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Wilkins awarded the 2020 Bradford Williams Medal for excellence in writing about landscape architecture
November 10, 2020
This medal is given in honor of Bradford Williams, who for many years served as the "corresponding secretary of ASLA" and presided over ASLA national headquarters in Boston. He was past editor, publisher, business manager, and the driving force behind Landscape Architecture Quarterly (now Landscape Architecture Magazine)
The purpose of the award is to recognize superior writing in Landscape Architecture Magazine (LAM) and excellence in writing about landscape architecture in other mainstream periodicals.
Wilkins a panelist on the social responsibility of architects: civic life & the built environment at Archtober Festival
October 29, 2020
The School of Continuing and Professional Studies at Pratt Institute is proud to participate in Archtober, the 10th annual month-long festival of architecture activities, programs and exhibitions taking place during the month of October, by presenting a panel discussion focused on issues of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in architectural practice.
Aesthetics of Equity mentioned in the Design Institute of San Diego's #bookbrag
October 15, 2020
Lisa answers the question: How do we pick out what we buy for the library? Books featured during this week's theme of diversifying the library collection: Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee by Ellen Weiss; Moody Nolan Design by @moodynolandesign; Southern Exposure by @leebey; Structural Inequality by Victoria Kaplan; Space Unveiled edited by Carla Jackson Bell
Wilkins lectures on the social project in American architecture
September 30, 2020
The ConCave Ph.D. Student Organization is excited to welcome Dr. Craig Wilkins, senior lecturer at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and diversity scholar with the National Center for Institutional Diversity. Dr. Wilkins will present a lecture titled, "Tracing the History of the Social Justice Project in American Architecture." Part of the Georgia Tech ConCave lecture series: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice in Architecture
WIlkins part of the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt conversation entitled Changing Course: Navigating the Future of Design
September 24, 2020
How can we create change for the better? In this virtual workshop and conversation with Sasha A. Alston, Emily Bryson and Craig Wilkins, participants will be challenged to think big about how we can make the world a safer place. From remote learning and adjusted workplaces to diversifying teams, designers at all stages of their careers are thinking big about the design process and how they can make an impact in their communities—and you can, too!
Join Cooper Hewitt educators, emerging designers, and professionals in the field for an interactive experience as they share stories, processes, strategies, and problem-solving mindsets that address the role of design in two pandemics—COVID-19 and systemic racism.
WIlkins a keynote at the Equity in Design + Design Education panel hosted by University of Calgary School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape
September 23, 2020
The School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape at the University of Calgary will host a panel titled “Equity in Design + Design Education” — a conversation with voices of practitioners, academics and students
The event will open with framing remarks by Wandile Mthiyane and Dr. Craig Wilkins, PhD, followed by a conversation that includes panelists Martina Jileckova and Vivian Ton. Alberto de Salvatierra will serve as the moderator
Wilkins a panaelist for the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt NDA in Detroit: Designing Healthy Equitable Cities
September 10, 2020
Design is all around us—our cities, homes, and even our healthcare systems are products of design choices. As the U.S. simultaneously faces a global pandemic and a crucial movement for racial equity, designers must consider: if design is problem-solving, then what is the responsibility of design in facilitating lasting change?
Wilkins named to the 2020 Commerce Design Awards jury
May 31, 2020
Commerce Design: Detroit is an award that honors and recognizes commercial projects where business owners have hired professional designers to help them in the design or renovation of their space. We aim to increase investment and growth in Detroit’s commercial corridors, promote accessibility and preserve local identity. Licensed from Montreal City of Design, Commerce Design will recognize projects submitted jointly by the business owner and design team, completed within the last five years within the City of Detroit, Highland Park, and Hamtramck. Commerce Design: Detroit is presented by Design Core Detroit and AIA Detroit.
Please join Craig L. Wilkins, Pietro Belluschi Distinguished Visiting Professor in Architectural Design and Fellow in Design for Spatial Justice, for a talk on "The Age of the Activist Architect."
February 28, 2020
The Pietro Belluschi Distinguished Visiting Professorship in Architectural Design was created at the UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts (now the College of Design) in 1993 as a perpetually endowed fund to foster and promote education in architectural design. Pietro Belluschi (1899-1994), one of the most notable architects in Oregon, was best known for establishing a Northwest regional style. The endowment supports a short-term appointment for a prominent architect to teach and lecture.
