Architect, urbanist, and New Urbanism proponent Stefanos Polyzoides has been chosen to lead the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture. 

According to an announcement from on the University of Notre Dame website, Polyzoides was selected as the new dean of the school due to his reputation as an “award-winning architect and urbanist whose approach to design emphasizes cultural continuity, urban regeneration, environmental responsibility and community engagement.” 

Polyzoides will be taking over for Michael Lykoudis, who recently spoke out against the proposed “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” executive order. 

Polyzoides is the cofounder of Moule & Polyzoides, a Pasadena, California-based architecture and urban planning firm known around the world for its contextually sensitive and pedestrian-oriented designs. Polyzoides co-founded the firm with partner and wife Elizabeth Moule in 1990. The pair has completed over 700 design projects around the world and are considered to be two of the six co-founders of the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU), an activist design group best known for attempting to reintroduce vernacular architectural principles into American design vocabulary over the last 30 years. Today, the CNU has over 3,000 members worldwide and has seen its urban design and aesthetic principles codified into a wide range of planning documents, laws, and other regulatory structures.

In the university announcement, University of Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins touted Polyzoides‘s record as a designer and practitioner, stating, “Stefanos brings to Notre Dame an international reputation for architectural work informed by tradition and moral purpose. He brings together design, the realities of urban living and sustainable development to produce buildings that serve communities and humanity. His leadership will enrich our School of Architecture.”

Reacting to his selection, Polyzoides explained via the university website that he is “deeply honored to have been chosen by Notre Dame to be the next dean of its School of Architecture,” while adding, “In recent years, I have come to believe that this may well be the single institution in our country that prepares its students to address the diverse acute needs of our time. Not satisfied with teaching skills alone, the school professes an architecture and urbanism that is centered on human values, personal responsibility and community contribution.”

“I plan to safeguard the school’s pedagogical excellence,” Polyzoides continues, “while leading our faculty and students to renewing the process of learning from tradition and directing our collective energies to the urban, institutional and environmental challenges facing every region and culture of the world. Liz and I are excited about engaging with colleagues in various schools and departments whose work may illuminate the teaching and practice of architecture, and becoming active members of the Notre Dame family and South Bend community.”

Polyzoides was born in Athens, Greece, and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from Princeton University. He has lived and practiced in Southern California since 1973 and has taught previously at the University of Southern California School of Architecture. He is a registered architect in the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Florida and Texas.

Polyzoides is set to take up his new post on July 1, 2020.