William MacDonald

William Mac Donald, a full professor [tenured] and former Chair of three programs in Graduate Architecture and Urban Design; MARCH; MSARCH; and MSARCH and UD at Pratt Institute School of Architecture [GAUD has been renamed GA / LA / UD]. Director of KOL/MAC Architecture + Design, co-founded with Sulan Kolatan. Holds a MSc in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University and a BArch from Syracuse University. Attended the Architectural Association [Diploma Unit 9] in London, England, and the Cornell University Sommerakademie für Architektur, “The Urban Garden: Projects for the Südliche Friedrichstadt, Berlin, Germany. Taught at the GSAPP at Columbia University from 1985-2005, holding various director and coordinator positions, first and post-professional graduate degree programs. In 1984, appointed acting chair of the undergraduate architecture program at the University of Virginia. William Mac Donald lives and works in New York. He has taught at many of the prominent schools of architecture as a distinguished Visiting Professor or Visiting Chair, among them, the University of Pennsylvania, Southern California Institute for Architecture, the University of Virginia, the Ohio State University, City College, City University of New York, University of California, Berkley, NJIT, and Pratt Institute. His collaborative work with Sulan Kolatan has received numerous academic and professional honors and awards, including the “40 under 40” award given every decade to the 40 best architects under 40 years old, Progressive Architecture awards, AIA design awards etc,. In 2004, KOL/MAC was doubly honored by representing the United States in the US national pavilion and, simultaneously, being invited to the international segment of the International Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy. KOL/MAC Architecture’s “Inversabrane” high-performance ecological exterior/interior wall project was nominated for the Zumtobel Environmental Award (Austria) and the INDEX Award (Copenhagen, Denmark). Their project “Granular ‘Rur-ban’ Depositions: Future ShanShui City: Dwellings in Lishui Mountains International Competition in Lishui, China was awarded honorable mention in 2021. He frequently lectures and speaks at academic and professional conferences nationally and internationally. KOL/MAC LLC has collaborated with and/or received support their design research from many leaders in their respective fields including DuPont (USA), AI Implant of Biotech Industries (Toronto), Alias (USA), Merck Chemicals (Germany), Autodesk (USA), C-TEK (USA), ARUP [AGU] Advanced Geometry Unit (UK), DitlevFilms, Inc. [USA] and others. KOL/MAC LLC is exhibited and published worldwide, notably, at MoMA New York, USA (multiply); the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Museum New York, USA [multiply]; the Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, France (multiply); the Barbican Art Gallery London, UK; the Architekturmuseum Frankfurt, Germany(multiple); the Mori Contemporary Art Museum Tokyo, Japan; the 1st International Architecture Biennial Beijing, China; VITRA, Germany; Yale University, USA; the FRAC, Orleans, France; the New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Phaidon Press, Rizzoli, GA Houses, AD Magazine, Architectural Digest, ACTAR, Domus, Lotus International, Architectural Record, and other similar venues. KOL/MAC LLC projects are also represented in the permanent collections of cultural institutions, including the MoMA New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, the SFMOMA San Francisco, and the Architekturmuseum Frankfurt, Germany. Mr. Mac Donald is co-author of “Lubricous Architectures” with Kari Andersen, published by CBA. A comprehensive monograph titled the KOL/MAC WORK BOOK is currently in preparation for publication. Under Chair Mac Donald, the Graduate Architecture and Urban Design (GAUD) program at Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture was a progressive design environment for advanced architectural research located in New York City. The program proposes speculative debate and experimental architectural production based on a relational construct among theoretical inquiry, computational research, digital design, and technological investigation. To this end, Pratt Institute’s GAUD sought to formulate a contemporary approach to architecture that is “ecological” in the sense that it provides collective exchanges that are both trans-disciplinary and trans-categorical. This ecological approach encourages feedback relationships among architecture, landscape, urbanism, technology, software programming, industry, manufacturing, political agencies, theoretical studies, and other categories and disciplines that are newly emerging in contemporary culture. This approach sought to productively intensify heterogeneous interests and agencies. In addition, the program saw architectural innovations in both the theory and practice of architecture and the interconnected phenomena out of which it emerges. Mac Donald is the co-founder of D.I.L.E., Design of Innovative Learning Environments Research Group at Pratt Institute School of Architecture. Recent courses at Pratt Institute’s GAUD have investigated such topics as iterative processes, fluid systems, emergent phenomena, logics of organization, complex urbanisms, globalization and politics, computational logics, material performance, and speculative fabrication.

M.S. Architecture and Urban Design, Columbia University in the City of New York;
B. Arch., Syracuse University