Chad Smith

Chad Smith
Chad’s professional career has encompassed activities across the spectrum of practice: professional practice, community outreach, writing, lectures, conferences, teaching, digitally controlled fabrication, and project-based research. His work examines how the practice of architecture can influence culture, ecosystems, and making. The greatest impact of his work has been in the strengthening of communities, and in a rich body of applied material research.

He is a designer of award-winning projects, including a Progressive Architecture award for the design of the Performance Theater (at Karen Bausman and Associates in 1997). At Rogers Marvel Architects he won high-profile competitions, such as the Elevated Acre at 55 Water Street; has designed catalytic institutional projects, such as the master plan for The University of Georgia Lamar Dodd School of Art; and developed major brands, such as Kate Spade.

Since establishing Smith & Architects, he has developed a significant portfolio in projects that connect people to nature and empower communities. These include adaptive reuse projects in historical architecture, projects that rely on digitally crafted materials, as well as landscape projects.  Recent projects include the Amsterdam Vale project in Manhattan and a water-directing house in Itapetinga, Brazil.  While the firm has built extensively, it has also explored other ways of positively influencing culture, both through project-based research and by using the professional role of the architect to be a catalyst for healthy communities.  He has also developed a parallel body of research projects including Park For Work, Second Nature Studios, and research into the connections between biophilic design and cultural production.

His applied research has been the topic for several lectures, conferences, and roundtables for both AIA NY and AIA NYS, particularly the research into how fitness communities form, and their impact on measurable health outcomes.  Recent research includes how to build housing at the scale of the housing crisis, and research into robotic carving.

He has taught architecture design studio at Columbia University and has been on design juries at Columbia, Barnard, City College of New York, and Pratt Institute. He has been editor-in-chief of Tropolism.com, as well as a contributing writer to the USA Network’s Character Approved Blog, Curbed.com, and The Village Voice.