Mario Gooden is a cultural practice architect and founding principal of Huff + Gooden Architects. His practice engages the cultural landscape and the intersectionality of architecture, race, gender, sexuality, and technology. His work crosses the thresholds between the design of architecture and the built environment, writing, research, and performance.

Gooden is also a Professor of Practice at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) of Columbia University where he is the co-director of the Global Africa Lab (GAL). He is a 2012 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, and a 2019 National Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Architecture recipient. Gooden is the author of Dark Space: Architecture Representation Black Identity (Columbia University Press, 2016) as well as numerous essays and articles on architecture, art, and cultural production.

Gooden is Research Associate at the Visual Identities in Art and Design (VIAD) at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa).

About the Portman Prize Studio Critic

The purpose of the Portman Prize and the Portman Visiting Critic Program is to foster design excellence and student creativity in the School of Architecture at Georgia Tech. Recognizing student accomplishment and excellence in the integration of technical considerations is a key constituent of the design process pursued through the Portman Prize. It is awarded through competition by a distinguished jury chaired by the Portman Visiting Critic who also participates over the semester as a roving design studio critic and public lecturer.

The competition jury awards ranked prizes, each carrying monetary awards. The top prize winner is also offered a summer internship in the office of John Portman & Associates.