Alexandra Lange

130 Kane Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231

718 246–0944
917 371–7776

alexandra.lange@gmail.com
www.alexandralange.net

Education

2013–2014 Graduate School of Design, Harvard University
Loeb Fellowship

2005 Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Ph.D., May 2005 (M.A., January 2001)
“Tower Typewriter and Trademark: Architects, Designers and the Corporate Utopia, 1956-1964”

1994 Yale University
B.A., Architecture and Literature: cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, distinction in both majors

Editorial Experience

since 2015 Curbed (curbed.com), Architecture Critic
since 2014 Dezeen (dezeen.com), Opinion Columnist

2009–2013 Design Observer (designobserver.com), Featured Writer
2004–2010 New York magazine, Contributing Editor
1999–2004 —, Contributing Writer
1994–1999 —, Staff

Freelance Architect; Architectural Digest; Architectural Record; The Architect’s Newspaper; The Atlantic online; Cite; Domus; Domino; Dwell; GOOD; Icon; Metropolis; The Nation; New York magazine; New York Times; The New Yorker online; Places Journal; Print; Slate.

Teaching Experience

2008–2014 School of Visual Arts
Faculty, M.F.A. Design Criticism: “Architecture and Urban Design Criticism”

2006–2012 New York University
Adjunct Associate Professor, Urban Design & Architecture Studies Program: “Special Topics: Architecture Criticism”

Books

“The Glamour of Utility,” in Formica Forever, New York: Metropolis Books.

The Dot-Com City: Silicon Valley Urbanism, Moscow: Strelka Press [E-book].

Writing About Architecture: Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities, New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

With Jane Thompson, Design Research: The Store That Brought Modern Living to American Homes, San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

“’I Can’t Live in a Box’: Artists, activism and lower Manhattan in the 1960s,” in New York Cool: Paintings and Sculptures from the NYU Collection, ed. Pepe Karmel, New York: NYU.

“Corporate Headquarters: Saarinen in Suburbia,” and with Sean Khorsandi, “Houses and Housing: At Home with Saarinen,” in Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future, ed. Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen and Donald Albrecht, New Haven: Yale University Press. (Winner, 2007 SAH Philip Johnson Book Award; 2007 Sir Banister Fletcher Award.)

Exhibitions

Curator, “+ Housing: 2008 AIA New York Designs for Living Exhibition,” Center for Architecture, New York City
October 1, 2008 – January 19, 2009

Talks

Bard Graduate Center, New York, September 18, 2015
Topic: “After Wood: The Plastic and the Digital in Contemporary Toys”

Sarasota Architecture Foundation, April 23, 2015
Topic: “Modernism for the Masses”

Boston Architectural College, March 11, 2015
Topic: “Apple and Oranges: The Strange Bedfellows of Architecture Criticism”

What Criticism? Symposium, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, February 14, 2014
Panel: “Criticism = Love”

Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, September 18, 2013
Panel: “New Frontiers of Design Criticism”

Meet the Loeb Fellows, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, September 6, 2013
Topic: “Are You A Critic?”

Michigan Modern: Design That Shaped America Symposium, Cranbrook, June 15, 2013
Topic: “Beyond Gorgeous: The Work of Alexander Girard”

Bard Graduate Center, New York, April 17, 2013
Topic: “Founding Mothers: Architecture Criticism from Mariana Van Rensselaer to Esther McCoy, Ada Louise Huxtable, and Jane Jacobs”

Indianapolis Museum of Art, April 11, 2013
Topic: “Beyond Gorgeous: The Work of Alexander Girard”

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, March 9, 2013
Panel: “Words and buildings: A round table forum on architectural criticism”

Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne, March 7, 2013
Panel: “More than one way to skin a building”

Hawke Research Institute, University of South Australia, Adelaide, March 6, 2013
Panel: “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil: The Past, Present and Future of ‘Criticism’ in Art, Architecture and Design”

Architecture and the Media, Center for Architecture, New York, November 8, 2012
Panel: “Evolving Media Platforms”

