Design Dialogues No. 35

On Thursday, May 4, architect Jeanne Gang and award-winning architecture critic Sarah Williams Goldhagen came together for Design Dialogues No. 35, moderated by Surface magazine’s executive editor, William Hanley. The event took place at the Roxy Hotel in New York City, where around 100 guests gathered at The Oyster Bar for cocktails and snacks, before heading down to the Roxy Cinema for a lively discussion on the built environment and the role of architecture to alter how we live.

Gang, the founding principal of the firm Studio Gang, is the cover subject of Surface’s May Design Issue. Her current projects include the 93-story Vista Tower in Chicago and an addition to New York’s American Museum of Natural History. Goldhagen, also featured in the Design Issue, is the author of the just-published book Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives (Harper).

“Our very identities are constructed through built environments,” said Goldhagen during the conversation, referencing material from her new book. Gang noted that she, in contrast, takes a more qualitative approach: “Observing human nature is not as scientific. Understanding a lot of things is just watching how humans interact with space.”

(Photos: Dani Vernon)

(Video: Krishna Yalla)