Mary McLeod

Mary McLeod, Professor of Architecture at Columbia GSAPP, focuses on the history of the modern movement and contemporary architecture theory, with particular attention to the connections between architecture and ideology. Her research has long centered on Le Corbusier's urban proposals for Algiers, building on primary research she conducted in Algeria in the 1970s, including interviews with architects who worked alongside him.

In Paris, McLeod will examine previously unstudied archival materials at the Fondation Le Corbusier on Le Corbusier's housing, viaduct, and urban planning projects in Algiers, Tlemcen, Cherchell, and Nemours (now Ghazaouet), as well as his later sketch plans for cultural centers in N'Djamena, Chad, and Dakar, Senegal. This research will explore how these designs responded to local climate, materials, and building techniques, and how figures like Le Corbusier came to symbolize modernization in both colonial and postcolonial nations.