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Harvard Crimson names Alex Krieger one of University’s “15 Professors of the Year”

The Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Alex Krieger is among the 15 Harvard University professors spotlighted in the Harvard Crimson’s annual “15 Professors of the Year” feature, which runs in the Crimson’s Fifteen Minutes section.

Currently professor in practice of urban design, Krieger has taught at the GSD since 1977, including time as chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design (1998 to 2004 and 2006 to 2007) and as Director of the Urban Design Program (1990 to 2001). He also served as associate chairman of the Department of Architecture from 1984 to 1989. In addition to leading design studios and seminar courses at the GSD, Krieger teaches a general education class on the evolution of American cities at Harvard College. He is also a GSD alumnus, earning the Master of City Planning in Urban Design in 1977.

GSD professor Alex Krieger
GSD professor Alex Krieger

The Crimson’s honor is not the first recognition Krieger has received over this teaching career. In 2003, 2005, and 2007, the University honored him as one of its outstanding teachers, and Design Intelligence magazine named him one of seven “Architectural Educators of the Year” in 2007.

Outside the classroom, Krieger is a principal at NBBJ, a global architecture and planning firm. He has also served in several University-wide roles including as senior planning advisor for Harvard’s campus expansion into Allston, and on the recently established design review committees for both the Allston and Cambridge campuses.

Speaking with the Crimson, Krieger touched on, among other topics, what inspired him to pursue design and how he views the balance of art and science within architecture.

“There are certainly a lot of pragmatic, technical considerations involved [in architecture],” Krieger says. “But there’s also the act of creating something that doesn’t exist… You feel pretty darn good about seeing something realized, something tangible that didn’t exist before. … it’s kind of nice to know that you helped improve the well being of a bunch of people, whether it’s a health care building, or a promenade, or a modest center for a private school in Cambridge.”

Read Krieger’s full Q&A, and learn about the other 14 Harvard faculty honored this year, via the Crimson’s feature.