Heather Roberge, former UCLA AUD chair, architect, and champion of innovation, has passed away

The architect, educator, and innovator Heather Roberge has passed away. A former chair of the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design, Roberge joined the UCLA faculty in 2002 and served as chair of the UCLA AUD from 2017 to 2020, leading the department through the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Throughout her academic career, Roberge championed innovative approaches to materials, computation, and manufacturing, culminating in her 2025 book Fabricating Plasticity in Aluminum, exploring the material’s potential for design innovation.

In addition to her academic work, Roberge was an innovative practitioner, as the founder and principal of award-winning LA-based studio murmur. In 2015, murmur's installation En Pointe was displayed in the SCI-Arc Gallery, combining a thoughtful analysis of the development of the column with modern engineering and aesthetics. From 1999 to 2006, Roberge was a partner and co-founder in the design practice Gnuform, prior to which she worked at Hellmuth, Obata +...