CURRENT WORK

Making the Inclusive Museum

Friday, January 26

Rose Auditorium | 7:00PM

Over the past decade, many art museums in the United States have demonstrated their commitment to DEAI (Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion) through initiatives such as the diversification of their staff and boards, programs for people with disabilities, and exhibitions featuring the work of minority artists. However, museums are just beginning to consider the spatial consequences of accessibility beyond code compliance by improving their facilities to better meet the needs of the diverse publics—people of different ages, genders, races, religions, and abilities—that they are hoping to attract.

Making the Inclusive Museum intends to enrich the ongoing conversation about these timely issues by inviting members of JSA/MIXdesign to share the MIXmuseum Study, consisting of five years of research derived from collaborations with the Queens Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Yale University Art Gallery, and the San Diego Museum of Art to understand the common and conflicting inclusive design challenges they face. Panelists from some of these institutions will discuss the outcome of this study, a toolkit of design recommendations, prototypes, and guidelines for improving galleries as well as non-gallery spaces (entry sequences, reception, restrooms, and multi-purpose event spaces).

This lecture is co-sponsored with The Architectural League of New York.

Tickets are free for Cooper Union students and faculty with valid ID, and League members. For ticket inquiries, please refer to The Architectural League of New York website. 

MEMORIAL

Anthony Vidler — A Celebration

Saturday, January 27

The Great Hall | 4:30PM

Please join The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture in celebrating the life of professor and former dean Anthony Vidler on Saturday, January 27 at 4:30 pm, in Cooper Union’s Great Hall.

Memorial participants will include Diana Agrest, Emily Apter, Nicolas Apter-Vidler, Barry Bergdoll, Giuliana Bruno, Victor Burgin (read by Leslie Dick), Beatriz Colomina, Leslie Dick, Elizabeth Diller, Hayley Eber, Peter Eisenman, Andreas Huyssen, Lydia Kallipoliti, Phyllis Lambert, Mary McLeod, Patricia Morton, Elizabeth O’Donnell, Spyros Papapetros, Felicity Scott, Nader Tehrani, Bernard Tschumi, and Mark Wigley.

A reception will follow in the Third Floor Lobby from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. If you are planning to attend the memorial, please RSVP via Eventbrite using this link.

THE ORNAMENTAL METALS INSTITUTE OF NEW YORK LECTURE

Kersten Geers: Architecture and Everything

Tuesday, January 30

Rose Auditorium | 6:30PM

At a time when our world seems to become increasingly ephemeral and artificial, with technology expanding the notion of digital representation, mediated perception of reality and self-generated content are the new normal. Immersive VR and deepfakes are nothing but a highly sophisticated simulacrum of our own desires. However, despite the enticing prospect of hyperreality, the real life —as mundane and conventional as ever—still happens out there. Forty years of iterations and reflections of architecture as urbanism, architecture as event, architecture as journalism, architecture as philosophy, architecture as parametric algorithms, and architecture as anything that is not architecture, has not stopped the rest of the world building (real) buildings. Reality is the ultimate thing architecture can still offer. Accepting and dealing with the real issues—ecological, political and social aspects of our contemporary condition—and providing physical space for everything that life in all its complexity presupposes, is finally the utmost responsibility of architecture and architects. This lecture will present recent OFFICE work, focusing on architectural form and materiality as a means for shaping our urban and social reality.

This event is free and open to the public. 

NEWS

Anthony Vidler — In Memoriam

Posted: Friday, October 20

Dear Members of the Cooper Union Community:

It is with a heavy heart that I write bearing the somber news of the passing of Professor and former Dean of the School of Architecture Anthony Vidler. The Cooper Union joins the field of Architecture in grieving the loss of a most brilliant intellect and tirelessly creative spirit. We are deeply saddened by the departure of a cherished friend justly celebrated for his boundless generosity, wit, and unquenchable optimism.

From 2001 to 2013, Tony took on the formidable role of Dean of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture following in the footsteps of John Hejduk‘s remarkable twenty-five-year tenure. In Tony, we found a wholly devoted advocate for the discipline as well as the profession of architecture, an unwavering intellect, and a fervent believer in the potential of architecture to impact culture, society, and the shaping of history. His profound understanding of and appreciation for the School's culture and ethos predated his arrival as Dean and was subsequently demonstrated by his nuanced ability to honor our history without being constrained by it.

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