Two Professors Win Major Architecture Awards

Mabel O. Wilson and Mario Gooden are honored for their work exploring the African diaspora.

By
Eve Glasberg
May 08, 2019

Mabel O. Wilson and Mario Gooden, professors at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, are among the 2019  winners of the American Academy of Arts and Letters architecture awards. The two were honored for their exploration of ideas in architecture as co-directors of the architecture school’s Global Africa Lab, which explores the nature of the global African diaspora through design, research and technology.

Wilson (GSAPP M.Arch ’91) teaches architectural design and history and theory courses; her research investigates space, politics and cultural memory in black America; race and modern architecture; technology; and visual culture in contemporary art, film, and new media. Her most recent book is Begin With the Past, which chronicles the complex history of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

[Watch this video of Wilson discussing her work as a member of Columbia’s new African American and Diaspora Studies department.]

Gooden (GSAPP M.Arch ’90) is an associate professor of practice in the master of architecture program and a principal at Huff + Gooden Architects. His research examines architecture and culture through the lens of technology, race, class gender, and sexuality. His most recent book, Dark Space, looks at the construction of African American identity and representation through the medium of architecture.