John Ronan

  • Professor
  • John and Jeanne Rowe Endowed Professor in Architecture
  • Director of Advanced Studios

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John Ronan is an architect and academic whose work and research focuses on spatial urbanism and the history and theory of material culture in architecture. He is the founding principal of John Ronan Architects, and recipient of numerous design awards including multiple American Institute of Architecture National Honor Awards. Professor Ronan’s work has been exhibited internationally and covered extensively by the international design press. His writings have appeared in books, architectural journals and literary magazines. In 2016 his firm was selected as one of seven international finalists for the Obama Presidential Center; in 2017 he received the Architecture Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His Poetry Foundation building was listed as one of the 125 best buildings of the last 125 years by Architectural Record. Professor Ronan has lectured widely throughout North America and Europe. He has been the Eugene McDermott Centennial Visiting Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, the John G. Williams Visiting Professor in Architecture at the University of Arkansas, and recipient of the Distinguished Professor award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.

Education

B.S., University of Michigan Ann Arbor
M.ARCH., Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Awards

American Academy of Arts and Letters Architecture Award (2017)

Architect R+D Award (2017)

Obama Presidential Center Design Competition Finalist (2016)

American Institute of Architects National Honor Award (2009, 2012)

Publications

Ronan, John. 2018. "Brick by Brick, Word by Word" Poetry Magazine

Professional Activities

Founding Principal of John Ronan Architects

Contact Information

312.951.6600 x21 3360 S. State Street, Chicago IL 60616 By Appointment

Media Appearances

Illinois Tech Architecture Professor John Ronan's Chicago Park District Headquarters Manifests Everyday Grandeur

Architectural Record

Illinois Institute of Technology Professor John Ronan’s formal and material choices are informed by the larger social-political project of which this building is a key part—that of bringing municipal agencies out of Chicago’s downtown and into the communities they serve, in this case the primarily Hispanic southwest neighborhood of Brighton Park. Both Ronan and the Park District’s staff understood that doing so meant more than transplanting the department’s drab, cubicle-dominated offices onto a new site. It meant creating a new neighborhood park and field house, and integrating into these public spaces a more open and accessible set of offices that would enable the roughly 200 Park District administrators to engage with the surrounding community and experience the services that the district provides on a daily basis.