Aki Ishida

Aki Ishida, AIA, LEED AP, is the director of the College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of “Blurred Transparencies in Contemporary Glass Architecture: Material, Culture, and Technology” (2020). In both her writing and design work, she investigates the temporal and impermanent aspects of architecture, emphasizing the ways buildings continue to change and evolve over the course of their lifespans.

Ishida earned a Bachelor of Architecture in 1995 from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities’ College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. She began her career with Rafael Vinoly Architects in New York as part of the core design team for a new stadium at Princeton University, then earned a Master of Science in advanced architectural design in 1998 from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.

Ishida spent four years with James Carpenter Design Associates in New York, where she gained experience in the artistic and technical applications of glass, then worked with acclaimed architect I.M. Pei as a full-time consultant on the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. In 2005, she co-founded Ishida/Crandall in New York and established Aki Ishida Architect in 2008. She is licensed in the states of New York and New Jersey and is a LEED-accredited professional. 

Before joining the faculty at Virginia Tech in 2012, Ishida led studios at the Rhode Island School of Design, The Pratt Institute, The Parsons School of Design, and Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea. Every summer since 2009, she has taught architecture courses in Columbia University’s pre-college program. 

At Virginia Tech, Ishida led design studios; served as a senior fellow in the Institute for Creativity, Arts & Technology; directed the Intelligent Infrastructure for Human-Centered Communities destination area; and served as a faculty fellow in the provost’s office. She served as interim associate director for Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture as well as School of Design, which included programs in industrial design, interior design, and landscape architecture. 

Since 2019, Ishida has been a co-principal investigator and design lead for “Medical Workspace: Information Ecosystem of Future Nurse Stations,” an interdisciplinary research project exploring how digital technologies, integrated into hospital intensive care units, might enhance communication and reduce clinician burnout. She also serves as co-principal investigator for “Technology as Partner for Improving the Effectiveness of Teams of Clinicians,” funded by a National Science Foundation Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier: Core Research Development Grant. 

In 2023, Ishida won a Creative Achievement Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. She previously won the group’s New Faculty Teaching Award in 2017 and in 2016 was named one of 25 Most Admired Educators by DesignIntelligence. “Lantern Field,” an interactive audio-visual installation she led at the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C., won a 2013 Architectural Lighting Design Award. 

Ishida’s work has been supported by grants from Japan Foundation New York, the Graduate Kinne Traveling Fellowship from Columbia University, Stewardson Keefe LeBrun Travel Grant from the AIA New York Chapter, and fellowships from MacDowell and the Baer Art Center. She has served three times as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts grants and mentors faculty of color through the Dean’s Equity and Inclusion Initiative, a national group committed to nurturing academic diversity.