Profile
Robert Kirkbride explores the interplay of memory, identity, ornament and placemaking through design, music, writing and teaching. Dr. Kirkbride is Professor of Architecture and Product Design at Parsons School of Design/The New School, where he received the University Distinguished Teaching Award and served as Dean of the School of Constructed Environments (2016-21). Since 1991, Dr. Kirkbride has directed studio 'patafisico, an architectural design atelier, and he is also the Spokesperson and a founding Trustee for PreservationWorks, a non-profit organization advocating the preservation and adaptive reuse of Kirkbride Plan Psychiatric Hospitals. Robert's projects explore the interdependence of physical and mental infrastructures, and consider forms of knowledge and know-how that are often lost or overlooked, including the impressions of memory and habits on our habitats. Robert designed the Morbid Anatomy Museum, in Brooklyn, NY, with collaborator Anthony Cohn, and authored the award-winning multimedia online book, Architecture and Memory, which focuses on traditions of the mnemonic arts through the lens of two Renaissance memory chambers. Kirkbride has been a visiting scholar at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and architect-in-residence at the Bogliasco Foundation in Genoa, Italy. At Parsons/The New School, Dr. Kirkbride established the Giuseppe Zambonini Archive at the Kellen Design Archives, and is an ongoing contributor to the Memory Studies Group. Robert received his Ph.D. in the History and Theory of Architecture from McGill University, and a Master of Architecture and Bachelor of Arts in Design of the Environment from the University of Pennsylvania.
Robert's website may be visited at http://robertkirkbride.com.
Degrees Held
Ph.D., History and Theory of Architecture, McGill University, 2003
Master of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania, 1990
Bachelor of Arts, University of Pennsylvania, Design of the Environment, 1988
Professional Affiliation
Spokesperson, PreservationWorks
Project Advisor, Oral History Project for Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital
Society of Architectural Historians
ASCAP
ACSA
Recent Publications
Music:
Always Becoming (EP, 2023): 4-song cycle released on 7 March 2023 via all major streaming services; a musical collaboration with Melissa Grey & David Morneau, who orchestrated and produced music I composed and performed. Kirkbride - guitars; Grey - theremin, guitar feedback; Morneau - trombone; Foxmer - paw percussion
Select Design Projects:
Culobocca: ongoing material and formal research
Memorial Stone for Giuseppe + Claudia Zambonini (2019): Cimitero Monumentale (Verona, Italy). Commission by C. Zambonini.
Caitlin O’Connor Apartment (2015): 720 sq. ft. residential renovation. Brooklyn (Park Slope), NY. Interiors, furnishings.
Morbid Anatomy Museum (2014): Adaptive reuse of 4200 sq. ft. industrial building for a 3-story museum for anatomical curiosities, including a library for the permanent collection, an exhibition gallery, café and retail, a lecture space and workshop. Brooklyn (Gowanus), NY. In collaboration with Anthony Cohn, AIA.
Milstein Duplex (2011): 2500 sq. ft. residential renovation in West Village ("Jane Jacobs") Houses.
Books + Edited Volumes:
Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro (2022/2013) XML Title List: American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Humanities. New open access version with enhanced interactive features relaunched in September 2022 on ACLS HEB, with the support of the University of Michigan Library and Ithaka; reformatted from original multimedia open source and print versions published by Columbia University Press, 2008.
Geometries of Rhetoric (2010) Guest Editor, Nexus Network Journal, Vol. 12 No. 3 (Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag, Winter 2010) pp. 363-535. Online access: http://www.nexusjournal.com/volume-12/number-3--november-2010.html (Peer-reviewed journal)
Select recent articles:
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2022. “Upstreaming.” Places Journal: Field Notes on Design Activism: 5. Eds. N. Levinson and F. Richard. November 2022.
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2022. “The Reading Chamber.” Asymptote Journal: April 2022 Issue, ed. Lee Yew Leong. Re-publication of original English text in open-access digital format, accompanied by translations in Italian and Spanish by Anna Aresi and Josefina Massot respectively. By permission of Taylor & Francis (Architecture’s Appeal).
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2020. Interview, “The Syntax of Space,” by Mark Hage, about Kirkbride Psychiatric Hospitals for Issue 29 of A Public Space journal, Ed. Brigid Hughes, available in print and online (12/2020).
