Oct 16 2024

Energies Symposium | Alternative Communities & Energies Past, Present, and Future

Wed | 7PM

SI is pleased to present the second chapter of the Energies Symposium, a series of lectures, panels, performances, and film screenings that address ecological, social, and geopolitical dimensions of energy, historically and today, while highlighting the power of community-driven infrastructural solutions.

This event brings together architects and activists involved with the wind turbine and solar collectors on the roof of 519 E 11th Street to explore the reverberations of the project today, alongside alternative forms of organizing around renewable energy, urban planning, and community engagement.

The evening will begin with a film screening of Viva Loisaida, a 1978 documentary directed by Marlis Momber that features interviews, biographies, and a tour of the Puerto Rican Lower East Side neighborhood, briefly touching on the wind turbine project at 519 E 11th Street. The screening will be followed with a panel discussion with current and former residents of 519 E 11th Street, including: Rafael Jaquez, community planning advisor and public health instructor; Karen Bermann, professor of architecture; Travis Price, architect and author; and Michael Freedberg, Senior Advisor for High Performance Building in the US Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Energy and Environment. This panel will be moderated by Guillermo Ruiz de Teresa, Deputy Director and Curator at Storefront for Art and Architecture. 

Please RSVP to rsvp@swissinstitute.net.

Travis Price is an architect, environmental pioneer, author, educator, and philosopher has developed over the past four decades, a modern architecture that works hand in hand with ecology and mythology restoring the spirit of place to modern design. His vision is grounded in real-life success with large-scale AIA award-winning private and public works, including the world’s largest solar building for the Tennessee Valley Authority. He has planned new towns and designed an array of unique individual residences, commercial properties, and institutional monuments. He coined the term “passive solar” with his early green architectural works in New Mexico. He installed the first wind machine in Manhattan which initiated the Public Utilities Regulation Policy Act allowing co-generation of wind and solar energy with public utilities. Since 1975, he has a litany of Design Awards within the US and abroad. He holds both a B.A. in Western Philosophy from St. John’s College and a combined Masters of Architecture from Georgia Institute of Technology and The University of New Mexico. Travis Price is a registered architect with NCARB practicing and lecturing throughout the United States and abroad. He has been awarded the Fellow of the American Institute of Architecture Title for his unique contributions to the field of Architecture.

Karen Bermann was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Queens. After her years of working sweat equity on the Lower East Side, she studied architecture at The Cooper Union. She has taught design and drawing for many years in the US and in Italy. Her graphic memoir is forthcoming from the University of Toronto Press. She currently lives in Rome.

Michael Freedberg is Senior Advisor for High Performance Building in HUD’s Office of Environment and Energy. He has led bipartisan efforts to lower HUD’s annual $6.9 billion energy and water bill, including the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities under the Obama Administration, and previously as Chair of the agency’s Energy Task Force. He has extensive experience in building efficiency and sustainable development, including the first solar and wind energy projects in New York City, energy retrofits of multifamily housing in Chicago, and award-winning transit-oriented development in that city. He has degrees in architecture and urban planning.

Guillermo Ruiz de Teresa works as Deputy Director and Curator at Storefront for Art and Architecture. His research and curatorial interest are at the intersection of space, care, and power. Guillermo operates across disciplinary boundaries to interrogate the way in which art, design and politics shape each other. He co-leads the seminar and research project on Public Art as Alimentary Infrastructure at The Cooper Union’s School of Architecture. Trained as an architect and urbanist at the Architectural Association and Universidad Iberoamericana, Guillermo graduated from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design with a Masters in Design Studies and was Stavros Niarchos Foundation PhD Scholar, Visiting Lecturer, and Researcher at the Royal College of Art in London.

The Energies Symposium is made possible in part through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Image: Individuals at 519 E 11th Street. Photo by Jon Naar.