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LETTER FROM NADER TEHRANI
Farewell — 2022
Dear Students, Faculty, Alumni, and Members of the Cooper Community:
As I prepare this message, I am very much looking forward to the End of Year Exhibition tonight, marking the first time we come back together in person for this occasion in over two years. Looking back on my seven years at Cooper Union, this has been the one event to which I have looked forward consistently, in great part because of the vast array of people it brings together in celebration. It is also the moment where I got to meet most of you who do not have the occasion to walk our halls on a daily basis. So, I welcome you again, and hope that many are joining us for what promises to be an extraordinary exhibition.
For me, this particular address departs from the annual ones of prior years because it is the last I will deliver in this capacity. It has been an immense honor to have served as the dean of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, and now the time has come for new leadership, an expanded vision, and another set of challenges. These have been important but transitional years in many ways. Each year has projected new demands, all while we tried to introduce new opportunities for the program.
With a legacy like no other, the program I inherited had a significant history to honor. Even those of us educated in other institutions invariably revolved around some of the pedagogies to which John Hejduk gave birth, and even fifteen years after his passing, the school maintained his ethos with depth and breadth. At the same time, with over a decade of productive evolution under the leadership of Tony Vidler, it was becoming clear that the school required the confidence of moving forward without the fear of losing its past. If anything, time has allowed us to historicize Hejduk by calling on our faculty and alumni to develop a scholarship around his work that would transcend the particularities of that time. The efforts of Jim Williamson, with the re-installation of the House of Suicide and the House of the Mother of the Suicide, the dissertation of Lisseth Estrella of ETSAM, and the seminars of our own Guido Zuliani have all touched on varied episodes of Hejduk’s long journey, and the intellectual focus of these exercises has allowed our community to revisit this important work, beyond the emotions they conjure.
As such, while our faculty have a deep sense of the culture of our school, each brings a new element to the discussion. With the introduction of four new faculty members, Lorena del Rio, Michael Young, Nora Akawi, and Lydia Kallipoliti, we have been able to address significant areas of pedagogical focus in the arena of unorthodox building technologies, representation within the digital age, the spatial ramifications of social justice, and the looming climate crisis.
Many other faculty have also contributed to a new surge in productive work, from Ben Aranda’s collaborations with the School of Engineering on Artificial Intelligence to the pedagogical work of Mersiha Veledar on foundational studies, which received the top studio award from Architect Magazine just a few years ago. The list goes on, and many faculty, adjunct and visitors, have contributed to the unique character of these seven years, but these are just a few of the significant areas of development that have enhanced the strength of the program I inherited.
My own focus at Cooper Union has been on several pet projects. With a deep commitment to the foundational years, I invariably gravitated around the re-scripting of the first three years of studio, revising them annually, and advancing them incrementally. While probing deeply into our own history, especially in the analysis studio of third year, and the general broadening of fabrication with the expansion of the workshop into the AACE LAB, I have also attempted to expose Cooper Union to the world beyond. With projects taking students all around the world, for analysis, fabrication projects in exhibitions and biennales, these have all been important to widen our perspectives: taking students to Mexico to study Felix Candela, to Chicago to discover an American brand of modernism, to Shenzhen to collaborate with students on large pavilion for their Biennale, to Montpellier for the Festival des Architecture Vives—extending our structures speculations into the summer months—and eventually to Venice, where a number of faculty and students responded to the question, “How will we live together?” These were just some of the ways in which we not only learned from the world, but also gave back to it.
Closer to home, we developed a few important collaborations that set out to give back to New York City itself. Working with HELPUSA we developed prototypes for affordable housing that could contribute to the culture of urbanism in the five boroughs; we engaged dieFirma Gallery to showcase student fabrication work to a broader public; collaborating with MoMA we developed a seminar that gave birth to two major exhibitions, one on former Yugoslavia and one on South Asia, still up as we speak. Among others, we also engaged Governors Island on its artist in residence program, hosting a series of events, with art installations by students as part of our contribution to its programs.
It is hard to look back and try to capture the intensity of some of the transformations of the last seven years, in part because we explored a lot and sometimes to their yield point, we tested to failure. The sheer amount of lectures, exhibitions, book launches, and symposia are a testament to the energy of the faculty, whose served as key collaborators, as well as Steven Hillyer and his team in the Archive, who were consistently patient as I put more things on their plate. Needless to say, none of this would have been possible without the genuine partnership I had with associate deans Elizabeth O’ Donnell and Hayley Eber, and equally so the almighty presence of Monica Shapiro, who patiently tutored me over the years.
Of the many things that drew me to Cooper Union—its history,¬ its pedagogies, and its commitments all important—the initiative to go back to full-scholarships was something I followed in the news, long before I had any connection to the program. As I stepped into the deanship, I was lucky to inherit a new president who pledged to bring the fiscal rigors back into practice. Laura Sparks has been an immense advocate for our school, and between the two of us, we have had to revisit both the short and long-term commitments from which we wish the program to benefit: namely, a plan to bring us back to “free” in ten years on one hand, but also the cultivation of endowments that will see special programs supported long into the future, on the other.
