Mary McLeod (academic)

Last updated
Mary McLeod
Academic background
EducationPrinceton University
Thesis Urbanism and utopia : Le Corbusier from regional syndicalism to Vichy  (2007)

Mary Caroline McLeod is a professor of architectural history and theory at Columbia University known for her examination of modern architecture, especially the work of Le Corbusier. She is a fellow of the Society of Architectural Historians, and has received many fellowships and awards, including a Brunner Award, Fulbright Fellowship, NEH award, and grants from New York Council of the Arts and the Graham Foundation. [1]

Contents

Education and career

McLeod has a B.S., M.Arch, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. [2] As of 2021, she is a professor of architecture at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP). [3] She has also previously worked as a professor at Harvard University, the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, University of Miami, and University of Kentucky. [3]

McLeod's essays have been published in journals and anthologies such as Oppositions , Assemblage , Art Journal , Harvard Design Magazine , AA Files, JSAH , Casabella, The Sex of Architecture, Architecture in Fashion, Architecture of the Everyday, Architecture and Feminism, The Pragmatist Imagination, Architecture Theory since 1968, The State of Architecture, Fragments: Architecture and the Unfinished, Le Parole dell'Architettura, and Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art. [4] Her main focus is on modern architecture specially Le Corbusier [5] and she received the Arnold Brunner grant in 2015 which she used to research Le Corbusier's response to World War II. [6]

In 2019, McLeod was one of three who study architecture and joined to discuss Bauhaus architecture with Architectural Record. [7] McLeod has also published on the English architect Alan Colquhoun [8] and organized the 2021 colloquium celebrating his life. [9] McLeod and Victoria Rosner led an effort to expand knowledge about women in architecture through five years of research in the field. [10] Regarding women in architecture, McLeod has been quoted in the Christian Science Monitor for her work noting that female architects "...don't have as much panache for the big glitter jobs". [11] The website Pioneering Women of American Architecture, launched by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation in 2017, continues to make visible the achievements of women's contributions to American architecture. [12]

Selected bibliography

Recognition

In 2020, McLeod was named a fellow of the Society of Architectural Historians. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Le Corbusier</span> Swiss-French architect (1887–1965)

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier, was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland to French speaking Swiss parents, and acquired French nationality by naturalization on 19 September 1930. His career spanned five decades, in which he designed buildings in Europe, Japan, India, as well as North and South America. He considered that "the roots of modern architecture are to be found in Viollet-le-Duc".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Gropius</span> German-American architect (1883–1969)

Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of Bauhaus in Weimar (1919). Gropius was also a leading architect of the International Style. Gropius emigrated from Germany to England in 1934 and from England to the United States in 1937, where he spent the rest of his life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Style</span> 20th-century modern architectural style

The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to functional and utilitarian designs and construction methods, typically expressed through minimalism. The style is characterized by modular and rectilinear forms, flat surfaces devoid of ornamentation and decoration, open and airy interiors that blend with the exterior, and the use of glass, steel, and concrete.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modern architecture</span> Architectural movement and style

Modern architecture, also called modernist architecture, was an architectural movement and style that was prominent in the 20th century, between the earlier Art Deco and later postmodern movements. Modern architecture was based upon new and innovative technologies of construction ; the principle functionalism ; an embrace of minimalism; and a rejection of ornament.

<i>Unité dhabitation</i> 1940s modernist residential housing design principle by Le Corbusier and Nadir Afonso

The Unité d'habitation is a modernist residential housing typology developed by Le Corbusier, with the collaboration of painter-architect Nadir Afonso. It formed the basis of several housing developments throughout Europe designed by Le Corbusier and sharing the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eileen Gray</span> Irish architect and furniture designer

Eileen Gray was an Irish interior designer, furniture designer and architect who became a pioneer of the Modern Movement in architecture. Over her career, she was associated with many notable European artists of her era, including Kathleen Scott, Adrienne Gorska, Le Corbusier, and the architect Jean Badovici, with whom she was romantically involved and who taught her architecture and collaborated with her on various buildings. Their most famous work is the house known as E-1027 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation</span> Architecture school of Columbia University

The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) is the architecture school of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. It is also home to the Masters of Science program in Advanced Architectural Design, Historic Preservation, Real Estate Development, Urban Design, and Urban Planning.

Albert Frey was a Swiss-born architect who established a style of modernist architecture centered on Palm Springs, California, United States, that came to be known as "desert modernism".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Jeanneret</span> Swiss architect (1896–1967)

Pierre Jeanneret was a Swiss architect who collaborated with his cousin, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, for about twenty years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte Perriand</span> French architect and designer

Charlotte Perriand was a French architect and designer. Her work aimed to create functional living spaces in the belief that better design helps in creating a better society. In her article "L'Art de Vivre" from 1981 she states "The extension of the art of dwelling is the art of living — living in harmony with man's deepest drives and with his adopted or fabricated environment." Charlotte liked to take her time in a space before starting the design process. In Perriand's Autobiography, "Charlotte Perriand: A Life of Creation", she states: "I like being alone when I visit a country or historic site. I like being bathed in its atmosphere, feeling in direct contact with the place without the intrusion of a third party." Her approach to design includes taking in the site and appreciating it for what it is. Perriand felt she connected with any site she was working with or just visiting she enjoyed the living things and would reminisce on a site that was presumed dead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modern furniture</span> Furniture designed from the 19th century to the present day

