The Harvard Graduate School of Design announces the appointment of Grace E. La (MArch ‘95) as Professor of Architecture, effective July 1, 2013.
A talented designer and experienced academic leader, La has focused her work on alternative modes of practice that connect architecture, landscape design, engineering and sustainable environments.
La is cofounder and Principal of LA DALLMAN Architects, with James Dallman (GSD M.Arch ‘92). LA DALLMAN’s built work includes the Kilbourn Tower, the Miller Brewing Meeting Center (building by Ulrich Franzen), the Hillel Student Center, the Ravine House, the Gradient House, and the Great Lakes Future and City of Freshwater permanent exhibits at Discovery World. The firm’s Crossroads Project, which transforms infrastructure for public use, includes a 700-foot-long Marsupial Bridge, a bus shelter and a media garden. LA DALLMAN is currently commissioned to design additions to the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts (original building by Harry Weese and landscape by Dan Kiley) and the Harmony Project, a 100,000-square-foot hybrid arts building for a ballet school, university dance program and medical clinic. The Harmony Project design process was awarded a 2012 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The firm has received numerous professional honors and prizes in international competitions, including design awards from the American Institute of Architects. In 2011, LA DALLMAN was the first American firm awarded the Rice Design Alliance Prize. The firm was also named an Emerging Voice by the Architectural League of New York and has received a Bruner Award for Urban Excellence, Silver Medal and design engineering recognition including the national Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute Design Award.
LA DALLMAN’s work has been featured in publications including Architect, a+t, Architectural Record, Azure, Praxis, and Topos, and in books released by Princeton Architectural Press and Routledge. Architect profiled the firm’s design culture in June 2012. La is coauthor of Skycar City (Actar, 2007), featuring the inaugural Marcus Prize Studio, which was exhibited at the 2008 Venice Biennale. She is also the cofounder and three-time editor of UWM’s Calibrations and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Architectural Education.
La has served as a faculty member in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (UWM) since 1999, receiving tenure in 2005. She serves as the Chair of the Planning and Coordinating Committee in the Department of Architecture, leading the school’s curriculum reform, fellowship initiatives, and strategic planning, which involves reenvisioning the school’s facilities in relation to pedagogical goals and new technologies. La received UWM’s Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award and has taught and lectured widely, including as a Design Critic at the GSD. She won four Faculty Design Awards from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture for work that advances the reflective nature of practice and teaching; she has led collaborations with engineers, artists, scientists, craftspeople and public officials on a diverse range of civically engaged projects. Among her presentations, La has lectured at the New Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the National Building Museum and the Carnegie Museum of Art.
La received her MArch with thesis distinction from the GSD, winning the Clifford Wong Housing Prize. She received her undergraduate degree, A.B. magna cum laude, from Harvard University in Visual and Environmental Studies.