Tue Oct-30 6pm @ EMPAC:

CHRIS WARD: “A New Urban Paradigm for the Future “_

A leading New York construction executive, Chris Ward has served as the President of Port Authority’s wholly owned entities: the Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation, the Newark Legal and Communications Center Urban Renewal Corporation and the New York and New Jersey Railroad Corporation. He was until recently AECOM’s Chief Executive for the Metro New York region.

A graduate of Macalester College with a B.Arch, Ward pursued his post graduate studies at Harvard’s Divinity School, receiving a Masters in Theological Studies. With an extensive career in infrastructure, particularly in New York City, Ward led the Department of Environmental Protection under Mayor Bloomberg. Ward is a strong believer in the city as the ultimate machine for efficiency and regards the need to optimize its infrastructure with utmost importance.

In his presentation “A New Urban Paradigm for the Future”, questions were raised to confront crises that the city currently faces, such as how to create a fair and equitable society in the context of a city. Challenging the architecture students to think outside their technical and practical capacities, Ward calls for a paradigm shift in the way in which we finance and design cities to operate with efficiency, noting the fitness and depth of thinking necessary in order to create differentiated work. //