Mark Gardner

Mark has led many of Jaklitsch / Gardner’s design initiatives and works to best understand the role of design as a social practice. He is the Associate Professor of Architectural Practice and Society at the School of the Constructed Environments, Parsons the New School. He was Director of the M.Arch Program from 2017-2020. 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. Currently, he is helping support the Julian Abele Fellowship at Weitzman, which honors the first Black Architecture graduate from UPenn. Mark also serves on the Board of Youth Design Center (YDC), a nonprofit on a mission to reduce the number of disconnected youth in Brownsville, Brooklyn by lowering their barriers to entry to the STEAM professions and increasing their relevant experience in the innovation economy. 

Mark is the 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. He is a Past President and past Advocacy Chair for nycobaNOMA, the New York Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects. Mark is a Member of the Van Alen Institute’s Board of Trustees and a Fellow of the Urban Design Forum. Mark received his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his Master of Architecture Degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a Registered Architect in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Mark currently resides in Brooklyn, New York with his wife, Margit Detweiler and his rescue beagle, Bo.