The publication market is flooded with a myriad of architecture and other design journals, yet the design disciplines have failed to construct a body of academic publications that adhere to the extensive scrutiny of peer assessment. Academic recognition depends on this process and with few opportunities, scholars in the design fields are at a disadvantage for institutional advancement. The mission of the PEER design review is two-fold: to offer an additional site for peer-reviewed design scholarship with world-wide distribution, and to provide a venue for the exploration of topics that bridge the disciplines by encompassing a broad range of topics such as landscape architecture, environmental technology, structural technology, industrial design, interior design, artistic practices, and urban studies, including planning.

Monica Ponce de Leon is the dean of University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.  In 1991, she cofounded Office dA with Nader Tehrani and has recently launched her own design practice. She has received honors from the Architectural League of New York (Young Architects Award, 1997, and Emerging Voices, 2003) the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Award in Architecture, 2002), the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (National Design Award in Architecture, 2007), and the United States Artists (Target Fellows in Architecture and Design). Her practice has received over 60 design awards including the AIA's Institute Honor Award for Architecture (Macallen Building, 2010), Wallpaper Design Awards Best New Restaurant (Banq, 2009), the AIA/LA Design Award (Helios House, 2007), the AIA/Committee on the Environment's Top Ten Green Projects (Macallen Building, 2008), five I.D Magazine Annual Design Review Awards, and thirteen Progressive Architecture Awards.

While the University of Michigan was founded in 1817, the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning was founded in 1906 and has the oldest PhD program in architecture in the country. The primary mission of Taubman College is to prepare students for positions of responsibility within a wide spectrum of organizations and institutions whose goals are to improve the quality of our lives and environment. In pursuit of this ideal, the College offers a complement of programs, ranging from pre-professional to post-professional education. The programs of our College are distinct but united by concern for the physical, constructed aspects of our environment. Industrial production, respect for craft, and the desire to serve are deeply rooted in the region.