Paul Emmons

Paul Emmons is an architect, professor, and author best known for his writings on the history and theory of architectural drawing practices. Currently, at Virginia Tech's Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center (WAAC), Emmons is the Patrick and Nancy Lathrop Professor of Architecture. He also serves as the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies for the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design, and chairs the History and Theory track at WAAC of the [https://arch.vt.edu/graduate/degrees/phd-in-architecture-and-design-research.html#:~:text=The%20Architecture%20track%20within%20the,Preservation%2C%20and%20Computing%20and%20Representation. Ph.D. program in Architecture and Design Research.]

Emmons has written a number of books on the history and theory of architectural practices, including Drawing Imagining Building (2020), Ceilings and Dreams (2019), and Confabulations (2018).

Career
Paul Emmons has constructed a distinguished career in architecture, contributing significantly to both academic and professional spheres. Since 1998, he has been a key figure at Virginia Tech, especially within the WAAC. Emmons assumed leadership of the PhD. program founded by Marco Frascari after Frascari departed to head the architecture program at Carleton University. Emmons was named the Patrick and Nancy Lathrop Professor of Architecture. Emmons also organizes international Frascari Symposia to continue developing Frascari’s research agenda.

In addition to teaching and research, Emmons has served as Associate Dean of Graduate Studies since 2018. Among his contributions, Emmons chaired the committee for the creation of the new College of Architecture, Arts, and Design and instituted and organized the college's Research Forum to promote and share faculty research. He also has served as editor and member of editorial boards for journals, including the Journal of Architectural Education, as well as manuscript reviewer for publishing houses.

Before his long-term role at Virginia Tech, Emmons held teaching positions at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Minnesota. Internationally, he was the Haas Visiting Professor at Newcastle University.

Emmons practiced at several architecture firms in Minneapolis from 1983 to 1995. Clients he worked with include leading institutions, such as the Minneapolis Public Library, the Science Museum of Minnesota, and numerous universities including the University of Minnesota, University of Chicago, University of Virginia, University of California, Berkeley, and Yale University.

Since moving full-time into academia, Emmons has continued a small practice of competition entries, residences, and creative works including a collaboration with his sister, artist Carol Emmons. This work has resulted in exhibitions at galleries such as the Philadelphia Art Alliance and has been reviewed and published. The pair installed a permanent piece, competitively selected titled Dwelling in the Plan at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee's School of Architecture and Urban Planning Building. Emmons has also organized and curated several exhibitions at WAAC, both group shows and individual exhibitions of drawings by architects such as Douglas Darden.

Books Edited

 * Finishing in Architecture: Polishing, Completing, Ending (Routledge, forthcoming). Co-edited with Marcia Feuerstein and Negar Goljan.
 * Ceilings and Dreams: The Architecture of Levity (Routledge, 2019): Co-edited with Federica Goffi and Jodi La Coe.
 * Confabulations: Storytelling in Architecture (Routledge, 2018 [softcover], 2017 [hardcover]): Co-edited with Marcia Feuerstein and Carolina Dayer, the book features 226 pages and 59 color plates.
 * The Cultural Role of Architecture (Routledge, 2012): Co-edited with John Hendrix and Jane Lomholt, this book is 228 pages long and explores the impact of culture on architectural design.

