School of Architecture Deanship Named in Honor of Edward P. Bass ’67, ’72 Arch

The Yale School of Architecture today announced that the deanship of the school has been endowed and named in honor of Edward P. Bass ’67, ’72 Arch. The endowment is a group gift spearheaded by his wife, Sasha C. Bass, and follows in the tradition of generous support by the School of Architecture Class of 1972. It ranks among the largest gifts in the school’s history.

The gift grows the School of Architecture’s endowment and ensures that every dean—beginning with the current dean, Deborah Berke—will have permanent support to realize their goals for the school and its community.

“The School of Architecture embodies the type of interdisciplinary study and practice that is a hallmark of Yale,” says President Maurie McInnis. “Its alumni, faculty, and students design the world around us, and their work benefits communities all over the world. This generous gift in honor of Ed Bass supports a strong future for the school and reinforces its role as one of the top architecture schools in the nation.”

“I am honored to be the inaugural Edward P. Bass Dean,” says Berke, who has led the school since 2016 and is the first woman in its history to serve as its dean. “I am grateful to Ed and to Sasha, who, with this gift and through their service to the school, help us maintain our high standards of design education and nurture the future leaders of the architecture profession.”

Berke first joined the school as a professor in 1988, and in 2023 was appointed the J.M. Hoppin Professor. Berke’s vision for the School of Architecture includes a debt-free education for all students of architecture at Yale. During her deanship, the school has tripled financial aid, making architectural education more accessible; expanded the faculty, attracting the world’s best architects, architectural historians, and practitioners from a wide variety of backgrounds; and founded new academic programs such as the Center for Ecosystems in Architecture and the Yale College urban studies major, thereby widening interdisciplinary, cross-campus, and Yale-New Haven collaborations to make the School of Architecture a hub for hands-on education.

Ed Bass, who studied at the School of Architecture as a member of the Class of 1972, is a longtime supporter of the school. His many contributions to the pedagogy and culture of the school include the Robert A.M. Stern Rome Program, supporting drawing skills and architectural travel; the Edward P. Bass Fellowships, in which graduates from Yale are supported in their studies at Cambridge University in the UK and vice versa; and the Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Architecture Fellowship, which brings prominent real estate developers to teach an advanced design studio in partnership with an architect.

“Ed’s wide-ranging interests and his passion for Yale’s mission have helped shape Yale’s campus and so many of its programs,” says Provost Scott Strobel. “The naming of the School of Architecture deanship in his honor is a fitting tribute to his lifelong dedication to the university.”

In addition to his support of the school, Bass has contributed significantly to the strategic development of Yale’s campus, with a lead gift that enabled the recent renovation of the Yale Peabody Museum, as well as support for the construction of the Yale Science Building, the Class of 1954 Environmental Science Center, Benjamin Franklin College, and Pauli Murray College. He has also given to numerous other initiatives, programs, and facilities across the university.

Bass’s volunteer service to Yale includes time as senior fellow of Yale’s board of trustees and chair of its Building and Grounds Committee, on which he still serves as an advisory member.

Together, Sasha and Ed Bass serve on the School of Architecture Dean’s Council and the Peabody Museum Leadership Council, and they are honorary co-chairs of the For Humanity campaign.

“Endowing the deanship is a gift that honors Ed and his impact at the School of Architecture,” says Sasha Bass. “At the same time, it provides important support for the dean’s strategic vision for the future of the school. It is for me an honor and a privilege to support in a meaningful way the goals of the dean, the school, and of Yale.”

“I am proud to have my name permanently associated with the deanship at the Yale School of Architecture,” says Ed Bass. “The school is doing the important work of educating and inspiring future generations of architects who will contribute, through their work, solutions to a range of problems facing humanity while also creating a more beautiful world. It is meaningful to know that Dean Berke and future deans will have resources to keep the school nimble and responsive to the needs of its students and the wider world.”