By the Book: Architecture, Print, and the Future of Monographs

Even as digital media offers endless opportunities to engage with architecture on screens, books and monographs continue to serve important roles in shaping architectural discourse and in positioning practices. In fact, new voices and fresh approaches in architectural publishing are making printed matter even more impactful.

Though books and monographs can serve as invaluable tools in the development of an architectural practice, the process to make them tends to be a bit of a mystery: finding a publisher, assembling a team, forecasting for schedule and cost, and, importantly, knowing how to make this big undertaking a success. In this panel, the presenters will address these and other questions, making the publication process more transparent.

Join Julie Cirelli, the director of Park Books, and Holly LaDue, the publisher of Monacelli Press, for a conversation about their work with architectural books and monographs. Moderated by Leopoldo Villardi, the managing editor of Architectural Record, and introduced by John Gendall, co-founder of Chapter Agency, and co-chair of the AIANY Marketing and Communications Committee.

Speakers:
Julie Cirelli, Director, Park Books
John Gendall, Co-founder, Chapter Agency; Co-chair, AIANY Marketing and Communications Committee
Holly LaDue, Publisher, Monacelli Press

Moderator:
Leopoldo Villardi, Managing Editor, Architectural Record

About the Speakers:
Julie Cirelli is the director of Park Books in Switzerland. Previously, she was the editorial director of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she oversaw the 2020 relaunch of Harvard Design Magazine and the launch of the Design Now podcast. Her writing on art and architecture has been published in a variety of outlets, including Frieze, Artforum, Form, and Icon magazines. She has also authored and edited numerous books on architecture and design, and in 2015, launched a lecture and mentorship series highlighting the roles of women in architectural practice. Julie has worked as an editor at Phaidon Press and Form Magazine for Nordic Architecture and Design. She is currently based in Stockholm, Sweden.

John Gendall is a co-founder of Chapter, a communications and editorial agency specializing in architecture and landscape architecture. In this position, he is leading multiple book projects. John has a background in architectural journalism, having contributed to The New York Times, Architectural Digest, Architectural Record, and Artforum. He is the author of Rocky Mountain Modern (Monacelli Press, 2022) and a contributing author to the Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture (Phaidon, 2008).

Holly LaDue is the publisher of Monacelli, a Phaidon global company, a position she’s held since 2023. At Monacelli, she oversees the publication of forty books per year, across categories including art, architecture, interior design, landscapes, and gardens. Prior to that, LaDue was the editorial director of Princeton Architectural Press. With twenty years of book publishing experience—including at Prestel, Rizzoli, and in her first editorial position, Phaidon—she still loves crafting beautiful publications and working with all the teams that bring a book to life.

Leopoldo Villardi is managing editor at Architectural Record, where he oversees the magazine’s book reviews, residential features (including the annual issue of Record Houses), and the Design Vanguard award program, which is given to 10 leading young practices each year. Villardi joined Record in 2022 after a decade of work as an editor, writer, and researcher—he has contributed to several architecture books, coauthored Robert A. M. Stern’s autobiography Between Memory and Invention (published by Monacelli), and is a New York State Council on the Arts grant recipient. Trained as an architect, Leo holds a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation and a Bachelor of Architecture from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s School of Architecture.