James S. Russell, FAIA, grounds all of his work in 10 years as a practicing architect and brings an insatiable curiosity from journalism, where he has published more than 1,000 articles. As an independent journalist he writes architecture and city stories for the The New York Times and Bloomberg CityLab, and has also contributed to the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, among many other publications. He was the architecture critic for Bloomberg News and an award-winning editor at Architectural Record magazine (where he remains as a contributing editor).

His writing touches on all aspects of architecture but he has written in special depth about sustainability and resiliency adaptation strategies necessary to address climate change in architecture and cities. He has also repeatedly considered America’s broken housing markets, the forces that affect city success, and the intertwining of architecture, cities, and culture–especially issues around historic preservation and memorials.

He is a frequent speaker, having spoken about Frank Lloyd Wright in Berlin and flood-proofing cities in Calgary. He has moderated panels with politicians, advocates, engineers, and corporate executives. (More about his speaking here.)

His book, The Agile City: Building Well Being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change (2011) documents the low-tech and low-cost strategies for buildings and communities that can achieve dramatic reductions now in America’s global-warming effects.

He brings strategic visioning into consulting on architecture and cities, tackling challenges including climate change adaptation, and helping all community voices be heard, and removing barriers to success in overlooked communities.

As the Director, Design Strategic Initiatives at the NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC) James led a team that advanced the agency’s capacity in low-energy buildings and climate-change adaptation. His team created a series of handbooks showing the role of architectural design in aiding equitable access to City resources and nurturing well-being. The handbooks covered nine building types ranging from police precincts and libraries to street design, homeless shelters, and juvenile-detention facilities.

He wrote guidelines for DDC and the NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection on the design of natural-system stormwater-management tactics—an urgent need as rainfall intensifies, sea levels rise, and storms intensify coastal damage. His work applied the latest knowledge on climate trends, and showed examples at large urban and watershed scale.

He has also done strategic consulting work for clients that include the City of Philadelphia, American Forests, nine Hudson River counties, and the State of New Jersey.

Mr. Russell teaches at Stanford University’s program on New York City and has taught at Columbia University, the City College of New York, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania. (More about his teaching here.) He earned a Masters of Architecture degree from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Design  from the University of Washington. He also attended The Evergreen State College.

He was born in Seattle. He is a registered architect, and was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.