PORTLAND, Ore. (9 October 2017) – Portland State University School of Architecture proudly welcomes three leading architects and scholars as Distinguished Visiting Professors in the 2017-2018 academic year.

Leni Schwendinger, a recognized authority in the field of urban lighting, will hold a weeklong residency in Fall term. Urtzi Grau, an internationally known architect, writer, and lecturer, joins the school in Winter term. Ipek Türeli, Ph.D., noted architectural historian, will hold a weeklong residency in Spring term. Each of the Distinguished Visiting Professors will work with Master of Architecture studio classes, participate in critiques, and give a lecture to the student body and interested members of the public. 

Urban lighting authority Leni Schwendinger begins her Distinguished Visiting Professorship on October 9, 2017. An expert on the many issues and applications of city lighting, Schwendinger has more than 20 years of experience creating illuminated environments for public spaces all over the world. Her innovative interdisciplinary practice, nighttime design urbanism, focuses on city districts’ darkened hours and includes fresh community involvement methodologies. This work is shared through public speaking engagements, including the worldwide “NightSeeing™, Navigate Your Luminous City” program, most recently in Prague, Czech Republic; Sydney, Australia; Seattle, Washington; and Bogota, Colombia. Recent and ongoing projects include the Enhanced Design Initiative for the New York City subway, several bridges in Canada, and art projects for the Cleveland Rapid Transit District, among others. Professional awards include such recognition as multiple Lumens from the Illuminating Engineering Society, SEGD, and the NEA Japan Residency Fellowship.  Schwendinger’s work has been published in Monocle Architectural, Lighting Architectural Digest, and Dwell magazines. She is currently a Design Trust for Public Space Fellow.

Urtzi Grau will be in residency February 4 – 10, 2018. Grau is an architect, director of the Master of Architectural Research at University of Technology Sydney and co-founder of Fake Industries Architectural Agonism, an architecture office that has received the AIA New York New Practices Award, has been shortlisted in the MoMA PS1 and the Miami Design pavilions, was finalist the Guggenheim Helsinki Competition, and represented Australia in the Chicago Architectural Biennial. The office has recently completed the Superphosphates! Masterplan in Cáceres and the OE House in Barcelona. Grau graduated from the School of Architecture of Barcelona in 2000, was awarded Master in Advanced Architectural Design by Columbia University in 2004, and is currently completing his Ph.D. at Princeton University on the 1970s urban renewal of Barcelona. He has previously taught at Cooper Union, Princeton University, Columbia University, Cornell University, and Rice University School of Architecture. His work and writings have been published in various international journals such as AV, Bawelt, Domus, Kerb, Log, Plot, Praxis, Spam, Volume, or White Zinfandel and exhibited in la Bienal de Buenos Aires, P! Gallery, RMIT Design Hub, Shenzhen Biennale, Storefront, the Venice Biennale and 0047.

McGill University Assistant Professor Ipek Türeli’s Distinguished Visiting Professorship will take place in May 2018. The Canada Research Chair in Architectures of Spatial Justice, Dr. Türeli specializes in the role of architecture in the articulation, mediation, and negotiation of political selves, recognizing not only the agency of the built environment but also of architects. Her current research spans the full range of social engagement in the profession, from the longer history of humanitarian architecture, such as that of religious missionaries, to more recent efforts by contemporary designers to contribute to social movements. Before joining McGill, she focused on visualizations of the city in photography, film, exhibitions, and museums. Her research on Istanbul was awarded the Regents Fellowship at UC Berkeley, and external grants by the Graham Foundation and Middle East Research Competition; the Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Brown University's Department of History of Art and Architecture, and the Aga Khan Fellowship at MIT's Department of Architecture. She is the co-editor of Orienting Istanbul (2010) and Istabul Nereye? (2011), guest editor International Journal of Islamic Architecture’s special issue on “Streets of Protest” (March 2013), and author of Istanbul Open City (2017). She is the coordinator of the Research Group on Democracy, Space, and Technology at McGill University. She is a licensed architect in Turkey, and a member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.