Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake

The Department of Architecture welcomes Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake from the Philadelphia architecture firm KieranTimberlake for their lecture.

We have built the culture of our practice through an ethic of inquiry. We begin with questions and work our way to form.  Each project is crafted to circumstance.  None are preconceived. This ethic has enabled our firm to take on all scales and types of architecture and planning.  We work globally, in diverse cultures, from individual homes to large institutional architecture; from renewal of existing buildings to new structures; and from singular sites to large scale urban planning and design.

Stephen Kieran's work is the result of a thorough examination of the craft of architecture. Steve is an international leader in the design of new and renovated architecture.  He works across all scales and types, from homes to institutional, religious, and civic architecture, and planning. Since founding the firm in 1984, a primary focus has been planning and design at colleges and universities, including new engineering facilities at Brown and Carnegie Mellon, arts and music facilities at Wellesley College, the renovation of six Yale residential colleges and four Harvard Houses, along with new and renovated student residential projects at MIT, Duke, the University of Washington, UCLA, UC San Francisco, and UC Berkeley. Under his guidance, the firm has received over 300 design citations, including the AIA Firm Award in 2008 and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in 2010. Steve and Partner James Timberlake were the 2021 Louis I. Kahn Awardees and the inaugural recipients of the Benjamin Latrobe Fellowship for architectural design research from the AIA College of Fellows in 2001. Since 2002, they have co-authored seven publications on architecture, including the influential book refabricating Architecture and their latest monograph, KieranTimberlake: Fullness. 

James Timberlake's work reflects his belief in beautifully crafted, thoughtfully made buildings holistically integrated to site, program, and people. James has led KieranTimberlake to design, innovate, and invent for a broad range of clients in North America and overseas. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA), a recipient of the inaugural Benjamin Latrobe Prize for architectural design research from the AIA College of Fellows, the Louis I. Kahn Award, and an American Academy in Rome Prize Laureate. James breaks new ground exploring many of today's important topics—holistically performative structures, novel uses of building materials, and a contemporary appreciation of “commodity, firmness and delight” in architecture. James has directed programming, planning, and design for government clients including the new Embassy in London for the U.S. Department of State and the master plan and design for the Foreign Affairs Security Training Center (FASTC), a 1,100-acre campus for the General Services Administration (GSA). He has also provided expertise to educational institutions including New York University, Cornell University, several University of California campuses, and Rice University. James' current planning studies include the Comprehensive Campus Plan at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire.

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