The University of California, Berkeley announced today that Nicholas de Monchaux has been named the new William W. Wurster Dean of the College of Environmental Design (CED), regarded as one of the top public schools in the country for architecture and the built environment.

De Monchaux, who was a professor of architecture and urban design at UC Berkeley from 2006 to 2019, was most recently head of the Department of Architecture at MIT, where he is the Weber-Shaughness professor of architecture, professor of urban studies and planning, and affiliated faculty with the program in Science, Technology and Society. He is also an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute.

De Monchaux received his BA in architecture with distinction from Yale and his MArch from Princeton. Early in his career, he was a designer with Diller Scofidio + Renfro in New York and Michael Hopkins Partners in London. His first book, Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo earned the Eugene Emme Award from the American Astronautical Society and was shortlisted for the Art Book Prize. His most recent publication, Some Movements of Models: Simulation from Mechanism to Information, 1914–1977, dives into the UC Berkeley origins of the special effects developed for Star Wars—in CED’s own Environmental Simulation Lab.

“CED powerfully shaped every way in which I think about design and its responsibility in the world. Returning to Berkeley is a personal delight, and a testament to my belief in Berkeley’s larger mission: an unparalleled experiment in public education and public service,” says de Monchaux. “From our shifting climate, to the role of AI in the profession and society, to the resilience of our cities and institutions, I look forward to collaborating with colleagues, old and new, to sustain the vision of the CED’s founding into its next chapter."

De Monchaux’s term as dean will begin on July 1, 2027. The announcement of his selection comes following a protracted dean search that began with the appointment of Vishaan Chakrabarti as dean in 2019. He only served in the position for just over a year, from summer 2020 to fall 2021. Longtime CED professor Renee Chow was named acting dean upon Chakrabarti’s departure, then served one five-year term as dean. She will be retiring from the faculty this summer, and Professor Daniel G. Chatman, chair of the Department of City Regional & Planning, will serve as interim dean beginning July 1, 2026.