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| Lee Clare | |
|---|---|
| Name | Lee Clare |
| Birth date | 1978 |
| Birth place | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Occupation | Architect; Urban Planner; Author |
| Years active | 2002–present |
| Notable works | The Green Grid Initiative; Riverfront Renewal Plan; Transit-Oriented Housing Model |
| Awards | Pritzker Prize (nominee); Aga Khan Award (shortlist); MacArthur Fellow (finalist) |
Lee Clare is an American architect, urban planner, and author known for interdisciplinary work in sustainable urbanism, transit-oriented development, and community-driven design. Clare's projects span collaborations with municipal governments, international development agencies, and non-profit organizations, combining conservation, public space design, and affordable housing. Clare has written for professional journals and lectured at universities and international forums.
Clare was born in Chicago and raised in a neighborhood shaped by postwar redevelopment and the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance-era migration patterns to Midwestern cities. Clare attended Phillips Academy for secondary education before studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where Clare earned a Bachelor of Science in Architecture, followed by a Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. During graduate study Clare engaged with faculty affiliated with the United Nations Habitat Programme and scholars from the World Bank urban development teams. Postgraduate fellowships included appointments at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and a residency at the Guggenheim Museum architecture research program.
Clare began professional practice at an interdisciplinary office collaborating with principals from SOM and Perkins+Will on mixed-use masterplans. In 2008 Clare founded a studio focusing on resilient infrastructure and neighborhood-scale design, securing commissions from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Rockefeller Foundation, and municipal agencies in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Clare's consultancy work has involved partnerships with international organizations such as the Asian Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank on regional transit corridors. As a visiting critic and lecturer Clare has taught at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, the University of California, Berkeley College of Environmental Design, and the University of Toronto Faculty of Architecture.
Clare led the "Green Grid Initiative," an urban retrofit integrating stormwater management, greenways, and light-rail access across former industrial corridors originally championed by civic coalitions in Detroit and Cleveland. Clare's Riverfront Renewal Plan transformed a post-industrial shoreline in collaboration with the Trust for Public Land and the National Park Service, combining wetland restoration with mixed-income housing prototypes influenced by precedents such as Battery Park City and the HafenCity project in Hamburg. The Transit-Oriented Housing Model developed by Clare was piloted with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York) and the Chicago Transit Authority, producing design guidelines that intersect affordable housing mandates tied to transit funding like those referenced in the Federal Transit Administration policies. Clare also contributed to policy frameworks adopted by the United Nations Environment Programme and co-authored white papers for the World Resources Institute on equitable climate adaptation.
Clare's studio received honors from the American Institute of Architects including regional awards and citations for urban design. Projects were shortlisted for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and Clare was a finalist for a MacArthur Fellows Program grant. Publications have been recognized by the Royal Institute of British Architects and Clare delivered keynote addresses at the World Urban Forum and the Venice Biennale of Architecture. Professional recognition also includes fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center and the Knight Foundation.
Clare lives between Chicago and Lisbon, maintaining a practice that partners with offices in São Paulo and Copenhagen. Outside of practice Clare serves on boards of the Urban Land Institute and a community development corporation affiliated with the International Rescue Committee. Clare is married to a landscape architect who has held positions at the New York Botanical Garden and together they have two children.
Clare's influence is evident in contemporary approaches to combining transit planning, equitable housing, and ecological restoration referenced in case studies from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme and curricula at schools such as MIT and Harvard GSD. The Green Grid and Riverfront projects have been cited in municipal plans in Philadelphia and Baltimore and in policy briefs by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Brookings Institution. Clare's cross-sector methodology continues to inform collaborations among philanthropies like the Rockefeller Foundation, research institutions including the World Bank, and civic agencies aiming to reconcile infrastructure renewal with social equity.
Category:American architects Category:Urban planners Category:1978 births Category:Living people