Eisenschmidt is a designer, theorist, and Associate Professor at the School of Architecture, University of Illinois at Chicago, where he teaches design studios and courses in history & theory. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Architecture from Pratt Institute, and a Diploma in Architektur und Städtebau from the HTWK in Leipzig, Germany. His work investigates the productive tension between the modern city and architectural form—a topic on which he has lectured, chaired conferences, and published extensively, ranging in venues from the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians to Grey Room and The Architect’s Newspaper New York. He is the author of The Good Metropolis, the editor of City Catalyst (Architectural Design, 2012), contributing lead-editor of Chicagoisms (Scheidegger & Spiess / Park Books, 2013), co-editor of The Project(s) of Modern Architecture (Wiley, 2017), and from 2012 to 2013 was the reviews editor of the Journal of Architectural Education, where he restructured the section as a thematically curated arsenal of ideas. Eisenschmidt is also the designer and curator of “City Works,” a collaborative exhibition at the 13th International Architecture Biennale in Venice (2012) to which he contributed a 100 ft. long panorama drawing. In 2014, he co-curated and designed the exhibition “Chicagoisms” at the Art Institute of Chicago; his exhibition “Collective City” was part of the 2015 International Biennale on Urbanism in Shenzhen, China; and in 2016, “In Search for an Architectural Urbanism” was included at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale. In addition, Eisenschmidt runs the design practice Studio Offshore and directs the Visionary Cities Project, a research-based platform devoted to the study of the contemporary city and to speculations on new forms of architectural urbanism.
