Jeanne Gang (born March 19, 1964) is an American architect and the founder and leader of Studio Gang (established in 1997), an architecture and urban design practice with offices in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Paris. Gang was first widely recognized for the Aqua Tower, the tallest woman-designed building in the world at the time of its completion. Aqua has since been surpassed by the nearby St. Regis Chicago, also of her design. Surface has called Gang one of Chicago's most prominent architects of her generation, and her projects have been widely awarded.

Biography

Raised in Belvidere, Illinois, Gang graduated from Belvidere High School in 1982. She went on to earn her Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Illinois in 1986 and a Master of Architecture with Distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1993. In 1989, Gang earned an Ambassadorial Scholarship from the Rotary Foundation to study at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). She also studied at the École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Versailles -ENSAV-, in Versailles, France. Prior to establishing Studio Gang in 1997, she worked with OMA/Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam and Booth Hansen in Chicago. A 2011 MacArthur Fellow, Gang and her Studio were awarded the 2013 National Design Award for Architecture from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Gang was named the 2016 Woman Architect of the Year by the Architectural Review. In 2017, she was honored with the Louis I. Kahn Memorial Award (Philadelphia Center for Architecture) and Fellowship in the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2018, she was elected an International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), a lifetime honor. Currently a Professor in Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), Gang has also served as the John Portman Design Critic in Architecture and a visiting critic at the GSD (2017 and 2011), a visiting studio critic at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (2015), the Cullinan Visiting Professor at Rice University School of Architecture (2014), a visiting lecturer at the Princeton University School of Architecture (2007), the Louis I. Kahn Junior Visiting Professor at Yale University School of Architecture (2005), and a studio critic at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Gang lectures frequently throughout the world. In 2016, she presented at the TED Women conference. On April 10, 2018, Gang gave a lecture called, "Mining the City" at the University of Chicago. In 2019, Gang gave a lecture at Princeton University called, "What does architectural practice need". On May 11, 2024, Gang delivered the commencement speech at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Gang is known for her special work style of creating a connection between modern architecture and nature. Focusing on organic forms and materials, Gang prioritizes social responsibility through her clear relationship between architecture and the environment. In 2023, Jeanne Gang received the Charlotte Perriand Award, making her the first woman architect to win this prestigious honor. This award recognizes architects whose work enhances the quality of life through design.

Work

Gang's extensive built work in the Chicago area includes St. Regis Chicago, University of Chicago Campus North Residential Commons, Writers Theatre, City Hyde Park, the WMS Boathouse at Clark Park and Eleanor Boathouse at Park 571 on the Chicago River, Northerly Island, Aqua Tower, the Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo, the Columbia College Chicago Media Production Center, Solstice on the Park, and the SOS Children's Villages Lavezzorio Community Center. In 2014, Gang and her Studio completed the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College. Her completed projects in New York include the Gilder Center at The American Museum of Natural History; Solar Carve in the Meatpacking District; Rescue Company 2 for the New York City Fire Department; and 11 Hoyt in downtown Brooklyn. Other major projects completed in the United States include the renovation and expansion of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock, and the expansion of Kresge College at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her Studio has also designed the new unified campus for California College of the Arts in San Francisco and the Center for Arts & Innovation at Spelman College in Atlanta, both of which are under construction. Internationally, Gang's portfolio includes several projects under construction, including the new United States Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil, the University of Chicago Center in Paris, France, and One Delisle in Toronto. Q Residences, her Studio's first project in Europe, was completed in 2020. On March 27, 2019, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that the design team led by Gang, Studio ORD, had been selected as the winner of an international design competition for the new $2.2 billion Global Terminal at O'Hare International Airport. Studio Gang's work has been honored, published, and exhibited widely. In 2018, the Studio presented the installation Stone Stories as part of the United States Pavilion exhibition Dimensions of Citizenship at the Venice Architecture Biennale; in 2017, the Studio was selected to design the National Building Museum's Summer Block Party installation; in 2012, the Studio was featured in the solo exhibition Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects at the Art Institute of Chicago; and in 2011, the Studio participated in the Museum of Modern Art exhibition Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream. The Studio's work has also been shown at the Chicago Architecture Biennial (2015 and 2017) and Design Miami (2014). Gang is the author The Art of Architectural Grafting, a forthcoming publication by Park Books. Other architectural books written by or about Gang and the Studio include Studio Gang: Architecture, the latest monograph on the firm's work, published by Phaidon in English (2020) and French (2021); Reveal (2011), the first volume on the Studio's work and process; and Building: Inside Studio Gang (2012), a catalogue co-edited by Gang to accompany the Studio's solo exhibition at Art Institute of Chicago. In 2011, the Studio published Reverse Effect: Renewing Chicago's Waterways, an advocacy publication to spur the revival of the Chicago River.

Projects

Education and research

Nature, culture, and community

Towers

Exhibitions

Planning

Awards and honors

External links and additional reading