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Karen Louise Kubey

Assistant Professor

John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design

BIO

Karen Kubey is an urbanist specializing in housing design and spacial justice. She is the editor of Housing as Intervention: Architecture towards Social Equity (Architectural Design, 2018) and served as the first executive director of the Institute for Public Architecture. Kubey co-founded the New York chapter of Architecture for Humanity (now Open Architecture/New York) and co-founded and led the New Housing New York design competition.

Holding degrees in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley and the Columbia University Graduate School for Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), Kubey began her career as a designer of below-market housing. She has received support from the New York State Council on the Arts and MacDowell, and has completed a Fulbright U.S. Scholar fellowship at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Kubey has taught at Pratt Institute and Columbia GSAPP and was a 2019-20 Faculty Fellow in Design for Spatial Justice at the University of Oregon.

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

  • Assistant Professor
    University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada2023 - present
  • Fulbright U.S. Scholar, Visiting Professor
    Torcuato di Tella University, Buenos Aires, Argentina2022 - 2022
  • Visiting Associate Professor
    Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, United States2016 - 2022
  • Adjunct Associate Professor in Architecture, Planning and Preservation
    Columbia University, New York, United States2021 - 2022
  • Faculty Fellow in Design for Spatial Justice, Visiting Associate Professor
    University of Oregon, Eugene, United States2019 - 2020
  • Adjunct Lecturer
    University of Arizona, Tucson, United States2016 - 2017
  • Part-Time Lecturer
    Parsons School of Design, New York, United States2015 - 2015
  • Adjunct Studio Instructor
    New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, United States2012 - 2012

NON-ACADEMIC POSITIONS

  • Executive Director
    Institute for Public Architecture, New York, United States2012 - 2015
  • Architectural Consultant
    Washington DC Housing Authority2021 - present
  • Strategist and Trainer
    NYC Department of Housing Preservation, New York, United States2018 - 2019
  • Co-Host
    Curry Stone Foundation Podcast2018 - 2018
  • Architectural Consultant
    New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, United States2017 - 2017
  • Designer
    Van Alen Institute, New York, United States2017 - 2017
  • Designer and Project Manager
    TEAM R8, New York, United States2011 - 2012

DEGREES

  • Master of Architecture
    Columbia University, New York, United States2009
  • Bachelor of Arts in Architecture
    University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States2002

CERTIFICATIONS

  • Safety Assessment Program (SAP) Evaluator
    American Institute of Architects, Washington D.C., United States2013 - present
  • Social Economic Environmental Design certification
    SEED Network2014 - present

AVAILABILITY

  • Industry Projects
  • Media enquiries

INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

  • School of Cities

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