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A reading room dedicated to the late Michael Sorkin opens at CCNY's Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture

2022-10-27T11:21:00-04:00

The City College of New York (CCNY) is set to open the Sorkin Reading Room, dedicated to the late Michael Sorkin. The esteemed critic, and architect, who was also a Distinguished Professor of Architecture in the institute’s Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, passed away in March 2020 due to complications resulting from COVID-19.

image credit: Nilda Sanchez-Rodriguez

“The reading room will be used by researchers interested in Michael Sorkin’s criticism, pedagogy, and design practice,” said Joan Copjec, Sorkin’s wife and main proponent of the project. “The room itself, designed by Michael’s colleague Professor Elisabetta Terragni, is beautiful and calm.”

image credit: Nilda Sanchez-Rodriguez

Sorkin joined the school in 2000 as a Professor of Architecture and Director of the Graduate Program in Urban Design. He also established the annual Mumford Lectures during his tenure, whose speakers have included Theaster Gates (2015), Mike Davis (2005) who passed away this week, and J...

Michael Sorkin-designed project for Chicago nonprofit Blacks in Green plans to move ahead

2020-07-09T19:08:00-04:00

New York City-based Terreform and Chicago community development nonprofit Blacks in Green are planning to moving ahead with the BIG Green Homestead project, a development that will bring community-owned sustainable housing and commercial spaces to the city's South Side.

The project is led by Blacks in Green Founder and President Naomi Davis and its design, Energy News Network reports, was worked on by architect Michael Sorkin up until just before he passed away due to COVID-19 in late March. In addition to Sorkin, architect and School of the Art Institute of Chicago educator Ellen Grimes and WXY urban planner Tracy Sanders have also contributed to the project.

Rendering courtesy of Terreform.

The development seeks to instill a “sustainable-square-mile” infilled urban model for the West Woodlawn neighborhood, which is in proximity to the proposed Jackson Park site of the forthcoming Barack Obama Presidential Center designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (TWBTA) and is faci...

Michael Sorkin and the politics of architecture

2020-04-13T14:03:00-04:00

[...] Michael advocated for collective, neighbourly, and walkable cities, while also practising architecture and urban design in ways that embraced these same principles. Even so, his shrewd wit always recognized the fallacy that architecture can change society by itself. “Architecture is never non-political,” he told Aleksandra Wagner in a 2006 interview “it always reinforces a set of social relations, whether within the family or between the ruler and the ruled”.

Architect and educator Fadi Shayya pens a heartfelt, personal tribute to the late Michael Sorkin, pointing out his involvement in Palestine and initiatives like the Open Gaza project.

"So many others were closer to Michael," Shayya writes in Failed Architecture. "So many others are more qualified to speak of how we lost an architect, urbanist, activist, author, and teacher with Michael’s passing. To me, we lost a forceful and inspirational presence for social justice, Palestine, and humanity."

Influential architect, educator, and critic, Michael Sorkin, passed away from COVID-19 on March 26, 2020.

Michael Sorkin, visionary and incisive architect, educator, critic, has passed away from COVID-19

2020-03-26T16:43:00-04:00

Michael Sorkin, the noted architectural critic and intellectual powerhouse behind Michael Sorkin Studio and Terreform, has passed away due to complications resulting from COVID-19.

Rest in Power: Michael Sorkin (1948-2020). Architect, Planner, Critic. #MichaelSorkin pic.twitter.com/ANkK3A4sm8
— Warren James (@wjames_com) March 26, 2020

The news was shared via Twitter this afternoon by New York City architect Warren James (@wjames_com) and was confirmed to Archinect by Lesley Lokko, Dean of the The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York where Sorkin was a Distinguished Professor and Director Emeritus of Graduate Urban Design Program.

In a statement sent to Archinect, Dean Lokko wrote, "It is with profound sorrow that we learned earlier today of the passing of one of our most valued and most brilliant faculty members, Michael Sorkin, from complications brought on by COVID-19. The entire faculty, staff and students are united in paying tribute t...

The Next Helsinki counter-competition launches in response to Guggenheim Helsinki controversy

2014-09-09T21:07:00-04:00

On the same day that Stage One of the Guggenheim Helsinki competition will conclude, The Next Helsinki is launching their own international call for alternative solutions to attract the best ideas that they believe would better meet the needs and enhance the city of Helsinki, Finland. Launched by a group of independent arts organizations and chaired by Michael Sorkin, The Next Helsinki bluntly addresses the controversy that the Guggenheim Helsinki competition has sparked [...].

