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Professor
Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture,
American architecture and urbanism
Ph.D., M.I.T., 1985
Hilary Ballon is an architectural historian whose work focuses on cities and the intersection of architecture, politics, and social life in two fields of research, 20th-century America and 17th-century Europe. Her books include New York's Pennsylvania Stations (W.W. Norton, 2002); Louis Le Vau: Mazarin's Collège, Colbert's Revenge (Princeton University Press, 1999), which won the Prix d'Académie from the Académie Française; and The Paris of Henri IV: Architecture and Urbanism (Architectural History Foundation/MIT Press, 1991), which won the Alice Davis Hitchcock Prize for the Most Distinguished Work in Architectural History and is widely cited as a model for its consideration of urban planning in relation to social, political, and economic forces.
Ballon’s current research is on New York’s master builder Robert Moses. She is the curator of Robert Moses and the Modern City, an exhibition opening in January 2007 that will re-evaluate his physical transformation of New York from 1930-1968. The exhibition is organized in three parts: Remaking the Metropolis at the Museum of the City of New York (opening February 1); The Road to Recreation at the Queens Museum of Art (opening February 4), and Slum Clearance and the Superblock Solution at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery of Columbia University (opening January 30). Ballon and Kenneth T. Jackson have co-edited the book Robert Moses and the Transformation of New York (W.W. Norton), to be released in conjunction with the exhibition.
Ballon’s previous exhibitions include Gateway to Metropolis: New York’s Pennsylvania Stations at the Wallach Art Gallery and Frank Lloyd Wright: The Vertical Dimension at the Skyscraper Museum. Her book Frank Lloyd Wright's Towers is forthcoming from W.W. Norton.
In July 2006 Ballon and Mariët Westermann, Director of the Institute of Fine Arts-NYU, completed a study of scholarly publishing in art and architectural history funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In order to exemplify several key points, the authors chose to make the study available online, with the option of print on demand. Art History and Its Publications in the Electronic Age is published electronically by Rice University Press as a co-publication with CLIR (Council on Library and Information Resources).
Ballon is the Editor in Chief of JSAH (Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians), the journal of record in the field. She has launched a multi-year project to publish the journal online, which will differ from the standard electronic journal by featuring digital visual resources, including 3-D modeling, QuickTime video, dynamic images, and other digital tools used in architectural research.
An innovative and dedicated teacher, Ballon has received Columbia University’s highest teaching awards: the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching, the Great Teacher Award, and the Philip and Ruth Hettleman Teaching Award. Her roster of courses includes the American City, Baroque and Rococo Architecture, Introduction to Architecture, and Art Humanities. Her seminar on the urban development of New York City has been a laboratory for collaborative student work and digital projects. As director of Art Humanities, she oversees a cornerstone of Columbia’s undergraduate curriculum.
Ballon serves on the Board of Directors of the Regional Plan Association, the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, the Skyscraper Museum, and the Double Discovery Center of Columbia University. Ballon was chairman of the Planning Board of Englewood, New Jersey from 2000-05 where she dealt with contested development issues and rewrote the town’s master plan.
Ballon has taught at Columbia University since 1985 and was chair of the Department of Art History and Archaeology from 2002-04. An active participant in university affairs, she has chaired the Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid, played a leadership role in curricular development, and served on the Presidential Search Committee, among many university appointments. She is currently co-chairing the Arts & Sciences Faculty Fundraising Committee for the capital campaign.
Ballon received a B.A. from Princeton University and a Ph.D. from M.I.T. Her academic awards include fellowships from the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, the Institute for Advanced Study, and the Mellon Foundation.
907 Schermerhorn Hall
Telephone: (212) 854-7968
E-mail: hmb3@columbia.edu
The Shape of New York: learn.columbia.edu/newyork
The
American City: learn.columbia.edu/amercity
Baroque
and Rococo Architecture, 1600–1750:
www.mcah.columbia.edu/baroque_arch
Introduction to Architecture: www.mcah.columbia.edu/introarch2003
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