Associate Professor of Architecture at Parsons The New School for Design, Joel Towers heads the School’s programs in Design and Management, Foundation, Integrated Design, as well as new initiatives in environmental and sustainable design, urban design, and transdisciplinary design. He is also Senior Advisor to the Provost of The New School on issues pertaining to Architecture, Environment, and Design.

Prior to his current appointments, Towers was the Director of the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School and the Associate Provost for Environmental Studies at the university. The Tishman Environment and Design Center supports design-led research in tandem with historical and social inquiry, placing an emphasis on innovation within the context of cultural, economic, and ecological factors. Towers first came to Parsons in 2002 as the Director of Sustainable Design and Urban Ecology.

Towers is a founding partner of SR+T Architects. He received a B.S. in Architecture from the University of Michigan School of Architecture and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University. In 1992, after working with William McDonough Architects where he directed projects including The Hannover Principles: Design for Sustainability that helped codify that firm’s environmental thinking, Towers formed SR+T with Karla Rothstein. Towers’ focus on ecological issues and their relationship to both design conceptualization and construction methodology underlies his theoretical research and his teaching. It is also central in the work of SR+T. Towers was previously a member of the faculty of the Graduate School of Architecture at Columbia University where he taught advanced architecture and urban design studios and developed and taught a seminar exploring critical ecologies and environmentally reflexive architecture.

Courses:
Critical Ecologies
Parsons [AIDL, Graduate Architecture]

Senior Seminar: Designer’s Ethos
Parsons [Art and Design Studies]

Core Colloquium: Home Turf
Parsons [Integrated Design Curriculum]

Senior Seminar: Design, Ethics and Environment
Parsons [Art and Design Studies]

Laboratory 1 [team-taught]
Parsons [Core Studies]

Laboratory 2 [team-taught]
Parsons [Core Studies]

The Chase Community Design Competition [team-taught]
Parsons [AIDL, Graduate Architecture] and Milano