Jeanne Gang


Jeanne Gang is an American architect and the founder and leader of Studio Gang, an architecture and urban design practice with offices in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Paris. She is known for apartment towers, first coming to wide attention with the Aqua Tower, which at the time of its completion was the tallest building in the world designed by a woman and has since been surpassed by the nearby St. Regis Chicago, also designed by Gang. She is also known for designing with an emphasis on sustainability and on social justice, and has designed a number of academic and public buildings.

Early life and education

Gang was born in Belvidere, Illinois, where her father was the engineer for Boone County. She graduated from Belvidere High School in 1982, then earned a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Illinois in 1986; during her third year, she studied in Versailles, France at the École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Versailles. In 1993 she earned a Master of Architecture with Distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
In 1989, Gang was awarded an Ambassadorial Scholarship from the Rotary Foundation to study at ETH Zurich.

Career

Gang worked with OMA/Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam and Booth Hansen in Chicago before establishing Studio Gang Architects in Chicago in 1997.
Gang has extensive built work in the Chicago area, beginning with the Starlight Theatre at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Illinois, a 1997 commission. In 2016, the Chicago Tribune named her one of its Chicagoans of the Year, and the following year Surface called her one of the most prominent Chicago architects of her generation. She was first widely recognized for the Aqua Tower, her first skyscraper, which at the time of its completion was the tallest building in the world designed by a woman. The nearby St. Regis Chicago, also of her design, has since taken the title. She has also designed several academic buildings in the region, boathouses on the Chicago River, and the Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo. In 2019, the team led by Gang won the international competition to design the new Global Terminal at O'Hare International Airport.
File:Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation - looking east.jpg|thumb|Richard Gilder Center at the American Museum of Natural History
She has also completed several projects in New York City, including the Richard Gilder Center at the American Museum of Natural History Other major projects in the United States include the renovation and expansion of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock, the expansion of Kresge College at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the new campus for California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and the Center for Arts & Innovation at Spelman College in Atlanta.
Internationally, Studio Gang was selected in 2016 to design the new United States Embassy in Brasília, Brazil. The University of Chicago Center in Paris opened in 2024; Q Residences in Amsterdam, the firm's first project in Europe, was completed in 2022. Studio Gang's work has been widely honored, published, and exhibited.
Gang prioritizes ecologically sensitive design and also social responsibility. Her Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College is the first building designed specifically for social justice and uses cordwood masonry, which she found "an old-school hippie" to teach; and some of her community projects are low-budget, such as the SOS Children's Villages Lavezzorio Community Center, which used donated concrete. Among Studio Gang's planning projects is a guide to re-envisioning and improving the Civic Commons published in 2016.
Gang is a Professor in Practice of Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she has taught since 2011 and in 2017 was the John Portman Design Critic in Architecture. She has also been a visiting studio critic at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, the Cullinan Visiting Professor at the Rice University School of Architecture, a visiting lecturer at the Princeton University School of Architecture, the Louis I. Kahn Junior Visiting Professor at the Yale University School of Architecture, and a studio critic at the Illinois Institute of Technology. She also lectures frequently. In 2016, she presented at the TED Women conference. On May 11, 2024, she delivered the commencement speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Publications

In 2024, Gang published The Art of Architectural Grafting, which presents a 10-point program for adaptive reuse on the analogy of horticultural grafting. She co-edited Building: Inside Studio Gang, a catalogue to accompany Studio Gang's solo exhibition at Art Institute of Chicago. In 2011, Studio Gang published Reverse Effect: Renewing Chicago's Waterways, an advocacy publication to spur the revival of the Chicago River.

Awards

Gang was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 2009, became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 2017, and also in 2017 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2018, she was elected an International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Gang received the Academy Award in Architecture of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2006 She was a 2011 MacArthur Fellow, the fourth architect to be selected, and was elected into the National Academy of Design in 2012. In 2013, she received the Jesse L. Rosenberger Medal by the University of Chicago, and she and Studio Gang were awarded the National Design Award for Architecture by the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. In 2014, she was one of five recipients in the inaugural year of the Architectural Record Women in Architecture awards. In 2015, she was awarded the Légion d'Honnaire by France. Gang was named the 2016 Architect of the Year by The Architectural Review, which cited the Arcus Center in particular. In 2017, she won the Public Humanities Award of the Illinois Humanities Council and the Marcus Prize for Architecture, and received the Louis I. Kahn Memorial Award of the Philadelphia Center for Architecture. In 2019, she was included in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influentual people. In 2022, she won the ULI Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development and was the first woman to receive the Charlotte Perriand Award, which recognizes architects whose work enhances the quality of life through design. Among specific buildings, the Aqua Tower was awarded a 2008 American Architecture Award by the Chicago Athenaeum, the 2009 Emporis Skyscraper Award, an Award of Excellence at the 2010 CTBUH Skyscraper Awards, and the 2011 Prix d'Excellence International Design Award of the International Real Estate Federation, and was a finalist for the 2010 International High-Rise Award; Mira won the jury award for unbuilt multi-unit residential buildings at the 2020 Architizer A+ Awards and four awards of excellence at the 2021 CTBUH Tall + Urban Innovation conference; and St. Regis Chicago won Best Tall Building by Height: 300–399 meters and two awards of excellence at the 2022 CTBUH Skyscraper Awards and a People's Choice Award and a certificate of merit from the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 2023.
She has received honorary doctorates from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

Personal life

Gang is married to Mark Schendel.

Projects

Education and research

Nature, culture, and community

Towers

ProjectLocationStatusYear
One DelisleToronto, Ontario, CanadaPre-construction2026
St. Regis ChicagoChicago, Illinois2022
11 HoytNew York City2021
One Hundred Above the ParkSt. Louis, Missouri2020
Solar Carve New York City2019
Solstice on the ParkChicago2018
MiraSan Francisco, California2017
City Hyde ParkChicago2016
ShorelandChicago2014
Recombinant House Cicero, IllinoisDesign concept completed2012
Aqua TowerChicago2010
Vancouver PairVancouver, British Columbia, CanadaDesign concept completed2010
Hyderabad O2Hyderabad, IndiaDesign concept completed2008
Zhong Bang VillageShanghai, ChinaCompetition design2003
Q ResidencesAmsterdam, Netherlands2022

Planning

Exhibitions