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Harvard GSD appoints Mark Lee as new chair of architecture

GSD News

Harvard GSD appoints Mark Lee as new chair of architecture

Harvard GSD appoints Mark Lee as new chair of architecture. Mark Lee. (Eric Staudenmaier)

Architect and professor Mark Lee has been appointed as the next chair of the Architecture Department at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD), effective July 1. Lee has taught as a design critic at GSD since 2013 and brings years of real-world experience to the post, having co-founded the practice Johnston Marklee in 1998 and served as co-artistic director of the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial.

“I am honored to be entrusted with the chairmanship of the Department of Architecture at the GSD,” said Lee in a statement. “In advancing both the discipline and the profession of architecture, the Department has been without parallel; I look forward to building upon the formidable achievements of my predecessors and this deeply-rooted tradition of excellence. We stand on the threshold of a very challenging, but exciting, future. I feel confident that architecture’s best days lie ahead.”

Mark Lee and partner Sharon Johnston served as co-artistic directors for the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial. (Eric Staudenmaier)

Johnston Marklee has been recognized both domestically and abroad and realized projects of every scale and type in seven countries. The firm’s current projects include the renovation of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, which opened in September 2017, the new UCLA Graduate Art Studios campus in Culver City, California, and the Menil Drawing Institute in Houston, to be completed sometime this year.

Lee will succeed K. Michael Hays, who has served as the interim chair since 2016 and taught at Harvard GSD since 1988. Lee’s appointment comes shortly after a $15 million donation to the GSD by Druker Company President Ronald Druker, and follows the appointment of Jeanne Gang and Lee’s partner at Johnston Marklee, Sharon Johnston. Lee himself earned a Master’s in Architecture from the GSD in 1995.

“I am delighted that Mark Lee has agreed to serve as the next Chair of the Department of Architecture,” said Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean and Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design at Harvard GSD, in a statement. “Johnston Marklee is one of the most talented practices currently working in the United States and beyond, and Mark deeply understands the contemporary world of architecture. His vision and leadership will enormously benefit our students and our School in the years to come. As we welcome Mark to this role, I am also incredibly grateful to Michael Hays for his unwavering and ongoing dedication to the Department of Architecture and the GSD.”


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