James Reittinger
Associate Teaching Professor
James Reittinger is an Associate Teaching Professor of Architecture and Design with over thirty years of professional practice including more than a decade of teaching experience. His pedagogical approach is grounded in the understanding that architecture extends beyond the design of buildings to encompass an ideological and cultural phenomenon that is at once practical, philosophical, and poetical.
He is an award-winning designer with over thirty years of experience leading the design of higher education projects, particularly in STEM facilities and student housing, as well as cultural, residential, and master planning work. He is a frequent presenter at regional and national conferences on student housing design, contributing thought leadership to the evolving discourse in campus planning and student life. James holds a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University (1995), where he was nominated for the SOM Traveling Fellowship, and a Bachelor of Architecture from Kansas State University (1992), where he received the Heintzelman Prize for his thesis project. He has also pursued Executive Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, further advancing his expertise and expanding his design thinking.
Teaching Philosophy
Associate Professor Reittinger emphasizes the importance of self-critical inquiry, encouraging students to act simultaneously as “authors” and “audiences” of their work. He fosters a heuristic learning environment in which students frame their own questions, articulate potential solutions, and engage in discourse that advances architectural understanding. Central to his teaching is the conviction that architecture is a process of investigation—balancing cultural traditions with personal expression—rather than the repetition of established paradigms.
His instruction highlights the role of conceptual frameworks as guiding principles for design decisions, from the earliest stages of ideation through the refinement of detail. Students are encouraged to experiment with a range of technologies, materials, and fabrication methods, developing an awareness of their interrelationships and their capacity to enrich architectural expression. This emphasis on exploration and refinement allows students to link ideas, process, and execution in ways that deepen the experiential qualities of their designs.
Viewing architecture as fundamentally about space rather than form, Associate Professor Reittinger challenges conventional program-driven approaches by foregrounding the poetic and conceptual possibilities of design. For him, architecture is not confined to the production of a building but emerges as a system of research, development, and experimentation—manifesting as built or unbuilt work, as spatial experience, and as cultural discourse.
