LA DALLMAN’s “middle front” articulates a position of architecture grounded in the premise that “exceptionality” has currently become the least common denominator in a transforming, eclectic, and fragmented field. The middle front considers architectural realities that are neither explicitly exceptional, nor properly ordinary, acknowledging a vantage point in the middle, from which quotidian typologies (bridges, street furniture, public buildings, houses) silently, yet forcefully serve at the forefront of shaping the city. We might ask, therefore, how to produce architecture within the neglected realm of the middle? This theoretical and practical stance addresses the challenges facing the discipline of architecture today. The lecture will draw from excerpts of Grace La and James Dallman’s forthcoming book, the Middle Front, which is currently in progress. The talk will share the initial formations of this thinking, as well as thoughts on practice, and reflections on the discipline of architecture as a transformative act.