Interview Eric Firley, 3 October 2016

Gilda Santana joined the faculty of the University of Miami Libraries in 2007 as Head of Architecture Information and Resources to direct the Paul Buisson Architecture Library. She led the expansion and redesign of the library now called the Architecture Research Center (ARC) in 2018. Her research interests include facilitating the culture of design research through studio embedded-librarianship and the evolution of digital humanities in architecture and the arts. In 2013 she became the Librarian for Art & Art History. Santana has a Master of Science in Architecture from the School of Architecture, University of Miami, a Master’s in Library and Information Science from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and a Bachelor of Art from Bard College where she majored in Art History. She actively serves in the Association of Architecture School Librarians (AASL) and the Art Libraries Association of North America (ARLIS).

Eric Firley is of French-German nationality and was born in Düsseldorf, Germany. He studied economics, architecture and city design in Fribourg, Lausanne, Weimar and London, and started his professional career in the real estate sector in Paris. Afterwards he worked for several years in design practices in Paris and London, before dedicating himself full-time to research and writing between 2007 and 2010. In 2011 he became assistant professor at the University of Miami School of Architecture. Firley is the initiator and co-author of Wiley’s Urban Handbook Series that consists of three reference works in the field of housing, high-rise urbanism and masterplanning. He has lectured in institutions around the world, including the Skyscraper Museum and Cooper Union in NYC, the Architectural Association and Bartlett School in London, UC Berkeley, the National University of Singapore, the Parisian Planning Office (APUR), Queensland University of Technology and McGill University in Montreal.
Firley’s research has been funded by various public and private sector entities, including Grosvenor, Stanhope, the Arts Council and Design for London. His current research focuses on urban design practice, alternative models of housing production and the impact of immigration on urban form.