The Knowlton School welcomes Galen Pardee as the Howard E. LeFevre ’29 Emerging Practitioner Fellow for 2019-20. The LeFevre Fellowship is awarded annually to an architect who is beginning to make their mark on the profession and provides the practitioner with a platform to develop their research over the academic year. The Fellowship culminates in the spring semester with a public lecture, monograph and exhibition in the school's Banvard Gallery.

Galen Pardee’s work focuses on the material and logistical underpinnings of architectural practice and form, seeking to understand architecture's agency within ecosystems of political, social, environmental, and material regulations, as well as architects' ability to enact change within these environments. His work asks: How can architectural tools and technologies inform both design practice and public advocacy in the face of climate change?

“In the spring, I will present my research on the environmental and material mechanisms of the Great Lakes Watershed, focusing on developed analytical tools (both physical and digital) and design proposals for the region,” explained Pardee. “Building on my earlier research on Singapore's territorial expansion practices (Territories of Territory Extraction), I intend to explore the Watershed as a political entity, an infrastructural environment, a testbed for architectural speculation, and a platform for drawing architectural agency.”

Galen Pardee is a designer, educator, and researcher based in New York City. He received his BA from Brandeis University and an MArch from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP). Since graduating, he has taught in the advanced design studios at Columbia University and led design teams for institutional and cultural clients in New York City and California. Focusing on the intersection of architecture, geopolitics, material economy, and the character of designed objects, his work has been exhibited in both the United States and overseas. His previous research, “Territories of Territory Extraction,” explored the mechanisms and methods of the sand mining industry in Southeast Asia, and Singapore’s land reclamation apparatus. Galen’s work has been supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Columbia University, and housed in the Columbia GSAPP Incubator at New INC.