Faculty Directory

Lydia Soo received her Ph.D. in Architecture from Princeton University in 1989 (M.A. 1983). She also holds degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: an M.Arch., 1978, and a B.S. in Architectural Studies, 1976. Soo is an historian of architecture and architectural theory who is internationally recognized for her work on the 17th century British architect Sir Christopher Wren. During the winter term of 2003 Soo was the Laing Visiting Professor in Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her book Wren's "Tracts" on Architecture and Other Writings, published in 1998, has been reissued in paperback (2007). She has written articles examining specific problems of 17th century culture, theory, and architecture, including "A Baroque City?: London After the Great Fire of 1666" in Giambattista Nolli, Rome and Mapping: Before and After the Pianta Grande, forthcoming, and "The Study of China and Chinese Architecture in Restoration England," in Architectura: Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Baukunst, 2001.