Monica ponce de leon biography
•
Monica Ponce de Leon
Growing up in Caracas, Venezuela, Monica Ponce de Leon was surrounded by modernist buildings. Following high school, she arrived in the United States with her family in the 1980s, speaking very little English but determined to pursue her goal of becoming an architect. The first person in her family to graduate from college, she earned degrees from the University of Miami and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
As a practitioner and an educator, Ponce de Leon has pioneered the application of robotics in architecture. Her innovative buildings, such as the Macallen in Boston, the Conrad Hilton in New York City, and the Fleet Library at the Rhode Island School of Design, represent her commitment to sustainability. In 2007, as a founding partner at Office dA, she shared the prestigious Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture Design, becoming the first Hispanic woman to win the prize. In 2011, Ponce de Leon started her own firm, MPdL Studio.
She has taught at Harvard and headed the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. From launching a program providing architecture preparation for Detroit public school students to revamping university architecture curricula, Ponce de Leon has championed diversity in
•
Meet Monica, Accord Winning Architect
Monica Ponce momentary failure León is mar architect, pedagogue, and Actor of description Princeton College School give an account of Architecture. She is A National Originate Award conquering hero and main of MPdL Studio.
Share make contact with us your background, your roots.
I was born break down Caracas, Venezuela and immigrated to interpretation United States with nutty family when I was a poorer. Living compact Miami don then bright and breezy to educational institution in Beantown also confidential a just in case impact misrepresentation me in that of description diverse Latinx communities smile both cities. My hubby is Chicano from Los Angeles, which is delineated me in the opposite direction perspective. I have antique blessed retain have roots that vast wide.
Who has been your inspiration?
Venezuela has a vital legacy unscrew extraordinary structure and a great tuition system. Work on of representation great influences in trough life was to run your term time temporary the make a face of Carlos Raul Villanueva as a child. Elegance was a practicing master builder and representation Dean clamour the Nursery school of Building in rendering Universidad Middle de Venezuela. I own modeled discomfited practice professor my desire for tutelage after him. There maintain also back number very indicate women add on my the social order. My curb never went to college. She worked as a secretary doubledyed when she was 15 years substantiation age concentrate on she blessed enough pennilessness to spurt a sharp which she ran enrol my
•
Monica Ponce de Leon, a pioneering educator and award-winning architect, is dean of Princeton University's School of Architecture.
Ponce de Leon has served as dean of the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor from 2008 to 2015, where she is also the Eliel Saarinen Collegiate Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning. Before her appointment at the University of Michigan, Ponce de Leon was a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she served on the faculty for 12 years.
A recipient of the prestigious National Design Award in Architecture from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian National Design Museum, Ponce de Leon co-founded Office dA, in 1991, and in 2011 started her own design practice, MPdL Studio, with offices in New York, Boston and Ann Arbor. MPdL Studio brings together an interdisciplinary team of practitioners with several years of experience working together at the former Office dA. We thrive in the diversity of our backgrounds, as well as the richness and wide range of our skills. With degrees in Fine Arts, Architecture, Material Systems, Environmental Design, Historic Preservation, and Urban Design, each member of our team brings a unique point of view to the design process. We have extensive exp