School Notes: School of Architecture
March/April 2014

Book about Boston’s “Pru” honored

Elihu Rubin ’99, assistant professor of urbanism at the Yale School of Architecture, has received two distinguished awards for his book Insuring the City: The Prudential Center and the Postwar Urban Landscape (Yale University Press 2012): the Kenneth Jackson Prize for Best Book on a North American topic from the Urban History Association (UHA), and the Lewis Mumford Award for Best Book from the Society of American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH). In its citation, the UHA stated that “Rubin offers a surprisingly broad reinterpretation of urban renewal in the automobile age.” The SACRPH praised the book for its “new and provocative ways to think about the role of private corporations in post-war urban planning and redevelopment efforts.” Rubin’s book explores Boston’s Prudential Center, placing it within the political, economic, and architectural contexts of the 1950s and ’60s, when it played a pivotal role in the economic redevelopment of Boston and was arguably one of the most significant urban developments of the period. 

Venice Biennale to include professor’s work

Yale architecture professor Keller Easterling has been invited to contribute research and writing to accompany an exhibition for the Central Pavilion of the 14th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, June 7–November 23, directed and curated by Rem Koolhaas. The theme of the 2014 Biennale is “Fundamentals,” and the focus will be on “architecture, not architects,” says Koolhaas. “After several Biennales dedicated to the celebration of the contemporary, ‘Fundamentals’ will focus on histories—on the inevitable elements of all architecture used by any architect, anywhere, anytime.” 

Easterling’s project will consider the floor as a fundamental component of architecture and will examine its history; its social, cultural, and economic significance; and its future as a means of ordering space and movement. While the research is being developed in collaboration with OMA/AMO (the Dutch architecture firm founded by Koolhaas), Easterling has also enlisted current students Craig Rosman, Swarnabh Ghosh, and AJ Artemel (all ’14MArch) as research assistants. Recent alumni Jack Morley ’13MArch, Amy Mielke ’13MArch, and Henry Ng ’07, ’13MArch, also participated.