Hashim Sarkis. Image credit: Bryce Vickmark, courtesy MIT SA+P
MIT is preparing for a leadership change at its School of Architecture and Planning: Dean Hashim Sarkis will step down at the end of June 2027, concluding a 12-year tenure.
His departure follows a period of expanded interdisciplinary research, new academic initiatives, and a major architectural transformation on campus. The most visible milestone is the recently completed conversion of MIT’s century-old Met Warehouse into a new hub for architecture, planning, and design, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
Sarkis also oversaw the launch and expansion of several research centers and programs, including the Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism, Morningside Academy for Design, and MIT-LUMA Lab, further strengthening connections between architecture, technology, urbanism, and the arts.
Revisit our Archinect Sessions podcast conversation with Hashim Sarkis
Among his final initiatives is a commitment to full tuition support for students entering multiyear graduate programs beginning in fall 2027.
Asked which of the changes he helped bring about has meant the most to him, Sarkis remarked: “I do believe education is a right for every student.”
An architect, academic, and curator of the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, Sarkis will reportedly take a sabbatical after leaving the deanship before returning to MIT as a professor and head of the MIT-LUMA Lab.
The university has begun its search for his successor.
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