liberal Monument: Urban Design and the Late Modern Project, by Alexander D’Hooghe, Journal of Architectural Education, #65:2 (May 2012): 143-145.
“The Non-Concept City,” a discussion on urbanism with Edward Mitchell, including Robert Bruegmann, Ellen Grimes, Tim Mennel, Jonathan Miller, organized by New Projects, Chicago, March 13, 2012. The exchange was published in the Journal of Architectural Education #66.1, October 2012.
Extrapolated City exagerates isolated conditions of the existing city in order to create new forms of urbanism, where rivers runs through intersections, bridges start to cross between skyscrapers, lakes appear in the Loop, rooftops become lush gardens, buildings begin to set back, vertical parks grow tall, urban graphics are written into the shoreline, and individual monuments form historical archipelagos.
Published in Four Conversations on the Architecture of Discourse, eds. Aaron Levy and William Menking (London: AA Publications, 2012). Excerpts from a recorded discussion, organized and hosted by the Graham Foundation, on the state of architectural exhibitions, April 27, 2011 (other participants: Sarah Herda (host), William Menking, Aaron Levy, Penelope Dean, Theaster Gates, Mark Wasiuta, Lisa Lee, …).
Catalog of Visionary Urbanism is an ongoing project that collects, compares, and catalogues every important urban vision, from historical treatise to contemporary popular culture.
“Urbanisms and Other Urban Practices,” lecture at Symposium on Architectural and Urban History at the University of Illinois at Chicago (organized by Robert Bruegmann), October 28, 2011.
“Informal City – Forms of Architecture,” lecture for the evening lecture series at the School of Architecture, University of Texas at Arlington, October 12, 2011.
Architect’s Newspaper and Chicago Plus review exhibition of Visionary Chicago and calling it “stimulating and provocative;” mounted at UIC’s Ramp Gallery, May – September, 2011.
Developed as part of the theory course “Architectural Visions of the City,” the exhibition recorded, compared, analyzed, and extrapolated Chicago’s architectural dreams and nightmares (UIC Architecture Ramp Gallery, April 28 – Sep 2, 2011).
“The Pleasure of Shopping and Other Misdeeds: Wertheim’s Pandemonium of Traffic and Goods,” lecture at Between Experience and Representation: Cities in an Area of Tension, international conference, Radboud University of Nijmegen, Holland, March 10, 2011 (presented in absence).
“Theorien der Raumanschauung und die Entstehung einer neuen Metropole,” was cited in Matthias Schirren’s article “Freiheit und Ordnung: Der Philharmonie Osteingang,” in Scharoun, exhibition catalog, 2011.
Round table participant on “New Research,” Northwestern University, Chicago, December 3, 2010 (other participants: Barry Bergdoll, Andreas Beyer, Neil Levine, Martin Bressani, Robert Bruegmann, and Harry Mallgrave; organized by David Van Zanten).
“Stranger Than Fiction,” lecture at the Once Upon a Place – International Conference on Architecture and Fiction, at the occasion of the Lisbon Triennial of Architecture, Lisbon, Portugal, October 12, 2010.
Review of Radio Broadcasts, 1929-32, by Walter Benjamin, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Multimedia section, #69:2 (June 2010): 262-65.
“Theorien der Raumanschauung und die Entstehung einer neuen Metropole,” lecture at the August Endell: Die Berliner Jahre, Freie Universität Berlin, Kunsthistorisches Institut, April 24, 2010. (cited in Matthias Schirren’s article “Freiheit und Ordnung: Der Philharmonie Osteingang,” Catalog on Scharoun’s Philharmonie, 2011).
“Chicago in the World” session at the Annual SAH Meeting, co-chaired with Jonathan Mekinda Chicago, April 22, 2010 (speakers included Penelope Dean, John Harwood, Igor Marjanovic, and Joanna Merwood-Salisbury).
“From Urban Formlessness to Informal Practices: Berlin, Tokyo, Lagos,” lecture at the Informal Cities Conference, Royal University College of Fine Arts Stockholm, Sweden, September 6, 2008.
“Shopping for a Metropolitan Architecture: Early Commercial Buildings in Modern Berlin,” lecture at the SAH Annual Meeting (panel: The Limits of Community), Cincinnati, OH, April 24, 2008.
“Tricksters of Modernity: Autodidactic Appropriations in Architectural Visions of the Metropolis,” lecture at the SAH Annual Meeting (panel: Creative Misreading), Pittsburgh, PA, April 9, 2007.
“Visual Discoveries of an Urban Wanderer: August Endell’s Perception of a Beautiful Metropolis,” Arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, #11:1 (March 2007): 71-80.
The Formless Metropolis and Its Potent Negativity (dissertation project) received the Graham Foundation Carter Manny Award Trustees’ Merit Citation, 2006.
“Architecture in Search for a Language of Urban Resistance,” lecture at the Spiegel Symposium, structured around an exhibition of Barry Le Va, Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Philadelphia, PA, March 17-18, 2005 (speakers included David Lewis and Mark Wasiuta, moderated by Detlef Mertins; with keynote lectures by Greil Marcus and Barry Le Va).