Hilary Ballon is an architectural historian whose work focuses on cities and the intersection of architecture, politics, and social life in two fields of research, 20th-century America and 17th-century Europe.
Dr. Ballon’s books include New York's Pennsylvania Stations (W.W. Norton, 2002); Louis Le Vau: Mazarin's Collège, Colbert's Revenge (Princeton University Press, 1999), which won the Prix d'Académie from the Académie Française; and The Paris of Henri IV: Architecture and Urbanism (Architectural History Foundation/MIT Press, 1991), which won the Alice Davis Hitchcock Prize for the Most Distinguished Work in Architectural History and is widely cited as a model for its consideration of urban planning in relation to social, political, and economic forces. She co-edited the book Robert Moses and the Transformation of New York (W.W. Norton), with Kenneth T. Jackson.
Dr. Ballon serves on the Board of Directors of the Regional Plan Association, the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, and the Skyscraper Museum. She was chairman of the Planning Board of Englewood, New Jersey from 2000-05 where she dealt with contested development issues and rewrote the town’s master plan.
Her academic awards include fellowships from the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, the Institute for Advanced Study, and the Mellon Foundation, as well as the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching, the Great Teacher Award, and the Philip and Ruth Hettleman Teaching Award, all from Columbia University.
Dr. Ballon has taught at Columbia University since 1985 and received a B.A. from Princeton University and a Ph.D. from M.I.T.