The lecture and conversation is part of Kayla Montes de Oca, Mersiha Veledar, Lindsey Wikstrom, Sam Anderson, Pamela Cabrera, Tommy Schaperkotter, and Lauren Kogod’s ARCH 131B Design III Studio. This event brings together two distinctive voices on housing, Michael Maltzan and Nicole Vlado. The conversation will center around affordable housing and how we think about housing today. A class conversation will follow the presentation.

The conversation will be moderated by Kayla Montes de Oca and Mersiha Veledar.

Michael Maltzan founded Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc. in 1995. His projects cross a wide range of typologies, from cultural institutions to city infrastructure. Michael’s notable projects include the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, MoMA QNS, Star Apartments, the Pittman Dowell Residence, the new Sixth Street Viaduct, MIT Vassar Street Residential Hall, the UCLA Hammer Museum, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery Inuit Art Centre.

Michael received an M.Arch from the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, and BFA and B.Arch degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and received the 2016 AIA Los Angeles Gold Medal. He is a recipient of a 2012 American Academy of Arts and Letters Architecture Award and was inducted as a member of the Academy in 2023. He was elected to the National Academy of Design in 2020, and currently serves on the Deans leadership council at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Visiting Committee to the GSD. He was featured in the Canadian Centre for Architecture’s 2019 film, What It Takes to Make a Home, delivered the 20th Annual John T. Dunlop Lecture for the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, and his work was named One of the 25 Best Inventions of 2015 by Time Magazine.

Michael’s work has gained international acclaim for innovation in both design and construction. It has been recognized with five Progressive Architecture awards, 52 citations from local, state and national chapters of the American Institute of Architects, the Rudy Bruner Foundation’s Gold Medal for Urban Excellence, the Zumtobel Group Award for Innovations for Sustainability & Humanity in the Built Environment, a 2020 Best of the Millennium AIA LA Honor Award, the 2025 AIA California Maybeck Award, and the 2025 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture.

Nicole Vlado is an affordable housing architect and advocate committed to enhancing the quality and experience of New Yorkers and the built environment they call home. She believes that collaboration and community engagement are critical to the successful execution of projects and has enjoyed working closely with clients and creative teams on architectural, open space, and other site-specific projects. After founding Shakespeare Gordon Vlado Architects in 2017, Nicole pivoted from traditional practice to support New York City’s public housing residents as the Director of Capital Projects at the Public Housing Community Fund. Nicole co-chairs the AIANY Housing Committee, the nycoba NOMA Cultural Facilities committee, and serves as an adjunct faculty member teaching Professional Practice at the Cooper Union. She also creates site-specific installations and performances including a commission for the 33rd Sao Paulo Bienal set within and designed in response to Oscar Niemeyer’s iconic Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion.

This event is open to current Cooper Union Students, Faculty, and Staff.