Richard Plunz is Emeritus Professor of Architecture at Columbia University, where he has served as Chair of the Division of Architecture and Director of the post-professional Urban Design Program. He was also Earth Institute Professor where he was Founding Director of the Earth Institute’s Urban Design Lab. He is known for a wide range of urban research, development and design projects both nationally and internationally, with a particular expertise in urban infrastructure and housing fabric. He has been recipient of the Andrew J. Thomas Pioneer in Housing Award from the American Institute of Architects for his contributions to housing research. A revised edition of his book, A History of Housing in New York City (Columbia 1992) was published in 2016.
Plunz is the author of many articles, studies, and reports on urban development and ecology including (with P. Madsen), The Urban Lifeworld (Routledge 2002); (with M.P. Sutto), Urban Climate Change Crossroads (Ashgate 2010); and City Riffs. Urbanism, Ecology Place (Lars Müller 2017). His long-term study of environmental change on the Turkish Aegean coast (with S. Ozkan), was published as Turgutreis 1974 (Literatür 2016). Major research support has included the Aga Khan Trust, the Ford Foundation, the United Health Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. His National Science Foundation support has included projects related to urban infrastructural innovation, urban coastal resilience, and social media and urban public space.