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Image Credit: Chong Gu, AR '20
AN UPDATE FROM THE DEAN
Confronting Our Challenges With Tolerance and Perspective
Monday, March 23
Dear Members of the faculty, staff and students:
It has been an extraordinary Spring Break, unprecedented in all ways, and a moment of reckoning. This is an experience that defines our time, beyond Cooper Union and NYC, something global and far reaching. I wanted to reach out to you now, as we enter into the second half of our Spring Semester, even though many aspects of our journey together remain to be defined.
Some elements have been put into place, and we should all be prepared for them. We are all going to be operating on online platforms for the rest of the semester, so I counsel everyone to get comfortable with TEAMS, ZOOM, WEME and other necessary technologies, if only to be able to expedite their protocols.
Much to my dismay, the traditional commencement ceremonies and all official spring programming have been cancelled, including in-person final reviews and the End of Year Show.
TAKE NOTE:
we are continuing some elements of our
lecture series through livestreams
and other interfaces. Stay tuned for that, as Lorena del Rio helps recast that for us. These lectures will be open to many other schools in the Northeast, so it is also a good opportunity to get to know other students and faculty in the region. President Laura Sparks will also let us know more about the commencement ceremonies with ideas about how to refashion them, online, or otherwise later at the end of the summer perchance. Stay tuned!
Our mission in the coming days, weeks and months is to confront the many pedagogical challenges with a sense of perspective: sufficient tolerance to boldly make mistakes and learn from them, to communicate like we have never before through any means necessary (drawing, speaking, writing and gesticulating if need be), to think creatively, to experiment, to explore and speculate through new means and methods, and to use the intimacy of our community to imagine other scales of conversation we may continue to maintain. The new circumstances require us to think and act in ways we have not been confronted with before, so I simply ask you to address the possibilities boldly without fear of failure.
As we navigate these new circumstances, please do not hesitate to reach out with ideas. If they involve new tools, we can test them. Whether as students, faculty or administrators, we will all have a lot to learn from a new way of working together. Your tenacity and resilience is a critical factor in this process, and all that I ask for from you is ample humor and humility to take on things we would not conventionally confront. As you cross certain bridges, please share both your successes and failures; we are all in need of testing things out, but your direct experiences matter to us.
Remember: none of us are in this alone. There are resources to support you.
- Use us, your deans, as resources. Let’s talk through questions and problems. Call, text, email, message us.
- IT is working around the clock to ensure your technology is available and ready. If you have any questions about that, ask. Marget Long can field your questions or email IT Support.
- For students – just because you are not on campus physically doesn’t mean you shouldn’t access all of the resources available to you in the Office of Student Affairs, or through the Library or Writing Center, etc. All of the same staff are ready to support you – just reach out through email or phone.
- For faculty – use our school administrators as resources as well as Human Resources for any questions or concerns.
We should expect that implications of COVID-19 will continue to change quickly. Please keep a close watch on your Cooper email and on
www.cooper.edu
for updates that may come as frequently as daily, particularly as state and city governments continue to evolve requirements and guidance in the effort to contain and mitigate the spread of the virus.
Above all, be well. Be mindful of your health and those around you. And please follow all the important CDC
instructions
for maintaining social distance (6 ft. from others), washing hands thoroughly and often, disinfecting work, study and frequently touched surfaces, coughing and sneezing into elbows not hands, etc.
As always, I am humbled by being here amongst you all; you have all shown great latitude during the last few weeks. I thank
Hayley Eber
endlessly in her remote presence; her responses have been immediate in all matters. I thank
Monica
and
Robyn
in their disciplined maintenance of school matters. They will continue to work remotely also, and attendant to all questions that arise. I am currently stationed in Boston in physical isolation, but available 24/7 at
nader.tehrani@cooper.edu
. As the situation evolves, I will know if I can revisit my normal weekly schedule in NYC.
Warmly,
Nader
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FEATURE
School of Architecture Moves Lecture Series Online
Wednesday, March 18
Although students were still on spring break, The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture had already taken steps to ensure that students’ educations continue uninterrupted during the upcoming weeks of virtual learning. Below Dean Nader Tehrani and Assistant Professor Lorena del Rio weigh in on the ways that online resources can provide expanded opportunities. A case in point is
the lecture given by the architect Jan de Vylder on March 18
. Although he was scheduled to speak at Cooper later this semester, he instead spoke to an expanded audience through an online lecture at Cornell. Similar events are forthcoming thanks to the efforts of faculty and staff working in concert with other schools of architecture to continue to foster rigorous content and discussion during this unprecedented event.
