Deborah Berke, (image via blog.archpaper.com)

Deborah Berke, architect and founder of the New York-based design firm Deborah Berke Partners, will be the next dean of the Yale School of Architecture, announced President Peter Salovey in a message to the Yale community. Her appointment is effective July 1, 2016.

Cummins Indy Distribution Headquarters Indianapolis, IN, image © Deborah Berke Partners

“As a practicing architect and a long-time faculty member in the School of Architecture, Professor Berke is ideally positioned to lead it toward a successful future as it begins its second century,” said Salovey. “For more than 30 years, she has dedicated her career — in equal measures — to education and practice. She has taught architectural design using disciplinary approaches both integral to and less commonly associated with the world of architecture. This perspective, in her own words, helps students to understand they are part of a larger cultural conversation.”

432 Park Avenue New York, NY, image © Deborah Berke Partners

Berke has been an adjunct professor of architectural design at Yale since 1987, and will be the first woman to lead the School of Architecture, which in 2016 is celebrating the 100th anniversary of architecture being taught as a formal discipline at the university.

48 Bond Street New York, NY,  image © Deborah Berke Partners

Her expertise ranges from preservation and adaptation of historic buildings to urban landscape and sustainability. In her professional practice she designs private residences, hotels, residential and commercial developments, and institutional art and music buildings, including the renovation and expansion project that created the Yale School of Art’s Holcombe T. Green, Jr. Hall. The firm is led by Berke, her two partners, and eight principals; Berke will maintain her active role in the creative direction of the practice.

21c Museum Hotel Durham Durham, North Carolina, image © Deborah Berke Partners

Deborah Berke received many prestigious prizes including the Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Prize, Berke received a B.F.A. and a B.Arch. from the Rhode Island School of Design, which in 2005 awarded her an honorary doctor of fine arts. She pursued an honors thesis at the Architectural Association in London and holds an M.U.P. in urban design from the City University of New York.

Yale University School of Art New Haven, CT, image © Deborah Berke Partners

Berke's architecture practice continues a variety of works starting from furniture to master planning, which is generally described “knowing simplicity” and Deborah Berke Partners works with several groups that lead their practice in architecture including individuals, educational institutions, cultural groups, and innovative developers. The studio's main approach in design is to balance spaces that are poised between background and foreground with elegant aesthetic qualities. Berke's practice produces many different projects -institutional, commercial, residential and recently, Berke's design Cummins Indy Distribution HeadquartersIndianapolis in Indianapolis is in progress. Other well-known projects are including; 21c Museum Hotel DurhamDurham, North Carolina 2015, 432 Park AvenueNew York, NY (in progress), 48 Bond StreetNew York, NY (2008) and Yale University School of ArtNew Haven, CT (2000).

Please read the full story on news.yale.edu

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