Archinect - News

Maria Nicanor has been named the new director of the Cooper Hewitt Museum

2022-02-08T14:37:00-05:00

Change has come to the top of America’s oldest and best-funded arts organizations as Rice University’s Maria Nicanor has been named director of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, in New York. Nicanor will step into a position previously occupied by interim directors John Davis and Ruki Neuhold-Ravikumar on March 21st.

As director, she will oversee 86 employees and an annual operating budget of $15 million. Nicanor will also be in charge of overseeing the museum's slate of programming, which includes a newly-launched digital platform, in addition to maintaining its 215,000 object collection, educational initiatives, and annual National Design Awards.

“Maria has an impressive passion for design and a thorough understanding of the impact it has on our shared future,” Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch said in a statement. “Her vision and leadership will help Cooper Hewitt reach even more audiences across the nation and around the world.”

Born in Barcelona and raised in Mad...

Mark Cuban just donated a trove of World Trade Center drawings to the Cooper Hewitt

2021-09-10T11:56:00-04:00

In 1962, Diniz was hired by architect Minoru Yamasaki as part of the team designing the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers. His drawings in the WTC portfolio show viewers the experience of monolithic structures in the context of Lower Manhattan and inside the buildings themselves. The drawings were intended to illustrate Manhattan as a center of international business.

Carlos Diniz' drawings occupy a revered place in architectural history, and his World Trade Center drawings have been by and large kept out of public collections until now. The illustrator was first hired by Minoru Yamasaki in 1962 to give the public a sense of place and scale caused by the architecture that would later become the domineering experience for users of the buildings after they were completed in 1973.

"It strikes an emotional chord with every American," Cuban told Axios. "I wanted the actual drawings to be where any American can see them, and the Smithsonian was the right home."

The Dallas Morning News has more on the billionaire's gift here.

Ross Barney Architects, Colloqate, Studio MLA, Doris Sung, and Behnaz Farahi are recipients of 2021 National Design Award from Cooper Hewitt

2021-09-03T09:22:00-04:00

Launched in 2000, the National Design Awards is an annual awards program presented by Cooper Hewitt and the Smithsonian Design Museum. Recipients of this award not only represent the very best examples of design innovation and impact, but they also showcase an array of firms and individuals who have dedicated their work towards enriching the definition of design impacts in daily life.

Individuals and firms are nominated, and an esteemed jury from various design backgrounds evaluates their portfolios. This year's jury consisted of notable design practitioners like Kofi Boone, FASLA; Billy Flemming, Joe Gebbia, Kristine Johnson, Grace Jun, and Patricia Saldaña Natke FAIA. This year's jury members selected the following nine category winners.

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Image © Ajay Suresh vial Flickr (2019)

Architecture and Interior: Ross Barney Architects
Landscape Architecture: Studio MLA
Climate Action: Doris Sung
Emerging Designer: Colloqate Design
Communication Des...

Cooper Hewitt and MAK Center among 19 Getty Foundation grantees

2021-07-14T20:20:00-04:00

Two design museums are part of a $1.55 slate of grants from the Getty Foundation that was announced by the institution yesterday.

New York’s Cooper Hewitt and West Hollywood’s MAK Center for Art and Architecture were among the nineteen grant recipients on a list that included projects at museums across the world.

The grants were part of a Getty initiative called The Paper Project that focuses on elevating cultural institutions whose holdings in prints and drawings are integral parts of their permanent collection and public program. Other winners included an examination of German expressionist printmaking put on by the Rifkind Center at LACMA, a digital census of Italian woodcuts before 1550 at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, and an exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum that will explore the global inspirations of Black Arts movement leader Betye Saar.

Today's Virtual Events cover issues of smart cities, design education, and the architecture of healthcare

2020-05-12T08:00:00-04:00

The online events happening today, as featured in Archinect's Virtual Event Guide, all address the challenges we're currently facing and how that will impact architects working in areas of new technology, education and healthcare.

Are you hosting a virtual lecture? Presentation? Tour? Interview? Happy Hour? Submit it for consideration by clicking here.

Are you an expert in an arena that's especially important right now? Let us know if you would like to work with Archinect to host an online event.

