Garth Rockcastle, FAIA, has balanced his academic roles with his practice leadership for now just over 36 years. He is currently Professor of Architecture at the University of Maryland and since 1981 continues as a Founding Principal of Meyer, Scherer and Rockcastle, Ltd., Architects, and now leads the east coast branch office he established in 2004, in Maryland. From 2004-2010, Rockcastle served as Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Maryland, and from 1990-1997 was Head of the Architecture Department at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of several essays and reviews of art and architecture, and an editor of three published collections of essays on contemporary theory, art and architecture. As a design professional, Rockcastle focuses on cultural facilities and the adaptive reuse of existing buildings, exemplified by three of his recent projects: a proposed conversion of a 150,000 SF factory in the heart of Amsterdam, NL into an innovative office/research Headquarters for Dutch company, a conversion of a former 1930’s 10 story vocational trade school (BOK) in south Philadelphia into a new creative live/work community, and transformed a 1973 Venturi/Scott-Brown designed commercial building into the College of Media Arts and Design for Drexel University in Philadelphia. Rockcastle cultivates creative, research and scholarly opportunities using the combination of his academic and professional perspectives on architecture to benefit public, peer, client, and student insight, as he moves from his practice to academic roles testing, probing and expanding his diverse theoretical interests and applied insight.