Andrew Shanken is Professor in the Department of Architecture, where he teaches courses in architectural history and American Studies. His first book, 194X: Architecture, Planning, and Consumer Culture on the American Homefront (University of Minnesota Press, 2009), examined the turn in architectural focus toward design and planning in the US during WWII. A second book, Into the Void Pacific: Building the 1939 San Francisco World’s Fair (University of California Press, 2015), adopted D.H. Lawrence’s suggestive description of California as a way of thinking about the architecture of the Golden Gate International Exposition, using the phrase “void Pacific” to suggest the isolation and novelty of California and its habit of looking West rather than to the East Coast and Europe. His work on architecture and memory includes "Planning  Memory: The Rise of Living Memorials in the United States during World War II.” A current book project entitled “The Everyday Life of Memorials," examines memorials as part of the ordinary urban environment.