In this interview, Mark Lee discussed his upbringing, entry into architectural academia, and decision to leave UCLA in 2008 shortly before receiving tenure. He believed that the earlier model of combining teaching with active practice was no longer viable. Whereas academic standing had once generated cultural capital and commissions, Lee felt it could now become a liability. This aligned him with the “practice generation” and Stan Allen’s 2000 essay “Practice versus Project,” which framed practice as an engagement with contingencies and changing conditions rather than the fixed positions prevalent in American academic discourse.
Lee’s outlook was also shaped by studying at the Harvard GSD and ETH Zurich between 1993 and 1998. At Harvard, Peter Eisenman and Herzog & de Meuron exposed him to contrasting positions on theory and practice. At ETH, Kurt Forster and Marc Angélil fostered exchanges between European and American ideas, including those of Greg Lynn and Sanford Kwinter. These experiences ultimately led Lee toward a European model centered on practice rather than the academic model long dominant in the United States.