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ARCHLOG
Erieta Attali: Windows Into the Empty Streets of Paris
Posted Monday, March 23
School of Architecture faculty member and photographer
Erieta Attali
has found a new way to read the city of Paris, almost entirely without its residents. Using the camera on her phone, Attali has captured the architecture of this great city through daytime and nighttime documentation, producing images that are both hauntingly beautiful and emblematic of the current global COVID-19 pandemic. This body of work illustrates how we can continue to harness our creative talents and carry on with our work at a time of great uncertainty. To view Attali’s photographs, visit ArchDaily’s coverage of her work
here
.
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ANNOUNCEMENT
COVID-19 Updates
For campus-wide COVID-19 updates, please visit The Cooper Union's
website.
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Erieta Attali, Arch fac
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Feature
| “A Solitary Stroll: Paris Under the Lens of Erieta Attali, ArchDaily.com, March 18, 2020
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Brad Samuels, AR ’05
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Article
| “Iraq: 3D reconstruction shows security forces deliberately killed protesters,” AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, March 17, 2020
Paul Seletsky, AR ’82
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Letter
| “A Letter to Vittorio Gregotti – Paul Seletsky, AR’82,” ARCHLOG, March 17, 2020
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Open Calls & Opportunities
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NEW
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS UPDATE
COVID-19 RESOURCE KIT
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
Marion Mahony Emerging Practitioner Fellowship
MIT Department of Architecture invites applications for the Marion Mahony Emerging Practitioner Fellowship for the academic year beginning in September 2020. This is a full time one-year appointment. Deadline: April 15
DEADLINES APPROACHING
PUBLIC SHOWCASE
Design Pavilion
is an annual public design and cultural happening that is free and open to all. Located in Times Square, it’s an exhibition forum developed to showcase design ideas about our future to a huge audience of millions. E-mail for info: info@design-pavilion.com
GRANT OPPORTUNITY
NYSCA Architecture + Design Support
The Cooper Union offers sponsorship to faculty, staff or teams' independent projects for the 2020 New York State Council on the Arts Architecture + Design Grants Program. Projects cannot be part of curriculum or commissioned work. If you would like application support, please contact
Siri McDonald
. Deadline: March 28
CALL FOR NOMINEES
Stanford University Shimizu Visiting Professor Position
is a one-time teaching commitment for the winter quarter (January 4 - March 19) of 2021 to foster connections with other programs and deepen the conversation around architectural pedagogy. Nominated faculty please email letters of interest, course proposal, and portfolios in a zipped file smaller than 10MB too: alarimer@stanford.edu. Deadline: March 31
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
DESIGN COMPETITION
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CALL FOR PROJECTS
Helsinki Design Week 2020
curator Margriet Vollenberg invites international creatives to submit their works for the main exhibition of the Helsinki Design Week. Deadline: April 6
ONGOING
DESIGN COMPETITION
Legendary Bird Home 2020
tasks participants to present innovative designs for a bird house that can be built at home using sustainable materials and methods. Registration Deadline: April 14
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
The 2020 Deborah J. Norden Fund
, a program of The Architectural League of New York, awards up to $5,000 annually in travel grants to students and recent graduates in the fields of architecture, architectural history, and urban studies. Deadline: April 19
CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS
AIANY Civic Leadership Program
develops a class of emerging architectural professionals into civic leaders by refining the critical skills that design professionals need to better represent people that they serve. Deadline: April 29
DESIGN COMPETITION
CALL FOR ENTRIES
Dezeen Awards 2020
welcomes entries for its third edition of international awards. Eight new categories have been introduced this year including landscape project, infrastructure project, bar interior, restaurant interior, large retail interior, small retail interior, architectural lighting design and exhibition design. Deadline: June 9
CALL FOR PAPERS
DESIGN AWARDS
The SARAs 2020
celebrate design excellence in architecture and design through an annual Awards Program which attracts entries from individuals, firms, and students from around the world. Deadline: July 15
CALL FOR ENTRIES
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