Ralph Lerner (1949 – May 7, 2011) was an American architect, born in New York in 1949. He studied under John Hejduk at

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

. Lerner then worked for

Ulrich Franzen Ulrich Joseph Franzen (January 15, 1921 – October 6, 2012) was a German-born American architect known for his "fortresslike" buildings and Brutalist style.Vitello, Paul (14 October 2012)Ulrich Franzen, Designer of Brutalist Buildings, Dies at 91 ...

and

Richard Meier Richard Meier (born October 12, 1934) is an American abstract artist and architect, whose geometric designs make prominent use of the color white. A winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1984, Meier has designed several iconic buildings ...

. Lerner obtained a master's degree in architecture at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1975, and joined the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

faculty. While based in Charlottesville, Lerner led his own firm, Ralph Lerner, Architecture and Urban Design. From 1979 to 1980, Lerner taught at

Polytechnic of Central London , mottoeng = The Lord is our Strength , type = Public , established = 1838: Royal Polytechnic Institution 1891: Polytechnic-Regent Street 1970: Polytechnic of Central London 1992: University of Westminster , endowment = £5.1 million ...

. He returned to the United States for a position at Harvard, then accepted an associate professorship at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in 1983. Ralph Lerner Architect PC was established in Princeton the following year. He was appointed dean of the Princeton University School of Architecture in 1989, two years after becoming a full professor. Lerner was designated George Dutton ’27 Professor of Architecture in 1994, and was succeeded as dean by Stan Allen in 2002. Lerner remained on the Princeton faculty until his 2008 resignation, to assume the deanship of the Faculty of Architecture at the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fi ...

. Lerner resigned from HKU in April 2011 for health reasons, and returned to the United States. He died in

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

, of brain cancer on May 7, 2011, aged 61.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lerner, Ralph 1949 births 2011 deaths Architects from New York (state) 20th-century American architects American university and college faculty deans Academics of the University of Westminster Princeton University faculty Academic staff of the University of Hong Kong University of Virginia faculty Cooper Union alumni Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni Deaths from brain cancer in the United States Deaths from cancer in New Jersey American expatriates in Hong Kong Architects from New Jersey Architects from Virginia American expatriates in the United Kingdom American expatriate academics Fellows of the American Institute of Architects