Smart cities: Resiliency Strategies in a challenging world
Tuesday, May 12, 2020 | 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EDT
This webinar explores how smart cities and its associated innovations can be leveraged to respond to and recover from crises, including pandemics.
Click here to attend and/or register

Creating a Bright Tomorrow: Design Education for a New Sustainable World
Tuesday, May 12, 2020 | 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT
Join Cooper Hewitt for a riveting discussion with designers, educators, and students ...

Cooper Hewitt Trustees resign en masse

2020-02-18T13:13:00-05:00

Six trustees, among them the prominent designer David Rockwell, have resigned from the board of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum to protest the removal of the museum’s director, Caroline Baumann, following an investigation into issues including her 2018 wedding. Ms. Baumann was forced to resign on Feb. 7 after an investigation by the Smithsonian’s inspector general into how Ms. Baumann procured her dress and the venue for the ceremony.

In a resignation letter protesting the ouster of former Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum director Caroline Baumann for suspected improprieties involving her purchase of a bargain designer wedding dress, architect David Rockwell of Rockwell Group writes, "We all serve on the board because we share the principles of the institution and the values of its leadership. I cannot in good conscience continue on the board given how Caroline’s dismissal was handled.”

Along with their expertise, several of the departing trustees are taking funding they had planned to provide to the museum with them.

The Cooper-Hewitt is run by the Smithsonian Institute, a partially publicly funded entity that, according to a The New York Times report from journalist Robin Pogrebin, has a conflict of interest policy stating that employees "must not engage in private or personal activities that might conflict, or appear to conflict, with Smithsonian interests, such as using Smithsonian employment for pri...

Wedding dress dispute forces head of NYC's Cooper Hewitt to resign

2020-02-14T13:54:00-05:00

Baumann was forced to resign as director of the Cooper Hewitt [...] following an investigation by the Smithsonian’s inspector general into potential problems regarding the procurement of [a wedding] dress and the wedding space. Her resignation was made public on Feb. 7, without explanation [...]. Two people with knowledge of the Smithsonian’s decision making [...]said that the investigation had turned up evidence of an appearance of a conflict of interest.

Robin Pogrebin of The New York Times delves into the circumstances surrounding the abrupt resignation of Caroline Baumann, the director of the Cooper Hewit Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City.

The museum is partially funded by the federal government and for that reason is subject to strict ethical oversight. At the heart of the matter is whether Baumann inappropriately received a discounted price for a dress she wore to her wedding and whether the use of Copper Hewitt spaces was traded in exchange for Baumann's use of the privately-held facilities where the wedding took place.

More of the notable 2017 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award recipients

2017-05-08T19:57:00-04:00

“In an era of tumultuous change, design is asking deep questions about its purpose and contributions to a better society,” Cooper Hewitt Director Caroline Baumann said in a statement. “The achievements of this year’s class of National Design Award winners have informed that dialogue...”

Hartmut Esslinger, Susan S. Szenasy, Craig L. Wilkins, MASS Design Group, and Deborah Berke Partners are among the notable winners of the 2017 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum National Design Awards. First launched in 2000 as a project of The White House Millennium Council, the National Design Award recipients across 11 disciplines are recognized for design excellence, innovation, and public impact.

Here's a glimpse of this year's winners:

Lifetime Achievement: Hartmut Esslinger

Photo: Courtesy of Hartmut Esslinger.

Director’s Award: Susan S. Szenasy

Photo: Laurel Golio.

Design Mind: Craig L. Wilkins

Craig L. Wilkins (author), Ruffneck Constructivists (2014). Published by Dancing Foxes Press/ Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania.

Corporate & Institutional Achievement: Design Trust for Public Space

Photo: Iwan Baan.

Architecture Design: MASS Design Group

Photo © Iwan Baan.

Related: How To Get A Jo...

Deborah Berke Partners to receive a 2017 National Design Award from Cooper Hewitt

2017-05-08T15:47:00-04:00

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum recently bestowed a 2017 National Design Award to Deborah Berke Partners in the Interior Design category. The awards competition recognizes designers, patrons, and companies for “excellence, innovation, and enhancement of the quality of life” in ten categories. Firms and individuals are nominated and portfolios are evaluated by a multidisciplinary jury of prominent design leaders, as well as previous winners.

“Our work, especially with old buildings, is quietly resistant to throw away-culture, to junk-space,” Deborah Berke said in a statement. “Call it architecture, interior design, or adaptive reuse. Labels don’t matter. It’s about creating spaces that people love, spaces that dignify contemporary life.”

