Grace La, co-founder with James Dallman of LA DALLMAN Architects, and Associate Professor at the UWM School of Architecture & Urban Planning, has been appointed Full Professor with tenure at Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD), Department of Architecture.  Her appointment, officially announced on March 1st by Dean Mohsen Mostafavi, will take effect July 1, 2013.  The office of LA DALLMAN, which continues practice in Milwaukee, will also expand to Boston.

“Professor La’s expertise in the integration of building, infrastructure, and landscape will add a significant dimension to our program and its global community. We are delighted that she will join our faculty,” says Dean Mostafavi.

LA DALLMAN has received over forty professional honors, including Design Awards from the American Institute of Architects Wisconsin, and prizes in international competitions.  In 2011, LA DALLMAN was the first American firm awarded The Rice Design Alliance Prize, recognizing “exceptionally gifted architects in the early phase of their career.”  LA DALLMAN was named an Emerging Voice by the Architectural League of New York, and has received a Bruner Award for Urban Excellence Silver Medal.

“Through her commitment to teaching and successful practice, Professor La has proven her ability to link the profession and the academy,” says Melinda Starmer, GSD Director of Faculty Planning.  La has won four Faculty Design Awards from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture for work “that advances the reflective nature of practice and teaching.”  Her firm has also won Design Engineering awards from the national CRSI, the ASC-Wisconsin and the SEA-Illinois.  LA DALLMAN is featured in publications by Architect Magazine, a+t, Architectural Record, Azure, Praxis, Topos, Princeton Architectural Press and Routledge.  Architect Magazine profiled the firm’s design culture in June 2012.

“We are very proud of Professor La’s accomplishments as both a teacher and practitioner in her thirteen years of dedication to UWM.  Her ongoing commitment to the built environment has garnered international attention,” says Dean Robert Greenstreet of UWM School of Architecture & Urban Planning.  La was appointed to the UWM faculty in 1999, serving as a tenured Associate Professor at UWM since 2005, and is currently the Chair of the Planning and Coordinating Committee in the Department of Architecture.  In 2012, La received a unanimous vote by UWM’s Division of the Professions for appointment to Full Professor.  La has also held visiting professorships at Harvard University Graduate School of Design (2010) and Syracuse University School of Architecture (2011).

Grace La’s UWM academic research, funded by KI, is currently exhibited at Discovery World, and was featured at the 2010 Metropolis conference.  She is co-author of Skycar City (Actar, 2007) featuring the inaugural Marcus Prize Studio, which was exhibited at the 2008 Venice Biennale, the world’s most prestigious art and architecture exhibition.  Grace La is co-founder and three-time editor of UWM's Calibrations, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Architectural Education.  

“I am honored with this appointment and for the opportunity to further advance my pedagogy.” says Grace La.  “James and I are grateful for the continuing support of our clients, colleagues, and community collaborators, who have allowed us to innovate on contemporary architectural challenges.”

Grace La has lectured widely, including at the Carnegie Museum of Art, the National Building Museum, the New Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.  She received her M.Arch with thesis distinction from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, winning the Clifford Wong Housing Prize.  She graduated A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard University in Visual and Environmental Studies.

LA DALLMAN’s built work includes Kilbourn Tower, the Miller Brewing Meeting Center (building by Ulrich Franzen), the UWM Hillel Student Center, the Great Lakes Future and City of Freshwater Permanent Exhibits at Discovery World, the Ravine House and the Gradient House.  The firm’s Crossroads Project, which transforms infrastructure for public use, includes a 700’ Marsupial Bridge slung from an existing viaduct, a bus shelter, and a media garden.  LA DALLMAN is currently commissioned to design renovations and additions to the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts (original building by Harry Weese and landscape by Dan Kiley), and the Harmony Project, a 100,000 sf hybrid arts building for a ballet, school, university dance program, and medical clinic.  The Harmony Project design process was recently awarded a 2012 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.