Joss Kiely (University of Cincinnati) and Michael Abrahamson (University of Utah) will present their collaborative architectural history book project Master Plan: Soft Power and the Politics of Architectural Expertise on Friday, February 7 as part of the School of Architecture Spring 2025 lecture series. Their book investigates master plans designed by architects in the postwar United States which channeled growth and development as instruments of consensus-building for governmental agencies and multinational corporations, asserting US-based soft power at home and abroad. Despite the awe they today inspire, many of these projects reveal why planners and urban designers have largely turned toward sociologically informed policymaking and away from expressive form. A critical perspective on the ways master plans have been enlisted in large-scale development projects is nevertheless increasingly necessary due to the shifting economic, political, and environmental functions such plans continue to fulfill.

Together Joss and Michael are working on a co-authored book analyzing mid-twentieth-century master planning practices, under advance contract with Princeton University Press.