News Rossana Hu named chair of architecture at Penn

Rossana Hu of Neri&Hu has been selected by faculty at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design to lead the architecture department as chair and tenured professor. Hu’s appointment follows that of Winka Dubbeldam, who has held the role since 2013. Hu is a cofounder, alongside Lyndon Neri, of Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, an office based in Shanghai.

Prior to cofounding Neri&Hu in 2004, Hu worked for Ralph Lerner, Michael Graves, and The Architects Collaborative in San Francisco. She holds a master’s degree in architecture and urban planning from Princeton and a bachelor of arts in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley.

Hu’s recent appointment is not her first role as a leader in architectural education. In addition to running her architecture and design practice, Hu has served as a professor and chair of the Department of Architecture in the College of Architecture & Urban Planning at Tongji University in Shanghai. She has previously held lecturer positions at universities across Europe, Asia, and the U.S., including the University of California, Berkeley; Harvard Graduate School of Design; Yale School of Architecture; and the University of Hong Kong.

Hu will begin her new position and join the faculty as a tenured professor starting on January 1, 2024. In the interim, Andrew Saunders, associate professor of architecture and director of the master of architecture program at Weitzman, will serve as acting chair of the Department of Architecture for the fall 2023 semester. The Editors