College of Architecture News

Architecture Experts Take New Leadership Roles

Johnston will take helm as Dunham-Jones focuses on teaching, research

Atlanta (May 13, 2009) — The College of Architecture at Georgia Tech has named George B. Johnston director of the graduate program in architecture, as current director Ellen Dunham-Jones announces the end her eight-year term to devote time to teaching and research.

An international expert in urban design, Dunham-Jones’ leadership is marked with a long list of successes that includes strengthened master of science programs and two endowed professorships, and a distinct increase in architecture faculty publications overall.

In addition to teaching, Dunham-Jones will ramp up research activity that has exploded with the release of her book Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs (Wiley 2008). The book’s documentation of case studies that transform dead malls, office parks and commercial strips into more sustainable places has caught the attention of The New York Times, CBS News and Time magazine, which featured the book in its March 23 cover story, “10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now.”

“Our singular responsibility is to provide the most relevant, substantial and positive education in preparing our students for the future,” said Alan Balfour, Dean of the College of Architecture. “Students will not only benefit from the opportunity to work more deeply with a national thought leader in urban design, but they also will benefit from new leadership and fresh perspective from a leading scholar on American architectural practice.”

An architect and cultural historian, Johnston is nationally recognized for his scholarship on the architectural profession, and takes the helm after teaching at Georgia Tech for 25 years. His work focuses on the social, technological and cultural implications of making architecture in the American context, and his recent book, Drafting Culture: A Social History of Architectural Graphic Standards (MIT Press 2008), has been hailed for its provocative insights and its relevance to present controversies surrounding the advancement of architectural practice.

Johnston previously held positions of Associate Director and Interim Director of the Architecture Program, and currently teaches courses in architectural design and in the history and theory of architectural practice. He received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Mississippi State University in 1979, the Master of Architecture degree from Rice University in 1984, and the Doctor of Philosophy degree from Emory University in 2006 in the area of American Cultural History. Johnston is a registered architect and has practiced in firms in Mississippi, Texas and Georgia.

Connecting science, technology and the arts, the College of Architecture at Georgia Tech champions advancements in the designed and built environment. The extraordinary legacy of its one-hundred year history is evident around the globe - from the invention of the atrium hotel by John C. Portman (1950) to the design for the World Trade Center Memorial in New York by Michael Arad (1999). The College houses seven interdisciplinary research centers, including the Center for Music Technology, the Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access, the Center for Geographic Information Systems, the Construction Resources Center, the Advanced Wood Products Laboratory, the Interactive Media Architecture Group in Education and the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development.

return to News Home Page

CoA News Archives > Jump to Year:   2009  |  2008  |  2007  |  2006  |  2005  |  2004