Phil Gruen

Biography

Phil Gruen brings a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary perspective to the school. His area of expertise is the history and preservation of the architecture and urbanism of the United States, which he explores using the methods of the cultural landscape.

Gruen’s teaching emphasizes the importance of story and interpretation, and he regularly questions dominant narratives by drawing attention to overlooked built environments, especially those of the everyday and the ordinary. In the SDC, he teaches (or has taught) discussion seminars and lecture-oriented classes on vernacular architecture, modern architecture, historic preservation, tourism and travel, and the global history of design, and he has garnered several awards for teaching excellence. Gruen also teaches in the Honors College, where he has been a faculty fellow since 2017 and teaches courses about the Palouse, the Pacific Northwest, and the interpretation of the American landscape. He also served as director of the SDC from 2015-17 and as interim director from 2014-15.

Gruen has published numerous articles, encyclopedia entries, and book reviews and has presented at more than forty conferences, panels, and events on a range of topics, including Chinatown in San Francisco, Disneyland, modern stadiums, Virginia City (Montana), and land-grant institutions. Gruen’s first book, Manifest Destinations: Cities and Tourists in the Nineteenth-Century American West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014), traced the agency of visitors as they navigated four diverse metropolises of the rapidly urbanizing West: Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco. He is completing a book with WSU Press about the buildings and landscapes of the WSU Pullman campus.

Much of Gruen’s recent work focuses on the Pacific Northwest. He co-coordinates the Society of Architectural Historians’ Archipedia “State 100” projects for Washington and Oregon and co-organized the 2026 Vernacular Architecture Forum national conference in the Columbia River Plateau. He serves as First Vice President (2023-27) of the Vernacular Architecture Forum and is also chair of WSU’s Historic Preservation Committee.

Education

Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture, University of California, Berkeley.

Master of Arts in History of Architecture and Art, University of Illinois, Chicago.

Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Criticism (Cum Laude), University of California, San Diego.