Lars Lerup
Biography
Lars Lerup is the Harry K. and Albert K. Smith Professor in Architecture and Dean at Rice University.
Lerup received a civil engineering diploma in 1960 at the Helsingborg Technical College. He received a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of California–Berkeley in 1968 and his master’s from Harvard in 1970. He joined the Rice faculty in 1993 as the William Ward Watkin Professor of Architecture and dean of the architecture school. Under Lerup’s leadership, the School of Architecture has achieved national prominence. According to the Almanac of Architecture & Design 2001, Rice ranked No. 1 among schools and colleges of architecture in the Southern region of the United States and No. 4 nationally in a customer-satisfaction survey of more than 800 leading U.S. architecture firms by the Design Futures Council. Lerup has received many honors and awards in architectural competitions for buildings as well as furniture and design. His work has been exhibited in the United States and Europe. Lerup facilitated Swedish-American cooperation on the STARS Design project at NASA by getting Swedish students in architecture and design from Lund University to participate. Last year, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture selected Lerup as an ACSA Distinguished Professor, one of the association’s highest awards. His book After the City has been published by MIT Press.
