V. Mitch McEwen, “Nostalgia for the Present: New Orleans, Detroit, Pittsburgh”
How do design research, criticism, and curating intersect not only history and theory, or speculations of the future, but theories of the present?
V. Mitch McEwen will present her design and curatorial work through the lens of this question. This includes her role as 2019 curator of the IdeasCity project in New Orleans for the New Museum, as well as urban design work for the City of Detroit and the speculative project “This is What We Will Build When We Get Our Reparations.” The international IdeasCity initiative launched in 2011 by the New Museum provides a forum for designers, artists, technologists and policymakers to exchange ideas, identify challenges, propose solutions and engage the public participation.
V. Mitch McEwen is principal and co-founder of A(n) Office, an architecture collaborative in Detroit, Princeton, and New York City. A(n) Office and McEwen were commissioned by the 2016 US Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, and the Istanbul Design Biennial. Projects in Detroit include a combined residence and flower incubator for an engineer at 3M and a City of Detroit-commissioned action plan for housing across 160 acres of waterfront and canals in the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood. Her work in urban design and architecture began at Bernard Tschumi Architects and the New York City Department of City Planning, as well as founding SUPERFRONT in Brooklyn. She joined the faculty at Princeton School of Architecture in 2017, where she teaches studio and building technology and leads A(n)other Lab. McEwen earned her M.Arch. at Columbia and B.A. at Harvard College.