LETTER FROM THE DEAN

Tuesday, December 12 , 2017
Photo by Héléne Binet

Dear Friends and Alumni of the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture,


The holiday season is upon us, a time of celebration, giving and reflection. Over the past year there have been many significant moments at the School of Architecture, a few of which I would like to share with you as a friend of the school.

·         We celebrated the award of two significant grants to digitize the School of Architecture's unparalleled Student Work Collection. This funding will allow for the photographic records of student work from 1930 through 2006 to be scanned, cataloged and prepared for web-based publication. A next phase of the work will include student projects from 2007-2018. When completed, the School of Architecture Archive's Digital Access Project will be one of the most comprehensive online collections of student work at any school of architecture in the United States.

·         We honored the work and memory of John Hejduk, the first Dean of the School, with an exhibition of photographs of his works by Hélène Binet, along with the re-construction of two structures that comprised an earlier temporary realization of the Jan Palach Memorial. House of the Suicide and House of the Mother of the Suicide stood together on the public plaza between the Foundation Building and Peter Cooper Park from March until August. A 1950 graduate of The Cooper Union himself, Hejduk transformed architectural education nationally and internationally through his teaching, his role as dean, his architecture and his writing. 

·         We mourned the loss of Professor Diane Lewis (AR '76), one of the most beloved and influential voices of our community. We are grateful to those friends and former students who came together to create an endowed student travel award in her memory. Beginning next summer, a rising fifth year architecture student will travel each year "In Search of Civic Space," an important theme in Professor Lewis' work.   

I am personally honored to join the many generous friends, parents and alumni who have established and funded endowments in support of our faculty and students. The Parvaneh Tehrani Scholarship will help relieve an architecture student each year from the burden of tuition or the cost of studying in New York City, while the NADAAA Endowment will support bringing distinguished visiting faculty to the School by providing funds for travel and housing. Your own support of Cooper and the School of Architecture is vital to our students and their educational experience, and I hope you will consider a contribution to one of many funds that benefit the School of Architecture, including:


The Irma Weiss Challenge makes this an especially important and exciting time to give to Cooper. Irma Giustino Weiss, a 1945 School of Art graduate, made one of the largest bequests to The Cooper Union in its history. The Challenge will match all new or increased giving in this fiscal year.  The match of up to $4 million will directly support students through the Irma Giustino Weiss Scholarship Endowment.  

As the end of the semester approaches, we are already looking toward the new year ahead. In January the Free Education Committee will present the Board of Trustees with its report outlining their plan for sustaining Cooper's financial future, and a path back to full tuition scholarships for all admitted students. We look forward to sharing the report as soon as it is available.

I ask that you please make a gift to this extraordinary institution and its outstanding students and faculty today at support.cooper.edu.

Warm holiday wishes to you and your loved ones,

Nader Tehrani
Dean, The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture
FACULTY NEWS
Brad Cloepfil, the 2017 Ellen and Sidney Feltman Chair | Article | "Eleven Madison Park by Allied Works," ARCHITECTURAL RECORD, December 6, 2017

Lauren Kogod, Arch fac | Awardee Tutor | RIBA President's Awards 2017 Silver Medal
ALUMNI NEWS
Alexander Gorlin, AR '78 | Article | "Tributes to Vincent Scully: Friends Remember the Late Historian," ARCHITECTURAL RECORD, December 5, 2017

Stanley Allen, AR '81 | Article | "Banham's Material Ecologies," JAE: ENVIRONMENTS, Volume 71, Issue 2, October 2017

Shigeru Ban, AR '84 | Article | "New Renderings Reveal Interiors of Shigeru Ban-Designed World's Tallest Hybrid Timber Building in Vancouver," ARCHDAILY, December 8, 2017

Daniel Hall, AR '17 | Award | RIBA President's Awards 2017 Silver Medal
OPEN CALLS & OPPORTUNITIES
NEW   

CALL FOR ENTRIES | Study Architecture 10x10 Design Competition invites students and faculty to engage the USA Science and Engineering Festival through the design and installation of a Study Architecture Exhibit Booth. Deadline: January 17, 2018. Learn More...

CALL FOR APPLICANTS | The Douglas A. Garofalo Fellowship has been established at the UIC School of Architecture dedicated to bringing a young practitioner or recent graduate to teach and conduct independent design research within the School of Architecture. Deadline: January 19, 2018. Learn More...  

CALL FOR PAPERS | Journal of Engineering and Architecture Articles of interdisciplinary nature are particularly welcome. The interested contributors are highly encouraged to submit their manuscripts/papers to the executive editor via e-mail at editor@aripd.org. Deadline: February 28, 2018. Learn More...  
DEADLINE APPROACHING   

DESIGN-BUILD CHALLENGE | Reinventing the African Mud House Nka Foundation is issuing a challenge to designers, architects, engineers and innovators to use their creativity to come up with modern mud types for rural Africa. The challenge is to design and build a sample component of a vocational school of arts and design that generates electricity by use of renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar photovoltaic, geothermal heat, water, biomass or another type. Email your portfolio and CV to info@nkafoundation.org. Deadline: December 12, 2017. Learn More... 

APPLICATIONS OPEN | The Cornish Family Prize for Art & Design Publishing will award the winner with $15,000 AUD, with additional $1000 AUD prizes for up to five finalists. The NGV invites applications from publishers, artists, designers, writers, curators and organizations around the world. Titles must have a publish date of January 2017-December 2017. Deadline: December 12, 2017. Learn more... 