Wilkins to keynote the 2020 Visual Art and Design Showcase at the University of Missouri
February 12, 2020
The Visual Art and Design Showcase is a venue for Mizzou undergraduate students to display and discuss their scholarly work in an exhibition setting. The works of approximately 50 students will be on display and will feature a variety of artistic expression and applied design, including works of photojournalism, graphic design, architectural drawing, theatre set design, painting, sculpting, textile and apparel design, mixed media, and digital storytelling.
Wilkins mentioned in the University of Oregon call for Design for Spatial Justice Fellowship applicants
February 10, 2020
The fellowships are part of the UO School of Architecture & Environment’s year-old Design for Spatial Justice Initiative, a program that spans across the school’s architecture, interior architecture, landscape architecture, and historic preservation professional programs in Eugene and Portland, with the aim of “changing the voices that are at the table in order to change the kinds of questions that can be brought to the table,” Erin Moore, Director of the School of Architecture & Environment and Associate Dean of the College of Design, explains to Archinect.
Wilkins joins the faculty at the University of Oregon College of Design School of Architecture & Environment
January 06, 2020
Introducing Craig Wilkins, the Visiting Professor of Practice in Design for Spatial Justice and Pietro Belluschi Distinguished Professor. A 2017 National Design Award winner and Hip Hop architectural theorist, architect, artist, academic and activist, Wilkins' creative practice specializes in engaging communities in collaborative and participatory design processes.
Wilkins will be teaching in Portland for winter and spring terms.
Wilkins visits the National Memoral for Peace and Justice
October 15, 2019
"Can an object in the landscape actually change a national narrative? Can something you must visit—which implies at least a minimum amount of self-selection, self-awareness, and choice—really have an impact on a narrative that has done its best to ignore, if not deny, a memorial’s raison d’être? In a world where shock manifests every day in ways unimaginable even a decade ago, can the recalling of a terror that at its peak was so cavalier yet so virulent as to shape the lives of an entire nation ever be understood? Is it even reasonable to think such is possible?"
Craig Wilkins Talks Hip Hop Architecture and the Intersection of Design and Activism
July 02, 2019
Craig Wilkins is one of the first theorists of Hip Hop Architecture, a movement that aims to empower marginalized communities and individuals through design. Both a practicing architect and a scholar, Craig talks with Olga Stella about how hip hop architecture is embodied in his work and the importance of diversifying design fields.
- Detroit City of Design
Wilkins to participate on panel at the "Close to the Edge" exhibit in St. Paul
April 17, 2019
The exhibition – curated and designed by Sekou Cooke, assistant professor at the Syracuse University School of Architecture – exhibits the work of 21 practitioners, academics, and students who are at the center of this emerging architectural movement
The exhibit premiered at the Center for Architecture in New York City in Fall 2018 and has received significant attention from the national architecture press and generated great public interest
Panel Discussion
3:00 – 5:00 pm at SpringBOX!
262 University Avenue W, St. Paul
Continued conversation and “cypher session”
5:30 – 8:30 pm at University of Minnesota Rapson Hall
89 Church Street SE, Minneapolis
Panelists: Sekou Cooke, Ujijji Davis, James Garrett, Jr., Olalekan Jeyifous
Moderator: Jennifer Newsom
Wilkins mentioned in the MinnPost article entitled "What’s hip-hop architecture? ‘Hip-hop culture in built form’”
April 11, 2019
“It’s a coming-of-age story”: How a bunch of friends from 1990s Cornell University launched a hip-hop architecture movement-seminar-exhibition that lands in a remixed University Avenue auto dealership next week in St. Paul.
In the early ‘90s, frustrated by the white-male-old-school ways of architecture and academia, a group of Cornell University students (and like-minded friends, thinkers, and students from other universities) that included Sekou Cooke, James Garrett Jr., Amanda Williams, Nate Johnson, Craig Wilkins, and Nate Williams challenged the status quo by marrying two passions — architecture and hip-hop as a way of life — and launched the movement known as hip-hop architecture.
