An award-winning designer and strategist, Adam has spent over 35 years advancing innovation, entrepreneurship and university-corporate partnerships in America’s cities. Going forward, he believes higher education will evolve into a lifelong, subscription-based experience distributed over a global network of branded spaces – and to this end, has devised a strategic planning initiative, Campus 2.0 to help clients align their institutions and companies with these historic shifts. The Campus 2.0 model also addresses many of the social equity issues that Higher ED anchors face with shared facilities designed to bridge gaps between traditional and non-traditional learners from underserved communities.
Since 2018, Adam has led several Campus 2.0 projects including the UNC Chapel Hill Downtown Innovation District, the Discovery Partners Institute (UIUC and Related Midwest) in the South Loop of Chicago, the University of Georgia Center for Precision Agriculture, and a National Center for Cyber Leadership in Washington DC.
Prior to this, he led several significant innovation projects for UC Berkeley/LBNL, the Pennsylvania State University, Wake Forest University, Washington University in St. Louis Cortex Innovation Neighborhood and The University City Science Center in West Philadelphia. These last two projects featured extensively in The Brookings Institution’s groundbreaking 2014 study, “The Rise of Innovation Districts.”
As an architect, Adam has completed over $2 billion of new construction for several life-science enterprises including Amgen, Wyeth and MedImmune. From 2016 to 2018, Adam also served as Chief Design Officer for Benjamin’s Desk/1776, a venture-backed coworking startup which grew from 3,000gsf to over 200,000gsf during his tenure including key innovation hubs like Pennovation Center in Philadelphia.
Adam was a founding co-chair of the ULI University Development and Innovation Council (UDIC) focused on academic innovation and placemaking and has also served on two Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority Advisory Boards focused on building design excellence and the 1% for Art program – the first such panel in the United States.
Educated at Rice University (B.Arts ‘85 and B.Arch ‘87) and at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (MAUD with Distinction, ‘96), Adam is an avid teacher who currently leads the Fall Urban Planning Studio at the Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies. Prior to this, he served as Visiting Professor of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis from 1996 to 2000 and as an Instructor at the University of Pennsylvania from 2004 to 2007. Adam frequently speaks at AIA, ULI, UEDA, APA, SCUP and AURP conferences and has organized several events focused on Campus Planning and Globalism.
Starting in the mid 1990’s, Adam’s designs have won several AIA design excellence awards along with other industry and land uses awards, and his work has been published in numerous journals including Architectural Record and the ULI Journal.