Kim Yao, FAIA, is Principal of Architecture Research Office. She has taught at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, the School of Constructed Environments, Parsons the New School for Design, and Barnard College (2001-2011). She has lectured throughout the United States and abroad. Kim has been awarded the AIA New York (AIANY) Medal of Honor and the Beverly Willis Foundation Mentorship Award. She was President of AIANY in 2020 and serves on the Board of the Center for Architecture. She holds an undergraduate degree in architecture from Columbia College: Columbia University and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University. 

Architecture Research Office is the New York City firm united by their collaborative process, commitment to accountable action, and social and environmental responsibility. Research gives their work purpose and intention. Their architecture unites beauty and form with strategy and intelligence. Their office designs spaces that inspire people, further institutional missions, and advance equity and resilience.​ ​This philosophy has earned the firm over one hundred design awards including the 2020 AIA Architecture Firm Award, the AIA New York State Firm of the Year Award, and the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture. The comprehensive monograph Architecture. Research. Office. was published in 2024 by Delmonico/Artbook D.A.P.

Lecture Description

In conjunction with the Fall 2024 publication of the monograph Architecture. Research. Office., Principal Kim Yao will present the design of the practice as a project in itself. “Architecture” is the firm’s ultimate objective, which for ARO means creating beautifully crafted work that benefits people; “research” grounds its methodology and informs its approach; and “office” reflects the idea that creating architecture in support of people starts with the community and culture of the firm itself. Key projects completed over the past three decades, representing the firm’s diverse body of work, will be the means to describe the principles that guide ARO’s work, the firm’s methodology and its culture.