Jean-François Lejeune graduated from the University of Liège (Belgium) and owns a Ph.D. from TU Delft Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment. Before moving to the United States, he worked in Brussels under the direction of Maurice Culot at the Archives d’architecture moderne and the Atelier de Recherche et d’Action Urbaines. He is a professor of architecture, urban design, and history at the University of Miami School of Architecture. He was the inaugural director of the Master of Architecture in Suburb and Town Design (1990-95) and Director of Graduate Programs (2009-2015). His research ranges from Latin American architecture and urbanism to 20th-century vernacular modernism in Spain and Italy. His most important publications include The Making of Miami Beach 1933-1942: The Architecture of Lawrence Murray Dixon (Rizzoli, 2001, with Allan Shulman), Cruelty and Utopia: Cities and Landscapes of Latin America (Princeton Architectural Press, 2005, CICA Prize Best Exhibition Catalogue 2005), Sitte, Hegemann, and the Metropolis (Routledge, 2009, with Churck Bohl), Modern Architecture and the Mediterranean (Routledge, 2010, with Michelangelo Sabatino), Rural Architecture and Water Urbanism: The Modern Village in Franco’s Spain (DOM Publishers, 2021), and Cuban Modernism: Mid-Century Architecture 1940-70 (Birkhäuser, 2021). In addition, he has contributed multiple essays published in journals such as Rassegna, ANTA, The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, as well as in exhibition catalogues, conference proceedings, and other publications in Europe and the United States. He is currently at work on two books, Loos and Schinkel (Routledge) and The Other Rome: The Splendid Ordinary 1870-1960 (Birlkhäuser). He has received multiple grants including from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Arts and was an Affiliated Fellow at the American Academy in Rome in 2008. He is a founder and director of DoCOMOMO-US/Florida and currently working as co-chair of the US Conference scheduled in Miami/Coral Gables in May-June 2024. Since 2022, he is Adjunct Professor at the University Notre-Dame Rome Gateway where he teaches a course titled A critical history of modernity: the architecture of the city, from the 1850s to today.
Areas of Expertise
- Architectural History and Theory
- Civic Design
- Classical Antiquity
- Classical Architecture
- Historic Preservation
- Renaissance and the Baroque
- Twentieth-Century Architecture and Design
- Urban Design
- Urban design, history, and theory
Recently Taught Courses
ARCH 34312: Architectural History III
Select Publications
Jean-François Lejeune
Rural Utopia and Water Urbanism: The Modern Village in Franco’s Spain
Berlin: DOM Publishers, 2021
Jean-François Lejeune & Victor Deupi
Cuban Modernism: Mid-Century Architecture 1940-1970
Basel: Birkhaüser Verlag, 2021
Jean-François Lejeune & Michelangelo Sabatino, editors
Modern Architecture and the Mediterranean: Vernacular Dialogues and Contested Identities
London: Routledge, 2010
Jean-François Lejeune & Chuck Bohl, editors
Sitte, Hegemann, and the Metropolis: Modern Civic Art and International Exchanges
London: Routledge, 2009
Jean-François Lejeune, editor
(Julius Posener 2005 Best Architecture Catalogue Award, CICA)
Cruelty and Utopia: Cities and Landscapes of Latin America
New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005