Florencia Rodriguez, associate professor at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Architecture and artistic director of the 2025 Chicago Architecture Biennial, will present the Charles E. “Chick” Herbert Lecture in Architecture at 4 p.m. Friday, March 28, in Kocimski Auditorium, room 0101 College of Design.

Titled “Tomorrow is Not for Sale,” her free public talk will examine architecture’s role as a bearer of the status quo in the transactional nature of living and dying today.

Having practiced mainly as an editor, writer, and educator, Rodriguez has built a career path driven by a strong entrepreneurial spirit that led her to create and run cultural initiatives related to architecture and design. In 2010, Rodriguez founded PLOT, a publication she continued to direct until 2017 when she co-founded NESS with Pablo Gerson. From that platform, she has edited books and organized events committed to the dissemination of new narratives, the exploration of alternative forms of design criticism, and discussions about the contemporary role of design. In 2015 she created Monte, an independent space in Buenos Aires where she curated and promoted an active public program.

Before joining the University of Illinois Chicago, she was a lecturer in architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she received the 2013-2014 Loeb Fellowship. During that year, she focused her research on new modes of criticism and the architecture of the Americas.

Rodriguez has lectured, curated exhibitions, acted as a juror, and organized international symposia at different institutions. She has received awards for her editorial work and published several articles in books and specialized media such as Domus, Oris, summa+, Arquine, A+U, and Uncube. In 2020, together with Mark Lee, she guest-edited “America,” the 48th issue of the Harvard Design Magazine. Her more recent book, MCHAP 2 Territory & Expeditions (IITAC, Actar, NESS), was launched in March 2022.

She is currently working on two new titles: one on Machado Silvetti / Drawings 1975-1999 with Harvard Design Press, and A Critical/Editorial Manifesto in the Age of Dispersion with Park Books.