Jonathan Massey

Architect and historian Jonathan Massey is dean and a professor of architecture at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. He is an accomplished scholar of modern architecture and a leading authority on architecture and planning education.

Before joining Taubman College in 2017, Massey was dean of architecture at California College of Arts in San Francisco. Prior to that, he served as the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence at Syracuse University and chaired the Bachelor of Architecture program and the University Senate. In addition, he co-founded the Aggregate Architectural History Collaborative, which transforms the ways that history and practice of architecture and urbanism are understood and taught.

Massey’s research shows how architecture mediates power by forming civil society, shaping social relationships, and regulating consumption. In Crystal and Arabesque: Claude Bragdon, Ornament, and Modern Architecture (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009), Massey reconstructed the techniques through which American modernists engaged new media, audiences, and problems of mass society. His work on topics ranging from ornament and organicism to risk management and sustainable design has appeared in many journals and books, including Aggregate’s essay collection Governing by Design: Architecture, Economy, and Politics in the 20th Century (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012). In addition, with Barry Bergdoll, Massey edited Marcel Breuer: Building Global Institutions (Lars Müller, 2018), which shows how this leading Bauhaus and Brutalist designer shaped the institutions of 20th century society.

Massey is regularly featured in professional journals and podcasts addressing education for architects and planners, including “Building the Discipline We Deserve” in The Architect’s Newspaper, “Aggregating Architectures” on the Archinect Sessions podcast, “Teaching Change” on the Social Design Insights podcast, and “Changing Course in Architectural Education” in Architectural Record. His professional training includes practice experience at Dagmar Richter Studio, Brantner Design Associates, and Gehry Partners, along with teaching experience at several schools.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts and a PhD in architecture from Princeton University and a Master of Architecture from the University of California, Los Angeles.