TIME Magazine has named Jeanne Gang to the 2019 TIME 100. The Founding Principal of architecture and urban design practice Studio Gang, she is only architect included on this year’s list, which recognizes the activism, innovation, and achievement of the world’s most influential individuals. TIME editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal has said of the list in the past, “TIME’s annual list of the world’s most influential people is a designation of individuals whose time, in our estimation, is now.”
This recognition represents another milestone in an already historic year of high-profile commissions around the world for Gang. In January, she announced her first project in France, a new Center for the University of Chicago in Paris. Last month, she was selected as the lead
architect of the new Global Terminal at O’Hare International Airport. At 2.2 million square feet, it will be her largest project to date. These add to her already-impressive portfolio of ongoing cultural and civic projects across the Americas, which include an expansion of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, a new campus for the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and the new United States Embassy in Brazil.
In her entry, award-winning American actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith wrote: “For Jeanne, architecture is not just a wondrous object. It’s a catalyst for change. Her sleek, woody boathouses are helping to revive the polluted Chicago River by filtering runoff organically. Her Polis Station concept aims to improve the way civilians interact with law enforcement by fusing police stations with civic recreational centers.” Deavere Smith is the founding director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at New York University and, like Gang, is a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow.
With her award-winning built work, Gang is recognized for advancing the aesthetic, ecological, and technical possibilities of architecture. Currently a Professor in Practice at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, she has taught design studios on the re-use of concrete
buildings and the design of resilient social infrastructure as part of hurricane recovery efforts. Together with Studio Gang, she has implemented innovative design strategies to improve ecological biodiversity in cities such as bird-safe building techniques and an experimental prairie ecosystem on the rooftop of their Chicago office. At the same time, Gang has challenged the status quo in professional practice by closing the gender wage gap in her company and encouraging her colleagues to follow suit and achieve pay equity.
The full TIME 100 list and related tributes appear in the April 29, 2019 issue of TIME, available on newsstands on Friday, April 19, and online now at www.time.com/time100.
“For Jeanne, architecture is not just a wondrous object. It’s a catalyst for change. Her sleek, woody boathouses are helping to revive the polluted Chicago River by filtering runoff organically. Her Polis Station concept aims to improve the way civilians interact with law enforcement by fusing police stations with civic recreational centers.”