School of architecture & design welcomes gregory crichlow to the faculty

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design has announced the appointment of Gregory Crichlow as assistant professor of architecture. He will begin his work in this new capacity starting in fall 2019. 

Crichlow is currently serving as KU's prestigious Langston Hughes Faculty Fellow and visiting assistant professor during this academic year. This is the second time the fellowship has been awarded to an architecture and design scholar. 

“We are honored to have recruited an extraordinary designer, teacher and an engaged practitioner,” said Mahesh Daas, dean of the School of Architecture & Design. “I am grateful to the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, who made this appointment possible.” 

Crichlow’s experience as a multidisciplinary design professional, entrepreneur, educator and committed advocate for community engagement provides him a perspective and skillset that is uniquely suited to further the School of Architecture & Design’s mission to prepare students who will serve, enrich and sustain their professions and communities through design. 

“Last year, Professor Gregory Crichlow was unanimously selected to join KU as the 2018 Langston Hughes Visiting Professor,” said Jennifer Hamer, vice provost for diversity & equity. “While visiting, he impressed students and faculty colleagues with his creative approach to the study of space and community. He fostered a passion for learning among students and facilitated new ways of thinking about how we, as scholars, can contribute to discourse on place, race and equity. I expect that his courses will attract students from across campus and that his research will invite interdisciplinary teams of scholars. We are very fortunate that he has decided to join KU.”  

A native of Colorado, Crichlow is principal and founder of Chocolate Spokes Bike Studio, a full-service bicycle shop and custom fabricator located in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, with the stated goal of being a “seamless and positive part of our community.” His work as a bicycle designer informs, and is informed by, his research into ways to integrate human-powered vehicles into large transit systems that can provide efficient, safe and equitably accessible transportation. Chichlow is also a registered architect and former lecturer in the architecture department of the University of Colorado-Denver. He served as a project architect and lead designer for In Situ DESIGN, working on projects such as The Fourth Quarter – a 31,000-square-foot veterans’ home – and the Mulroy Housing and Community Center, renovated for the Denver Housing Authority. As a senior associate for Burkett Design, Crichlow worked on projects for a variety of clients, including Lucent Technologies. 

He earned a Master's of Architecture from the University of Illinois-Chicago in 2004, where he received the American Institute of Architects’ Henry Adams Certificate of Merit. He received a bachelor's degree in environmental design from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 1995. 

The Langston Hughes Visiting Professorship was established at KU in 1977 in honor of the black poet, playwright and fiction writer who lived in Lawrence from 1903 to 1916. The professorship brings a prominent or emerging minority scholar to the university for one semester each year. The Langston Hughes Professorship has been a valuable vehicle for bringing prominent minority scholars to KU for visiting appointments, as well as for recruiting permanent faculty. 

Watch Gregory Crichlow’s Langston Hughes Visiting Professor Lecture.