Gary Hack to head Graduate Fine Arts

Provost Stanley Chodorow has announced that Gary Hack as the new dean of the Graduate School of Fine Arts. Hack will replace interim dean, Malcolm Campbell on July 1. Hack is currently a professor of urban design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also an active member of Carr, Lynch, Hack and Sandell, a consulting firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "Hack has the background in architecture and city planning necessary for the Penn Graduate School of Fine Arts, which specializes largely in these areas," Campbell said. Campbell also added that Hack's professional experience will play an integral role in the position. Hack completed his bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture at the University of Manitoba and the University of Illinois. In addition, he has a master's degree in urban planning from the University of Illinois and a doctorate in the same area from MIT. Hack also boasts an impressive professional experience. He has worked on the West Side Highway and Development and Development Plan (Westway) in New York City, the Urban Design Plan for the North Central Expressway in Dallas, and numerous projects in the Boston area. He is currently working on design plans for projects in Tokyo, Taipei and Bangkok. "Gary Hack is well grounded in both the world of practice and academia," University President Judith Rodin said in a statement released by the department of News and Public Affairs. "He is a teacher and practitioner who continually thinks about how theory and practice inform each other." Hack's administrative experience includes working as Director General of the Ministry of Urban Affairs in Ottawa, Canada during the years 1975-78 and as head of the department of urban studies and planning at MIT, from 1982-86. Hack is currently working on a project in Bangkok and was not available for comment. Campbell said he is planning an early retirement in order to work in Rome. There, he will be involved in a 1997 exhibit of eighteenth century art. Campbell has been at Penn since 1961 as a part of the Art History Department at the School of Arts and Sciences, and has served as the interim dean of the Graduate School of Fine Arts since last October. He called on his time as interim dean of the school as "challenging and wonderful". Campbell said he is happy about the appointment. "Hack is the right person, at the right time, in the right place," he said. "He is just what the school needs to get ready for the twenty-first century". The Graduate School of Fine Arts is made up of four departments -- architecture, city and regional planning, fine arts, and landscape architecture and regional planning. 500 full-time and 300 part-time students attend the school.