Yelena McLane
Associate Professor
Director, Graduate Studies
Department of Interior Architecture and Design
Office: WJB 1015
Yelena McLane is an Associate Professor and the Director of Graduate Studies. She studied Russian literature and linguistics in Moscow, Russia before moving to the United States. She holds a PhD and MS from Florida State University and a Specialist degree from Moscow State University. Her research interests lie in two substantive areas: interior spatial analysis and design history. She applies a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to explore relationships between interior configurations and users’ perceptions and experiences within spaces, institutional, social, and cultural influences upon these relationships, and their potential and real consequences, to inform interior architecture practice. Her historical research includes the study of mid-twentieth-century modernism and material culture of the Soviet Union, a lesser-known chapter in the history of design that formed under quite different economic and aesthetic circumstances than design in the western world. She is a co-author of the IDEC-winning book Homelessness and the Built Environment: Designing for Unhoused Persons (2021) and Foundations of Interior Design (2025) and a co-editor of Experiential Design – Rethinking Relations between People, Objects and Environments (2020). She is NCIDQ certified and worked for over twelve years as a museum exhibition designer in locations throughout the United States and Caribbean. Yelena is also a project lead for Design Resources for Homelessness, a non-profit organization and a knowledge platform that shares information about applied research and best practices in designing facilities for persons experiencing homelessness.
Contact and Files
Education
B.A. / Specialist Degree in the Russian Language and Literature, Department of Philology, Moscow Lomonosov State University, Moscow, Russia 1998
Post-Graduate Research Appointment, Russian Academy of Sciences, The Vinogradov Russian Language Institute, Moscow, Russia 1998-2000
M.S. Interior Design, Department of Interior Architecture and Design, Florida State University, Tallahassee FL 2002
Ph.D. Department of Art Education, College of Visual Arts, Theatre and Dance, Florida State University, Tallahassee FL 2013
Teaching Areas
History of Interior Design and Architecture
Research Methods
Interior Design Studio (Residential and Workplace)
Design Theory and Criticism
Research Areas
History of Soviet architecture and design
Design history and theory
Space Syntax and its application to design of interior spaces
Design for homelessness
Design pedagogy
Professional Certifications and Associations
National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ®) Certificate No. 023481
Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) Member
Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA)
Society of Architectural Historians (SAH), Historic Interiors Affiliate Group
Select Scholarly/Creative Works & Awards
Susan Slotkis & Yelena McLane. (2025). Foundations of Interior Design, Fourth edition. Bloomsbury.
McLane, Y. (2022). Homeless Shelter Design: Models for Well-being. Paper #425 published in Akkelies van Nes (Chair and Ed.), Proceedings of the 13th International Space Syntax Symposium, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway, Space & Society Section.
Jill Pable, McLane, Y., & Lauren Trujillo. (2021). Homelessness and the Built Environment: Designing for Unhoused Persons. Routledge. IDEC 2022 Book Award.
McLane, Y. (2021). Reflections from the Virtual Classroom: Applying Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Learning Theory to Online Design History Teaching. A presentation at the Teaching and Learning, Design History and Practice in the Virtual Space, a virtual symposium organized by the Design History Society.
McLane, Y. & Pable, J. (2020). Architectural Design Characteristics, Uses, and Perceptions of Community Spaces in Permanent Supportive Housing. Journal of Interior Design, 45(1), pp. 33-52.
McLane (2020). Stacks as Shelters: Library Lessons on Designing for Homelessness. Paper published in Yelena McLane, & Jill Pable (Eds.), Proceedings of the Architecture, Media, Politics, Society (AMPS): Experiential Design – Rethinking relations between people, objects and environments, Tallahassee, Florida, USA, pp. 146-153.
McLane, Y. (2019). Kul’ttovary: Bringing Culture into the Soviet Home. In Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler, Victoria Pass, & Christopher Wilson (Eds.), Design History Beyond the Canon, Bloomsbury, pp. 17-34.
McLane, Y. & Kozinets, N. (2019). Spatiality, Experiences, and the Formation of Place Attachment at Campus Student Life Centers. College Student Journal, 53(1), pp. 78-98.
McLane, Y. (2019). Soviet Critical Design: Senezh Studio and the Communist Surround. CAA.reviews
McLane, Y. (2017). Calatrava’s Castle: Morphogenesis as Beautiful Problem. Paper #15 published in Teresa Heitor (Chair and Ed.), Proceedings of the 11th International Space Syntax Symposium, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal; CERIS Unit, Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, Lisbon, Portugal.
McLane, Y. (2016). “Making Design.” Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum. Exhibition review. Journal of Design and Culture, 8(3), pp. 363-366.
McLane, Y. (2015). Choreographing Collaborative Academic Experiences: the “Quiet Building” and the “Airport Lounge.” Paper published in Dr. Kayvan Karimi (Chair and Ed.), Proceedings of the 10th International Space Syntax Symposium, Space Syntax Laboratory, University College London, London, UK.
McLane, Y., & Waxman, L. (2014). Designing for Good. In Graham Cairns (Ed.), Design for a Complex World: Challenges in Practice and Education, Oxfordshire, UK: Libri Publishing, pp. 77-98.
McLane, Y. (2010). New, But Not Improved: Defective Domesticity in Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle and Playtime. Interiors: Design, Architecture, Culture, 1(1-2), pp. 61-74.
Curated Exhibitions
McLane, Y. (2017). Kul’ttovary: Bringing Culture into the Soviet Home. William Johnston Building Gallery, Tallahassee, Florida: College of Fine Arts, Florida State University. Exhibition review by Colleen O’Reilly published on CAA.reviews
Academic Fellowships
2015
National Endowment for the Humanities and Drexel University Summer Teaching Institute: “The Canon and Beyond: Teaching the History of Modern Design.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Selected Museum/Exhibition Design Projects
2019
Bauhaus 100. Exhibition of student furniture design classwork (prof. M. Ransdell). William Johnston Gallery, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
Identity in the Ottoman Empire. An exhibition at the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts curated by Prof. Lynn Jones, Art History, in collaboration with student researchers from Art History, History, and Religion. Tallahassee, FL
2014
Visitor Center / Explorium. University of Texas Marine Research Institute and Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve, Port Aransas, TX
2013
History of Captiva Island Interpretive Exhibitions. Captiva Island Historical Society, Captiva Island, FL
Interpretive Exhibition/Signage Program, Conservancy of Southeast Florida, Naples, FL
2011
Visitor Center. Southeast Louisiana National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Lacombe, LA
2010
Nature Center. Texas Chenier Planes National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Anahuac, TX
2009
Cayman Islands National Museum, permanent exhibition design, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.