Pratt Sessions: Johnston Marklee

Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee joined GA/LA/UD Chair Andrew Holder to present a canonical project from their practice as part of the Department’s Pratt Sessions series. Johnston Marklee was among the first American architecture practices to turn away from formal complexity in favor of the generic, pure shape and a broad engagement with the history of Modernism. As their work grew in scale and complexity, the office confronted new challenges to the theoretical positions that shaped their early career. This session examined how the firm’s early formal strategies translated to larger plans and cultural programs.

Pratt Sessions is a platform for focused discourse within the Department of Graduate Architecture, Landscape, and Urban Design. The series seeks to refine and intensify the event structures commonly found in architectural education. While lectures typically attract broad audiences for general overviews, Pratt Sessions center on a single project by a single author or practice. Unlike juries, which convene faculty to critique student work, Pratt Sessions gathers colleagues to engage critically and constructively with the intellectual project of a practitioner the Department collectively admires.