Thomas Leslie

I teach building design, technology, and history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My studio, lecture, and seminar courses stress the interaction and integration of building science, function, and aesthetics.

My research focuses on historical examples of this integration, particularly the work of architect Louis I. Kahn (Louis I. Kahn: Building Art, Building Science, 2005), Chicago skyscrapers (Chicago Skyscrapers, 1871-1934 and the forthcoming Chicago Sksycrapers, 1934-1986), and the work of Italian engineer-builder Pier Luigi Nervi (Beauty's Rigor). This research has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Graham Foundation and the American Philosophical Society, among others, and I received the Booth Family Rome Prize in Historic Preservation in 2013-2014.

Prior to teaching, I was an Associate with Foster and Partners, London, where I worked on the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Stanford University's Center for Clinical Sciences Research, and the Al Faisaliah Center in Riyadh.