The history of our school has not had to contemplate these challenges before, and for that reason, this was also an important aspect of our dialogue in the past few years. In collaboration with alumni, we have created the Sue Gussow and Diane Lewis endowments. In support of academic programs, we developed the Fariba Tehrani Lecture and the NADAAA Endowment for visiting professors. We have expanded the William Cooper Mack Thesis Fellowship program on an annual basis. With the generous support of Elise Jaffe and Jeffrey Brown, we now have a fully funded Student Lecture Series. Through the generosity of Art Thomson we initiated The Art Thomson Thesis Fellowship. The YC Foundation vigorously supports the school’s public lecture program. Now, with the immense leadership of Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto, we are on the verge of receiving a new endowment, the Zeke Foundation, in support of programs at the intersection of Architecture and the Humanities.
Finally, as my last act, I have pledged to contribute the full foundation for what will be the John Hejduk Endowment, dedicated to the establishment of an annual faculty scholarship in support of diversity and minority voices. And with that, my hope is to call on you as alumni to help advance it even further, to double and triple the funds, not only to honor Hejduk’s legacy, but to advance a curatorial intuition he had for new talent, here refashioned to address the urgencies of our time. With an immense effort to diversify our curriculum, our students, and our pedagogies, we also need to advance that in support of young faculty with great futures ahead.
With this, I bid you farewell as dean, and I look forward to returning as a professor, with the capacity to contribute to the school in a way that the last seven years never allowed. It has been an immense honor to be bestowed with this responsibility, and I look forward to the next chapter with equal weight on my shoulders.
I am forever indebted to you as a community for having welcomed me with open arms some seven years ago, and I have benefited from your ongoing support since then. For this reason, this is also a gentle reminder that before long, we will have a new dean to welcome; I hope that each and every one of you will join me in making that transition seamless while allowing our next dean to benefit from the very same warmth you bestowed onto me.
Farewell!
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EXHIBITION
End of Year Show Live
Opening Tuesday, May 24
Foundation Building | 5:00 PM
Exhibition Hours
May 25–June 12, 2022
Tuesday thru Sunday, 12–7pm
Note: The exhibition will be closed during the Memorial Day weekend, May 28 - 30
This event is free and open to the public. Proof of Covid-19 vaccination, booster and wearing of masks are required.
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CURRENT WORK
DnA_Design and Architecture
Tuesday, May 31
Zoom | 7:00 PM
DnA_Design and Architecture is an interdisciplinary practice founded in Beijing, China, in 2004. Its founding principal, Xu Tiantian, practices what she calls “architectural acupuncture”: a subtle, localized approach to the revitalization of rural China’s built environment. In collaboration with village communities and provincial governments, DnA has built over 20 public structures in China’s mountainous Songyang County and other rural regions. Using natural materials and local craft, its work celebrates each site’s cultural heritage while opening new social and economic futures in the places where it works.
Recent projects include:
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Hakka Indenture Museum, a village museum that incorporates the site’s original irrigation pattern into its design;
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Huiming Tea Space, a workshop that showcases the local tea production process and functions as a sundial for the Chinese zodiac;
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Jinyun Quarries, an ongoing transformation of nine abandoned quarries into public spaces for social and cultural activities.
Xu Tiantian received a master’s degree in urban design from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and a baccalaureate in architecture from Tsinghua University in Beijing. She has received numerous awards, including The Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers, the Design Vanguard Award, two WA China Architecture Awards, and The Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture. In 2020, she was appointed an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Xu’s work is included in the current MoMA exhibition, Reuse, Renew, Recycle: Current Architecture from China.
The lecture will be followed by a conversation and Q&A with Calvin Tsao. A founding principal of Tsao & McKown, Tsao serves on the boards of the American Academy in Rome and The Architectural League of New York.
The event is co-sponsored by The Architectural League of New York.
This event is free and open to the public through Zoom. Registration is required. Please register in advance here.
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SUMMER PROGRAM
Introduction to Architecture Online: Student Teacher Application
Deadline: Tuesday, May 31
The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture is looking to hire enthusiastic students and recent graduates to assist in teaching this year’s Introduction to Architecture Online: Foundation Studies and Portfolio Development for High school and College Students programs. The framework of the programs' pedagogy introduces participants to Architectonics [structure, geometry, materiality] in tandem with multiple representational drawing, and modeling tools and techniques. The program deploys instructional sessions, projects, and reviews to facilitate experimentation and mentor students in the process of advancing their understanding of space while discovering the pleasure of making. The program will be coordinated by Professor Veledar.
All applicants are encouraged to become familiar with the summer program descriptions, and watch the live information session to review previous student work examples and get a sense of the program content and focus.
Students and recent alumni who meet the pre-requisites and demonstrate interest in teaching may fill out the application and submit a recent portfolio and CV.
Please note that the application can only be submitted once.
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SUMMER PROGRAM
Introduction to Architecture Online: Summer 2022
Deadlines Approaching: Apply Now!
