Lee H. Skolnick

Lee H. Skolnick (born September 17, 1953 in New York City) is an American architect and the Founding Partner and Design Principal of SKOLNICK Architecture, a New York-based design firm specializing in both cultural/institutional and private residential projects.
Lee attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, majoring in music and art. It was here, that Lee was first introduced to the profession of architecture and decided to pursue it as a career choice. Lee would go on to work on the construction of Arcosanti, a utopian community designed by the Italian architect, Paolo Soleri. In 1975, Skolnick entered the architecture program at the Cooper Union in New York City, where he studied under the Dean of the school, John Hejduk. Lee graduated with honors from the school in 1979. He worked for one year with the architects Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio before leaving to start his own firm in September 1980.
Lee Skolnick received a Bachelor of Architecture from the Cooper Union in 1979. He received the 2006 President's Citation and the 2012 recipient of the John Q. Hejduk Prize. Lee Skolnick is also a Fellow and has also been inducted into the College of Fellows of the AIA.
Skolnick leads the firm, SKOLNICK Architecture, along with his business partner Paul Alter and his wife and partner, Jo Ann Secor, for the past 40 years. He is credited for the philosophies of “design as interpretation” and “narrative design” and has advanced these approaches through professional practice, lecturing, teaching and writing. Lee has also served as an instructor at Cooper Union, New York University, Bank Street College of Education and as an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Leicester in Great Britain. Lee has served on design juries and foundations’ grants committees for the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, the Municipal Art Society, New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs, the local and national AIA. He has sat on various Boards of Trustees and Boards of Directors, including: The Cooper Union, Architecture Omi, The LongHouse Reserve, SEGD, The Village Temple, and others.
In addition to designing museums, schools, libraries, residences, exhibits and a wide range of other architectural projects, Lee has created numerous museum education programs, teaching kits, and curriculum materials for schools in New York and throughout the United States. In bringing New York City’s architectural and cultural heritage to its children, he has conducted symposiums, workshops and provided teacher training for some of New York City's top educational and cultural organizations. SKOLNICK Architecture + Design Partnership designed the exhibition for The Cooper Union’s Great Hall renovation.
Since the 1980s, Skolnick has been awarded Architectural Digest “AD100,” Cooper Union’s “John Q. Hejduk Award,” House & Garden's “Design Obsession,” the Presidential Citation for Outstanding Achievement from The Cooper Union, and local, state and national AIA Honor Awards including the “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Long Island Chapter of the AIA. In 2003, Lee was elevated to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows. He became an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Leicester, UK in 2007 and in 2009, he was inducted into Cooper Union Alumni Hall of Fame. In 2022, Skolnick received the Innovator Award from Hamptons Cottages & Gardens Magazine.