Résumé

Architect, Pei, Cobb, Freed and Partners, New York, NY.

Architect, Richard Meier and Partners, New York, NY.

Founding Partner, Cheng-Olson Design, Architects, New York, NY, and other cities.

Teaching

Instructor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, c. 1988-1995.

Assistant Professor of Architecture, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 1996-12/2001.

Associate Professor / Professor, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 01/2002-12/2018.

Dean, University of Washington (UW), College of Built Environments, Seattle, WA, 01/01/2019-09/2024.

Senior Vice Provost and Dean of the Herberger Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 10/2024- .

High School / College

Graduate, Greenhills School, Ann Arbor, MI, 1981.

AB, Psychology and Social Relations, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 1981-1985.

M.Arch., Harvard University, Graduate School of Design (GSD), Cambridge, MA, 1989.

Relocation

Renée M. Yin Cheng grew up in Ann Arbor, MI, graduating from the prestigious Greenhills School in 1981. At Greenhills, Renée was active in various activities, including volleyball, track, field hockey (for which she was team captain), and Gryphon Club (a school spirit club).

Following high school, she matriculated at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, aiming to become a doctor or lawyer. She stated in a 2023 interview with Madame Architect.com, ""Growing up, I loved making ceramics and paintings, but the direction for my education was laid out very clearly. The choices were law or medicine at either Harvard, Yale, or MIT." She pursued the premed curriculum, but found it wearing. While at Harvard, she took a drawing class with the sculptor William Reimann (born 11/29/1935 in Minneapolis, MN) that helped ignite a passion in her for making art. Reimann studied with the Bauhaus-trained artist Josef Albers (1888-1976), who headed the art department at Yale University while he studied there in the late 1950s. She said of her time studying with Reimann: "Reimann taught drawing from the point of view of perception, emphasizing hand-eye coordination and observation. I had never been formally taught to draw, but I had so much exposure from my mother who herself was extremely well trained in both Beaux Arts and Chinese traditions. Seeing my love for the way Reimann taught drawing, my parents encouraged me to think about architecture. I didn't actually know that much about architecture. My first year at GSD was a complete shock. I entered with so little background compared to my classmates. I had so much to learn about history, theory, and drawing. I was doing my work in charcoal, while others were already masterful with pen and ink. I was feeling so disoriented that I almost dropped out of school. The thing that saved me was that I ended up teaching with William Reimann, the professor who had opened my eyes to drawing. He took me on as a teaching fellow, which is essentially an apprentice teacher. I taught the whole time I was in grad school. It was my anchor. I developed an affinity for teaching and got addicted to helping students discover the “aha” moment. Teaching also helped me pay attention to the teaching styles of my professors and the experience fellow students had to offer." (See Amy Stone, Madame Architect.org, "Anchoring Conversations in Higher Education: Renée Cheng on Sources of Energy, Research, and Making Equitable Spaces," published 10/16/2023, accessed 10/25/2024.)

In 1990, Renée Cheng resided at 21 East 94th Street in New York, NY, on the city's Carnegie Hill neighborhood.

Parents

Her mother was the artist and teacher Mignonette Yin (born 02/27/1933 in Xiamen, China-d. 04/23/2009 in MI). She taught in theUniversity of Michigan (U of M) School of Art between 1963 to 1996. Her first artistic training occurred at the Russian Academy of Arts in Shanghai, China. Her subesequent life experiences and training became more complex thereafter. The 2012 book jacket to a survey of her work stated of her biography: "At the age of 18, her work was awarded the Gold Star Medal and First Prize for three consecutive years at the Royal Drawing Society, London, England. The Japanese invasion of China interrupted her training and her family moved several times, eventually settling in Hong Kong, which became her home for her secondary education. ... After graduaring from Ohio University in 1959 ... she married Richard Cheng and settled in Michigan, eventually moving to Ann Arbor...." (See Mignonette Yin Cheng, [Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills Press, 2012], book jacket.) She came to the US from Hong Kong c, 1953 or 1954, making her way to Athens, OH. (She received a social security number in 1953-1954 in OH, according to the Social Security Death Index. See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, accessed 10/25/2024.) After studying at Ohio University on scholarship, she and her husband Richard Cheng moved to Detroit, MI. According to an obituary created by the University of Michigan: "She later taught in Detroit while her husband, Richard, worked at Bendix Corp. The couple came to Ann Arbor after he decided to pursue a doctorate in engineering mechanics at U-M." (See Dave Gershman, M Live.com, "Family, colleagues recall skill of longtime University of Michigan painting professor Mignonette Yin Cheng," published 05/05/2009, accessed 10/25/2024.)

Mignonette wrote many articles on art education, held exhibitions of her work and was the subject of several books on her painting. In her last year of teaching, 1988, she and Renée taught together at the U of M and also were able to lead students on sketching tour of Rome and other sites in Italy.

Renée had a younger sister Alicia Y. Cheng (born 05/28/1970 in Ann Arbor, MI), who also attended the Green Hills School and later resided in the New York area.