Events

Joe MacDonald, founder of Urban A&O, merges academic insight with forward-thinking design at the intersection of architecture, sustainability, and public engagement.

Formerly an Associate Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design and currently a principal at Urban A&O, MacDonald’s practice is known for pushing the boundaries of parametric modeling and digital fabrication.

His award-winning work, such as the Steinhart Aquarium’s Water Planet at the California Academy of Sciences, exemplifies his talent for sculpting environments that integrate ecological principles with innovative design.

With projects ranging from interactive museum installations to Carbon-Neutral Data Centers and urban development plans, MacDonald continues to advance architectural solutions that respond to the evolving challenges of climate change, resilience, and urban density worldwide. His work has garnered recognition in top publications like Time Magazine, The New York Times, and Metropolis Magazine.

• Date: October 21st
• Time: 4–5 PM
• Location: Aronoff 5401, DAAP, University of Cincinnati

José García is an architect, maker, and founder of Cincinnati-based Jose Garcia Design + Construction. Raised in Argentine Patagonia, where watching local timber craftsmen sparked his lifelong appreciation for hand-built construction, García moved to Cincinnati in 1985.

He studied architecture at the University of Cincinnati and Princeton University, later working with Michael Graves before establishing his practice. Championing a holistic design-build methodology, García is known for his inventive material juxtapositions—combining zinc tiles, hand-cast concrete, perforated metal, and aged hardwoods—and a philosophy that embraces natural weathering.

Over three decades, he has completed dozens of distinctive residential and commercial works. Most recently, García designed and built the FotoFocus Center in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine/Mount Auburn neighborhood, providing a warm, permanent home for lens-based art that unites regional craft with contemporary institutional design.

• Date: October 28th
• Time: 4–5 PM
• Location: Aronoff 5401, DAAP, University of Cincinnati

Sean Canty is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at UC Berkeley and founder of Studio Sean Canty (SSC), an independent practice exploring novel geometries and spatial norms across domestic, cultural, and civic projects.

He is also a co-founder of Office III, a design collective whose work includes the Governors Island Welcome Center and finalist status in the 2016 MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program. Previously teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Cooper Union, and CCA, Canty's pedagogy centers on abstraction, representation, and typological invention.

His work has been exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale and MoMA. His honors include the 2023 Arts and Letters Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the 2023 Architectural League Prize, and Harvard’s 2020 Richard Rogers Fellowship. He holds a BArch from California College of the Arts and an MArch from Harvard GSD.

• Date: October 28th
• Time: 4–5 PM
• Location: Aronoff 5401, DAAP, University of Cincinnati

Tim Derrington founded Derrington Building Studio in 2011 to practice an idealistic pragmatism, design ambition disciplined by what buildings actually have to do.

He trained at the University of Houston under John Zemanek, whose teaching tied modernist rigor to a craftsman's attention to detail; that pairing, refracted through study of the Japanese Sukiya tradition, remains the studio's intellectual root. Tim is licensed to practice architecture in Texas.

He directed the studio's short documentary "Design vs. Build," which makes the case that drawing and construction are one continuous conversation rather than two separate professions. He lectures and writes occasionally on adaptive reuse, the Type IIB shell, and the experiential-venue typology.

• Date: October 28th
• Time: 4–5 PM
• Location: Aronoff 5401, DAAP, University of Cincinnati