Modern furniture refers to furniture produced from the late 19th century through the present that is influenced by modernism. Post-World War II ideals of cutting excess, commodification, and practicality of materials in design heavily influenced the aesthetic of the furniture. It was a tremendous departure from all furniture design that had gone before it. There was an opposition to the decorative arts, which included Art Nouveau, Neoclassical, and Victorian styles. Dark or gilded carved wood and richly patterned fabrics gave way to the glittering simplicity and geometry of polished metal. The forms of furniture evolved from visually heavy to visually light. This shift from decorative to minimalist principles of design can be attributed to the introduction of new technology, changes in philosophy, and the influences of the principles of architecture. As Philip Johnson, the founder of the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art articulates:

"Today industrial design is functionally motivated and follows the same principles as modern architecture: machine-like simplicity, smoothness of surface, avoidance of ornament ... It is perhaps the most fundamental contrast between the two periods of design that in 1900 the Decorative Arts possessed ..."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cassina S.p.A.</span> Italian manufacturing company

Cassina S.p. A. is an Italian manufacturing company specialised in the creation of high-end designer furniture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beatriz Colomina</span> Spanish-born American historian (born 1952)

Beatriz Colomina is an architecture historian, theorist and curator. She is the founding director of the Program in Media and Modernity at Princeton University, the Howard Crosby Butler Professor of the History of Architecture and director of graduate studies in the School of Architecture.

Feminist theory as it relates to architecture has forged the way for the rediscovery of such female architects as Eileen Gray, Charlotte Perriand, Marion Mahoney Griffin, Lilly Reich, Jane Drew, Lina Bo Bardi, Anne Tyng, Norma Merrick Sklarek, Denise Scott Brown, among many others. These women imagined an architecture that challenged the status quo, and paved the way for future women designers and architects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in architecture</span> Overview of women architects

Women in architecture have been documented for many centuries, as professional practitioners, educators and clients. Since architecture became organized as a profession in 1857, the number of women in architecture has been low. At the end of the 19th century, starting in Finland, certain schools of architecture in Europe began to admit women to their programmes of study. In 1980 M. Rosaria Piomelli, born in Italy, became the first woman to hold a deanship of any school of architecture in the United States, as Dean of the City College of New York School of Architecture. In recent years, women have begun to achieve wider recognition within the profession, however, the percentage receiving awards for their work remains low. As of 2023, 11.5% of Pritzker Prize Laureates have been female.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chaise Longue (Le Corbusier)</span>

Chaise longue à réglage continu, also Chaise longue modèle B 306 à réglage continu or Chaise longue B 306, is a chaise longue designed by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and the French designer Charlotte Perriand, who worked in the atelier of the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier and his partner Pierre Jeanneret.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Schreiber-Aujame</span>

Edith Schreiber-Aujame was a Franco-American architect and urban planner. She was born in Rymanów, Poland and died in France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mabel O. Wilson</span> American architect

Mabel O. Wilson is an American architect, designer, and scholar. She is the founder of Studio& and a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.

<i>The Price of Desire</i> 2015 Belgian film

The Price of Desire is a 2015 Belgian-Irish biographical drama film directed by Mary McGuckian.

Simone Prouvé is a French textile artist, best known for her abstract weaved works for architecture or furniture with traditional materials and innovative materials such as stainless steel wire or fiberglass. Her works are exhibited at the Centre Pompidou.

References

  1. "Yale School of architecture". YSoA. Retrieved 25 July 2024.
  2. "Graham Foundation > Grantees > Mary McLeod". grahamfoundation.org. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  3. 1 2 "Mary Mc Leod". Columbia GSAPP. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  4. "Mary McLeod: Architecture and Revolution: Le Corbusier's Urbanism and Politics, 1930–42 | Cornell AAP". aap.cornell.edu.
  5. "An Interview With Mary McLeod". Architectural Theory Review. 7 (1): 65–78. 2002-04-01. doi:10.1080/13264820209478445. ISSN   1326-4826. S2CID   218638380.
  6. Sareva, Martta (March 25, 2015). "2015 Arnold W. Brunner Grant Winners Announced". AIA New York. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  7. Stephens, Suzanne (June 1, 2019). "Three Historians Discuss the Bauhaus". www.architecturalrecord.com. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  8. McLeod, Mary (2014). Colquhonery : Alan Colquhoun from bricolage to myth. London: Architectural Association. ISBN   978-1-907896-52-1.
  9. "EVENT: Close Readings: Alan Colquhoun 1921–2012. A Centenary Colloquium. Online, 25 June 2021". eahn. 2021-06-16. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  10. Fixsen, Anna (December 15, 2017). "New Website Spotlights America's Forgotten Female Architects". Metropolis. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  11. Strickland, Carol (2009-08-03). "Mosque modern". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN   0882-7729 . Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  12. Voon, Claire (2018-01-01). "A New Website Profiles Pioneering Female Architects". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  13. "Society of Architectural Historians Names 2020 Class of Fellows". www.sah.org. Retrieved 2021-11-10.