LESLIE

Thomas Leslie, FAIA is a Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois, where he teaches building design, technology, and history.  He has degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Columbia University.  Prior to teaching, he was an Associate with Norman Foster and Partners.

Leslie is the author of Louis I. Kahn: Building Art, Building Science (2005), Chicago Skyscrapers, 1871-1934 (2013), and Beauty’s Rigor:  Patterns of Production in the Work of Pier Luigi Nervi (2017), and Chicago Skyscrapers, 1934-1986 (2023).  He has held visiting positions at the University of Technology-Sydney, Australia, the Bauhaus-Universität in Weimar, Germany, the Università di Bologna Alma Mater Studorium, and the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University.

In 2013-2014, Leslie was the Booth Family Rome Prize Fellow in Historic Preservation at the American Academy in Rome.  In 2018 he was elevated to Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects for his contributions to architectural education and research, and in 2023 he was named an ACSA Distinguished Professor by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.