EMERGING VOICES 2009: Darren Petrucci, A-I-R; Elizabeth Gray and Alan Organschi, Gray Organschi Arch

The Architectural League created the annual Emerging Voices lecture series in 1982 to recognize and encourage architects who are beginning to achieve prominence in the profession. The series focuses primarily on built work, at a variety of scales, and is structured to reflect the diversity of contemporary practice–geographically, stylistically, and ideologically. Darren Petrucci is the founder and principal of A-I-R [Architecture-Infrastructure-Research] Inc. based in Scottsdale. His design and research focuses on what he calls “Amenity Infrastructure, which develops new public/private urban infrastructures that facilitate multiple scales of public use within the contemporary city.” Projects include “Stripscape,” pedestrian amenities on a commercial avenue in Phoenix; “Comfort Zone,” shading and cooling canopies for transit and courtesy vehicles at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport; “Garden Rooms,” streetscape and transit stop improvements in Scottsdale; “vh r-10 ghouse,” a guest house prototype on Martha’s Vineyard; and “Cool Ground,” digitally designed and fabricated furniture/landscape at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Arts. Petrucci is the winner of a Progressive Architecture award for his project “GLUE: Generic Landscapes Urban Environments” (a commercial corridor revitalization strategy along Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale), and the NCARB Prize for excellence in teaching and practice for his project “Stripscape.” His work has been published in Metropolis, Places Journal, Architecture Magazine, Sprawl and Public Space published by the National Endowment for the Arts with Princeton Architectural Press, and Re-Envisioning Landscape/Architecture published by Actar Press. His work has been exhibited in Phoenix, New York, and at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. Petrucci is the Director of the School of Architecture + Landscape Architecture at Arizona State University where he also runs his applied research lab: SCAPE (Systems Components Architectural Products + Environments). He received both M.Arch and MAUD degrees with distinction from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Elizabeth Gray and Alan Organschi are the founding principals at Gray Organschi Architecture, an architecture studio and fabrication facility in New Haven. The firm’s work explores the intersection of design and building production, recognizing “building as a medium through which architectural ideas are most forcefully explored and unforgivingly expressed; as an undertaking that consumes physical and environmental resources as it irrevocably alters the character and culture of a place.” Projects include “Tennis House,” Washington, CT; “Cottage,” Guilford, CT; “Storage Barn,” Washington, CT; “Prefabricated Footbridge at Green Hill Brook,” Madison, CT; and “Music Studio at Firehouse 12,” New Haven, CT. Gray Organschi Architecture has won numerous awards, including the Wood Design Award and regional AIA Merit and Design awards. The firm was the recipient of the 2001 Emerging Architects Award from the Connecticut AIA. Gray Organschi Architecture has been widely published, including in Architectural Record, House & Garden, The New York Times, and in numerous books. Elizabeth Gray received her B.A. from Yale College and her M.Arch from the Yale School of Architecture. She is also the founder of an interior design consultancy, Gray Design. Alan Organschi received his B.A. from Brown University and a M.Arch from the Yale School of Architecture. He currently teaches at Yale, where he coordinates the first year graduate housing studio. Tickets are available beginning Thursday, March 5. Tickets are required for admission to League programs. Tickets are free for League members; $10 for non-members. Members may reserve a ticket by e-mailing: [email protected]. Member tickets will be held at the check-in desk; unclaimed tickets will be released fifteen minutes after the start of the program. Non-members may purchase tickets online at www.archleague.org > Emerging Voices, beginning one week before the program until six hours before the program start. Purchased tickets are available for pick-up at the check-in desk and are non-refundable. For more information on our ticketing policy, click here; for general information, email [email protected] or call 212.753.1722 x13. AIA and New York State continuing education credits are available. The Urban Center, 457 Madison Avenue