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Dr. June Diana Komisar

June Komisar
Professor
BA, MArch, PhD

Areas of Specialization

Architectural design

History and theory of architecture

Designing for urban agriculture

Education

Year University Degree
2004 University of Michigan PhD
1980 Yale University School of Architecture MArch
1977 Clark University BA

Selected Courses

Course Code Course Title
ASC 101 Communications Studio
ASC 206, ASC 306, ASC 406 Ideas, Technologies and Precedents I, II and III
ASC 720, ASC 820 Architecture Studio
AR8103 Studio in Collaborative Practice

Spotlight

June Komisar remembers the day that her architectural imagination was sparked. She was eight years old, and building a city out of cardboard and Lego in the backyard with a friend and her brother. “Then our cat just started wandering through, exploring.”

That day ignited something in Komisar. Like her cat, she began to explore her hometown. She loved where she lived, but she observed problems: old buildings that were not maintained, streets that were losing their trees due to neglect, a highway that bifurcated the downtown. She was determined to work on improving urban conditions.

As the years passed, Komisar made art, paintings and sculptures from all sorts of materials. She went to architecture school. She met professional heroes like James Stirling and Oscar Niemeyer and, during her PhD studies, conducted research in Brazil. In private practice, she lived out her city-redefining dreams by working on urban projects in Hartford, Boston and San Francisco. Whatever interested her, whatever she wanted to know, improve, discover, she pursued. “To be an architect is to be an explorer,” she says. “If I can teach my students anything, it’s to embrace that truth.”

June Komisar

“To help students tap into their creative process, I have them look at an old problem in a new way.”

Selected Works

  • Joe Nasr, June Komisar, Mark Gorgolewski “Urban agriculture as ordinary urban practice: trends and lessons,” in Second Nature Urban Agriculture – designing productive cities, ed. Katrin Bohn and Andre Viljoen, London, Routledge, 2014. https://www.routledge.com/Second-Nature-Urban- Agriculture-Designing-Productive-Cities/Viljoen-Bohn/p/book/9780415540582
  • June Komisar, “The Art of Ornamentation” in Architectura: Elements of Architectural Style, ed. Miles Lewis, Sydney, Australia: Global Publishing, 2008 and New York: Barrons, 2008, pp 320 - 347
  • June Komisar, “Blanche Lemco Van Ginkel et les CIAM,” translation by Christophe Mâle, in La modernité critique: autour du CIAM d'Aix (1953), ed. Daniel Pinson, Paris: Imbernon, 2006, pp 261 - 272