Flair Symposium: Visions of the Future, Ransom Center, Austin, TX, November 1 – 3, 2012
Topic: “Marketing the Future”

David Dillon Symposium, Dallas, TX, April 26 and 27, 2012
Panel: “Architecture Criticism Today”

Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center’s 3rd Annual Design Lecture, New York, November 17, 2011
Topic: “Modernism for the Masses”

Museum of the City of New York, November 15, 2011
Topic: “From the Inside Out: The Interiors of Kevin Roche”

National Building Museum, Washington, DC, June 7, 2011
Topic: “Modernism for the Masses”

Storefront for Art + Architecture, New York, March 8, 2011
Panel: “Critical Futures #3”

Museum of the City of New York: An Inside Look at Eero Saarinen, June 2, 2009
Topic: “Making the Modern House Home: The Miller House, Columbus, IN”

Society of Architectural Historians 59th Annual Meeting, Savannah, GA, April 26 – 29, 2006
Topic: “Trademark on the Sidewalk: the CBS Eye, Black Rock, and building as news event”

2005 Buell Dissertation Colloquium, Columbia University, New York, April 16, 2005
Topic: “The Plowmen’s Palace: Shaking off the Rust and Deere & Company”

The VIIIth International DOCOMOMO Conference, New York, September 25 – October 4, 2004
“Import/Export: Postwar Modernism in an Expanding World, 1945 – 1975,”
Topic: “There’s No Place Like Work: Connecticut General’s Paradise of Maids”

Academic Publications

“This Year’s Model: Representing Modernism to the Post-war American Corporation,” Journal of Design History 19:3 (Autumn 2006), 233–248.

“The Troubled Search: The Work of Max Abramovitz,” review of Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University exhibit, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 64:4 (December 2005), 554–556.

“Thomas Jeckyll: Architect and Designer,” review of Bard Graduate Center exhibit, JSAH 63:2 (June 2004), 223–224.

“Le Corbusier Before Le Corbusier,” review of BGC exhibit, JSAH 62:4 (December 2003), 516–518.

“White Collar Le Corbusier: From the Casier to the cités d’affaires,” Grey Room 09 (Fall 2002), 58–79.

Selected Journalism

“Grace Farms is a trophy building, not a light-on-the-land wilderness retreat,” Dezeen Opinion, October 14, 2015.

“A Buffalo Case Study: Can Architecture Bring a City Back?” Curbed, August 6, 2015.

“Can Heatherwick produce architecture that is more than a gimmick or a gadget?” Dezeen Opinion, July 2, 2015.

“Seven Leading Architects Defend the World’s Most Hated Buildings,” T Magazine, June 5, 2015.

“Women were unwelcome in architecture, but male architects couldn’t live without them,” Dezeen Opinion, May 12, 2015.

“Pier 55: Pocket Gadget, Meme-tecture, or Something More Nefarious?” Curbed, April 23, 2015.

“Philip Johnson’s Not Glass Houses,” T Magazine, February 15, 2015.

“In California, A Marriage of Dance and Design,” on Anna Halprin, The New York Times Home section, September 25, 2014.

“Why Charles Moore (Still) Matters,” Metropolis, June 2014.

“3D printers have a lot to learn from the sewing machine,” Dezeen Opinion, May 13, 2014.

“How to Fix New York City’s Parks,” New Yorker online, March 28, 2014.

“How can you learn about the world in spaces without character?” Dezeen Opinion, February 20, 2014.

“It’s easy to make fun of Bjarke Ingels on Instagram,” on architects and social media, Dezeen Opinion, January 7, 2014.

“A Skating Rink Grows in Brooklyn,” on Lakeside in Prospect Park, New Yorker online, January 2, 2014.

“Demolition of Prentice Women’s Hospital and Penn Station,” on modern preservation, Architect, November 2013.

“Kickstarter Urbanism: Building a Park Takes More Than Crowdfunding,” Gizmodo, September 16, 2013.