Detroit based designer, Craig Wilkins, PhD, RA, shares his insights as the Cooper Hewitt Celebrates International Design In Detroit
April 11, 2019
"You get a beautiful building that doesn’t talk about its location. It could be anywhere. The sleekness hides the conditions of production. It doesn’t talk about the manner in which it was built. Or even the people who built it. In Detroit, you get an appreciation for the struggle. The struggle to create something beautiful, something memorable. And not wanting to hide that. It is something to be celebrated and embraced and acknowledged."
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards in Detroit
April 11, 2019
Join us for a lively conversation on how design has shaped Detroit with National Design Award winners and Cara McCarty, Director of Curatorial at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
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David Malda, Principal, Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (2011 Landscape Architecture Award)
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Chris Reed, Founder and Director, Stoss Landscape Urbanism (2012 Landscape Architecture Award)
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Richard Roark, Partner, OLIN (2008 Landscape Architecture Award)
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Craig Wilkins, architect, academic, and author (2017 Design Mind Award)
This panel is being held as part of Design Core Detroit’s Drinks x Design
Thursday, April 11
5:30-8:00 pm
Panel: 7:00-8:00 pm
Wilkins quoted in "DIA Plaza finalists hope to bring joy, cohesion, parking to Detroit"
January 24, 2019
"When Craig Wilkins looked out into the audience during his team’s presentation at the Detroit Institute of Arts on Wednesday, he was happy to see many of his University of Michigan students in the crowd.
"'It’s exciting to me that they’re getting a chance to see how these conversations really happen, because it is the same kind of thing that we talk about in class all of the time,' said Wilkins, lecturer at the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning."
Wilkins part of team of 3 finalists presenting bold visions for the future of Detroit’s museum district
January 25, 2019
"The future of Detroit’s museum district—an area within striking distance of the city’s revitalized downtown that has 12 cultural institutions—received bold ideas and insights into what urban architects and landscape designers would do if given the chance to unite Motown’s Midtown during an all-day series of presentations Wednesday at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA)."
Ten X Ten team presents plan to grow walkable campus linking Detroit cultural institutions
January 23, 2019
"A new vision is taking shape for the area surrounding the Detroit Institute of Arts in the city's thriving Midtown neighborhood.
The goal: redesign the outdoor space around the 1920s-era Beaux-Arts landmark so that it becomes the heart of a walkable, innovative public area stretching for 10 blocks and linking 11 major institutions.
The plan would ideally better connect Wayne State University, the main Detroit Public Library, the Detroit Historical Museum, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the College for Creative Studies, the Michigan Science Center, and others."
Wilkins mentioned in Architecture magazine essay "Legitimizing and Embracing Hip-Hop Architecture"
October 26, 2018
We’re uncovering examples of people creating art, understanding, and changing the built environment using hip-hop as their primary lens
-- Exhibit curator and designer Sekou Cooke, architect and educator
A new exhibit, “Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture” is on view at the Center for Architecture in New York until Jan. 12.
Wilkins mentioned in the Metropolis article "Hip-Hop Architecture’s Philip Johnson Moment" by Dante A. Ciampaglia
October 23, 2018
More than 40 years after it emerged from South Bronx house parties, hip-hop has become a once in-a-lifetime concussive force reshaping global cultural. But at its most elemental and foundational, hip-hop is a direct, powerful confrontation with the built environment. “Broken glass everywhere / People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don’t care,” Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five rapped on their seminal 1982 track “The Message.” “I can’t take the smell, can’t take the noise / Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice.” From the jump, architecture inspired hip-hop. It’s poetry that bloomed in the shadows of housing projects, among the husks of burned-out high rises, and in view of subways tagged with a rainbow of graffiti.
But did the flow run the other way..?
Wilkins a featured speaker at the Heidelberg project 3-plus decade anniversary celebration
October 11, 2018
360° of Heidelberg Conference is an in-depth exploration of the 32-year journey of the critically acclaimed Heidelberg Project through a variety of perspectives: artistic expression, community building and socia| justice initiatives designed to energize the creative mind.
Wilkins quoted in review of "Close To The Edge: The Birth of Hip Hop" exhibit
October 06, 2018
Throughout history, major cultural movements—like the Renaissance, Modernism, and Postmodernism—have expressed themselves through visual art, music, architecture, and dance. When Sekou Cooke, an architect, curator, and professor at Syracuse University, thought about hip-hop, he wondered why it was so prolific in everything except architecture.
