The J. Ben Wauford Visiting Professor of the Practice is supported by a generous gift that enables us to pursue an ambitious teaching agenda.

This visiting professorship is an initiative designed to bring in innovative practitioners who are shaping what’s next for the discipline. This appointment seeks architects whose work pushes at the edges of architecture and those who embrace the ongoing process of revising and reimagining the role of the architect. The School of Architecture views this position as an opportunity to elevate critical discourse in practice and pedagogy. We are interested in those candidates whose work merges design, technology, and culture through interdisciplinary critical approaches to the practice and the profession of architecture. 

2026 J. Ben Wauford Visiting Professor of the Practice: Matthew Griffith, FAIA

Matthew Griffith, FAIA is the founding principal and an architect with In Situ Studio, based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Griffith will teach the 2026 J. Ben Wauford Studio, a fall semester senior-level advanced studio.

The studio will focus on libraries as cultural and social centers, and how a library could benefit downtown Raleigh. The intensive studio will study recent libraries designed by notable architects, involve a high standard of diagramming, drawing, and modeling, and include three site visits in Raleigh.

A publication of studio work will follow in the 2027 spring semester.

Griffith, along with In Situ Studio principal and architect Zach Hoffman, presented the J. Ben Wauford Lecture, Right Here, on September 26, 2026.

J. Ben Wauford 

J. Ben Wauford, AIA is an architect, Georgia Tech alumnus, and retired principal of Cooper Carry. He earned his Bachelor of Architecture from Georgia Tech in 1979 and Master of Architecture in 1981, when he was awarded the Van Alen International Fellowship.

Wauford spent more than three decades in architectural practice, working across mixed-use development, hospitality, residential, office, retail, and master planning. In 1998, he founded Cooper Carry’s New York office, which he led until his retirement in 2016. His work received numerous honors, including national, New York State, and Georgia AIA design awards, as well as recognition from the Urban Land Institute.

Throughout his career, Wauford has maintained a strong connection to Georgia Tech and architectural education. Early in his career, he taught in Georgia Tech’s Paris Program, and he has remained actively engaged with the Institute through service on the Georgia Tech Advisory Board and the College of Design Advisory Board.

His enduring commitment to the School of Architecture is reflected in the J. Ben Wauford Professorship of Practice, supporting accomplished practitioners whose teaching strengthens the connection between architectural education and practice.