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ITHACA, N.Y. (April 14, 2004) --
Mohsen Mostafavi has been named dean of the
College of Architecture, Art and Planning,
Cornell University President Jeffrey Lehman
announced today. Mostafavi, a U.S. citizen
who studied at London's Architectural
Association School of Architecture (AA) and
at the University of Cambridge, has served
as chairman (equivalent to dean) of the AA
since 1995. His Cornell appointment will
begin July 1, 2004.
Mohsen Mostafavi
Lehman said: "Mohsen Mostafavi is a
true intellectual and a talented academic
leader. He brings to Cornell an
international reputation built upon an
impressive track record of success on both
sides of the Atlantic, as well as the
respect of some of the world's most renowned
architectural practitioners and theorists. I
am delighted he is joining Cornell's
academic leadership."
On the heels of two successful terms
as chairman of the AA, London's leading
school of architecture, Mostafavi's Cornell
appointment crowns an already prestigious
career that includes a stint as director of
the Master of Architecture 1 Program at
Harvard University's Graduate School of
Design. A much-recognized author, he also
taught at the University of Pennsylvania,
the University of Cambridge and the
Frankfurt Academy of Fine Arts
(Staedeschule). A member of the Royal
Institute of British Architects and the
Architects' Registration Board of the United
Kingdom, Cornell's new dean served on the
Royal Institute of British Architects' Gold
Medal Selection Committee and is a member of
the steering committee of the Aga Khan Award
for Architecture.
Provost Biddy Martin, who oversaw
the search, stated: "I am enthusiastic about
Mohsen Mostafavi's appointment and look
forward to working with him. The committee
that recommended him worked hard to find the
best candidate for this important position.
Their work has yielded a new dean who will
not only be a strong and creative leader of
the college, but also will play a
significant role more broadly across the
university. I am confident that the college
and university will achieve a great deal
under his leadership." Commenting on the
news of the appointment, Pritzker
Prize-winning architect Rem Koolhaas, who
did graduate work at Cornell, said, "After
establishing the AA as one of today's
greatest schools, Mohsen Mostafavi, I am
sure, will help to write an exciting new
chapter for Cornell."
Mostafavi is credited with bringing
breadth and innovation to the highly
influential London school, which has
produced such stars as Koolhaas and Zaha
Hadid, among others. Colleagues and peers
agree that Mostafavi brought the British
school up to speed technologically,
instilled financial stability and forged
critical alliances with other leading
institutions. Koolhaas called him "an
excellent academic leader on campus, open to
developments, sharp, respectful and
respected."
Sharing much of the same enthusiasm
about his colleague of nine years, Paul
Hyett, vice president of the Architectural
Association Council and past president of
the Royal Institute of British Architects,
summed up his views by saying, "Mostafavi is
not only a great teacher and innovator with
a fine publications record, but also a
trustworthy administrator with excellent
financial management skills."
Mostafavi's projects and writings
underscore a keen interest in building
surfaces and how they change over time. He
has a preference for "landscape-sliding
borders," rather than rigid ones. Surface
Architecture , a book by Mostafavi with
David Leatherbarrow (MIT Press, 2002),
received the CICA Bruno Zevi Book Award 2003
for the most significant contribution to
architectural criticism. His book On
Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time
, also with Leatherbarrow (MIT Press, 1993),
won the American Institute of Architects
commendation prize for writing on
architectural theory. He is the coauthor of
Delayed Space , with Homa Farjadi
(Princeton Architectural Press, 1994).
Mostafavi edited and contributed to
a number of publications, among them
Approximations: The Architecture of Peter
Märkli (MIT Press 2002) and Logique
Visuelle , a book on architecture and
fashion. He has published in such
prestigious journals as Architectural
Review , Arquitectura andDaidalos
. He edited and contributed to Landscape
Urbanism: A Manual for the Machinic
Landscape (2004) and the forthcoming
Structure as Space , on the work of the
Swiss engineer Jürg Conzett (both with AA
Publications).
Mostafavi attended Clare Hall, the
University of Cambridge, from 1981 to 1984,
the University of Essex Department of Art
from 1976 to 1981 and the AA from 1972 to
1976.
When he assumes his new
responsibilities as dean of Cornell's
College of Architecture, Art and Planning on
July 1, 2004, Mostafavi will succeed Porus
Olpadwala, who, having served in this
capacity since 1999, will return to his
former position of professor in the
college's Department of City and Regional
Planning. Founded in 1871, the College of
Architecture, Art and Planning has three
academic departments -- Architecture, Art,
and City and Regional Planning -- and
approximately 50 faculty members, 500
undergraduate and 200 graduate students.
Under the organizing umbrella of the "built
environment," it offers programs at the
Ithaca campus and in Rome that range from
urban policy and planning to architectural
design, history, and theory; from art
practice in every medium to cultural and
visual studies. |