“Why is that? Why hasn’t hip-hop created its own architecture? And if it did, what would it look like? If it has, can we find it?,” he pondered at the opening of “Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture ,” a new exhibition at the Center for Architecture, in New York...
Wilkins to participate in the panel opening the AIANY Hip Hop Architecture exhibit symposium
October 06, 2018
James Garrett, Jr., Andres Hernandez, Nina Cooke John, and Wilkins will reflect on the three years since the ground-breaking 2015 Towards a Hip Hop Architecture symposium held at Syracuse University to the opening of the 2018 Center for Architecture's exhibit, elaborate on the work curated in the show — including their own — and discuss the potential of hip hop architecture in general and what it means for his or her practice specifically.
Wilkins' design work to be featured in AIANY Center for Architecture exhibit
October 01, 2018
Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture exhibits the work of students, academics, and practitioners at the center of this emerging architectural revolution. Hip-Hop Architecture produces spaces, buildings, and environments that embody the creative energy evident in hip-hop’s first four elements — deejaying, emceeing, b-boying, and graffiti.
Curator: Sekou Cooke
Holding Space: A Conversation with David Adjaye and Craig Wilkins
September 28, 2018
The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture presents Shifting the Landscape: Black Architects and Planners, 1968 to Now, a symposium focused on the activism, engagement, and impact of black architects and planners over the past fifty years. The symposium brings together architects, planners, and scholars of the built environment to reflect on key events in the late 1960s that shaped architecture and planning in the decades that followed.
NMAAHC Symposium to Explore the Role of Black Architects Since 1968
September 28, 2018
50 years after Whitney M. Young Jr. famously took the stage at the AIA Convention rebuking architects for failing to support civil rights, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. is celebrating the anniversary of this movement by hosting the three-day-long “Shifting the Landscape: Black Architects and Planners, 1968 to Now” symposium from Thursday, Sept. 27 until Saturday, Sept. 29.
Wilkins a featured speaker at the Twin Cities LISC's 30th anniversary celebration
September 18, 2018
Join us and be a part of Twin Cities LISC's 30th anniversary celebration and learning summit. You'll be joined by the region’s most creative minds — leaders from the public, private, philanthropic, and community sectors working at the intersections of affordable housing, economic development, arts, and health and advancing the field of community development.
DIA plaza redesign finalists offer different concepts in innovative public space design
June 29, 2018
Felicia Molnar, Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives at the DIA, gave Curbed Detroit some insight into why each of the teams were selected:
"TEN x TEN from Minneapolis '[r]epresent a generational shift in how they talk about design challenges and would use a social justice lens in looking at the Arts and Cultural District, to redesign so that all people feel welcome.' They also had a big approach, which blurred the line between city and institution. Molnar adds that, 'They want to promote economic, environmental, and community resilience with their design,' as well as, invite and inspire the community to act as “curators” in the public spaces.'"
Wilkins part of team that includes TEN x TEN, Minneapolis; MASS Design Group, New York; D MET, Detroit; Atelier Ten, London; Local Projects, Boston; and HR&A Advisors, New York selected as one of three finalists for Midtown cultural campus design competition
June 28, 2018
The Detroit Institute of Arts and Midtown Detroit Inc. have whittled down their international design competition to three finalists that will conceive and offer landscape proposals for a connected cultural campus in Midtown.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how our arts and cultural district operates, and we hope that the public will take advantage of the many planned opportunities to provide feedback on what they would like to see and experience," Susan Mosey, Midtown Detroit Inc. executive director, said in a statement.
Wilkins named to the jury of the 2018 A' Design Award and Competition
April 15, 2018
The A' Design Award and Competition is the world's largest design competition. It recognizes excellence in built and conceptual design, products, and services worldwide.
“Aesthetics of Equity”, "Activist Architecture", & “Diversity Among Architects” to be included in the exhibit “Now What?! Advocacy, Activism & Alliances in American Architecture Since 1968” at the Parsons School of Design Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
April 11, 2018
The Civil Rights and Women’s Movements impacted every facet of US society, including architecture and design. "Now What?! Advocacy, Activism & Alliances in American Architecture Since 1968" links the US design community to larger social and political movements of the late 20th century, placing design practice in the foreground and engaging viewers in critical conversations of history, progress, and the built environment. "Now What?!" acknowledges national and grassroots efforts by a wide coalition of organizations and professionals to change the face of architecture and design in the US.
