Rate My Professor Marina Munenzon

Dalia Munenzon is Assistant Professor of Urban Design in Sustainable Communities and Infrastructure at the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design. She earned a Master in Architecture Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2016 and a Bachelor in Architecture and Town Planning from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in 2011. With over a decade of professional experience in architecture and urbanism, Munenzon contributed to high-profile, award-winning projects at One Architecture & Urbanism, specializing in waterfront design and long-term strategic planning. Before joining the University of Houston in 2022 as part of the Presidential Frontier Faculty initiative, she taught at Texas Tech University College of Architecture and the Rhode Island School of Design. She has also served as a guest juror for architecture programs at MIT, Harvard Graduate School of Design, UC Berkeley, RISD, Syracuse, and Cooper Union, and presented research at conferences in Toronto, Boston, New York City, Springfield, Athens, and Tel Aviv.

Munenzon's research and teaching emphasize adaptive strategies for climate resilience, urban transformation, and environmental justice, with a focus on the Gulf Coast region's challenges including flooding, extreme heat, sea-level rise, and pollution. As co-director of the GULFLab, an interdisciplinary research hub integrating design, urban planning, policy, and environmental science, she leads initiatives like the Adaptive Ecofutures: Shaping the Gulf Coast of Tomorrow studio, supported by a $748,848 grant from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Gulf Research Program. Her award-winning projects include the 2022 SOM Foundation Research Prize-funded Collective Comfort initiative, reimagining cooling centers as resiliency hubs in desert cities, alongside the 2024 AIA Upjohn Research Award. Key publications feature peer-reviewed articles such as "Co-Production for Equitable Governance in Community Climate Adaptation: Neighborhood Resilience in Houston, Texas" (Urban Planning, 2024); book chapters like "Strategies for Compound Urban and Climate Hazards" (Springer, 2024) and "Transformative Actions in the Boston Harbor" (Springer, 2022); and contributions to The Plan Journal, Room One Thousand, and MONU magazine. Through scenario planning, modeling, and community collaboration, Munenzon advances equitable, sustainable urban futures.