I graduated from Yale University with an undergraduate degree in architecture and a concentration in urban

studies, but I’m not a typical Yalie – or architect, for that matter. I believe in an architecture more broadly conceived, and also an education more broadly conceived. Which is why, halfway through my time at Yale, I took off to think, learn, work, and play away from New Haven’s gothic spires. I’ve traveled and studied strategies in permaculture, organic farming, alternative technologies and natural building, and worked in a variety of unconventional communities focusing on art, education, social justice and sustainability. I’ve also studied at City College of San Francisco and the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs in Cleveland.

I’m passionate about design, but also

about the written word (I currently work for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, where I’ve contributed as a culture writer, associate copy editor, and freelancer for the art department). I’m very involved in the Bay Area industrial arts scene, and have played a large part in creating some pretty awesome art pieces that have appeared in San Francisco and other cities (including Black Rock City).

I believe in the interplay of art, architecture and public space, and my commitment to fostering a

nontraditional union of the three has informed my work in traditional firm environments – whether helping to envision the possibilities for a mixed use green arts district that would join the Oberlin College Campus to the city’s downtown, or decommissioning portions of a major interstate highway to create opportunities for neighborhood access and involvement, mixed-use recreation, and walkable tree-lined boulevards.

Welding one of Karen Cusolito’s

Crude Awakening figures from recycled

steel.

Crucible Fire Arts Festival

Making cobb and stawbale house from

scavenged and recyled materials.

Dandelion Sustainable Living

Institute

Aurora LED tree by C

harles Gadekan

and crew. Black Rock City, Noc

turnal

Wonderland, and then

...?

Using an electric dr

ill to mix cobb

plaster. Yay, gettin

g dirty!

Emerald Earth EcoVil

lage

[Education]City College of San Francisco,San Francisco, CA. [GPA: 4.0]Journalism, Graphic CommunicationYale University ‘10, New Haven, CT. [GPA: 3.68 with distinction in major] Architecture, Urban Studies

Cleveland State University ’08, Cleveland, OH. [GPA: 4.0] Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs Hawken School ‘04, Gates Mills, OH. [GPA: 3.96]

I’m committed to visioning greater possibilities, indeed responsibilities, for the role architects and urban planners play in shaping our

communities. Our job is not merely to create space, but to imagine potential. In an academic sense, I’ve been taught that design determines

action in much the same way that an enzyme facilitates a chemical reaction – a specific shape causes specific movements in the elements surrounding it. But if we truly wish

design to catalyze action, we can not simply trust inert

space to do its job. Placemaking must be an active process that not only deals with the physical shape of things,

but with integrating ideas, providing programming, and reshaping policy, as well.

As architects, we have great access to and skill for gathering information about the way people

live, and we must use that privileged position to also analyze, synthesize and disseminate ideas about how to

occupy space.

Working with

schematic d

esign team a

t City Archi

tecture to

produce prop

osal for Cle

veland’s Sho

reway Redeve

lopment Plan

.

Researching LEED for Neighborhood Design for Westlake Reed

Leskosky’s Oberlin Green Arts Distric in collaboration with

David Orr; Synthesizing concepts in neighborhood design.

Design intervention in DC offering

occupyable human-scaled “DIY-

monuments” scattered across the Mall

To that end, I’ve found myself increasingly interested in modes of assembling

and sharing information: I’m growing my knowledge of graphic design and web publishing, and I am especially captivated by the art of clever and unique bookmaking. I see placemaking as somewhat analogous:

designing a user interface, whether in print, digital, or in actual space, requires form and content, structure and curriculum.

I’ve extensively

studied informal design in cities like Johannesburg (the self-provided

urban fabric in what are usually called slums), and know the value of creative, bottom-up solutions provided through consensus and iterative action. Much can be learned from these vibrant, rapidly growing and changing peri-urban areas.

Break Your Mother’s Back is an exploration of fissures documented “exquisite corpse” style.

Complexity and creat

ivity emerge in

self-provided housin

g.

Informal Settlement,

Johannesburg

Post/Modern is a ‘hyper-link’ style text that combines a 20,000 word main essay with another 10,000 words of shorter essays and comments which can be found tucked in pockets inside french-folded pages. Because the essay focuses on deconstructing the role of image-making, it relies on interpereting documents as artifact.

I know a bit about creating a public engaged in art and cultural activities, from my work with events like Cleveland’s Parade

the Circle and Ingenuity Festival, involvement in political street theater and work with Bread and

Puppet Theater. I’ve also designed for the (non-street) theater, and have some experience with children’s programming in art, dance, and theater. I’ve taught enrichment classes at an equestrian therapy center for children with disabilities, held workshops in natural building (the art of playing with mud), and lived on a veggie-oil powered schoolbus caravan planting trees and teaching children African drumming and “Eco-Hip-Hop.”

I believe in sustainability elegantly integrated into all forms of design because it is taken as a precondition

– a principle from which to start, not a gimmick or device to be tacked on at the end.

I believe in real goods and real knowledge, and I want to help people have sincere, creative, empowering interactions with the world around them – whether by supporting them in things I can’t do (building a computer, say) or showing them the things I can: building a fence, making cheese, throwing a pot, or simply knowing that throwing a pot isn’t what you do when you’re having a temper tantrum.

Veggie-oil-power

ed schoolbus wit

h

VW welded on top

: our home as we

traveled and tau

ght.

Common Vision

Building art, designing costumes, working with kids, performing (on stilts)!Parade the Circle

3/4 “ working model

1/8th inch scale study model for reinterpretation of Malaysian Kampong with water catchment.Kampong Botanical Gardens, Miami

Renderings

Elements of Biophilic Design incorporated in

proposed multi-family housing unit in Storrs,

CT., including textured envelope with operable

louvers.

Anne Fadiman, Yale University Paul E. Francis Writer in Residence Email: fadiman@ comcast.com Phone: (413) 665-7446Fred Strebeigh, Senior Lecturer, Yale Department of English, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Email: fred.strebeigh@ yale.edu

Phone: (203) 495-8749

[References]Tim Redmond, Executive Editor,

San Francisco Bay Guardian Email: tr@sfbg.com Phone: (415) 487-2554Karen Cusolito, Director, American Steel Studios Email: karen@

americansteelstudios.com Phone: (510) 776-7694 Paul Westlake, Principle, Westlake Reed Leskosky Architects

Email: pwest@wrldesign.com

Phone: (216) 522-1350

I’d like to find a home in an organization that believes in at least some of what I’ve said here,

that sees its role as diverse and multifaceted. I want to be part of a group that not only designs a school, but has an impact on what’s taught. That creates a place for public art, but also supplies the reason for it.

I want to expand the ways that people occupy

space, because form may follow function, but new forms can create new functions — new archetypes in living, working, and playing, and above all, in serving the public good.

Thanks so much for taking a look,

emily.