Wilkins to speak at the Expanding Architecture symposium at Lund University School of Architecture in Lund, Sweden
March 21, 2018
A yearly gathering on current streams of architecture, the 2018 edition of LAS entitled EXPANDING ARCHITECTURE: Critical Perspectives Acting from Within will address architectural interpretation and creation as a matter of non-orthodox practices; experiences from architectural practice where architectural design and disciplinary reflection have challenged the conformal narratives of architecture and its culture.
Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum invites you to celebrate the 2017 National Design Awards in Boston
March 01, 2018
Join us for a cocktail reception with a welcome from Caroline Baumann, Director of Cooper Hewitt, followed by a lively conversation with Matilda McQuaid, Deputy Director of Curatorial and Head of Textiles, and National Design Award winners, including:
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Craig L. Wilkins, architect, academic, and author (Design Mind Award)
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Alan Ricks, Co-founder and COO, MASS Design Group (Architecture Design Award)
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Deborah Berke, Partner, Deborah Berke Partners (Interior Design Award)
Wilkins to speak at University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture
February 14, 2018
As part of its 2018 Winter Lecture Series, Detroit Mercy School of Architecture (SOA) welcomes Craig Wilkins, the 2017 Cooper Hewitt National Design awardee, in the Warren Loranger Architecture Building’s Genevieve Fisk Loranger Architecture Center. The NOMA reception begins at 5 p.m. and the Wilkins lecture immediately follows at 5:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.
Wilkins delivers opening night keynote at the 2017 biennal PARSE conference on Exclusion at Gothenburg University Academy of Design and Crafts in Gothenburg Sweden
November 15, 2017
Combining a biennial research conference and a twice-annually published peer-review research journal, PARSE provides a forum for dialogue between artistic researchers and researchers from other domains and disciplines.
The 2017 biennal PARSE conference on EXCLUSION tackles very current questions of inequality, neocoloniality and legitimacy as they are expressed and produced through culture and cultures of artistic education.
Wilkins named part of renovation team for historic Fisher Mansion
October 27, 2017
The Charles T. Fisher Mansion, which we toured in 2016, sold earlier this year to actor Hill Harper for $1.25 million. Harper plans on working with local design firm coG Studio to overhaul the 18,000-square-foot house. Dr. Craig Wilkins is the architect of record for the renovation. Harper is also working with Rockford Construction on the project...
Smithsonian honors Detroiter as ‘visionary design mind’...
October 19, 2017
On Thursday night at a lofty gala in Manhattan, Detroit resident Craig L. Wilkins will be honored as a “visionary design mind” by the Smithsonian Institution.
The vision Wilkins has advocated for nearly two decades is that hip hop culture can help cure the damage formal architecture, design and gentrification has inflicted on communities of color and marginalized people...
"Diversity Among Architects" a top 10 pick for Gender Equality by the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation
July 27, 2017
The KADK Library houses plenty of books on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Here are their top ten picks around SDG no. 5: GENDER EQUALITY
Wilkins delivers the keynote remarks to the 2017 Parsons School of Design Strategies graduating class
May 17, 2017
#191: The Revision Path interview
May 15, 2017
Revision Path is an award-winning weekly interview podcast that focuses on showcasing the best designers from all over the world. This week I spoke with Craig, fresh off his National Design Awards win, and we talked about a number of things — his love for Detroit, what made him get involved in architecture, where he sees design education in the future, why design organizations struggle with diversity, and more. It’s a far-reaching conversation I think you’ll enjoy regardless of your design discipline...
Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan. “Apple Pioneer Hartmut Esslinger Wins The Nation’s Top Design Award.” Fast Company. (5 May 2017)
May 06, 2017
"Craig L. Wilkins, an architect, historian, and professor, who’s been a leading voice in the dialogue on architecture’s severe lack of diversity and has worked to increase scholarship on African American architects, will receive the Cooper Hewitt’s “Design Mind” award. Wilkins’s writing, from 2007’s The Aesthetics of Equity: Notes on Race, Space, Architecture, and Music to his recent collection of 12 essays examining homogeneity in the profession, Diversity among Architects: From Margin to Center, are driving a long-overdue conversation on race, privilege, and class within architecture. In 2017, a year dominated by the rise of nationalism, state-mandated xenophobia, and police brutality, architects are coming to terms with their responsibility to the public good–and Wilkins’s writing has never been more relevant."