Book Chapters

 * "Being in Touch: The Historical Ground of Architecture’s Material Imagination" in Material Imagination, Thomas Bo Jensen and Jonathan Foote, eds. (Birkhäuser, forthcoming 2023).
 * "Architects' Hidden Building Signatures" in Architectures of Hiding, Federica Goffi, Emelie Desrochers-Turgeon and Rana Abughannam, eds.  (Routledge, forthcoming 2023).
 * "Greater Horizons: Origins of Remote and Global Architectural Practices" in Remote Practices, Mathew Mindrup, ed. (Lund Humphries, 2022) pp. 29–39.
 * "Animate Instruments: Imagination and Architectural Drawing Tools" in Routledge Companion to Architectural Drawings and Models: From Translating to Archiving, Collecting and Displaying, Federica Goffi, ed. (Routledge, 2022) pp. 293–307.
 * "Research from within" in InterVIEWS: Insights and Introspection on Doctoral Research in Architecture, Federica Goffi, ed. (Routledge, 2020) pp. 40–53.
 * "Change of Plans: From Footprints to Horizontal Sections" in The Artful Plan, Anna Hougaard and Andreas Müller, eds. (Birkhäuser, 2020) pp. 22–37.
 * "Model Investigations," foreword to The Architectural Model: Histories of the Miniature and the Prototype, the Exemplar and the Muse, Matthew Mindrup (MIT Press, 2019).
 * "From Below Upwards: An Introduction to Ceilings and Dreams" in Ceilings and Dreams: The Architecture of Levity (Routledge, 2019) pp. 1–13.
 * "Never a Day Without a Line: Traveling Sketchbooks and the Education of Architects" in Dayton Eugene Egger: Paradox of Place, In the Line of Sight, Gregory Luhan, ed. (Oro Editions, 2019) pp. 152–155.
 * "homo fabula" with Luc Phinney in Confabulations: Storytelling in Architecture, (Routledge, 2017) pp. 1–10.
 * "Ethereal Matter" with Jodi La Coe in Cloud: an Interactive Installation of Light and Sound, Aki Ishida (Virginia Tech, 2016) pp. 6–12.
 * "Reading what is written between the lines: The esoteric dimension of Ebenezer Howard’s Garden Cities of To-Morrow" in Architecture’s Appeal, Marc Neveu and Negin Djavaherian, eds.(Routledge, 2014) pp. 33–46.
 * “Architectural Encounters between Material and Idea” in The Material Imagination: Reveries on Architecture and Matter, Matthew Mindrup, ed. (Ashgate, 2014) pp. 89–106.
 * "Orthography and the Architect’s Eye" in A Carefully Folded Ham Sandwich, Towards a Critical Phenomenology, Roger Connah, ed. (Montreal: FAD, 2013) pp. 50–71.
 * "A Window to the Soul: Depth in Early Modern Section Drawing" in Architecture Post Mortem: The Diastolic Architecture of Decline, Dystopia and Death, Donald Kunze, ed. (Ashgate, 2013) pp. 153–178.
 * "Architectural Handbooks and the User Experience" with Andreea Mihalache in Use Matters: An Alternative History of Architecture, Kenny Cupers, ed. (Routledge, 2013) pp. 35–50.
 * “Performance in the Craft of Architectural Drawing” with Carolina Dayer in Architecture as Performing Art, Marcia Feuerstein and Gray Read, eds. (Ashgate, 2013) pp. 45–60.
 * “Teaching Drawing and Representation” in Two Centuries of Architecture Education in North America, Joan Ockman with Rebecca Williamson, eds. (MIT Press, 2012) pp. 299–305.
 * “Making Plans: Ichnographia as Cultural Artifact” with Jonathan Foote in Reading Architecture and Culture: Researching Buildings, Spaces and Documents, Adam Sharr, ed. (Routledge, 2012) pp. 197–210.
 * “The Play of Plans: Le Corbusier’s Serious Game of Dominos” in The Cultural Role of Architecture, Paul Emmons, John Hendrix and Jane Lomholt, eds. (Routledge, 2012) pp. 132–140.
 * “Drawing Sites :: Site Drawings” in Architecture and Field/Work, Victoria Clare Bernie, Suzanne Ewing, Jeremie McGowan and Chris Speed, eds. (Routledge, 2011) pp. 119–128.
 * “On turning the corner to the fourth dimension: Claude Bragdon’s Isometrical Perspective” in Claude Bragdon and the Beautiful Necessity, Eugenia Ellis and Andrea Reithmayr, eds. (Cary Graphic Arts Press, 2010) pp. 57–63.
 * “The Architect’s Building Signature as a Sign of Quality” in Quality out of Control: Standards for Measuring Architecture, Adam Sharr and Katrina Lewis, eds. (Routledge, 2010) pp. 175–187.
 * “Drawn to Scale: the imaginative inhabitation of architectural drawings” in From Models to Drawings, Imagination and Representation in Architecture, Marco Frascari, Jonathan Hale and Bradley Starkey, eds. (Routledge, 2007) pp. 64–78.
 * “The Lead Pencil: Lever of the Architect’s Imagination” in Tools of the Imagination, Drawing Tools and Technologies from the Eighteenth Century to the Present, Susan Piedmont-Palladino, ed. (Princeton Architectural Press, 2007) pp. 31–40.
 * “Making Visible the Invisible: Signs of Air in Architectural Treatises” with Marco Frascari in Aeolian Winds and the Spirit in Renaissance Architecture, Barbara Kenda, ed. (Routledge, 2006) pp. 87–102.
 * “Upright or Flexible?  Ideologies of Posture in Modern Architecture” with William Braham in Body and Building: Essays on the Changing Relation of Body and Architecture, George Dodds and Robert Tavernor, eds. (MIT Press, 2002, 2005) pp. 290–303.