SEE EPARSe for complete information on service
Service to the College and University
Since I’ve been at city Tech I have been asked by each chair of the department to elevate the profile of the school in the eyes of professional societies. That has been a driving goal that continues this day. To understand part of my service it’s important know that.
An integral part of architecture education is the studio design jury. After students create design solutions a jury is convened on several occasions throughout the semester to look at the work and judge the work through a professional dialogue. This occurs at all architecture schools across the world And so to at city Tech. Since I began teaching I have brought in some of New York city’s top architects and engineers along with public figures to participate in these juries. Almost in every occasion the it was the first time they had heard of the school let alone visit the campus. The exposure to our school New York City College of technology as well as to our students for potential jobs has been the result over time.
I have brought in the leadership of some of the largest architecture and design firms in New York City along with elected AIA members from Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan that we now have exposure and partnership with.
The American Institute of Architects AIA Brooklyn is now supporting some of our fundraising efforts for the college that I am helping coordinate through the steering committee as chair.
AIA New York or Manhattan has now given three scholarships to our students and made all events held at the center for architecture free for students to attend. Free attendance for all students was part of my work as an AIANY board member for 8 years focused on connecting the profession with the academy.
Through these efforts many of our guest jurors have become full-time faculty, adjunct faculty or advisers to our department. In brief Prof. Michael Duddy attending many city tech design juries as my guest leading him to join the faculty. In addition several long time, valuable adjuncts have come to city tech through these visits including Elizabeth Martin (6 years), Michael Lui (6 years), Renata Gomes (3 years), Craig Graiber (4 years), and Shiva Ghomi (4 years) to name a few.
The various city agencies I have worked with and brought to campus include New York City Housing Authority, DCP – department of city planning, MOR – mayors office of resilience.
For NYCHA – New York City Housing Authority, this is a great example of how I bring in and combine social impact work, policy change and educating the next generation of architects. Four years ago I was asked to teach our urban design course ARCH 4710 and the course leaders Tim Maldonado and Esteban Beitia had set the course up to work with community groups for social impact. I brought in the department of city planning Brooklyn office office to join into the design curriculum as well as design jury critiques over the course of that year. After the first year working with Brownsville and the city tech nursing department we had an exhibition at borough hall with much of my students work.
That sparked me to contact New York City Housing Authority and bring them into the next round of design challenges and integrate that into the design curriculum.
For three years our students in ARCH4710 design seven, urban planning, as well as ARCH3610 design six, housing studio, have worked directly with multiple members of the New York City Housing Authority leadership. Our students were invited to join in to three professional and public workshops organized at the American Institute of architect center for architecture to study climate impacts in the next generation of housing for NYCHA
Each semester our students collaborate with professional architects and city officials to come up with design solutions that have informed a series of publications by city agencies.
The success of integrating curriculum and design studios with professional societies and city agencies continues in much of my coursework. A direct result of working with New York City Housing Authority has led to a current national science foundation grant partnering with the city of New York, and Stan tech a leading international engineering company. The focus of is to examine the social and physical mobility challenges faced by nature campuses due to climate chocks and stresses as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. The work is being completed in the fall of 2021 and has four of our city tech students as paid research assistance. The work has already been included in the city of New York New York city Housing Authority publications with drawings from our students.NYCHA’s Urban Forest: A Vital Resource for New York City
Climate Change at NYCHA: A Plan to Adapt
Each key note speech, lecture and presentation that I make at conferences, to other schools and professional societies continue to connect many people back to the city tech campus. In the course of the last 10 years I have spoken at over 250 events and been a guest lecturer at other institutions on numerous occasions.
As a leading climate and adaptation expert for the United States my work invisibility places city tech on the map through these various engagements. Most recently I was identified as one of the top 50 experts in the country and joined the resilience 21 group formed to assist the Biden Harris White House transition. We produced an essential document that has been tabbed for the first 100 days of the administration giving them strategy for long-term outlook to combat climate change and build resilient capacity across the United States. Much of this work is geared towards vulnerable communities and my many of the recommendations have now become policy. LINK News
Additional News carried by city tech
https://www.citytech.cuny.edu/entertainment//news-events.aspx?id=1314
Bethune
https://citytech.cuny.edu/electrical-telecomm/news-events.aspx?id=1051
Young architect
College Sustainability Council member, (F. Baez) organizing annual ECOFEST conference on Earth-day. 2015-pr. I have been part of the college wide committee with the office of the special assistant to the president Stephen Soiffer for many years. Additional key committee members, Sarah Standing, Mark Hellerman, Dean Smith, AP Reginald Blake, Alexander Aptekar,
My role has been to assist in creating panels, identifying speakers and sending invitations. Increasing the visibility and attendance of the conference University and City wide.