Craig L. Wilkins 2017 National Design Awards Winner - Design Mind
May 06, 2017
The National Design Awards program celebrates design as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world, and seeks to increase national awareness of design by educating the public and promoting excellence, innovation, and lasting achievement.
Design library: African-American perspectives on architecture
May 04, 2017
Doggerel is always on the lookout for good books. Dr. Craig Wilkins, a lecturer on architecture, urban design, and community development at the University of Michigan, shared his recommendations for this edition of Design Library. Focusing on the often-overlooked contributions of people of color to the built environment, he divided his list into three categories: history, theory, and narrative.
Wilkins interviewed by Nina Feldman for “Confronting Urban Design’s Diversity Crisis With a Return to Black Places” article in Next City (17 Apr 2017)
April 17, 2017
An initiative taking shape at the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture wants to disrupt conventional notions of planning
Panelist at SXSW conference “Remixing Architecture with Hip Hop Culture” session sponsored by Autodesk (14 Mar 2017)
March 14, 2017
Every profession cares that its membership reflects the diversity of the population. Work is underway to reflect these values in design fields, as research shows African Americans represent only four percent of US architects...Hear from architects and diversity leaders in the design industry about introducing accessible technologies to inner-city communities, encouraging creativity, and leading underrepresented youth to become design professionals.
Wilkins delivers the keynote at the inagural Alternative Art School Fair hosted by Pioneer Arts, Red Hook, Brooklyn
November 19, 2016
Art education is a reflection of social and cultural evolution; it engages with structures of meaning-making and considers different frameworks for experience. The impetus to create an alternative art school is rooted not only in a desire to create “better” art, but to create the conditions for greater freedom of expression. The Alternative Art School Fair at Pioneer Works presents an introduction to alternative art schools from around the US and the world.
Wilkins a speaker and panelist at Louisiana State University School of Architecture's Black in Design Satellite Conference
March 04, 2016
As an attempt to share the Harvard Graduate School of Design's Black in Design Conference discussions on responsibility and social equity through design, the LSU School of Architecture and the LSU NOMAS chapter, with support from the LSU Office of Diversity, hosted a joint lecture and Q&A session with two of HGSD’s Black in Design Conference panelists: Dr. Craig Wilkins, senior lecturer of architecture and planning at the University of Michigan and 2014 National Olmsted Scholar Sara Zewde, designer at Gustafson Guthrie Nichol in Seattle
Wilkins a speaker and panelist at Harvard University Graduate School of Architecture's Black in Design Conference
October 09, 2015
This conference was organized to address social justice from the perspective of design, emphasizing the importance of compassion in the design ethos, and with the goal of recognizing the contributions of African descendants to the design field and, by so doing, to broaden the definition of the designer. A series of conversations including students, faculty, and invited guests will consider design at the scale of the building, neighborhood, city, region, and globe.
Wilkins delivers lecture at Ball State University College of Architecture and Planning
September 28, 2015
Lecture Title: “Shrink/Rapped: Fabricating Progressive Practices In Regressive Environments”
Sabrina Santos. "Blank Space Announces Winners of ‘Dear Architecture’ Letter Competition." ArchDaily.
September 22, 2015
Blank Space has announced the winners of its “Dear Architecture” competition, which called designers and architects from around the world to address architecture, as a concept, in a letter of no more than 500 words and one image. The contest was reviewed by a 17-person jury, including Fernando Romero, Diana Balmori, and ArchDaily’s co-founder David Basulto and executive editor Becky Quintal.
Justine Testado. “’Dear Architecture’ winners write fictional letters addressing real problems in the field. Archinet.
September 16, 2015
We surely have loads to say about the architecture profession, but how would you compose all those thoughts into the good ol' classical form of a letter? The "Dear Architecture" ideas competition asked its participants just that.
Created by Blank Space, the same people who organized the Fairy Tales Architecture Competition, "Dear Architecture" entrants had to pen their own 500-word letter to architecture — whether as a concept, a social practice, or as a community — along with an illustration to supplement their letter's message.
