Faculty

Education:

M.Arch., Princeton University
A.B., Princeton University

Research:

Contemporary Theory & Post-Industrial Development

Email:

ellen.dunham-jones@arch.gatech.edu

Profile  Research  Courses
Professional  Publications

Ellen Dunham-Jones' current research is focused on retrofitting suburbs. She has a grant from the Graham Foundation with June Williamson to document case studies of prototypical suburban development projects, (such as malls, strip malls, commercial corridors, office parks, edge cities, apartment complexes, and residential subdivisions) that are being retrofitted to perform more sustainably. Ultimately, the intention of this research is to understand how such individual retrofits might collectively retrofit suburban sprawl into a healthier, polynucleated system. This research is part of a longer-term interest in linking contemporary architectural theory and post-industrial development. An advocate for the effective engagement of architects in promoting alternatives to sprawl, she has published extensively on the development practices reproducing sprawl, sprawl as a post-industrial landscape, Wal-Mart, New Urbanism, and Rem Koolhaas. This work has been supported by previous grants from the W. Alton Jones Foundations, Seaside Institute, and the MIT HASS Fund. An award-winning registered architect, she has also conducted design research on the design of infrastructure to promote placemaking and sustainability.

Retrofitting Suburbs

Within the general umbrella of New Urbanism and Smart Growth, ongoing collection of case studies examining ways to allow aging suburbs to evolve and adapt to changing demographics in ways that promote healthier communities and regions.

• adaptive re-use of dead malls, office parks, cul-de-sac subdivisions, etc.
• densification and re-greening strategies
• re-design and re-zoning of commercial corridors
  Selected Publications and Lectures: 'Smart Growth in Atlanta,' Harvard Design Magazine; Fall 2003: 'Seventy-Five Percent,' Harvard Design Magazine, Fall 2000; 'Questioning the Stand-Alone Building,' Dimensions of Sustainability, 1998; 'Retrofitting Commercial Corridors,' Stockholm, 2003; 'The Principles of New Urbanism,' Rail-Volution, Atlanta, 2003; 'Changing Demographics and Ad Hoc Urbanism on Buford Highway,' CNU X, Miami 2002; 'seventy-Five Percent,' Berkeley, Rice, Hampton, FAU, GA Tech, 2001-2002; 'Urbanizing Big-Box Retail,' Decatur, GA, 2001

Contemporary Development Patterns:

'Post-Industrial Landscapes'

Ongoing study of new development patterns that have emerged as a result of mobile capital, telecommunications, and globalization that are economically and digitally linked, but increasingly spatially and socially segregated.

• Sprawl: the landscape of consumption
• Export Processing Zones/Free Trade Zones: the landscape of production
• 'Global' Downtown Financial Cores: the landscape of control
  Selected Publication and Lectures: 'Capital Transformations of the Post-Industrial Landscape,' Oase 54, Winter 2001; 'New Urbanism as a Counter-Project to Post-industrialism,' Places, Spring 2000; 'Placing Identity,' Design Book Review, 41/42 Spring 2000; 'Stars, Swatches and Sweets; Thoughts on Post-Fordist Production and the Star System in Architecture,' Thresholds, Fall 1997; 'Temporary Contracts: The Economy of the Post-Industrial Landscape,' Harvard Design Magazine, Fall 1997; 'Walmart and Wired Networks,' UC Berkeley, 2000.

Placemaking with Infrastructure

Series of design projects recognizing the opportunities for public infrastructure projects to be designed to also produce significant public places.

Projects:

• Arts in the Infrastructure, Gorhams Bluff Charrette, Alabama, 2001
• Transit-Oriented Development at Assembly Square, Mystic View Task Force, Somerville, MA, 1999-2000
• 'Electric Threshold: Toolbooth,' The Boston Globe Magazine, 1995
• Dunham-Jones, LeBlanc, Reiter & Reiter, designs for a parking lot, traffic island, highway exit, and overpass in Atlanta, 'Public Space in the New American City: Design Competition,' honorable mention, 1994
• Dunham-Jones & LeBlanc Architects, Free Bridge, Charlottesville, VA, AIA Award, published in Architectural Record, 1992, built in 1993.
  Selected Publications and Lectures: 'High Speed Train Stations and Urban Design,' The High Speed Train Station in Valles: Six Urban Design Proposals, 1997; 'Public Duty of Infrastructure,' Opinion Column, Architecture, 1994

Contemporary Architectural Theory

Several papers and projects on the pedagogical role of architectural theory, the positioning of Duany, Koolhaas, & Tschumi, and on specific topics such as critical regionalism, typology, and tectonics.