Book List of the Week

Book List of the Week: Jeanne Gang

On TIME magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of 2019, architect Jeanne Gang finds inspiration in books.

April 25, 2019

Jeanne Gang, Architect (Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Paris)

Jeanne Gang has been named to TIME magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of 2019 — the only achitect to be included. She is the founder of Studio Gang, based in Chicago, acclaimed most notably for its Aqua Tower (the tallest building to date designed by a woman). The firm recently won the competition to design the expansion of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

Gang is also dedicated to books — as a reader and a writer. Designers & Books is honored to highlight the list of books that have inspired Jeanne Gang, which she sent to us soon after she had received a MacArthur Foundation Award.

In an interview that critic Paul Goldberger conducted with her for Designers & Books in 2011, when we first published the architect’s book list, Gang explores the connection between architecture and books, and how the idea of “turning off reality and letting yourself imagine” applies both to the design development process of a building and the process of reading.

Aqua Tower, Chicago, 2009, designed by Studio Gang Architects. Photographs from Reveal by Jeanne Gang (Princeton Architectural Press, 2011).

Jeanne Gang’s Book List

Books by Jeanne Gang

Turning Off Reality and Letting Yourself Imagine: Jeanne Gang’s Book List—Interview by Paul Goldberger

Reveal: Studio Gang Architects Jeanne Gang

The Books That Inspire 10 Women in Architecture

10 Books on Architecture and Photography

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