Robert K Alexander

Robert Alexander is a native of southern California and a proud alumnus of Cal Poly Pomona. He is currently the coordinator of the Department of Architecture's First Year Design Studio and has taught at Cal Poly Pomona since 2007. Beyond his work organizing and developing the architecture department’s foundational curriculum, Alexander has also led other recent research based seminars and design studios including an investigation of drive up and drive thru architecture “On the Architecture of Driving Thru” and a recent studio asking students to question notions of architectural authorship and its impact on representation called “Fakes, Forgeries, and Fictions”. These studios and seminars formed the basis for his current research into the development of mid century fast food architecture and its impact on urbanism in southern California. 

In 2013 Alexander was awarded the Rotch Traveling Scholarship which studied the urban consequences of incomplete building projects in Europe from 1150 to the present. He is also the recipient of the Cavin Traveling Fellowship in 2008 which studied the impact of colonial architecture and urbanism in Latin America. His work has received awards in the Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition and the AIA-Atlanta's Young Architect's Forum Urban Design Competition and was exhibited in Silves, Portugal, as a part of the "Casa Granturismo" international residential housing exhibition. His work has also been featured in a variety of publications including the Journal for Architectural Education, the LA Forum Newsletter, Japan Architect, the Boston Globe, and Evolo Magazine. His most recent writing project, the interactive web-based textbook, Foundations of Architectural Design, was published in 2018. 

Alexander received his Master in Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2005 and his Bachelor of Architecture from Cal Poly Pomona in 2001 where he was awarded the Department of Architecture's Dean's Medal for outstanding graduating design students. Before joining Cal Poly Pomona, Alexander apprenticed in the offices of Rafael Vinoly Architects, Daly Genik Architects, and for the Stuttgart-based firm Behnisch Architekten in Los Angeles where he worked on a number of civic, institutional, and residential projects. While part of the adjunct faculty of Cal Poly Pomona, Alexander was appointed as the Interim Director of the Neutra VDL Research House in 2011, where he served a one year term organizing public events, leading tours and overseeing the student docent program.

In addition to teaching and writing, Robert Alexander is also the principal of the environmental design collaborative bobCAT, which he founded with his partner Catherine Burce in 2007, to explore the intersections between landscape and buildings through research and practice.