About
Gabrielle Esperdy is an architectural historian and critic and Associate Professor of Architecture at the New Jersey Institute of Technology where she has taught since 2001. Her work examines the intersection of architecture, consumerism, and modernism in the urban and suburban landscape, especially in the U.S. in the 20th and 21st centuries. She is particularly interested in minor or everyday buildings and in the ways that social, economic, and political issues shape the built environment, both historically and today. Gabrielle’s research also looks at the architecture profession as it is shaped by social and cultural concerns, including gender, ethnicity, and class.
Her first book, Modernizing Main Street: Architecture and Consumer Culture in the New Deal, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2008. She is currently at work on her second book, tentatively titled Architecture’s American Road Trip, which examines how architectural discourse absorbed the ideals and concerns of commercial sphere after World War II. The writings on this site are part of a related project called Coast-to-Coast, a series of road trips that explore and critically analyze not only historical, monumental and off-beat sites, but also the ordinary, non-heroic places and communities that are the cultural bedrock of the built and natural landscapes of America.
Gabrielle’s articles have appeared in the Journal of Architectural Education, the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Perspecta, the History of Photography, the Journal of International Women’s Studies, and Architectural Design, among others.
She is Associate Editor for Reviews of the Journal of Architectural Education and Associate Editor of the Buildings of the United States, a multi-volume series published by the University of Virginia Press and the Society of Architectural Historians. Her research has been supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies. She received her B.A. from Smith College and her Ph.D. from the City University of New York.