Presented by the Architecture division as part of the college's Architecture Lecture Series at California College of the Arts, this lecture was filmed on Monday, November 18, 2013, in Timken Lecture Hall on the college's San Francisco campus. Irene Cheng is an architectural historian, critic, and designer. Her research focuses on the intersections of architecture, cultural history, politics, and the history of science. Her current project, entitled "The Shape of Utopia: Architectures of Radical Reform in Nineteenth-Century America," explores the geometry of architectural projects affiliated with anarchist, socialist, abolitionist, free love, spiritualist, and other radical antebellum movements. The project has received generous fellowship support from the Whiting Foundation, the Graham Foundation, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, and the Massachusetts Historical Society. Cheng is also a practicing designer and founding principal of Cheng+Snyder, a multidisciplinary design firm that seeks to instigate critical debates about politics, architecture, and the city. Cheng + Snyder's project Museum of the Phantom City was included in the United States pavilion at the 2012 Venice Biennale. The firm's work has been published in Metropolis, Architectural Record, The Architect's Newspaper, The New York Times, and in numerous books and blogs. Their work has been supported by fellowships and grants from the Van Alen Institute, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Ulm School of Design. Prior to founding her own firm, Cheng worked for Bernard Tschumi Architects, where she led several publication and design competition projects. She has also collaborated with Kadambari Baxi and Baxi Martin Architects on several projects, including most recently Citizenship by Design, an investigation into the aesthetics of passports and other artifacts of citizenship that was exhibited at the Van Alen Institute and Cornell University. Cheng writes frequently on issues related to architecture and culture. Her articles have appeared in Frieze, Cabinet, 32BNY, Surface, and A magazine, and she is coeditor with Bernard Tschumi of The State of Architecture at the Beginning of the 21st Century (The Monacelli Press, 2004). Cheng previously taught studio and history / theory courses at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation, and Planning. She holds a B.A. in Social Studies from Harvard and an M.Arch from Columbia, where she is currently completing a PhD in Architecture History and Theory. *The 2013-14 Architecture Lecture Series is funded by Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP; Jensen Architects; John Marx / Form4; Kava Massih Architects; McCall Design Group; Perkins+Will; SmithGroupJJR; BraytonHughes Design Studios; Cary Bernstein Architect; Harley Ellis Devereaux; Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects; Levy Design Partners; Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects Inc.; Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture; ARCH Art & Drafting Supply; Blasen Landscape Architecture; David Gissen and Rachel Schreiber; Donald MacDonald, Architects; Gregory Ryan and Judith Rosenberg; Johanna Spilman; and TANNERHECHT Architecture.* Info: 415.703.9562 or architecture@cca.edu cca.edu/architecture

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