“Architecture’s Lean-In Moment,” on the status of women in architecture, Metropolis, July/August 2013.

“Dreams Built and Broken: On Ada Louise Huxtable,” The Nation, May 6, 2013.

“How to Make A Great Kids’ App,” on Toca Boca, New Yorker online, April 4, 2013.

“Founding Mother: Mariana Van Rensselaer and the Rise of Criticism,” Places, February 25, 2013.

“The Woman Who Invented the Kitchen,” on Lillian Gilbreth, Slate, October 25, 2012.

“Fear of Fun: A History of Modernist Design for Children,” Los Angeles Review of Books, October 6, 2012.

“What Comes Second: The Lesson of the Barclays Center,” New Yorker online, September 19, 2012.

“DIY Magazines,” on Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter and Instapaper, Domus, September 2012, 92–99.

“Don’t Put A Bird On It: Saving ‘Craft’ from Cuteness,” New Yorker online, August 1, 2012.

“Girl Talk,” on Architect Barbie, Dwell, July/August 2012, 92–94.

“A Playground That Parents Won’t Come to Despise,” on West 8’s design for Governors Island, New Yorker blog, July 6, 2012.

“Pinterest: Fear of the ‘Female Ghetto’,” New Yorker online, June 13, 2012.

“Living in LEGO City,” on the urbanism of building toys, Print, June 2012.

“Edith Wharton’s Houses,” New Yorker online, May 23, 2012.

“Book Review: “Piecing Together Los Angeles: An Esther McCoy Reader’,” Architectural Record, May 2012.

“Pedro E. Guerrero on Being Inspired by the Masters,” The New York Times Home section, April 4, 2012.

“Designing ‘The Hunger Games’,” The Atlantic online, April 2, 2012.

“An Anatomy of Uncriticism,” on the sacred cows of design, Print, February 2012.

“Commentary: The World of Online Interiors,” on digital shelter magazines, Architectural Record, October 2011.

“The Search for the Perfect Fork,” on vintage modern flatware, GourmetLive, August 31, 2011.

“Why’s This So Good?” No. 9: Herbert Muschamp builds a metaphor, Nieman Storyboard, August 23, 2011.

“Why Are Car Seats So Poorly Designed?” on bad design for children’s safety, GOOD, May 27, 2011.

“High Fiber,” on Knoll Textiles, T: The New York Times Design Magazine, May 1, 2011.

“Making the Modern House Home,” on the J. Irwin Miller House, Design Observer, April 11, 2011.

“The Moms Aren’t Wrong,” on urban design and children, GOOD, February 1, 2011.

“How Do You Solve a Problem Like the Eameses?” review of ‘The Story of Eames Furniture’, Design Observer, January 17, 2011.

“The Opulent Modernism of Warren Platner,” Dwell, November 2010, 110ff.

“Designing with Folk Art,” on Alexander Girard for Deere & Co., Design Observer, October 19, 2010.

“People in Glass Houses,” on the Glass House and Belle Grove, Financial Times Weekend, October 15, 2010, House & Home cover.

“Uncommon Ground,” review of ‘Small Scale, Big Change’ at the Museum of Modern Art, Design Observer, October 7, 2010.

“The Zootopian,” profile of German toy designer Renate Müller, T Design Fall 2010, 48, 50.

“The Argument: Hands Off the Classics,” on reissues of midcentury chairs, Dwell, October 2010, 44.

“If These Walls Could Talk,” on set design as character on ‘Modern Family’, New York Times Opinionator blog, September 13, 2010.

“What’s Cooking in Kitchen Design,” on the history of the modern kitchen, New York Times Opinionator blog, August 27, 2010.

“When Shopping Was Sociable,” on Design Research, Apple stores and the Brooklyn Flea, Design Observer, August 16, 2010.

“Easier Living, By Design,” on the influence of Mary and Russel Wright, New York Times Opinionator blog, July 23, 2010.

