Farshid Moussavi is an internationally acclaimed architect and professor of architecture at Harvard University. As founder and principal of Farshid Moussavi Architecture (FMA), she works on a wide range of prestigious international projects integrating architecture, urbanism, and landscape design, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland and the Quran Museum in Tehran.

Before FMA, Moussavi was coprincipal of Foreign Office Architects (FOA), whose projects include the Carabanchel housing scheme in Spain, the redevelopment of Birmingham New Street Station in the United Kingdom, and the award-winning design of the Yokohama International Ferry Terminal in Japan. Moussavi is also the author of the books The Function of Ornament and The Function of Form.

The 2011-12 Architecture Lecture Series is funded by Grants for the Arts / San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund; InterContinental San Francisco; Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum, Inc.; Jensen Architects; John Marx / Form4; McCall Design Group; Perkins + Will; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP; SmithGroup; WRNS Studio; WSP Flack + Kurtz; ARCH Art and Drafting Supply; BraytonHughes Design Studios; FME Architecture and Design; Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects; Long & Levit LLP; SRG Partnership; Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture; Auerbach Pollock Friedlander | Auerbach Glasow French; BAR Architects; Dome Construction Corporation; Donald MacDonald Architects; J.H. Fitzmaurice Construction; ProPM, Inc.; TANNERHECHT Architecture; and Turnbull Griffin Haesloop Architects.