Fall events and opportunities

Before you were here is on view at Avery Hall (200 level) through October 21, 2025. The exhibition showcases a history of Columbia’s campus, as told from its oldest surviving building, Buell Hall: why was it built, then moved? What changes in the land have accompanied its remarkable survival? Based on three years of research conducted by Director Lucia Allais, the Buell team, and student researchers, the show features both archival material and new commissioned work, including an AR landscape by Sonia Sobrino Ralston. Please email buellcenter@columbia.edu in advance for campus access.

Fall Abundance Talks 
This new series of occasional talks, launched in spring ’24, continues interrogating the core assumption that land precedes architecture in the Land Conversations series by offering a more specific cut: asking how land’s abundance as a natural commodity has been constructed with architectural means. Scholars in this project work on building and landscape designs that helped circumscribe who was deemed worthy of the freedoms afforded by natural abundance and who was excluded from taking part in nature’s liberal gifts. Lunch is served; RSVP to attend in person or online.

Plans on the Planet with Jonathan Levy (Sciences Po) and Courtney Bender (Columbia), and a response by Chelsea Spencer (Columbia): October 23, 2025, 12–1:30pm EST, 300S Buell Hall, Columbia GSAPP. 

Sites on Earth with Yasmina El Chami (Sheffield), Sophia Roosth (NYU), and a response by Spyros Papapetros (Princeton): October 31, 2025, 12–1:30pm EST. 300S Buell Hall, Columbia GSAPP. 

Building the Campus, Building the Metropolis: Architecture and Labor in the City 
What traces of Columbia’s long architectural and labor history remain evident on its Morningside Heights campus, and in the archives contained here? This event considers the Buell Center’s exhibition Before you were here and Alexander Wood’s research featured in his recent book, Building the Metropolis: Architecture, Construction, and Labor in New York City, 1880–1935. Thai Jones (Columbia History/RBML) will provide a response to both exhibition and book.

Become a Buell Postdoctoral Fellow
 The Buell Center at Columbia University GSAPP seeks a recent doctoral recipient to join its intellectual community for a 21-month fellowship as a “Buell Center Research and Teaching Fellow” starting September 2026. Ideal candidates will be scholars of the built environment who are beginning an academic career of research and teaching, with a growing record of original writing intended for peer-reviewed publication. More information on the fellowship, which is co-hosted by the Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities, is available at the Buell site. Online applications are still accepted at Interfolio.