Jordan Kanter, AIA

Jordan Kanter is Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research examines the relationships between architecture, infrastructure, and ecology, with a focus on water and urbanization in the American Southwest. Through mapping and architectural analysis, he investigates how water infrastructure, suburban development, and landscape practices shape environmental and social relations. His current work explores the entanglements of water, land, and leisure in metropolitan Phoenix, as well as the territorial and ecological consequences of coal mining and water extraction on Navajo and Hopi lands at Black Mesa in northeastern Arizona. Jordan teaches courses in the M.Arch comprehensive design studio sequence, undergraduate design studios, and design representation courses. He also coordinates the M.Arch thesis program.

Before joining UMass Amherst, Jordan was an associate at Michael Maltzan Architecture and a senior designer at MAD, where he oversaw the design of the housing, infrastructure, commercial, and cultural projects. He is principal of the architecture/research firm foundCity, with projects in Massachusetts and beyond. He also serves as a senior researcher with Solar River, a research initiative focused on developing canal spanning solar installations over existing water infrastructure in the American Southwest, as well as other strategies to expand solar development and decarbonize these water systems. Solar River developed the design of the first canal-spanning solar project to be implemented in the Western Hemisphere, in the Gila River Indian Community in central Arizona, and a number of additional canal solar projects.

Jordan received his Master of Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture and his undergraduate degree in biology from MIT. He is a licensed architect in Massachusetts.

Architecture, Design, Design Detailing, Building Systems, Infrastructure, Ecology, Urbanism