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2019. “Mnemonics and Pneumatics,” I Stand in My Place With My Own Day Here: Site-Specific Art at The New School, ed. Frances Richard. New York: The New School. Commissioned monograph on Rita McBride’s Bells and Whistles, a site-specific work at The New School’s University Center, pp. 191-94.
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2019. “Stepping Stones Through Disaster,” Earth Manual Project: This Could Save Your Life, exhibition report. New York: The Japan Foundation, pp. 82-85.
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2018. “The Many Phantoms of Kirkbride Hospitals of the Insane,” Society of Architectural Historians 2017 International Conference (Glasgow, Scotland). To be included in Architectural Ghosts: 100 Hauntings, a book edited by K. Koehler and A. Lepine, in development. This article provided core material for 9 unique full lectures in F2017–S18, including the National Building Museum, Columbia University GSAPP Historical Preservation lecture series, Athens College, OH, Architecture Practice Talks lecture series at the 53rd Street NYPL (NYC).
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2017. "That Dark Cabinet: Building the Morbid Anatomy Museum," Montreal Architecture Review Vol. 3, ed. Olaf Recktenwald. Montreal: School of Architecture, McGill University.
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2016. "Introduction" to Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, R. Tagliareni and C. Mathews. Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, Images of America Series, pp. 7-9.
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2016. "On Ornament and the Mind," Work 9, ed. Johanne Woodcock. New York: Parsons AAS Interior Design, http://parsonsinteriorwork.org/ornament-and-the-mind/ (retrieved: 11/19/16)
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2014. “Rhetoric and Architecture,” commissioned chapter for The Oxford Handbook of Rhetorical Studies, eds. M. MacDonald, A. McMurry Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
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2014. “Upstream/Downstream,” Cuaderno 53: Centro de Estudios en Diseño y Comunicación, eds. M. Cuervo, M. Veneziani and S. Faerm. Buenos Aires: University of Palermo UP, pp. 215-29. ISSN 1668-0227
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2013. “Veils and Velocities,” Cuaderno 48: Centro de Estudios en Diseño y Comunicación, eds. Marisa Cuervo, Marcia Veneziani and Steven Faerm. Buenos Aires: University of Palermo UP, pp. 177-90. ISSN 1668-5229.
Performances and Appearances
2021 June 23, "The Rise and Fall of the Asylum," Interviewed about Kirkbride Plan Psychiatric Hospitals for Episode 3 of 4-part PBS documenatry series on mental health, Mysteries of Mental Illness, produced by Pangloss Films. Available for a limited time after broadcast without a paywall at: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/mysteries-mental-illness/
2020 November 6 (panel discussion)
AIA/Center For Architecture: NYC
Deans Roundtable, panelist with deans from Schools of Architecture in NYC and northeast region
2020 October 15 (panel discussion)
The New School University: NYC (Producer + Moderator)
Fall 2020 SCE Public Events series
Adaptations and Reconstructions
Panel included David Gissen, Grace Jun, Jorge Otero-Pailos
2020 April 26 (musical performance)
Bourdon 50Hz (No38) album, accessible on Bandcamp: livestreamed improvisatory performance for Basilica Hudson’s 24-Hour Drone at Home Festival (our segment was “sunrise,” 5:30-6:30 am). Link to video recording. Bourdon is a sound meditation tuned to a utility frequency. Music composed by l’Artiste ordinaire and performed with Robert Kirkbride. All funds raised were donated to Arts Holding Hands And Hearts (AHHAH) – which provides literacy, arts, and movement programs for very young children in vulnerable communities – to enable them to deliver their programming online in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Melissa Grey – sine wave synthesizer & live processing; David Morneau – trombone; Robert Kirkbride – guitar
2020 January 18 (panel discussion)
KIITO Design and Creative Center: Kobe, Japan
Center for Resilient Design, Kobe University
Disaster + Creativity panel
2019 November 5 (panel presentation)
Special panel for World Tsunami Awareness Day
