Reed Kroloff Named Rowe Family College of Architecture Dean Endowed Chair
Illinois Institute of Technology is pleased to announce the investiture of Rowe Family College of Architecture Dean Endowed Chair Reed Kroloff. Kroloff joined the university in 2019, but his investiture was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The university invests distinguished faculty members with endowed chairs in recognition of their academic excellence and leadership. These faculty members advance the university’s mission through research and enhance the student experience in the classroom, while helping to raise the visibility of the institution.
"Dean Reed Kroloff is a world-class academic leader and a tireless advocate and innovator for our College of Architecture, one of the top-ranked architecture schools in the country,” says Illinois Tech Provost Peter KIlpatrick. “And John and Jeanne Rowe are among our most cherished benefactors, with John serving as a University Regent and Life Trustee and as past chairman of our Board of Trustees. It is fitting that an accomplished and creative leader of Reed Kroloff’s stature is the John and Jeanne Rowe Endowed Chair Dean of Architecture."
Kroloff has been a leader in the fields of architecture, urbanism, and design for more than 25 years. Before coming to Illinois Tech, Kroloff served as the director of the renowned Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and as dean of Tulane School of Architecture in New Orleans, which he led through Hurricane Katrina and the city’s recovery. Kroloff also served as editor-in-chief of Architecture. Under his direction, Architecture received more awards for editorial and design excellence than any magazine of its type and quickly became the nation’s leading design publication.
Kroloff is also the founding principal of jones|kroloff, a unique advisory practice that develops strategy for clients in the architecture and design industry. Clients have included Friends of the High Line, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the Mexican Ministry of Culture, the University of Chicago, Yale University, the Aspen Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National AIDS Memorial Grove, Motown, and the History Channel, among others.
The Rowe Family College of Architecture Dean Endowed Chair was created by Jeanne and John Rowe. For more than a decade, the Rowes have provided support and leadership at Illinois Tech. John Rowe is a University Regent who served as chairman of the Board of Trustees from 2006 to 2013. The Rowes have deep ties to Chicago, where they lived for 20 years. Though they now reside in Florida, the Rowes remain committed to making Chicago an ever better city for as many people as possible.
“The Rowes are builders,” says Kroloff. “They build opportunity. In the College of Architecture, we build community. The two are mutually reinforcing, and I see this investiture as a challenge to support both in new and inventive ways. How exciting is that?”
Photo: Rowe Family College of Architecture Dean Endowed Chair Reed Kroloff
