Interview Jaime Correa, 19 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).

Jaime Correa is an Associate Professor in Practice and the former Director of the Master in Urban Design at the School of Architecture of the University of Miami (position held from 1996 to 2014) where he was also the Knight Professor in Community Building.
He is one among the 14 architects and town planners that launched the American New Urbanism movement, one of its most important promoters in Latin America, and also one of its most significant critics. From 2013-2017 he has served as a Climate Reality Mentor under the tutelage of former Vice-President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore. His professional firm is engaged in a new type of urban design practice focusing on social innovations, bottom-up urbanism, the creation of real estate value through morphogenetic disruptions, generative codes, self-organization and its interconnection with structured and unstructured information. His projects explore: incremental master planning, super-graphics and the physical representation of information in urban areas, informal urbanism, morphogenesis, colossal refugee camps, tiny gap-housing, self-organizing redevelopment, public space design, big data mining, the Internet of Things, and sea-level-rise adaptation and evacuation.
He has been the recipient of the Faculty of the Year Award at the Master in Real Estate Development, the Wooddrow W. Wilkins Award for Outstanding Teaching and the University of Miami Excellence in Civic Engagement Award. He received the bi-annual 2014 Charles A. Barrett Memorial Award, the Florida AIA Urban Designer and Academic of the Year Award, three John Nolen Awards (in collaboration with the Treasure Coast Regional Planning, the University of Miami, and the City of Delray Beach), the Public Works Association Project of the Year (APAW), the 2014 Florida Redevelopment Association’s Presidents Award, the Florida Governor’s Point of Light Award, first prize at the Salt Lake City Interrotta competition, four national CNU urban design awards for his master plan collaborations, an Honorable Mention at the Williamsburg competition, and many more awards and recognitions.
He is the author of numerous academic articles and book chapters, founding Chair of Academic Papers for the Congress for the New Urbanism, member of the Board of Editors of Cuadernos de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, in Mexico, and a Blog writer for Facebook’s “Informal-Urbanism” page. His books include a parody of the New Urbanism (Seven Recipes for the New Urbanism), a small pamphlet for a new type of resilient living (Self-sufficient Urbanism), and guidelines for affordable housing (Housing Finance Authority Design Guidelines).
He practices Kadampa Buddhism and Vedanta Hinduism. He holds a non-secular Ph.D. in Comparative Religions, a Master in Architecture with a Certificate in Urban Design as well as a Master in City Planning with a Certificate in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania, a Certificate in Classical Architecture and Medieval Iconography from Cambridge University, in England, and a Bachelors in Architecture and Urbanism from the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, in Colombia.
His sponsored research includes work for the Kellogg and Barr Foundations in Haiti, the Dupont Foundation in the City of Opa-Locka, the Florida Canin Award, the Knight Foundation Project in Community Building, the Miami Project, and the Housing Finance Authority in Miami-Dade County.
His latest professional work includes: a research series on urban evacuation and adaptation, colossal projects for the forthcoming climate disruption, public space interventions in the City of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, the redevelopment of an Industrial District in Miami, eight mini-skyscrapers in Medellin, urban design advisory for the City of Coral Gables, charrette collaborations in Coral Springs and the North End in West Palm Beach, urban “letterscapes ”, various collaborations in Central and South America (including the new towns of Cayala and El Naranjo, in Guatemala and La Serena, in Chile), and the master planning and implementation of “The Wave” - a 50,000 people new town in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.