Wilkins a speaker and panelist at Towards a Hip-Hop Architecture symposium hosted by Syracuse University
March 19, 2015
This symposium explored a wide range of questions. Does hip-hop architecture, however it is defined, exist? If so, who are its practitioners? Is there an architectural image or a style that reflects hip-hop ideals? Is there a formal language or organizational structure that it should employ? Or is there a process and attitude towards design that will separate hip-hop from conventional architectural practice?
Abby Phillip. "Detroit designer wants to convert the doors of abandoned homes into colorful, creative bus stops."
April 23, 2014
"The painstaking process of revitalizing Detroit will include dealing with its enormous inventory of abandoned real estate. Just last week the city announced that they would begin hosting eBay-like auctions for abandoned homes, and to give you a sense of the potential home value of some of the properties, bids start at $1,000. But beyond eliminating the blight of abandoned homes and distressed neighborhoods, Detroit also has to find a way to make people want to live there again."
Adele Peters. “These Makeshift Detroit Bus Shelters Are Recycled From Abandoned Houses.” Fast Company.
April 23, 2014
"Riding the bus in Detroit is not fun: Half of the city's bus routes have been cancelled over the last decade, and waiting for a bus to show up can take as long as two hours. A new project is trying to make that wait a little more pleasant by building mobile bus shelters and since this is Detroit, the shelters are made out of recycled parts from abandoned buildings."
Jim Lynch. “Grant lets artists give Detroit bus shelters a makeover.” Detroit News.
November 23, 2013
"Art can find its way into the most unexpected aspects of life. Craig Wilkins is trying to make sure it reaches Detroit residents at one of life's most frustrating points. Wilkins, who teaches at the University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, is working with local artists and others on creating a new take on city bus shelters - building them using discarded or donated signs and other materials.
The program is called Doorstops Detroit, and it is partially funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Six shelters were erected earlier this year, and as many as four new works of art could go up in the next month."
Wilkins lectures at University of Miami
February 20, 2012
Wilkins delivers a lecture at the Focus on Affordable Housing Initiative hosted by University of Miami Office of Civic and Community Engagement series entitled “Housing Class: The Elephant in the Room.”
Wilkins delivers the keynote address at the 2011 Society of Architectural Historians annual meeting
April 14, 2011
Dr. Craig L. Wilkins reads excerpts from his current work concerning the 100-year effort to create the National Museum of African American History and Culture
April 09, 2011
Stronger Soul In A Finer Frame event at the N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art with panelists John Gallagher, architecture critic for the Detroit Free Press; Lee Bey, executive director of the Chicago Central Area Committee and former critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and; Robert Fishman, professor of architecture and planning, University of Michigan
W. Ian Bourland. “Conference Considers Dearth of African-American Artists, Designers.” Chronicle of Higher Education.
March 30, 2011
Why are there so few black artists and designers? The conference, Black Studies in Art and Design Education: Past Gains, Present Resistance, Future Challenges, held last weekend at Parsons The New School for design, investigated both the causes and possible solutions for what is arguably a disproportionate paucity of students and instructors of color in the fields of art, architecture, and design.
Kresge Foundation Announces 2010 Fellows
June 01, 2010
"The Kresge Foundation announced the 2010 Kresge Artist Fellowships in the literary and performing arts. Each of the eighteen fellowships includes an unrestricted monetary prize rewarding creative vision and commitment to excellence within a wide range of artistic disciplines."
Craig Wilkins delivers the 4th lecture in the Challenging Detroit: (Re)Generating Urbanism series sponsored by Rouge HAA entitled “Dancing About Architecture, Part 3”
December 15, 2009
"With the tempo of a beatnik and a black turtleneck sweater to match, Craig Wilkins free-formed one December evening before an intimate crowd at the Johanson Charles Gallery. Neither traditional presentation nor musical jam session, his lecture entitled “Dancing about Architecture…Part 3”, ebbed and flowed in accordance with the accompanying music. Miles Davis. Nelly. John Coltrane. Lil’ Kim. Brazilian Salsa. Public Enemy. Each musical style provided a unique lens in which to view an architect’s design process and their resulting built form."
Mitch McEwen. "Book Review: The Aesthetics of Equity: Notes on Race, Space, Architecture, and Music" Souls.
