Luz Marie Rodriguez, Ph.D. - Assoc. AIA

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Research Interests:
Architectural history and theory, Visual Culture, Cultural Studies, Puerto Rican Studies, Colonial Discourse, History and Theory of Modern Architecture, and 3 moreHistory of Art and Architecture, History of Architecture, and Postcolonial Theoryedit
About:
I hold a Ph.D. in Theory and History of Architecture from the Superior Technical School of Architecture in Barcelona (Polytechnic University of Cataluña), Spain. I currently live in Dublin, Ohio, where I work as a consultant, content dev... moreI hold a Ph.D. in Theory and History of Architecture from the Superior Technical School of Architecture in Barcelona (Polytechnic University of Cataluña), Spain. I currently live in Dublin, Ohio, where I work as a consultant, content developer, and independent architectural historian. From 1997 to 2012 I worked as Senior Archivist and Researcher at the University of Puerto Rico’s Architecture and Construction Archives (AACUPR). In 2012 I joined the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico's School of Architecture as Associate Dean. In 2014 I was appointed Interim Dean, position I held until 2015. I remained as part of the faculty until December 2016, when I decided to move to Ohio. In Puerto Rico, I taught several survey courses on the History of Architecture as well as studios focusing on Research for Design.

My research focuses on the multiple ways ethnic, racial, and cultural relations, while affecting economic development and social reform, also play an important political role and assist in building architectural discursive trends that eventually, settle into cultural imaginaries. My work addresses power discourse, colonial negotiations, and the construction of subaltern identities and the ways these are represented through architecture and urban design. I have published and lectured on these subjects both, locally and internationally. In addition, I am the author of three nominations to the National Register of Historic Places. Currently, I am working on a book on New Deal colonial architecture as well as developing a multimedia platform.

In 2015-2016 and again, in 2016-2017, I was awarded grants from the Historic Preservation Fund. The first grant supported the state level single property nomination of the San Martín de Porres Sanctuary in Cataño, Puerto Rico, to the National Register of Historic Places. This was the first modern church building on the Island, designed by Taliesin fellow, Henry Klumb. The second grant supported the national level multiply property nomination of the architecture associated to the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA). This was the single New Deal agency which designed, built, and funded federally sponsored public works such as schools, hospitals, dispensaries, public health units, community centers, police stations, and housing. In 2018 I received a grant from the Graham Foundation to develop the second research phase of my project on PRRA. A Facebook page in support of the project was launched in April, 2018 to document the research process, share some findings, and grow a community interested in architecture. The page is also an outreach and educational outlet for the project. You can visit, like, and or follow at https://www.facebook.com/prraarchitecture/

For more, please visit my LinkedIn profile and my portfolio at https://www.luzmarod.comedit
Advisors:
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The paper addresses Puerto Rico’s peasant house as image and discourse within the process of the Island’s modernization. It discusses the house under the theoretical premise of an “invented tradition” and an “imagined community”.