FIGURE DRAWING | Cooper Figure Drawing Sessions take place every Wednesday night from October 4 through December 13. Any questions contact paintingmodel@gmail.com. Come at or before 8:30PM to guarantee a seat.

CALL FOR PROJECTS | S. ARCH AWARDS invites architects, academics, studios, developers, engineers, and students to submit their projects in two categories: The best completed project award and the best conceptual design award. Deadline: December 22, 2017.  Learn More...
ONGOING  

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | Reimagine the Canals Competition evaluates submissions in two stages describing a physical project or concept, a programming initiative, or a blend of both. Deadline: January 5, 2018. Learn More...

DESIGN/BUILD COMPETITION | Folly/Function 2018: Seats Socrates Sculpture Park and The Architectural League invite emerging designers and architects to help shape the physical setting in which the Park fulfills its role as a venue for art, creative expression, public programming, and education. Deadline: January 8, 2018. Learn More... 

DESIGN COMPETITION | National Native American Veterans Memorial is an open, international competition, accessible to professionals, university-level students, and other interested people over the age of eighteen. Deadline: January 9, 2018. Learn More...

OPEN CALL | Arquine Competition No. 20: MEXTROPOLI PAVILLION 2018 The Arquine International Architecture Competition calls for design and build proposals for a public installation that generates civic architectural interactions. Deadline: January 12, 2018. Learn More...

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS | Design Workshop: The Summer Internship Program is designed to expose students to a collaborative, professional office environment and a team of experienced design professionals. Deadline: January 12, 2018. Learn More...

CALL FOR FELLOWS | The New York Botanical Garden Humanities Institute invites current Ph.D. students or recent post-doctoral researchers to submit a proposal for independent research in the environmental humanities. Deadline: January 12, 2018. Learn More...

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | Harvard GSD Wheelwright Prize 2018 is an open international competition that awards $100,000 to a talented early-career architect to support travel-based research. Deadline: January 14, 2018. Learn More...

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | The Plan Journal: Open Issue intends to disseminate and promote innovative, thought-provoking and relevant research. The criteria for selecting contributions will be innovation, clarity of purpose and method, and potential transformational impact on disciplinary fields or the broader socio-cultural context. Deadline: January, 15, 2018. Learn More...

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS | Media Arts Assistance Fund (MAAF) provides artists up to $10,000 in support for the Distribution of a recently completed work in all genres of time-based and moving image media, including emergent technology. Deadline: January 18, 2018. Learn More... 


CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | Moving Images - Static Spaces: Architectures, Media, Film, Communication, Digital Art and Design Amps Istanbul is an international and expressly interdisciplinary conference taking place at Altinbas University, Istanbul. The event will explore the complex coexistence of imagery and architecture in its many iterations. Deadline: January 30, 2018. Learn More... 

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | Log 43: The Issue of Geometry is a special section edited by Cameron Wu, in Log 43. Emerging from the contention that architects consume rather than produce geometry and the digital adolesent modes of architectural thought, Log 43 will consider the current and future status of geometry in architecture. Deadline: January 31, 2018. Learn More... 

CALL FOR ART | FIGMENT: Dream Bigger 2018 is the second annual call for art for this special program for high impact projects at FIGMENT NYC. Deadline: January 31, 2018.  Learn More...

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS | Arnold W. Brunner Grant furthers advanced study in any area of architectural investigation that will effectively contribute to the knowledge, teaching or practice of the art and science of architecture. Deadline: February 1, 2018. Learn More...

CALL FOR ENTRIES | Ornamental Metal Institute of New York: Design the Next-Generation Facade challenges participants to submit their vision for a facade system that can play a major role in enhancing employee health and well-being at a tech incubator on the Williamsburg waterfront. Deadline: February 1, 2018. Learn More...

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS | Bard Graduate Center Visiting Fellowships invites scholars from university, museum, and independent backgrounds with a PHD or equivalent professional experience to apply for non-stipendiary visiting fellowships, to be held during the 2018-19 academic year. The theme for this period is "When is After?" Deadline: February 1, 2018. Learn More...

CALL FOR ENTRIES | 2018 Architectural League Prize | Objective Young architects and designers are invited to submit work with projects of all types, either theoretical or real, and executed in any medium, are welcome. Deadline: February 9, 2018. Learn More... 

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS | The Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Woman Suffrage Movement Monument is commissioning and endowing the creation of the first time in the 164-year history of Central Park that women's contributions to this city, state, and nation will be commemorated in statue form. Deadline: February 14, 2018. Learn More...

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | Eleven Magazine: MARSTOPIA Ideas and design competition imagines the vernacular design of Mars. Deadline: March 11, 2018. Learn More...

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS | The Melbourne Art Book Fair will bring together international and local publishers and practitioners in a weekend of free talks, book launches, performances, and stalls featuring art, design, architecture and photography publications form around the world. The book fair will take place from March 16 through March 18, 2018. Learn More...

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | Tangible - Intanglible Heritage(s) - Design, Social and Cultural Critiques on the Past, Present and the Future Amps London proposes the political register of 'heritage' in regards to its tangible and intangible influence on our view of the past and orientation towards the future. Submissions from artists, architects, social historians, cultural theorists, planners and urban designers are welcome. Deadline: April 1, 2018. Learn More...

                                                                                         

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