Plym Distinguished Professorship

The Plym Distinguished Professorship brings nationally and internationally recognized architects to the school for a semester or an academic year.

Plym Distinguished Professorship

The Professorship is conferred on an architect who has a prominent record of achievement and can make a positive contribution to the enrichment of the professional education of students in the School of Architecture. During their time on campus, Plym Professors typically serve as lead critic for a design studio in the M.Arch program, in collaboration with a School of Architecture faculty member.

This program is made possible by a 1981 gift to the school by the late Lawrence J. Plym of Niles, Michigan, past president of the Kawneer Corporation. Mr. Plym and his family have been important supporters and friends of the School of Architecture for several decades.

Following the term of each Plym Professor, a monograph is published on the architect’s work and the outcomes of the studio course they led; please see links to these monographs below.

Ellen Dunham-Jones Headshot

Ellen Dunham-Jones

Fall 2023

Ellen Dunham-Jones is Professor and Director of the Urban Design Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Ellen Dunham-Jones Headshot
headshot of wanda dalla costa

Wanda Dalla Costa

Fall 2022

Wanda Dalla Costa is Principal at Tawaw Architecture Collective and professor at Arizona State University.

headshot of wanda dalla costa
solano benitez in front of a masonry building

Via Floornature

Solano Benítez

Fall 2021

Solano Benítez is a Paraguayan architect and the founder of Gabinete de Arquitectura. In 2016 he won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

solano benitez in front of a masonry building

Via Floornature

black and white headshot of mark raymond

Mark Raymond

Spring 2021

Mark Raymond is an architect based in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

black and white headshot of mark raymond
Suchi Reddy seated against a white brick background

Suchi Reddy

Fall 2019

Suchi Reddy is the founder of New York City-based architecture firm Reddymade.

Suchi Reddy seated against a white brick background
Headshot of Gong Dong in his office

Gong Dong

Spring 2019

Gong Dong is the founder of Vector Architects, based in Beijing. He is an alum of the M.Arch program at the University of Illinois School of Architecture.

Headshot of Gong Dong in his office

Juhani Pallasmaa

2010-2011

Juhani Pallasmaa, architect SAFA, Hon. FAIA, Int FRIBA, and professor, runs an architectural office in Helsinki, Finland. Since the 1960’s he has been active in urban planning, architecture, exhibition design, product design, and graphic design.

Kenneth Frampton

2008-2009

Kenneth Frampton is Ware Professor Emeritus at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University. He previously worked as an architect and architectural historian and critic in England, Israel, and the United States.

Kengo Kuma

Fall 2007

Kengo Kuma is the founder of Kengo Kuma and Associates, based in Tokyo and Paris.

Ken Yeang

Spring 2006

Ken Yeang, a Malaysian architect, practices “deep green architecture,” a legacy with beginnings in the late 1960s. His built work is informed by the fundamental principles and possibilities of ecodesign.

William C. Miller

Fall 2003

William C. Miller, FAIA, is a Professor Emeritus of Architecture in the College of Architecture + Planning at the University of Utah, and an ACSA Distinguished Professor.

Norman Crowe

2002-2003

Norman Crowe is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Notre Dame, and Emeritus Director of Graduate Studies.

Frances Halsband

2001-2002

Frances Halsband, FAIA, is a founding partner of Kliment Halsband Architects.

Dominique Perrault

1997-1998

Dominique Perrault is the founder of Dominique Perrault Architecture, based in Paris.

Carme Pinós

1994-1995

Carme Pinós is the founder of Estudio Carme Pinós, which she launched in 1991 after successful collaboration with Enric Miralles.

Thom Mayne

1992-1993

Thom Mayne is a Founding Principal of Morphosis, based in Los Angeles and New York City.

Edmund Bacon

1991-1992

Edmund Bacon (1910-2005) spent a significant portion of his career as the Director of the Philadelphia Planning Commission, working to shape modern Philadelphia. He was an architect, urban planner, educator, and author of the influential Design of Cities, first published in 1967.

Minoru Takeyama

1989-1990

Minoru Takeyama is a Japanese architect known for his modern work in Tokyo.

Joseph Esherick

1986-1987

Joseph Esherick (1914-1998) was an American architect from Philadelphia. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania and taught at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1989, he received the AIA Gold Medal.

Paul Rudolph

1983-1984

Paul Rudolph (1918-1997) was an influential American modernist architect. He studied at Auburn University and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and led the Yale School of Architecture from 1958-1965.

Gunnar Birkerts

1982-1983

Gunnar Birkerts (1925-2017) was a Latvian-American architect based in Detroit, MI, and at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He was the first recipient of the Plym Distinguished Professorship.

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