Phoebe Crisman

B.Arch, Carnegie Mellon University, College of Fine Arts;
M.Arch in Urban Design, with distinction, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design

Associate Professor

Phoebe Crisman is a practicing architect, urbanist and Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia, where she teaches architectural design studios and lectures on architectural theory, urbanism and sustainability. Ms. Crisman was educated at Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon, and conducted post-graduate research as a Netherlands-America Fulbright Fellow in Amsterdam. She practiced with firms in Chicago, Cambridge and Hong Kong prior to establishing Crisman+Petrus Architects. Her professional work, including the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), the Discovery Museum and Urban Bridges, has been widely published and has received numerous design awards.

In her teaching, research and practice, Ms. Crisman investigates fragmentary and overlooked places, processes and materials. She has published numerous essays, including "From industry to culture: leftovers, time and material transformation in four contemporary museums" in The Journal of Architecture (UK); "Outside the Frame: A Critical Analysis of Urban Image Surveys" in Places; and "Working on the Elizabeth River" in the Journal of Architectural Education. She has written several book chapters, including "A Case for Openness," in The Hand and the Soul: Aesthetics and Ethics in Architecture and Art (University of Virginia Press, 2009) and "Environmental and Social Action in the Studio" in Agency: Working with Uncertain Architectures (Routledge, 2010). Along with Mark Gillem, she edited The Value of Design (ACSA Press, 2009). Ms. Crisman received the Journal of Architectural Education Best Design as Scholarship Article Award for 2009.

In her design practice, Ms. Crisman explores eco-effective design strategies that incorporate complex infrastructure systems, greater land use density, site specificity and community planning. She explored these issues in the Urban Bridges project by designing a series of sustainable, high-density bridge buildings over the Massachusetts Turnpike in Boston. She began this agenda while transforming a 27-building abandoned industrial complex into the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) with Bruner/Cott & Associates.

Currently Ms. Crisman is designing strategies for the co-existence of waterfront industry and ecological regeneration in several projects along the Elizabeth River in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. Funded by a Virginia Environmental Endowment Grant, she recently completed a Sustainable Revitalization Plan for 330 acres of industrial land at Money Point, in collaboration with The Elizabeth River Project and the UVA Institute for Environmental Negotiation. Crisman+Petrus Architects received the 2007 EDRA/Places Planning Award for their work on the Money Point Plan and the project was featured in the Winter 2007 issue of Places. Ms. Crisman was awarded the VSAIA Prize for Design Research & Scholarship by the Virginia Society AIA in 2008.

Since January 2006 Ms. Crisman has led an interdisciplinary team of University of Virginia students and diverse community partners to design and fabricate The Learning Barge - a floating, self-sustaining environmental education field station on the Elizabeth River. Construction was completed in September 2009 and popular daily field trips are offered to area school children and adults. The project has received numerous design awards, including the NCARB Prize for Creative Integration of Practice and Education in the Academy, National Student Collaborative Design Award from the American Institute of Landscape Architects, Go Green Honor Award from the James River Green Building Council, and the Youth Council for Sustainable Science and Technology P3 Design Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. In April 2007 the Learning Barge team won the US EPA P3 Sustainability Award in a competition on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Most recently, the project was honored with an Excellence on the Waterfront Award from The Waterfront Center.

In acknowledgment of her innovative teaching, Ms. Crisman received the 2007-08 Collaborative Practice Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and the 2008 AIA Education Award from the American Institute of Architects.

Ms.Crisman serves as the Southeast Director on the ACSA Board of Directors and is Chair of the ACSA Awards Committee. She is also a member of the University of Virginia Press Board of Directors.