“Why Do Most Designer Toys Suck So Badly?” on modernist toys, Co. Design blog, May 23, 2010.

“The Maddening, Rewarding World of Design People,” on the film ‘Please Give’, Design Observer, May 17, 2010.

“Review: Saccharine Design,” on Marcel Wanders’s ‘Daydreams’, The Architect’s Newspaper, May 7, 2010, 31.

“The Visceralist,” profile of 2010 AIA Gold Medalist Peter Bohlin, Metropolis, May 2010, 86–93, 136–137.

“Design Blogs: The Vacuum of Enthusiasm,” on lack of criticality, Design Observer, March 29, 2010.

“Hole Earth Catalog,” on adopt-a-pothole program, New York Times, Op-Ed page, March 22, 2010.

“Why Nicolai Ouroussoff Is Not Good Enough,” on the Times architecture critic, Design Observer, March 1, 2010.

“Skating on the Edge of Taste with Warren Platner,” Design Observer, January 6, 2010.

“Interview: Casey Jones,” interview with the head of the GSA Design Excellence Program, Change Observer, December 31, 2009.

“Love & Architecture,” on Aline and Eero Saarinen, Design Observer, November 10, 2009.

“Small Wonder: 41 Cooper Square,” review of Cooper Union academic building by Morphosis, Design Observer, October 26, 2009.

“The Beauty of a Park,” review of the High Line, Design Observer, June 16, 2009.

“Crit: Kroon Hall,” review of the new Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Science, Architect’s Newspaper, May 6, 2009, 22. Reprinted Design Observer, July 10, 2009.

“Standard Operating Procedure,” review of the Standard New York hotel and its antecedents, Design Observer, March 15, 2009.

“Rebooting the Festival Marketplace,” review of South Street Seaport, then and now, Design Observer, February 9, 2009.

“Crit: Brooklyn Children’s Museum,” review of Rafael Vinoly museum addition, The Architect’s Newspaper, November 19, 2008.

“Don’t Call David Adjaye a Starchitect,” interview with David Adjaye, New York, July 23, 2007.

“Fantasy Island,” five teams compete for Governors Island open space, New York, June 4, 2007.

“Extending the Legacy,” opening of Philip Johnson’s Glass House to the public, Metropolis (November 2006).

“Once a Teardown, a Modernist Gem is Reborn,” restoration of Paul Rudolph’s Barnet Yanofsky house, New York Times, House & Home section, November 2, 2006.

“Gang Mentality,” profile of Chicago architect Jeanne Gang, 02138 (Premier Issue Fall 2006).

“Family Comes First,” on the Noyes house in New Canaan, Metropolis (August 2006).

“2016: Building the (New) New York,” cover story on New York City’s urban form in the future, New York, June 5, 2006.

“Brand Central Station,” opening of Bloomberg New York headquarters, Metropolis (November 2005).

“Married With Tchotchkes,” on the wedding registry at New York design mecca Moss, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, October 9, 2005.

“Toward a Bigger, Better MoMA,” cover story on the reopening of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 18, 2004.

“The Manhattanization of Brooklyn,” cover story on Brooklyn development, New York.

“When Buildings Became Pin-Ups,” preview of Hedrich Blessing exhibition, New York Times, Arts & Leisure, May 18, 2003

“So an Eames Chair Meets a Tulip Table…,” 1960s office décor in the film Down with Love, New York Times, Summer Movies, May 11, 2003.

“Big Plans, Small Houses,” survey of modern historic preservation, Metropolis (May 2003).

“White Out: Renzo Piano’s Times Tower,” Metropolis (April 2002).

“Desk Set,” review of ‘On the Job’ and ‘Workspheres’ exhibits, Metropolis (July 2001).

“Stern und Drang,” profile of Robert A.M. Stern, New York, December 7, 1998.

“Richard Meier: Leaving Los Angeles,” Graphis 314 (March/April 1998).

“MoMA’s Boys,” on MoMA expansion competition, New York, March 31, 1997.