Lebbeus Woods was born in Lansing, Michigan, in 1940. The son of an accomplished military engineer, Woods studied at the Purdue University School of Engineering (1958–60) and the University of Illinois School of Architecture (1960–64). He worked with Kevin Roche at Eero Saarinen and Associates before turning decisively (1964–68), in the mid-1970s, to independent, conceptual work staged through drawings, models, and installations.
He co-founded the Research Institute for Experimental Architecture and is a Professor of Architecture at the Cooper Union, where taught until his death in 2012, as well as a lecturer at the European Graduate School. The author of many books and subject of many exhibitions worldwide, his writings and drawings have inspired architects, film directors, story-writers, and dreamers of all kinds.
Woodsʼ drawings are held in numerous public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Carnegie Museum of Modern Art; the Getty Research Institute; and the Museum für angewandte Kunst (MAK), Vienna.
Woods's projects and writing can also be explored in the archives of his blog at lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com.
