Assistant Professor
Architecture
Jeffrey S. Nesbit
- Email: jeffrey.nesbit@temple.edu
- Website: http://www.groundingdesignresearch.com
Jeffrey S. Nesbit is an architect, urbanist, and founding director of the research group Grounding Design. His experience spanning over a decade includes leading design teams for public architecture and large-scale urban projects, along with managing sponsored design research projects for city governments, local institutions, and NGOs. Nesbit’s research focuses on processes of urbanization, infrastructure, and the evolution of "technical lands." Currently, his research examines the 20th-century American spaceport complex at the intersection of architecture, infrastructure, and aerospace history. Nesbit has published several journal articles, book chapters, and is editor of Nature of Enclosure (Actar, 2022), co-editor of Technical Lands: A Critical Primer (Jovis, 2023), New Geographies 11 Extraterrestrial (Actar, 2019), Rio de Janeiro: Urban Expansion and Environment (Routledge, 2019), Chasing the City: Models for Extra-Urban Investigations (Routledge, 2018), and host and producer of three podcasts series. Nesbit is Assistant Professor in History and Theory of Architecture and Urbanism at Temple University, and previously taught at several institutions, including Harvard University, Northeastern University, University of North Carolina Charlotte, University of New Mexico, and Texas Tech University. He received his Doctor of Design degree (DDes) from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Office for Urbanization.
Doctor of Design, Harvard University, 2020
Master of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania, 2009
Bachelor of Science in Architecture, Texas Tech University, 2006
Selected Awards:
Institute for Public Architecture, Fall Fellow Residency, 2020.
“Soil for Space: A Critical History of Earthmoving at Cape Canaveral,” 2019 Penny White Project Fund. Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Department of Landscape Architecture.
“Aquatic Resiliency,” New York City Aquarium and Public Space Competition, ArchOutLoud. Queens, NY, 2016, finalist.
Texas Tech Alumni Association Barnie E. Rushing Outstanding Researcher Award, 2015.
ACSA Open Cities, Design and Research Merit Award, 2014.
Selected Works:
Jeffrey S. Nesbit (2024) Ground Control: Technical Lands for Departing Earth (working title). in progress
Jeffrey S. Nesbit and Charles Waldheim, eds. (2023) Technical Lands: A Critical Primer. Jovis Publishers: Berlin.
Jeffrey S. Nesbit, ed. (2022) Nature of Enclosure. Actar Publishers: Barcelona.
Jeffrey S. Nesbit and Guy Trangoš, eds. (2019) New Geographies 11: Extraterrestrial. Harvard Graduate School of Design and Actar Publishers: Cambridge and Barcelona.
Jeffrey S. Nesbit, Christina Rodriquez, and Phoebe Webster, “Plant, Planet, and the Enclosed World: Interview with Jeffrey S Nesbit,” in POOL Issue 6: Plant, Department of Architecture and Urban Design, UCLA and Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, 2021.
Jeffrey S. Nesbit and David Salomon (2020) “Of Pits and Pads: The Space Launch Complex as Geological Surface,” in Karen M’Closkey and Keith VanDerSys, eds., LA+: GEO. University of Pennsylvania and ORO Editions: Philadelphia and San Francisco.
Jeffrey S. Nesbit (2020) “The American Spaceport and the Power of Cultural Imaginaries,” in ed. Karen Patricia Heath, European Journal of American Culture, 39:3, 317–337.
Jeffrey S. Nesbit (2020) “NASA’s Enclosed Garden,” in Ricardo Devesa and Marta Bugés, eds., urbanNext. Barcelona: Actar Publishers.
Jeffrey S. Nesbit (2020) “Wasteland for the Extraterrestrial,” in Lunch 14: Frontier. Applied Research & Design Publishing/ORO Editions and the University of Virginia School of Architecture: New York and Charlottesville.
Jeffrey S. Nesbit (2019) “On Preserving NASA’s Administrative Apparatus,” in James Graham, ed., Avery Review 36, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation: New York.