Mark Gardner
Mark Gardner is originally from Williamsburg, VA. He is a principal at Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects. Located in New York City, Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects is an award-winning design practice and studio that works across scales from product design to interiors to buildings. Mark has led many of Jaklitsch/Gardner’s design initiatives and works to best understand the role of design as a social practice. Mark is also the Assistant Professor of Architectural Practice and Society at the School of the Constructed Environments, Parsons the New School. Mark is on the Board of Advisors for the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design, where he advocates for issues of diversity and inclusion. Mark is currently helping support the Julian Abele Fellowship at Weitzman, which honors the first Black Architecture graduate from UPenn. He also currently serves on the Board of Youth Design Center (YDC), a nonprofit on a mission to reduce the number of disconnected youths in Brownsville, Brooklyn by lowering their barriers to entry to the STEAM professions and increasing their relevant experience in the innovation economy. Mark is a 2023 Secretary of the American Institute of Architects, New York Chapter (AIANY) and member Exhibition Committee and Past Co-Chair and current member of the AIANY Diversity & Inclusion Committee, which he helped to restart with Venesa Alicea in 2012. Mark received his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1992 and his Master of Architecture Degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 2000.
