Professor John Peponis and Associate Professor Michael Gamble have recently been appointed associate chairs in the School of Architecture at Georgia Tech.

In making the appointments, school chair George Johnston commented, "My close collaboration with John Peponis and Michael Gamble over the past months and years has convinced me that the combination of their unique intellectual perspectives and our shared commitment to excellence and innovation will help foster a sense of purpose as well a spirit of possibility and excitement worthy of our ambitions for the School."

Peponis and Gamble will focus respectively upon the School's two primary programmatic areas and the multiple degree programs they encompass.

As associate chair for advanced studies and research, John Peponis will help administer and advance the post-professional degree programs: the Doctor of Philosophy, the Master of Science in Urban Design and the Master of Science with a major in Architecture (and its several concentrations).

According to Peponis, “Research and design point in different but often complementary directions: the former towards general principle, the latter towards the particular case but both with an eye to new possibility. Both require that we think rigorously and imaginatively at the same time. Georgia Tech has been at the forefront of architectural research in the US thanks to the leadership of many people ever since Regents Professor John Templer founded the doctoral program at the College of Architecture in the 1980s. In the newly constituted School of Architecture we will continue to demonstrate how research can make architecture not only more pleasurable and effective but also more accountable, thus enhancing the standing of the profession.”

In the role of associate chair for undergraduate and professional studies, Michael Gamble will help administer and advance the pre-professional and professional degree programs, the Bachelor of Science in Architecture and the NAAB-accredited Master of Architecture.

According to Gamble, "The central mission of the School of Architecture is the professional preparation of future generations of practicing architects. These times call for bold and imaginative responses to the dynamic forces driving the transformation of our discipline. Our profession will only thrive on creative contact between design and research as the basis for our practice, as the foundation of our art. Our academic programs, both undergraduate and graduate-level professional degrees, must embrace this change and take advantage of the special possibilities that our setting in Atlanta at a great technological university provide."

John Peponis joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 1989 to strengthen research in architecture. He has pioneered the development of tools, measures and models to evaluate the cultural organizational and cognitive performance of the built environment. Publications in Environment and Planning B, the Journal of Architecture and Environment and Behavior address the design of a range of building types including offices and museums, as well as the design and planning of cities. While at Georgia Tech he has advised 16 doctoral graduates and has been a committee member of another 15. His work has been funded by the United States General Services Administration, Steelcase, Inc., and the U.S. National Science Foundation. As a consultant-architect working with Maria Kokkinou and Andreas Kourkoulas, he has helped design the Benaki Museum at Pireos Street, the Michaniki Office Complex, the Shop and Trade mixed-use complex and other projects in Athens, Greece. Recently, his research is being utilized on urban design projects in collaboration with Perkins+Will, in the Middle East, Africa and the United States, including the development of the master-plan for KAUST Research Park in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Michael Gamble is an associate professor of architecture and joined the faculty full-time in 2000 teaching both graduate and undergraduate architectural design studios and offering seminars on architecture and urbanism, zero-energy housing and construction technology. Gamble's research focuses on the creation of healthy environments at all scales through intelligent, site responsive design. He has received research grants from the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development and the National Endowment for the Arts, and received first prize for research in an international competition sponsored by the Environmental Design and Research Association. Gamble has recently published essays on the design of the public realm in Harvard Design Magazine (with W. Jude Leblanc) and the book Writing Urbanism, published by Routledge in 2009. A registered architect, licensed commercial contractor and partner in G+G Architects, Gamble has received regional and national recognition for his firm's built work, including numerous awards, exhibitions and citations. Along with a number of commissions in his professional office, Gamble is currently developing a series of net-zero energy housing prototypes and is involved in ongoing research related to life-cycle analysis and building/site performance.

According to Johnston, "John Peponis, Michael Gamble and I will work in close consultation with each other and in ongoing dialog with faculty, students, alumni and staff to attend to both day-to-day affairs and long-term initiatives of the School. Together, we will work hard to cross the grain of old disciplinary divisions in order to build partnerships with sister schools in the College of Architecture and across the Institute, and to build bridges between the academy and the profession. We aim to shape a strong, shared culture of design and research; one supportive of creativity and initiative; and one fulfilling the promise and potential of the School, to advance the common cause of architecture and society."