Alan Balfour
Dean
College of Architecture
Alan Balfour, Dean and Professor,
College of Architecture
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Alan Balfour is Professor and Dean of the College of Architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
His return to Georgia Tech continues a distinguished international career in education. Most recently dean of the School of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Balfour was previously chairman of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, dean of the School of Architecture at Rice University in Houston and director of the Architecture Program in the College of Architecture at Georgia Tech.
In all his major roles in education, he has sought to advance design in the broadest sense, creating strong professional programs and developing innovative graduate degrees on topics ranging from design theory to application of new technologies.
Educated at Edinburgh and Princeton and a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Balfour is a distinguished scholar with award-winning books on cities and culture including works on Berlin, Shanghai, and New York.
His most recent book Creating a Scottish Parliament (Finlay Brown, Edinburgh 2005) offers an intimate exploration of the conceptualization both of the political structure for a devolved Scotland and the architecture that would symbolize and be the instrument for its advancement. In 2002 he completed three books on three world cities; in them the city is viewed as the most tangible residue of the complexity of society's desires. Shanghai was published in 2002 and New York in 2001, (both from Wiley/Academy, London). The first in the series was Berlin published by Academy Editions in 1995, which documents the transformation of Berlin before and after the collapse of the 'Wall', This and an earlier book Berlin: The Politics of Order: 1737-1989 (Rizzoli 1990), received AIA International Book Awards. Other books include Portsmouth (Studio Vista 1970), Rockefeller Center: Architecture as Theater (McGraw-Hill 1978), with contributions to The Edge of the Millennium (Cooper Hewitt 1993), Cities of Artificial Excavation: The Work of Peter Eisenman (Rizzoli International /CCA 1994) and Recovering Landscape (Princeton Architectural Press 1999). His current work is a reflection on religion and reality in the Middle East.
Balfour was the year 2000 recipient of the Topaz Medal, the highest recognition given in North America to an educator in architecture.
(More at alanbalfour.com)
