Pelli Distinguished Lecturers
The Pelli Lecture Series has been made possible through the generous estate gift of world-renowned architect and celebrated Illinois Architecture alumnus César Pelli. Pelli received his Master of Science in Architecture in 1954 from the University of Illinois and went on to design some of the world’s most iconic buildings, most notably the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.
Helena Sandman
Spring 2024
Helena Sandman is a practicing architect focusing on empathic design and impactful architecture. She views the role of an architect as a creative mediator and sees architecture as an empowering tool. She has her private architecture firm and is a founding partner of Leapfrog Projects, a global strategy and design consultancy specializing in complex sustainability initiatives. Currently, she holds a 5-year title of Art Professor from the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.
Kelly Bair
Fall 2023
Kelly Bair is Partner at BairBalliet and Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture.
Ana Pinto da Silva
Fall 2023
Ana Pinto da Silva is the founder of 2G3R and Associate Teaching Professor at the University of Washington Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering.
Germane Barnes
Fall 2022
Germane Barnes’ award winning research and design practice investigates the connection between architecture and identity, examining architecture’s social and political agency through historical research and design speculation. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Miami School of Architecture and founder of Studio Barnes.
Andrés Mignucci, FAIA
Fall 2022
Andrés Mignucci, FAIA, is a Puerto Rican educator, architect, and urbanist. His work has received recognition for its integration of the disciplines of architecture, urban design, and landscape architecture in the creation of buildings and spaces with a sense of place, human scale, and environmental responsibility.
Carol Ross Barney, FAIA
Spring 2022
Carol Ross Barney (BSAS ’71) is the design principal and founder of Chicago-based Ross Barney Architects, an architecture, urban design, and landscape architecture studio. In her career that spans nearly 50 years, Ross Barney’s work includes the reconstructed Oklahoma City Federal Building, two of Chicago’s most heavily used transit stations at Fullerton and Belmont Avenues, and the Chicago River Walk project. While varied in type and scale, her projects have been almost exclusively in the public realm, earning her an international reputation in design of institutional and public buildings.
Sumayya Vally
Fall 2021
Sumayya Vally, co-founder of the Johannesburg-based studio Counterspace, was named on the 2021 Time100 Next list of people “poised to make history” as the most influential architect “who is shaping and defining the next generation of leadership.” Vally led the design of the 20th Serpentine Pavilion in London. She is the youngest architect ever commissioned for this prestigious and internationally renowned project.
Toshiko Mori
Spring 2021
Toshiko Mori, founder of the New York-based firm Toshiko Mori Architect, is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Design. She is the Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design and is well known for her research-based approach to design.