Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design has named Jeanne Gang (MArch ’93) to address the 2020 and 2021 classes as the GSD welcomes back these graduates for an in-person celebration and Special Commencement Ceremony. Gang will address the GSD’s classes and their families on Sunday, May 29 at 10:30 AM ET in the Gund Back Yard.
Jeanne Gang is Professor in Practice of Architecture at GSD and the founding principal of Studio Gang, an international architecture and urban design practice based in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco, where her professional studios have focused on cities, ecologies, and materials. Her analytical and creative approach has produced projects across scales and typologies, from cultural and public buildings to urban parks and high-rise towers. These include Writers Theatre, a professional theater for a company north of Chicago; the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan; and the 82-story Aqua Tower in downtown Chicago. Intertwined with their built work, Jeanne and the Studio also develop research and related projects such as publications and exhibitions that push design’s ability to create public awareness and give rise to change—a practice they call “actionable idealism.”
Jeanne and Studio Gang are currently designing major projects throughout the Americas and Europe. These include the expansion of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City; the new United States Embassy in Brasília, Brazil; a unified campus for the California College of the Arts in San Francisco; Civic Commons, a multi-city project reimagining public spaces across the United States; and mixed-use towers in Toronto, Chicago, Amsterdam, and Los Angeles
Gang’s work has been honored and exhibited widely, including at the International Venice Biennale, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. A MacArthur Fellow, 2017 William A. Bernoudy Architect in Residence at the American Academy in Rome, and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Jeanne has been honored with the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture and was named one of 2019’s most influential people in the world by TIME magazine. Further accolades include Architectural Review’s Architect of the Year, the Louis I. Kahn Memorial Award, and the Marcus Prize for Architecture. Reveal, her first volume on Studio Gang’s work and process, was published in 2011, followed by Reverse Effect: Renewing Chicago’s Waterways, and Studio Gang: Architecture in 2020.
To see a full schedule of the 2020 and 2021 Special Commencement Ceremony, and for other Commencement information, please visit the GSD’s Commencement webpage.