Donna Robertson
About
Donna Robertson is a Professor Emerita in the College of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology. She stepped down recently after forty years in academia. Her focus is on the political and social benefits of design excellence. When Dean of IIT Architecture (1996–2012), she played a key role in IIT’s comprehensive program of physical renewal, resulting in new designs by Rem Koolhaas/OMA, Helmut Jahn, Michael Van Valkenburg, and restoration of Mies’s masterpiece S. R. Crown Hall and the IIT Chapel, following on her career interest in building “adaptation.” The resultant transformation to programs, enrollment, fundraising and campus vitality has been widely recognized. Her partnership in macrodesign has projects throughout the USA, such as restoration and addition to a Neutra house in the Hollywood Hills. When Dean at Tulane (1992–1996) she served on the New Orleans CBD-Historic District Landmarks Commission. She has been a Board member of DoCoMoMo Chicago, and a Peer Reviewer for the GSA.
