Denise Scott Brown: A Symposium

In 1972, Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi, together with Steve Izenour (MED ‘69), published their treatise Learning from Las Vegas following a Yale design studio. This canonical text explores architectural communication in a new kind of automobile-oriented urban landscape. Its interdisciplinary methods helped change architecture and studio teaching in fundamental ways. 

Fifty years after the publication of Learning from Las Vegas, Denise Scott Brown: A Symposium, convened by Frida Grahn, presents new scholarship related to the groundbreaking studio methods developed by Scott Brown during her teaching career in the early 1960s. Three panels, building on chapters in the recently published anthology Denise Scott Brown In Other Eyes: Portraits of an Architect (2022), edited by Grahn, offer new perspectives on Scott Brown's intellectual formation, her research on determinants of urban form, her concern for social factors, and her advocacy for minimal design interventions in lieu of large-scale urban renewal. It highlights Scott Brown’s conceptual contributions, her distinct voice, and her incisive impact on architectural education and design. 

Starting with a welcome by Dean Deborah Berke and introductions by Frida Grahn and Mary McLeod, the conference continues with three panels. The first, "The Nonjudgmental Attitude: Learning from Three Continents," includes contributions from Craig Lee, Valéry Didelon, and Katherine Smith. The second, "The City in Flux: Form, Forces, and Functions," includes Lee Ann Custer, Sylvia Lavin, and Denise Costanzo. The final panel, "Make No Big Plans: South Street vs. Co-op City," features Sarah Moses, Joan Ockman, and Frida Grahn. Concluding comments will be offered by Denise Scott Brown. Sessions will be moderated by Izzy Kornblatt, Elihu Rubin, and Surry Schlabs.

The program is both offered for in-person attendance and via livestream. Please register online.

Denise Scott Brown: A Symposium is supported in part by the J. Irwin Miller Endowment.