Architect Jeanne Gang to Present 'Materials That Connect' Lecture on Feb. 27

Tom Harris Photography

The Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Jeanne Gang will present a lecture at 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27, in Ken and Linda Sue Shollmier Hall, Room 250 of Vol Walker Hall, on the University of Arkansas campus, as part of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design lecture series.

Gang, FAIA, is the founding principal of Studio Gang, an architecture and urbanism practice with offices in Chicago and New York. She works across scales and typologies to test how design can strengthen relationships between individuals, communities and environments. Her interdisciplinary and research-driven approach has produced projects ranging from multi-acre urban parks to super-tall towers.

In her lecture, titled "Materials That Connect," she will discuss her recent and upcoming projects that use materiality to connect cities, people and the environment. These projects include the Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Writers Theater in Chicago and the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

An alumna of Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, Gang also holds a Bachelor of Science with honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and studied urban design at ETH Zürich as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. She has most recently taught at Columbia University, Rice University, and Harvard University, where her studios have reimagined urban police stations, aquariums and ecological infrastructure for the 21st century.

Additionally, Gang is the author of Reveal, the first volume on Studio Gang's work and process, which was published in 2011. She is also the author of Reverse Effect: Renewing Chicago's Waterways, which envisions a radically greener future for the Chicago River, and Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects, which accompanied Studio Gang's 2012 solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago.

She and Studio Gang are currently designing major projects throughout the Americas and Europe. These include the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock; an expansion of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City; the next United States Embassy in Brasília, Brazil; a unified campus for the California College of the Arts in San Francisco; a multi-city project reimagining civic buildings across the United States; and the National Building Museum's 2017 Summer Block Party installation in Washington, D.C.

Gang is a recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Grant, as well as the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture. The Architectural Review named her the 2016 Architect of the Year, and Architizer named Studio Gang the 2016 Office of the Year. Her work with Studio Gang has been honored and exhibited widely, including at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Museum of Modern Art, Chicago Architecture Biennial and Miami Art Basel.

This is the Charles Thompson Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Cromwell Architects Engineers.

The school is pursuing continuing education credits for this lecture through the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects.

The public is invited to attend this lecture. Admission is free, with limited seating.

For more information, contact 479-575-4704 or fayjones.uark.edu.