The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union announces our upcoming summer intensive program that features a virtual curriculum accessible to high school and college students worldwide. As an institution that is committed to the pursuit of excellence and learning, we view our current circumstances as an opportunity to advance our thinking through radical experimentation between various forms of online engagement, digital interface, virtual modeling and representation techniques. The pleasure of making and experimentation are fundamental to our discovery of architecture and the innovation of the discipline, as well as a deeply thoughtful form of social and cultural dialogue where the imaginary becomes possible.
Applications are currently open and all potential students are encouraged to apply soon.
Enrollment Deadline is June 14.
High School Student Program Dates: July 5 - August 5 | Apply Now
College Student Program Dates: July 5 - July 29 | Apply Now
You may watch our public Live Information Session to get an overview of the program's curriculum, pedagogy, and focus for this year. The video features examples of former participants' work and presentations by faculty and staff.
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VIDEO ARCHIVE
Watch Our Public Lectures and Events Anytime
Vimeo | On Demand
The School of Architecture records, archives and publishes videos of public programs to open access and accommodate asynchronous learning and research for audiences in different time zones. You may visit our Vimeo channel for access to all our video content.
You may also use Cooper website's search bar to look for a particular lecture title or a lecturer's name to find embedded videos of their events with us, if any are available, along with other pertinent event and bio information.
If you recently missed a lecture or event you wanted to see, make sure to check out the Fall 2021 and the Spring 2021 Lecture and Events Lists. Links to earlier semester event lists are found at the bottom of their respective event pages.
Our public programs are free and recorded for access anytime.
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ANNOUNCEMENT
Coronavirus Response
For campus-wide COVID-19 updates and resources, please visit The Cooper Union's website.
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John Hejduk AR’50/Arch dean & fac emeritus (deceased) | Article | “What in the World Does an Architect Do?,” OXONIAN REVIEW, May 17, 2022
Susannah Drake, Arch fac | Featured | "Names in the News: May Promotions and Hires," AIA NEW YORK, May 17, 2022
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Steven Hillyer AR’90/Arch staff | Featured | "New Online Archive Offers a Glimpse into More than a Century of American History," THE COOPER UNION, May 18, 2022
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Daniel Libeskind AR’70 | Article | " Daniel Libeskind is deconstructivism's "late bloomer"," DEZEEN, May 19, 2022
Diller Scofidio + Renfro (Elizabeth Diller AR’79, Ricardo Scofidio AR’55/Arch fac emeritus) | Article | “Comprising two buildings, Columbia University’s new business school presents a dynamic face to a growing campus,” THE ARCHITECT’S NEWSPAPER, May 12, 2022
Gaspare Malek AR’83 | Featured | "Names in the News: May Promotions and Hires," AIA NEW YORK, May 17, 2022
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James Ludwig AR’92 | Featured | “On the Move: Recent Promotions and Hires,” INTERIOR DESIGN, May 17, 2022
Maria Westerstahl AR’99 | Article | “What in the World Does an Architect Do?,” OXONIAN REVIEW, May 17, 2022
Tanner Clapham AR’10 | Article | "A modernist-inspired facade built for desert heat shapes Arizona State University’s Health Futures Center," THE ARCHITECT'S NEWSPAPER, May 13, 2022
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Open Calls & Opportunities |
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NEW
CALL FOR APPLICANTS
URBAN OMNIBUS, The Architectural League of New York’s interdisciplinary publication seeks a full-time Managing Editor to play a central role in its small editorial team. Deadline: June 2
DEADLINES APPROACHING
CALL FOR ENTRIES
CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS
CALL FOR ENTRIES
Lyceum Fellowship 2022 Competition: UNDERLAND challenges students to create a solution for the Friesenhahn Cave site, an important paleontological site outside of San Antonio and managed by Concordia University in Austin, Texas. Deadline: May 26, 2022
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
ONGOING
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
MIT Press | Thresholds 51 Journal: Heat is particularly invested in alternative architectural and aesthetic mobilizations of heat — in the contestation of thermal violence, in the activation of ritual, or in the warmth of community, desire, and lust. Deadline: June 1
CALL FOR APPLICANTS
The Cooper Union Grant Program is open to any Cooper Union employee or student and funds projects that enhance Cooper Union students’ learning experiences; our faculty teaching, scholarship, and practice. Deadline: July 1
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CALL FOR APPLICANTS
FREE GROCERIES
The College Student Pantry welcomes all college students in need of groceries. Open first and third Wednesdays from 3-5pm. Stop by 602 E 9th St in the East Village (corner of Ave B) for a free bag of groceries. Ongoing: 1st and 3rd Wednesdays at 3PM.
CALL FOR SUPPORT
Mophradat: Support the Arts in Beirut Prioritizing those already disadvantaged, and those who influence the community around them in a thoughtful manner, Mophradat offers resources to artists, visual thinkers and architects. Deadline: Rolling
CALL FOR ALLIES
CALL FOR STUDENT PROPOSALS
Write for Urban Omnibus! Shaped by a wide range of contributors In an effort to advance the collective work of city making, Urban Omnibus calls for students and professionals to submit article proposals. Deadline: Ongoing
CALL FOR APPLICANTS
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