Edgar G. Adams

Edgar Adams has been a full-time faculty member at Roger Williams University Cummings School of Architecture since 1992. He has served as coordinator of the Architecture program and was co-founder and coordinator of the Urban Studies program. His undergraduate degree in Architecture and graduate degree in Urban Design are from Cornell University where he also held a full teaching assistantship from 1983-1985. Before commencing his graduate studies, he received an Eidlitz Traveling Fellowship from Cornell to explore housing and town planning in England and the Netherlands and worked in Philadelphia at the multi-disciplinary firm of Wallace, Roberts & Todd (WRT). Following his graduate studies in Urban Design, he worked on several award-winning academic buildings and urban design projects at Koetter, Kim & Associates in Boston and consulted w/ Michael Dennis Associates on the Carnegie Mellon Student Center. While teaching at RWU as an adjunct faculty member, he practiced in partnership with T. Kelly Wilson and established his own practice in 1990.

Since joining the Roger Williams University he has taught a range of courses, while also maintaining his focus on Urban Design. He has been a guest critic at: Cornell, Harvard, MIT, Yale, RISD, Northeastern, Wentworth, The BAC, Temple, Kent State, University of Michigan (Prague) and Waterloo University (Rome). In 1994 he initiated the Prague Summer Study Abroad Program with Andrew Cohen and Andrea Homolacova Adams; and in 1999 he helped establish the RWU Rome Program (now located in Florence). In 1997 he co-chaired the NE Regional Meeting of the ACSA entitled “Reflections on Heritage and Modernity”. His work with the Community Partnership Center is the product of many years of work with local communities through his topical studios in Urban Design. These studios reflect his research interests in equity in housing, resilient waterfront development, adaptive reuse, the impact of technology on urban form, Smart Growth strategies and Transit Oriented Development. He also maintains a modest Architecture and Urban Design practice in Rhode Island.