Garth Rockcastle

Strategic Adviser - Finance and Operations

FAIA; Retired Professor of Architecture, University of Maryland

Garth Rockcastle, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects since 1998, has always balanced his academic, practice, and leadership roles for over 40 years. He is a retired Professor of Architecture (University of Maryland) and Emeritus Founding Principal of Meyer, Scherer, and Rockcastle, Ltd., Architects. He founded the “East Coast Branch” of the Minneapolis-based practice in Maryland in 2004 when he accepted the offer to be dean of the School of Architecture at Maryland. This led to a significant national and growing international expansion of the practice, which was then also renamed MSR Design. He held his deanship at UMD from 2004 - 2010, and, along with his role as Head of the Architecture Department from 1990 -1997 at the University of Minnesota, comprised his academic leadership spanning a total of 12 years, all while maintaining his active role in practice leadership at MSR Design. He formally retired from practice and academia in 2020, turning his attention to special consulting initiatives and visiting teaching opportunities domestically and abroad. He is the author of several essays and reviews of art and architecture and an editor of three published collections of essays on contemporary architectural theory, art, and architecture and the role of practice. As a design professional, Rockcastle focuses on cultural facilities, regenerative architecture, and the adaptive reuse of existing buildings, exemplified by several of his noteworthy projects: the proposed conversion of a 250,000 SF factory in the heart of Amsterdam, NL into an innovative office/research Headquarters for Bugaboo B.V. and a 120,000 SF 1973 Venturi/Scott Brown designed commercial building in Philadelphia, PA into the College of Media Arts and Design URBN Center for Drexel University. In the last 30 years, Rockcastle has let over 300 million dollars of design commissioned construction to support his innovative interests. In addition, he has more recently led design teams of diverse experts to design 250,000 SF of mixed-use and affordable housing in Saint Louis Park, MN, an innovative green energy “test-bed” facility in NW Wisconsin, and a Net Positive Community on reclaimed open pit iron mines in Northern MN.