In recent years the committee applied for grant support for the 2020 CUNY grant for ECOFEST New York City College of Technology, Co-PI (David Smith, Sarah Standing, I. Azaroff) Awarded $5000 in support of the virtual transition fo the conference. Below is a sample fo our activities over the years. The 180 degree video challenge inparticular was one of my specific contributions to this last years efforts aimed at greater student engagement.
ECOFEST 2021_Respect Restore Reflect_April 22-2021
Ecofest 2020 press release FINALSAS copy
ECOFEST 2021_ Event Schedule_Registration_Rev 04202021
Ecofest 2021 180-Second Video Challenge
ECOFEST 2021_THANK YOU-PROF. AZAROFF
Global Climate Change Project committee w Masato Nakamura and Maria Hitchings, chair Dean Hom 2015-16 my role was to assist in developing strategies and overall trajectory for the project. Collaboration between departments as a project to advance curriculum and faculty engagement in addressing climate change. From this role I was asked to join the College wide sustainability council committee.
Cross department collaboration. Worked with Tony Chiofi and Coney Island Alliance for neighborhood projects to create student internship opportunities. 2015-16
Symposium Coordinator. Connecting City tech, CUNY, Faculty and Students to global conversations. Co – Organizer global conference, Extreme Heat Hot Cities Symposium, three part series, AIANY – City Tech day long simulcast event Co-organizer with Anne Marie Sowder (City Tech) and Lance Jay Brown (City College) Nov. 2015 VIEW HERE
• Extreme Heat Hot Cities Symposium, Publication, AIANY – City Tech, Co-organizer with Anne Marie Sowder (City Tech) and Lance Jay Brown, FAIA (City College) May 16, 2016 Publication download
My role in working with this CUNY team was to put together a servies of events simulcast in Voorhees theater and broadcast via the internet on the number one human threat, extreme heat. Our aim was to bring science, communities and policy makers together to understand and create solutions. The publication has been used by the City of New York and Beyond informing how we tackle aspects of climate change.
Solar Decathlon DURA team as Resilience technical advisor, working with Professor Alexander Aptekar who is leading the effort engaging SoDT faculty and students. This includes mentoring student groups (over seven groups & 60 students) researching developing aspects of the project and assisting in building the project. Coordinating students involved in the resilient design aspects (more than 10) involvement in the project. Assisting in developing and maintaining industry expert consultants and material support. 2014-15
The solar decathlon is a national competition for colleges to compete to build a house that is net zero, sustainable and show the way for a future of building practice. The majority of the faculty were involved in this project along with faculty from the engineering disciplines across several departments. The final design and built house was called DURA noting Urban and Resilient as part of the proposal. My role was to serve as the resilient consultant faculty member throughout the design process and construction in the Brooklyn navy yard. I met with students and faculty alike in this process including procuring materials for the build. Professors Alexander Aptekar led this effort with great success. I also organized a public presentation of the work at the center for architecture in New York.
AIA New York Center for Architecture. (n.d.). Solar Decathlon: Energy Efficiency and Disaster Resiliency – 8.24.15 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/centerforarchitecture/review/141821756/52353029f5
AIA New York Chapter. (2015, August). City Tech US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. In Chris Benedict (Chair), Solar Decathlon: Energy Efficiency and Disaster Resiliency – 8.24.15. Symposium conducted at Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place NY, NY 10012. https://calendar.aiany.org
Where can technology take you DURA
https://issuu.com/citytechpublications/docs/citytech_bklyntomorrow15
City Tech research roundtable participant, Chair Selwin Williams 2013-14 Based on my successful research and conference speaking I was asked to join the research roundtable that met to advance research at City Tech among the faculty. As a teaching institution a greater emphasis on research was desired by the administration and key individuals were identified based on past success to join and inform processes for fellow faculty to engage in research and conference activities.
Liaison curriculum development (Service to the College and Department Curriculum), ULI – Urban Land Institute collaboration with Architecture Technology. Integrating Urban Plan, a 4 week teaching module, into Design 6 with Jill Bortogolou. I was one of three faculty trained by ULI for the course integration and I completed the work obtaining a Certification from urban Land Institute. In the summer of 2019 I was part of a summer workshop that successfully trained faculty into the Urban Plan roles and methods. The course module has now been successfully implemented into all sections of Arch 3612 and taught each semester since the Fall of 2019. In particular my students work selected as best practice by ULI to share nationally.
ISR presentation. PARSe presentation to Department Chairs through ISR (Invited by Chair Shelley Smith) 2013 based on my promotion to Associate Professor I was asked to develop and present strategies for PARSe materials organization and connecting of ones research into the classroom while leveraging resources at City Tech such as Honors and Emerging scholars.
