Elihu James Rubin
Yale School of Architecture
180 York Street
New Haven, CT 06510
Elihu Rubin is an architectural and urban historian, city planner, and documentary filmmaker based in New Haven. Since 2007 he has served as the Daniel Rose Visiting Assistant Professor of Urbanism at the Yale School of Architecture. He received a B.A. from Yale and a Masters in City Planning and a Ph.D. in Architecture, both from the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include the built environments of 19th and 20th century cities, cultural landscapes, urban transportation, the social life of urban space, and the history and theory of city planning. His documentary films in the field of architecture and city planning include “On Broadway: A New Haven Streetscape,” “Convergence and Other Rituals of the New Haven Green,” and “Rudolph and Renewal.”
EDUCATION
University of California, Berkeley, CA
2009, Ph.D., Department of Architecture
History of Architecture and Urbanism.
Dissertation title: “Insuring the City: The Prudential Center and the Reshaping of Boston”
Advisor: Paul Groth
2004, Master of City Planning (M.C.P.), Department of City & Regional Planning.
Concentration: Transportation and Land Use Planning
Yale University, New Haven, CT
1999, BA, Cum Laude with Distinction in Ethics, Politics, and Economics
Thesis: “The Architecture of Justice: Giving Shape to Judicial Authority in Israel”
Advisor: Alan Plattus
Roxbury Latin School, Boston, MA
1995, Magna Cum Laude
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
Yale School of Architecture
2007-present, Daniel Rose (’51) Visiting Assistant Professor of Urbanism
2006-2007, Lecturer in Urbanism
Yale Department of Political Science
2008-present, VisitingAssistant Professor
University of California, Berkeley
2003-2005, Graduate Student Instructor
2003-2005, Research Associate, University of California Transportation Center
American Beat Documentary Films
1999 – present, Co-Founder, Producer, Director, Editor, and Field-Producer
American Beat is a documentary film company specializing in stories about the
changing American landscape. Between 2000 and 2002 we produced three films on
topics relating to New Haven’s urban history and each was broadcast on Connecticut
Public Television.
COURSES TAUGHT
Architecture 344a: Urban Life and Landscape
Architecture 385a / Political Science 385a: New Haven and the American City
Architecture 902b/345b: Introduction to Urban Design
Architecture 941a: Urban Research and Representation
Political Science 35a / Architecture 347a: Infrastructure: Politics and Design
PUBLICATIONS AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
“(Re)Presenting the Street: Video and Visual Culture in Planning,” in Multimedia and Planning, ed.
Leonie Sandercock (forthcoming)
“Just Passing Through: Developing the 1960s California Garden Apartment,” Perspectives in
Vernacular Architecture (forthcoming)
“Architecture IS a Business: Charles Luckman and the Prudential Center,” Society of Architectural
Historians Conference. Cincinnati, Ohio. 2008.
“Desire and Displacement: The American Urban Highway,” Arredamento Mimarlik, July 2007
“Video and Visual Culture in Planning”
American Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP). Fort Worth, Texas. 2006.
“Interchange: Highways and Displacement in the Postwar American City.”
History of Transportation, Traffic and Mobility (T2M). Paris, France. 2006.
“The Pike and the Pru: Insuring the Future of Boston.”
Society of American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH). Miami, FL. 2005.
“(Re)Presenting the Street: Video and the Practice of City Planning.”
Visible Evidence XII. Montreal, Canada, August 2005.
“From Motel to Dingbat: Developing the 1960s California Garden Apartment.”
Vernacular Architecture Forum. Tucson, Arizona. 2005.
DOCUMENTARY VIDEO
Selected projects include:
Rudolph and Renewal
2008. Commissioned by the Yale School of Architecture as part of the exhibition “Model
City: Building and Projects of Paul Rudolph in New Haven.”
Introducing San Pablo Avenue: Signs of a Great Street
2004. Presented by the University of California Transportation Center, Berkeley, CA
Dividing by Zero: A Calculation of Travel Costs
2003. Presented by the Transportation and Land Use Coalition, Oakland, CA
Next Question: The May Day 1970 Oral History Project
2003. Commissioned by the Festival of Arts and Ideas, New Haven, CT
Berkeley Film & Video Festival, “Best of Festival, Documentary”
Architecture or Revolution: Charles Moore at Yale, 1965-1970
2001. Video montage, commissioned by the Yale School of Architecture.
Back to the Garden: Corporate Modernism in Context
2001. Commissioned by the Yale School of Architecture.
Convergence and other Rituals of the New Haven Green
2000. Broadcast on Connecticut Public Television.
On Broadway, a New Haven Streetscape
2000. Broadcast on Connecticut Public Television.
AWARDS
University of California Transportation Center, Doctoral Dissertation Grant, 2006
Regents Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley, 2006
Artsbridge Scholarship, University of California, Berkeley, 2003
Spiro Kostof Fellowship for study of Architectural History, University of California, Berkeley, 2002
Emerging Artist Fellowship, Digital Media Center for the Arts at Yale, 2000
Dorot Summer Fellowship, Richter Fellowship, Jonathan Clark Research Grant, 1998
REFERENCES
Dean Robert A.M. Stern, Yale School of Architecture
Prof. Paul Groth, Departments of Architecture and Geography
Prof. Martin Wachs, The Rand Corporation
Prof. Richard Walker, Department of Geography, UC Berkeley