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(Architecture) At the Water's Edge

Jerome W Haferd is a licensed architect, public artist, and educator based in Harlem, NYC. He is principal of the award-winning JEROME HAFERD studio, co-founder of BRANDT : HAFERD Architecture, and Assistant Professor of Architecture at City College’s Spitzer School of Architecture where, starting in Fall 2023, he co-directs the new Place, Memory, and Culture Incubator.

Haferd’s practice critically engages built environment projects in both urban and rural contexts, often looking to marginalized histories to unlock a new imaginary for architecture, design, and cultural infrastructure. His work on complex sites includes collaborations with the Harlem African Burial Ground, Roots to Sky Collective, The Park Avenue Armory, and the National Black Theatre. He is lead architect and installation designer for the 2023-24 Culture, Creativity, and Care Initiative with the Mellon Foundation and Harlem Grown. The studio is one of the first prize recipients for the International Africatown Design Competition in Mobile, AL.

Haferd is also a core initiator of Dark Matter U, a BIPOC-led trans-disciplinary network geared towards new models of design pedagogy and practice. He received the 2022 #BlackVisionaries award as part of a DMU cohort.

His team’s recent projects include the Sankofa installation in Harlem, their winning Africatown Competition Proposal “In the Wake,” the BLK BOX experimental arts venue and Beautiful Browns, awarded second prize in the 2021 OnOlive emerging Black architect housing competition. Haferd also co-led the DMU “Constellation'' exhibit at the 2022 Lisbon Architecture Trienale : Terra.