Mónica Ponce de León steps down as dean of Princeton School of Architecture
Architect and educator Mónica Ponce de León will step down from her role as dean of the School of Architecture at Princeton University after 10 years of leadership.
Today, Princeton University announced that Mónica Ponce de León will end her term as dean at the end of 2025.
The architect joined the school in 2016 following the sudden departure of then Dean Alejandro Zaera-Polo in October 2014 and served as dean as well as running her practice MPdL Studio.
She is known for her pioneering work in the use of robotics in fabrication. Under Ponce de León, Princeton completed the Embodied Computation Lab, a large-scale lab space dedicated to architectural research, fabrication, and robotics.
Additionally, during her tenure, Ponce de León doubled the number of participating students in undergraduate and professional master's degree programs and helped to develop conferences and symposia, including an annual student-organised conference, Women in Design and Architecture.
"Princeton and the School of Architecture are truly extraordinary," said Ponce de León. "I have been lucky to work with such remarkable students, an unparalleled faculty and a dedicated staff."
Ponce de León noted she was particularly proud of how she guided the school during the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping studios open to students after implementing safety measures.
She is the recipient of several awards for her work, including the Cooper Hewitt/Smithsonian National Design Award in Architecture, the Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, several Progressive Architecture Awards and the excellence in teaching award from the Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA).
In 2016, she was also inducted into the National Academy of Design.
Previously, Ponce de León served as dean of the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan from 2008 to 2015, and was a professor at the GSD for twelve years.
According to Princeton, the provost will oversee a process to select the next dean of the school.
Recently, the school presented a self-balancing brick arch made in collaboration with SOM in Venice and in 2020, sued Tod Williams Billie Tsien for the careless and lengthy design and construction of a research institute on campus.
The photography is courtesy of Princeton University.
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