“Art, Design and Disaster Preparedness”
2019 April 9 (lecture, panel presentation)
Manchester, UK: (INVITED) Keynote Speaker
Title: Upstream-Downstream
2nd International Conference on Sustainable Smart Manufacturing (S2M 2019)
2019 March 28
Parsons School of Constructed Environments: NYC (Producer + Presenter)
Title: A Tale of Two Asylums: the Fall of Greystone and Rise of the Richardson Olmsted Campus
Featuring: Paul Goldberger, Stephen Brockman, R. Kirkbride
Spring 2019 Parsons SCE Public Programs
2018 November 14
Japan Society: NYC
This Could Save Your Life: Collective Wisdom for Disaster Response
Moderator for panel including Hirokazu Nagata, Ruttikorn Vuttikorn, Ikaputra
Co-organized by The Japan Foundation Asia Center
2018 November 3
AIA/Center For Architecture: NYC
Deans Roundtable, panelist with deans from Schools of Architecture in NYC and northeast region
2018 October 26
Quebec City, Canada
Panelist – Around the World: Research Metrics
ACSA 2018 Administrators Conference (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture)
2018 June 23
Ohio University, Southeast Ohio History Center and Ohio Humanities: NYC (INVITED)
Athens Asylum Sesquicentennial Speaker Series
Site visit to protect the Athens Lunatic Asylum (The Ridges)
Title: The Many Phantoms of the Kirkbride Hospitals for the Insane
FB video link
2018 June 16
Otter Tail County Historical Society: Fergus Falls, MN
Site visit to protect the Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Center
Title: The Many Phantoms of the Kirkbride Hospitals for the Insane
FB video link
2018 April 19
Parsons School of Constructed Environments: NYC (Produced + Moderated)
Spring 2018 Parsons SCE Public Programs
Title: SCE New Faculty: Short Talks and Conversation
Featuring: Dr. Sharon Sutton, Fiona Raby, Dr. Arta Yazdanseta, Carla Diana, Yu Nong Khew
2018 April 14
The New School Memory Studies: NYC (Moderated)
Space Unbound panel, featuring current New School graduate students and alumni
Memory Rebound, 10th annual conference of the Memory Studies Group
2018 April 12
Roosevelt Island Historical Commission: NYC
Spring 2018 Lecture Series co-sponsored with New York Public Libraries
Title: The Many Phantoms of the Kirkbride Hospitals for the Insane
2018 March 19
The Pantheon Institute: Rome, Italy
Architecture and Memory
2018 February 28
The New School University: NYC
New School Memory Studies Group Spring 2018 Lecture Series
Title: The Many Phantoms of the Kirkbride Hospitals for the Insane
FB video link
2018 February 22
The New School University: NYC
Short talk and panel conversation, Sleeping Bodies: Observation, Calibration and Control
With co-presenters Jonathan Crary and Kenton Kroker
Demitasse talk title: Bedside Manners at the Kirkbride Hospitals for the Insane
2017 November 21
APT (Architecture Practice Talks) Series: NYC
co-sponsored with New York Public Libraries @ 53rd Street
The Phantoms of Kirkbride Hospitals of the Insane (link)
2017 November 4
AIA/Center For Architecture: NYC
Deans Roundtable, panelist with deans from Schools of Architecture in NYC and northeast region
2017 November 2
Columbia University GSAPP: NYC
Historic Preservation Lecture Series
The Many Phantoms of the Kirkbride Hospitals for the Insane (link)
FB video link
2017 October 26
National Building Museum: Washington, D.C.
Lecture for the exhibit “Saint Elizabeths: The Architecture of an Asylum”
Title: The Many Phantoms of the Kirkbride Hospitals for the Insane (link)
FB video link
2017* June 8
Glasgow, Scotland
Society of Architectural Historians 2017 International Conference
The Phantoms of Kirkbride Hospitals of the Insane
Session, “Architectural Ghosts”
Research Interests
architecture,music,furniture,product design,memory + identity,sustainable design
Awards And Honors
Author Award for Popular Non-Fiction, for Introduction to Greystone Park State Hospital, from the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance
University Distinguished Teaching Award, Parsons/The New School
Gutenberg-e Prize, American Historical Association in conjunction with Columbia University Press to publish multimedia open access digital book, Architecture and Memory
CCA Fellow, Visiting Scholar: Canadian Centre for Architecture. Montréal, Canada
Bogliasco Fellow, Architect-in-Residence: Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities, Genoa, Italy
Portfolio
Project Website
Always Becoming, EP
Architecture and Memory