Thom Mayne, a Pritzker Prize-winning architect and American Institute of Architects (AIA) Gold Medalist, will speak at The Boston Architectural College (BAC) on Thursday, November 16, as the inaugural speaker for the College’s Maurice F. Childs Memorial Lecture Series, established in honor of one of the founding principals of Boston-based firm CBT Architects. 

A 1978 graduate of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Mayne is considered one of the country’s leading contemporary architects. He is a founder and principal of Morphosis, an architectural firm with offices in Los Angeles and New York, and is also a founder of the highly regarded Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). 

“Thom Mayne is an international thought leader in the field of architecture, as well as architectural education,” said BAC President Glen LeRoy, FAIA, FAICP. “He has pushed design boundaries throughout his career, in terms of form, structure, and material investigations.”

“Thom Mayne has never been a shy architect. His designs mix technological bravura with the kind of urban grit that you associate with [LA]'s sprawling freeways and giant billboards. Yet underneath the tough veneer lies a strong current of social optimism,” wrote the New York Times.

The Childs Memorial Lecture is part of the 2017 Fall Student Lecture Series Frames of Reference. All lectures are free and open to the public, and take place at The Boston Architectural College, 320 Newbury Street in Cascieri Hall from 6 to 7 pm. Registered architects can receive AIA Continuing Education credit. 

Founded more than 125 years ago, The Boston Architectural College was created to make design education accessible to diverse communities. The College offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture, interior architecture, landscape architecture, and design studies. It also provides certificates in digital design and visualization, as well as sustainable design.