March 3, 2025
Together with her life partner Tom Killian (1931-2024) – a former Associate Partner with Skidmore Owings and Merrill – Astorg-Bollack recently endowed, in perpetuity, a Travel Fellowship to support MSHP between their 1st and 2nd years of study. Key to the new award is the opportunity for students to record their work in the Columbia University Academic Commons, ensuring that their original research is available for future generations and that, as the record grows, it constitutes a valuable visual and intellectual resource for students and faculty. The first recipient will be selected in 2025 with an award of $10,000. Learn more about the Françoise Astorg-Bollack and Tom Killian Traveling Fellowship here.
For over 30 years, Françoise Astorg-Bollack has been a member of the faculty in the Historic Preservation program, teaching studios and seminars. In addition to teaching, she is a published author and a practitioner with her own award winning firm focusing on the design opportunities of working with existing buildings.
Born in Paris, France, Astorg-Bollack received her degree in Architecture at the École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris, supplemented by a year at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts. The École Spéciale required an independent summer research project at the end of the first year. This open ended assignment challenged students to develop their own line of research on a specific part of the built world – large or small – and it profoundly changed her perspective. The Traveling Fellowship is intended to allow MSHP students to share a similar in-person experience, while contributing their learnings and observations to the wider preservation community.
More about Françoise Astorg-Bollack and Tom Killian
Letting the Architecture Speak for Itself
Drawing Culture at SOM - Tom Killian
Brutalism: The True Story of Mid-Century Modern Architecture
Everyday Masterpieces – Memory and Modernity
Old Buildings – New Forms: New Directions in Architectural Transformations
Material Transfers: Metaphor, Craft and Place in Contemporary Architecture