David Dillon Symposium

Second Annual David Dillon Symposium, April 18-19, 2013

Making Connections: The Networked City

In his classic 1937 essay “What Is a City?” Lewis Mumford proposed a deceptively simple definition: “the city is above all else a theater of social action.” Cities make connections between people, places, and ideas, and it is those connections that make a vital, thriving place. But how do we make those connections? How does design, from buildings to roads to the wires of our telecommunications network, help create that “theater of social action”? Is the vast landscape of the 21st century city, with its dependence on digital technology, fundamentally different than the cities of the past? Join the discussion of these questions and more as we explore the nature of today’s networked city.

Events are sponsored by the Dallas Architecture Forum, Dallas Morning News, Dallas Center for Architecture, and Nasher Sculpture Center.

Registration required; all proceeds benefit the programs of the Dillon Center.

Keynote address - Thursday, April 18

7 pm, reception before at 6:15

Robert Bruegmann, author of Sprawl, A Compact History and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Magnolia Theater, 3699 McKinney Avenue, Dallas

Symposium - Friday, April 19

Symposium schedule (for full speaker bios click here)

11 am - Nasher opens

11:15 - introduction

11:30 - Morning session: Thinking about DFW

Mark Lamster, new architecture and design critic for the Dallas Morning News and fellow of the Dillon Center

Paula Lupkin, assistant professor, Department of Art History, University of North Texas

Kathryn Holliday, assistant professor and director, David Dillon Center for Texas Architecture, University of Texas at Arlington

1:00 - Lunch break, on your own (Nasher Cafe and food trucks nearby)

2:30 - Afternoon session: The Networked City

Andrew Blum, author of Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet

Robert Bruegmann, author of Sprawl, A Compact History and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Mark Lamster, new architecture and design critic for the Dallas Morning News and fellow of the Dillon Center

Diana Lind, executive editor of Next City

Jonathan Massey, associate professor at the School of Architecture, Syracuse University

3:30 - break

3:45 - reconvene

4:40 - closing remarks

5:00 - reception with speakers at DCFA

For further information about the program, please contact Professor Kathryn Holliday, Director of the Dillon Center at kholliday@uta.edu