Architectural Adventures presents opportunities for travelers to learn about architectural landmarks from knowledgeable architecture educators. These Architectural Adventures-selected experts provide insights through formal and informal discussions based on their knowledge of a destination’s architecture, history, and culture. Experts for the 2018 Architectural Adventures tours include: Nancy Dunton, Yuji Kishimoto, Martin Moller, and Stephen Vogel. Below you can learn more about these tour guides and their connection to the destination they will be leading.
Nancy Dunton
Leading the five-day tour to Montreal in late May is Nancy Dunton. She is a consultant specializing in the presentation of projects on architecture, including conferences, architectural walking tours and exhibitions, as well as, a professor who teaches Reading the City: Montreal and its neighborhoods at the McGill School of Architecture.
Dunton has been active in the field of management of organizations and architectural projects since 1981. She has worked for architects, in construction, and was executive director of Heritage Montreal, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the built heritage of Montreal. As Head of University and Professional Programmes for the Canadian Centre for Architecture, she was responsible for presenting public programs intended to nourish the debate on architecture.
When speaking about Montreal, Dunton says, “To understand Montreal, visitors need to be immersed – if only for a few days – in the city’s history and culture. The buildings we will explore will serve as a way to think about how the city evolved and what it’s like to live in now. I can’t wait to share the experience of Montreal and its public places, historic buildings, and contemporary architecture. As a life-long Montrealer, I look forward to showing Architectural Adventures travelers my city and the places I love.”
Yuji Kishimoto
Yuji Kishimoto, AIA, is a leader for Japan’s Allure 13-day tour departing in October. Kishimoto was born and raised in Tokyo. He received his Bachelor of Architecture from Waseda University in Tokyo and his Master of Architecture degree from Harvard University in 1965. Kishimoto learned that real problems in real situations require a true sense of creativity in solving them during the first design studio at Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Kishimoto has taught architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design, Boston Architectural Center, Deerfield Academy, University of Hawaii, and Virginia Tech before joining Clemson University in 1980. Kishimoto received the Japanese National Medal of Distinction – the Order of the Sacred, Gold Rays Medal – by the Emperor of Japan for his efforts to promote academic, cultural, and economic relations between the U.S. and Japan.
With Kyoto being number four on Travel & Leisure’s 2017 list The World’s Top 15 Cities, Kishimoto is excited to show travelers his point of view on Japan and its architecture. “I am eager to share Japan’s culture and innovative architecture with our Architectural Adventures travelers. From Tokyo and Takayama to Kanazawa and Kyoto, we will be immersed in the sights, sounds, and tastes of this country, while experiencing its variety of historical and modern architecture.”
Martin Moeller
G. Martin Moeller, Jr., Assoc. AIA, is leading the fall 2018 10-day tour, Bauhaus and Beyond just before the centennial of the design school’s founding. Moeller is currently an architectural curator, writer, and editor who works both independently and on a part-time basis as senior curator at the National Building Museum. He has lectured about the Bauhaus and other movements in modernist architecture. He served as the lead curator for several of the exhibitions at the museum, including Unbuilt Washington; Liquid Stone: New Architecture in Concrete; and Reinventing the Globe: A Shakespearean Theater for the 21st Century.
Moeller holds a Bachelor of Architecture and a Master of Architecture from Tulane University. He also studied architecture at the University of Manchester in England on Tulane’s Junior Year Abroad honors program. He served for more than ten years on the Board of Advisors for the Tulane School of Architecture. In the spring of 2010, he was a visiting scholar at the American Academy in Rome, researching modern and contemporary architecture in that city.
Regarding the upcoming trip exploring Bauhaus and other German architecture, Moeller states, “The Bauhaus was a fabled design school of the modern era, and its curriculum continues to influence architectural education today. Our tour will trace the brief but dramatic history of the institution, with complementary visits to contemporary German landmarks.”
Stephen Vogel
Leading the September five-day trip to Detroit is Stephen Vogel, FAIA. Vogel is the Distinguished Professor of Architecture at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture, where he also served as Dean of Architecture for 18 years.
During that time, he focused the school’s mission to engage in service to underserved urban communities and to educate future architects committed to building sustainable cities. To that end, he co-founded the Detroit Collaborative Design Center, a university-based center providing professional design services to non-profit civic and community organizations and created the Master of Community Development degree program. The school and the Design Center have been recognized with the AIA Whitney M. Young Jr. Award in 2017, as well as the National Council of Architectural Registration Board’s 2002 Grand Prize and 2009 Prize for the Creative Integration of Practice and Education in the Academy.
With more than forty years of experience in architecture, urban design, interiors, and historic preservation, Vogel has directed projects that range from multi-family housing, adaptive reuse, and historic preservation to urban design and master planning of large scale mixed-income communities.
When talking about America’s Comeback City, Vogel exclaims, “I am thrilled to be able to show travelers Detroit’s architecture and the changes to the city I have witnessed over the past fifty years. From the Art Deco skyline and the works of Mies van der Rohe, Yamasaki, and Saarinen, to historic neighborhoods and contemporary works, you will be surprised at the design heritage of Detroit.”
Learn more about these and the other Architectural Adventures experts leading tours in 2018.