September 01, 2009
"Craig Wilkins teaches architecture and urban planning at the University of Michigan and the book reads like series of lectures. It is a wonderful introduction to the nexus of African American studies and architecture...
"I must tell you, this does not read like your average theoretical text on architecture, whether written by an African American or otherwise. Inside the sleek paperback published by Minnesota Press, beyond the reserved cover suggestive of architectural minimalism, one finds another book. This second book sits nestled between each chapter. This book repeats each chapter that precedes, paragraph by paragraph, sometimes even sentence by sentence. The two books interlock like fingers of two hands grasping each other.
Why this other book? What is it about?"
Dennis Archambault. "Hip Hop Meets Architecture in the Work of U-M Detroit Design Center Prof." Model D.
May 12, 2009
"As a graduate student in Cultural Studies at the University of Minnesota, Craig Wilkins was struck by how
people define space at hip hop raves. In the midst of dance, human presence defines architecture, not the
other way around.
An avid dancer, Wilkins hung out at raves in the Minneapolis area when Prince was rising in popularity.
He was fascinated with how music and dancing creates an identity and function for space..."
National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) Access to Artistic Excellence Design Stewardship grantee
August 01, 2009
Studio:DetroitHS is an integrated architectural exploration and mentoring program designed for highly motivated high school students who have been traditionally under-represented in the field of architecture. It is a unique opportunity for students located within Detroit and attending Detroit high school juniors and seniors to learn about and explore the possibilities of a career as an architect as well as be matched early in their exploration to mentors in the field. The curriculum takes a practical, hands-on approach to the study of architecture through the integration of studio work, educational field trips, seminars and lectures. The core elements of the architectural immersion program are a design studio, professional, academic and architectural tours and the establishment of a mentor program.
Julia Galef. “Beyond Pruitt-Igoe.” Architect’s Newspaper.
April 08, 2009
The University of Pennsylvania School of Design sought to bring social equity back into architectural discourse last weekend with a conference called “Unspoken Borders: The Ecologies of Inequality,” hosted by the Black Student Alliance.
Aesthetics of Equity awarded a 2008 National Independent Excellence Award
September 01, 2008
Detroit Community Design Center wins an ACSA Collaborative Practice Award
February 01, 2008
This ACSA award recognizes programs that demonstrate how faculty, students, and community/civic clients work to realize common objectives. Participation by professional practitioners and colleagues from other academic disciplines is encouraged. Collaborative projects and practice can encompass a variety of endeavors, including but not limited to: new construction, rehabilitation, open space planning, zoning and regulatory reform, and the development of new institutions or social processes.
Ali Modarres. "Book Review: The Aesthetics of Equity: Notes on race, space, architecture and music." Cities. 26.
February 02, 2009
"By all measures, Wilkins’ The Aesthetic of Equity is a successful book that should be on the ‘must read list’ of every educator, practitioner, and student of architecture, although a thick skin and an open mind will be helpful in engaging fully with this author’s criticism. The book provides an interesting alternative history and its unique style provides an alternative intellectual space for recognizing the marginalized voices and identity of African American architects. Cleverly, at the end of every chapter, the author concludes with a ‘Remix’ that is itself a textually resistant space to the alienating language of social theory and philosophy. In line with his argument for rescuing space from its Lockean discourse, Wilkins cleverly re-appropriates the textual spaces of western thought."
Aesthetics of Equity awarded the 2008 Montaigne Medal
November 01, 2008
Each year, the Eric Hoffer Award presents the Montaigne Medal to the most thought-provoking books. These are books that either illuminate, progress, or redirect thought. The Montaigne Medal is given in honor of the great French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, who influenced people such as William Shakespeare, René Descartes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Eric Hoffer. This is an additional distinction beneath the Eric Hoffer Award umbrella.
Sharon Monoka. “Motor City Connections.” Michigan Alumnus. (Spring 2008)
May 01, 2008
"When Bianca Harris first heard about an architecture program for high schoolers at the Detroit Community Design Center, something instantly clicked. She already knew that architecture interested her, but avenues toward that career had been limited for the student at Martin Luther King High School in Detroit. The after-school program at the design center, a partnership of U-M’s Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning, offered her the opportunity to learn more..."