Below is The Next Helsinki announcement:

"Coinciding with the end of the official competition for the design of the controversial Guggenheim Helsinki, a group of independent arts organizations has issued a call for submissions for alternative ideas. This competition—titled The Next Helsinki—is designed to attract innovative ideas about how to more fully meet the city’s cultural, spatial, and sustainability needs.

Following the success of the Guggenheim Bilbao in transforming that region’s tourist economy, many city managers have been seduced by the fantasy that a high-concept museum, designed by a starchitect, will turn around its urban fortunes in a similar way. Advocates of this branding formula see Helsinki as an ideal candidate for a new Guggenheim franchise. Yet the proposal has generated a surprisingly heated public debate among Finland’s citizenry, with pro and anti-Guggenheim sentiment running high.

The Next Helsinki competition aims to elevate the debate by giving voice to b...

Bridge Over Troubled Waters - Open Letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio

2014-01-07T12:11:00-05:00

Mayor de Blasio, your idea of a mandate for inclusionary zoning begins to address this crisis yet continues to depend on the tender mercies of private developers to actually produce the units. If you are going to tax them, why not collect the money, municipalize the program, and make gorgeous, genuinely affordable housing your greatest legacy, building it where it's most needed? We can do it! -Michael Sorkin

Dear Mayor Bill de Blasio:

Along with many other architects and urbanists, I'm looking forward to your taking office this month as mayor of New York City, and working to implement the theme of your campaign, the elimination of the increasingly radical disparities that underlie that “tale of two cities” you so frequently spoke about—a tale, increasingly, about two nations. While this program of social equity must operate in many spheres—from the creation of jobs to the provision of services, to the fight for environmental and social justice—planning the physical city in its growth and transformation is one of the most important powers of municipal government, one that the Bloomberg administration has deployed with stark effectiveness...

Editor's Picks #317

2013-05-28T19:03:00-04:00

In the latest edition of Working out of the Box: Archinect interviewed Larraine Henning who is currently seeking funding for A Practical Guide to Squatting on Indiegogo. @bawshaw commented "@LandMass - agreed. although the thesis is interesting, this is not out of the box in terms of a career"...Yet Connely Farr disagreed "@ LandMass - yep. you sound like an ass".

In the latest edition of Working out of the Box: Archinect interviewed Larraine Henning who is currently seeking funding for A Practical Guide to Squatting on Indiegogo. Buy a copy of the book “A Practical Guide to Squatting”, and help support independent art and promote the squatting movement! During the interview, she reflected "I think the most valuable thing architecture school bestowed upon me was tolerance and persistence...School taught me to bear conviction and purpose with whatever project I take on, to be earnest and to take judgement in stride"...

@bawshaw commented "@LandMass - agreed. although the thesis is interesting, this is not out of the box in terms of a career. half of my graduating class ended up taking similar paths; more as a product of the recession than anything else. these paths may be alternative to the modern career, but not to architecture specifically. i do applaud her for doing what she believes in".

Yet Connely Farr disagreed "@ LandMass - yep. ...

Op-Ed: Architect Magazine Finally Found its Voice

2012-11-28T03:04:00-05:00

I recently received my November Issue of Architect and for the first time since the blogs caused us all to begin devouring images at warp speed and sent print media into a battle for survival, I actually "read" an architecture magazine. It was truly satisfying.

From its inception, the idea behind Architect was clear; its title was the proof. Architectural Record had lost touch. It had become a glossy product placement catalog, serving its advertisers but increasingly bereft of intellectual rigor. Architect promised to peel back the facade of idealized pre-occupancy images and to share the stories of the people who make architecture: to deliver us process and ideas. The bar was high and so were many of our expectations. Perhaps that is why I have been so underwhelmed as Architect has struggled for nearly 7 years to find a voice. The magazine has taken us on a journey from in-depth interviews of firms producing irrelevant projects, to garnish cartoony graphics that distracted from...

World Architecture Festival Announces Michael Sorkin as Head of ‘Super-Jury’

2011-06-24T14:19:37-04:00

World Architecture Festival (WAF) has confirmed Michael Sorkin will head-up the ‘super-jury’ at this year’s WAF Awards, to determine which building, from entries across the globe, will be crowned with the ultimate prize - ‘World Building of the Year 2011’.

The jury will also comprise Ben van Berkel of UNStudio, Rotterdam; Jo Noero of Noero Wolff Architects, Cape Town; Odile Decq of ODBC, Paris; and Kongjian Yu of Turenscape, Beijing.

If you are thinking about submitting projects into the WAF Awards, you better hury; all entries close on July 1.