400 Avery Hall
Columbia University
New York, NY 10027
212.854.8165
buellcenter@columbia.edu
dsm2106@columbia.edu
The Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, part of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), was founded in 1982. Its mission is to foster and augment knowledge of architecture, urbanism, and landscape, past and present, with focus on the built environment and architectural culture of the United States and the Americas more broadly. The Center's programs are variously addressed to scholars, professionals, and the general public. Among its offerings are lecture series and conferences, scholarly seminars and publications, exhibitions and awards programs.
The Buell Center is administered by a Director with the assistance of a 12-member Board of Advisors and the Buell Center Program Coordinator. The Director reports to the Dean of the GSAPP.
The Buell Center's founding director was Robert A. M. Stern. Gwendolyn Wright served as the second director, followed by Richard Buford, who was succeeded by Joan Ockman. The current director is Reinhold Martin. Appointed in 2008, Reinhold Martin is a founding co-editor of the journal Grey Room, a partner in the firm of Martin/Baxi Architects, and has published widely on the history and theory of modern and contemporary architecture. He is the author of The Organizational Complex: Architecture, Media, and Corporate Space (MIT Press, 2003), and the co-author, with Kadambari Baxi, of Entropia (Black Dog, 2001) and Multi-National City: Architectural Itineraries (Actar, 2007).
The Board of Advisors is drawn from the faculty of Columbia University as well as from external academic and cultural institutions. It includes a prestigious roster of historians, critics, and practitioners from across the nation. Members of the board of advisors serve for three years, with one-time renewal possible. The current Chair of the Buell Board of Advisors is the architect Peter Eisenman.
The Buell Center was established through a beneficent gift from Columbia architecture school alumnus Temple Hoyne Buell (1895-1990). The initial endowment was augmented by gifts from the Kaplan Foundation and Phyllis Lambert. Over the years the Buell Center's programs have been funded by the Buell Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York Council for the Humanities, the New York Foundation for Architecture, the Graham Foundation, the Design Arts Commission, the Arthur Ross Foundation, the Shaw-Walker Foundation, the Gund Foundation, the German-American Exchange Service, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and other public and private sources.
In 1990 the Buell Center moved into its present location in Buell Hall, the oldest structure on Columbia's Morningside Heights campus, following an extensive renovation of the building. The Center's quarters include offices for visiting fellows, a seminar room, and a meeting room containing furnishings from the offices of McKim, Mead & White. The Arthur Ross Gallery, administered by the GSAPP and dedicated to architectural exhibitions, is located on the first floor of Buell Hall.
Among the Buell Center's current ongoing programs and activities are the following:
This prestigious event is presented in the springtime in alternate years. Up to twelve doctoral students from around the world are selected from a competitive field to present papers on topics related to American architecture, urbanism, or landscape based on their dissertation research.
Since 1995 the Buell Center has awarded two prizes annually for outstanding writing on American architecture, urbanism, and landscape. One prize is awarded to a student in the GSAPP, the other to a student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Columbia College, or Barnard College. The writing prizes, in the amount of $500, are underwritten by Bartholomew Voorsanger of Voorsanger and Associates, Architects, and Beatrice Slater.
In 2006 the Buell Center inaugurated a program to support oral history projects in the fields of architecture, urbanism, and landscape. The award is open to currently enrolled Columbia University students and is based on project proposals submitted in the spring of the academic year. Two students have been selected to receive stipends each year since the program began.
In 2008 the Buell Center will inaugurate a new annual postgraduate fellowship in the amount of $20,000. The award will support a project conceived in the spirit of the social and environmental ideals of architect and educator Percival Goodman (1904-1989), and is to be carried out by a student in the year following graduation. The fellowship is underwritten by Columbia alumnus Raymond Lifchez.