Sara Queen

Bio

Sara Queen is an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture teaching a range of undergraduate and graduate studios as well as advanced graduate research seminars. She serves as the Director of Undergraduate Programs in Architecture (advising BEDA and BArch programs) and Director of First Year Experience for the College of Design (coordinating the interdisciplinary design foundations studios and courses for studio based majors). Sara was recently honored as the 2023 Educator of the Year by the AIA NC Chapter for her extraordinary accomplishments in design discourse, architectural education, and mentoring of the next generation of architects. Additionally Sara’s teaching excellence has been recognized through the national ACSA / AIAS New Faculty Teaching Award in spring of 2014, the 2016 NC State University Outstanding Teacher Award, the 2017 NC AIA Emerging Professional Award, the 2018 NC State University Scholars Awards, the Alumni Association Outstanding Teacher Award, and the TH!NK Faculty Fellowship in Critical and Creative Thinking.

Sara’s primary research focus investigates systemic inequities and how they manifest in our built environment. She co-founded the faculty initiative Co/Lab with Professor Tania Allen in 2014 to research and apply mapping and visualization methods with the goal of facilitating deeper, more diverse understandings of urban systems and the processes which shape physical space, cultural place, and social territory. Co/Lab’s notable recent projects include Oppressive Infrastructures: Equity In/By/With Data (Spring 2023), which was a cross-institutional colloquium which examined data equity with regional faculty and thought leaders, Oppressive Infrastructures: Mapping Racism in the Built Environment which is a book chapter and visual essay in Empty Pedestals: Countering Confederate Narratives through Public Design (2024) edited by Kofi Boone and Elen Deming that investigates confederate memorialization in context with myriad forms of racism foundational to our built environment, and Squeezed Out: A Portrait of the US Housing Crisis through one American City (2023-current), which is a multi-pronged, funded research project studying the historic and contemporary forces impacting housing equity in Raleigh NC.

Sara recently served as a City of Raleigh Planning Commissioner and has presented at numerous national and international conferences including the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Architectural Research Centers Consortium and European Association for Architectural Education International Conference, Design Research Society, the National Conference on the Beginning Design Student, and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture National Conference. Sara has worked as a project manager and designer at Frank Harmon Architect in Raleigh NC leading a range of projects from museums and academic campus buildings to small residential projects, including the award-winning Strickland-Ferris Residence and the Prairie Ridge Ecostation.  She continues to practice, in addition to teaching, as a project manager with Joe Sam Queen Architect in Waynesville NC leading a range of cultural and residential projects located throughout the region.  Before pursuing her master’s degree, she took a break from traditional practice to immerse herself in an iron sculpture studio studying blacksmithing. Sara continues to explore the principles of architecture through materials and processes borrowed from related art, craft, and design disciplines.  Most recently, Sara taught a summer studio at Penland School of Crafts, Living Inside the Book, which explored the shared properties of book making and design with conceptions of architectural space.