Dean Jonathan Massey has named McLain Clutter as the next chair of the architecture program at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Clutter is an associate professor of architecture and interim associate dean for academic affairs and strategic initiatives. His three-year appointment as architecture program chair began on July 1.

“I am honored to serve as chair of the architecture program,” Clutter said. “Situated within one of the world’s top research universities, the architecture program at Taubman College is unique in its breadth and depth of strengths and progressive energy. We are as committed to foundational knowledge as we are to experimental pedagogies. We innovate in digital design and fabrication, while we examine technology through critical inquiry. We are passionately committed to the students within our walls, while we strive to make architectural education more accessible to those historically excluded. I look forward to leveraging our strengths to continue attracting the best and brightest students and faculty and shaping the future of the built environment.”

Clutter joined Taubman College’s faculty in 2009 and became interim associate dean in 2017.  As interim associate dean for academic affairs and strategic initiatives, Clutter led the college’s five-year Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan. He is a steering committee member of The Michigan-Mellon Project on Egalitarianism and the Metropolis and was instrumental in the $1 million renewal of the grant from the A. W. Mellon Foundation in 2019. The project examines design theory and practice through social justice, social movements, and creative arts movements.

Clutter’s work focuses on the role of architecture within the multidisciplinary milieu of contemporary urbanism, and the interrelations between architecture, media, and digital culture. He is the author of the Imaginary Apparatus: New York City and its Mediated Representation (Park Books, 2015), and his design and research have received an Architect Magazine R+D Award and an Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Faculty Design Award. He is a partner in the design practice EXTENTS with Cyrus Peñarroyo. Prior to arriving at the University of Michigan, he practiced in offices in New York and Chicago, working on projects ranging in scale from residential renovations to campus master planning. He received a Bachelor of Architecture from Syracuse University and a Master of Environmental Design from the Yale School of Architecture.

“McLain’s strong record of academic achievement, creative practice, and administrative leadership makes him a compelling next chair for the architecture program at Taubman College,” said Dean Massey. “Faculty, staff, and students alike appreciate McLain’s insight, thoughtfulness, and clarity. These qualities will help him lead our pluralist community in building better futures for graduates and for everyone impacted by architecture and urban design.”