Penn’s Weitzman school names four new architecture associated faculty members

Penn’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design announced the appointments of four new associated faculty members earlier this month.

The school’s architecture department welcomed 1976 Stuart Weitzman School of Design graduate Stephen Kieran, David Moon, Kazuyo Sejima, and 1977 Stuart Weitzman School of Design graduate James Timberlake ahead of the spring semester. Moon is set to teach and coordinate a first-year studio, while Kieran, Sejima, and Timberlake will be teaching third-year classes in the Master of Architecture program. 

Kieran and Timberlake are the founding partners of KieranTimberlake, a Philadelphia-based architecture firm founded in 1984. The two previously held visiting professorships at several institutions including Penn, Yale University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Washington.

In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Kieran explained that their master’s-level design studio is intended for students in the last semester at Penn. According to Kieran, the course has both “research” and “design” components.

Kieran and Timberlake’s firm helped lead the renovation and expansion of Stuart Weitzman Hall — which was completed in October 2025 and marked the school’s first major capital project since 1967.

Moon previously held positions in the architecture departments of Cornell University, Yale, and the University of Michigan. In 2010, he co-founded New York City-based architectural design and research firm NHDM. According to its website, NHDM operates at “the intersection of architecture and urbanism.” 

Moon's research, according to his company webpage, investigates “the notion of architectural speculation in the context of the contemporary milieu.”

Sejima — the Japan Institute of Architects’ 1992 Young Architect of the Year — holds a degree in architecture from the Japan Women’s University. She previously held professorships at Princeton University, the Polytechnique de Lausanne, Tama Art University, and Keio University.

Sejima co-founded Japanese architectural firm SANAA in 1995 and received the Pritzker Architecture Prize for her contributions to modern architecture in 2010. SANAA's work includes the Rolex Learning Center in Switzerland, the Toledo Museum of Art’s Glass Pavilion in Ohio, and the Christian Dior building in Tokyo.

In 2024, Penn’s School of Design awarded her the Kanter Tritsch Medal in Architecture.