Syracuse University School of Architecture has announced that architect and educator James Leng is the Harry der Boghosian Fellow for 2018-19. Currently a lecturer in architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, Leng is also the 2018 recipient of the prestigious Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Architecture, awarded annually to recognize immigrants who have made a significant contribution to American society through their extraordinary achievements in the arts and humanities. Leng was born in China and moved to the United States when he was nine years old.
James Leng
“We have been fortunate to attract such extraordinary fellows in the first two years of the Boghosian Fellowship, including Maya Alam, the inaugural fellow, and Linda Zhang, this year’s fellow,” says Dean Michael Speaks. “Our selection of James Leng will insure and burnish that lineage. During our review of the many outstanding applicants, we were thrilled with James Leng’s remarkable record of academic and professional achievement, and especially with his research on the afterlife and renewal of industrial buildings in China, India and the Ukraine, part of a larger research project consisting of a collection of essays and photographs that he will publish later this year.”
The Boghosian Fellowship at Syracuse Architecture—established in early 2015 in memory of Harry der Boghosian ’54 by his sister Paula der Boghosian ’64—makes it possible for junior faculty to spend a year developing a body of design research based on an area of interest while teaching at the school. In the academic year 2018-19, Leng will teach an architecture studio, conduct two research seminars and organize a symposium and exhibition on the work produced during his year at Syracuse.
“I’m thrilled to be selected as the 2018-2019 Boghosian Teaching Fellow at Syracuse,” says Leng. “In this pivotal moment in my early career, the Boghosian Fellowship presents an incredible opportunity to explore new territories through teaching, as well as a chance to pursue new research and research already underway.”
Previously, Leng worked for four years as an associate architect at Michael Maltzan in Los Angeles, for one year as a junior architect at UN Studio in Amsterdam and was selected as the Peter Rice Fellow at the Renzo Piano Workshop in Paris. Leng is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the SOM Prize in Architecture, Design and Urban Design, a $50,000 travel and research fellowship. He also received the James Templeton Kelly Prize, awarded to the Best Thesis in Architecture at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, where he completed his master’s of architecture degree. Leng completed a bachelor of arts in architecture with honors at the University of California, Berkeley.
Leng’s research will build on his extensive travel to industrial and former industrial building sites around the world. Like the two previous Boghosian Fellows, Leng will work closely not only with faculty and students at the School of Architecture, but also with faculty at other schools.
Says Leng, “I’m delighted to be entering an outstanding community of established educators and young practitioners at the forefront of architecture, design and research. I am also excited to collaborate with other scholars, designers and writers at Syracuse. Perhaps most importantly, I am looking forward to working with the students at Syracuse, among the most celebrated architecture schools in the country. Working with faculty, staff and students at the school, and indeed, at the University, will sharpen my own ambition and bring depth to my work.”
For more information about James Leng and his work, please visit http://www.jamesleng.net/.
To learn more about the Harry der Boghosian Fellowship, visit: https://soa.syr.edu/alumni/support-the-school/giving-priorities/harry-der-boghosian-fellowship/.