Partners Deborah Berke, Maitland Jones, and Marc Leff and Senior Principals Stephen Brockman and Caroline Wharton Ewing will accept the award on behalf of the firm during the ceremony on October 19.

...

Brooke Hodge named Palm Springs Art Museum's first Architecture & Design Director

2016-04-05T18:29:00-04:00

The Palm Springs Art Museum has named Brooke Hodge as their very first Director of Architecture & Design. Hodge comes by way of the Cooper Hewitt in New York, where she served as the Deputy Director since 2014, but is already well-versed in the southern Californian architecture and design milieu, having also been the Director of Exhibitions and Publications at Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum, as well as the Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles.

Hodge's name may also be familiar for her curatorial work at other institutions. Last year, she curated "Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio", displayed at the Hammer in Los Angeles, the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas, and the Cooper Hewitt. She has also curated shows featuring the works of Frank Gehry and Dame Zaha Hadid.

Palm Springs is itself an architectural treasure chest, generously populated with midcentury modern homes styled with the distinct flair o...

David Adjaye talks about woven architecture and his new D.C. museum

2015-07-02T16:00:00-04:00

Adjaye is overseeing the newest installment of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s “Selects” series, which spotlights the little-known West African textiles in the museum’s permanent collection. [...] It also offers the celebrated architect a chance to explore the surprising connections between textile making and building design. “What’s interesting to me is this idea of fabric and weaving as a kind of abstraction of making places that people come together in,” he says.

Cooper-Hewitt awards MOS Architects, Michael Graves, Coen + Partners and more in 2015 National Design Awards

2015-05-06T19:57:00-04:00

The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum honored the talents of some of America's emerging and established designers in the 2015 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards. Established in 2000 as an initiative of the White House Millennium Council, the awards program highlights top-notch American design across multiple disciplines and promotes the essential role of design in shaping everyday society.

The museum convened a national jury of leading designers and educators who then reviewed the nominations submitted by the general public. Winners are selected according to the innovation, public impact, and outstanding quality of their body of work.

Recipients will be honored during a gala dinner at New York's Pier Sixty on October 15. And as always, the awards extend to National Design in Week on October 10-16, which includes a series of public-outreach programs like special events, panel discussions, and workshops.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT - Michael Graves

DIRECTOR'S AWARD - Jack Lenor Larsen

DESIG...

Archinect Sessions Episode #20: Three Funerals and a Curator

2015-03-12T18:01:00-04:00

Ten minutes before we sat down to record this week's episode, the Pritzker Prize Laureate was announced – posthumously. The winner, Frei Otto (1925 - 2015), was a German architect whose impressive work and research with lightweight and sustainable structures influenced countless architects through the 20th century to today. Otto was informed of the prize before his death in Germany this past Monday, March 9, prompting the Pritzker committee to make the formal announcement the day after.

This episode, we reflect on Otto's remarkable life and the Prize's announcement in the midst of his passing. We also examine the uncertain fate (and value) of Frank Gehry's Winton Guest House, which will be up for sale on May 19, and consider whether architects should shoulder the cultural and emotional weight of deciding how we bury our dead.

And on the heels of Google's announcement that BIG will collaborate with Heatherwick Studios on their campus expansion, Amelia spoke with curator Brooke Hodge i...

LA Forum talks with Brooke Hodge, curator of "Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio"

2015-03-11T14:54:00-04:00

"From the beginning, I wanted to give a sense of the variety of scale of the studio’s projects, from the more intimate objects like the Christmas cards to large-scale mockups like those for the Paternoster Square vents. [...] Thomas is trained as a designer and not as an architect and he has always made things as a way to test his ideas. He often mentions how unusual it is that most architects have never actually made anything themselves." – Brooke Hodge

When news broke that Heatherwick Studio would be collaborating with BIG on Google's campus expansion, many were hearing Thomas Heatherwick's name for the first time. "Provocations", the first exhibition devoted to Heatherwick Studios to be shown in North America, will make sure that Heatherwick becomes a name in the states not just for the Google project, but for a significant catalogue of distinct work. Brooke Hodge, the curator of "Provocations", recognized Heatherwick's unique status in architecture and design long before Google's announcement, and now the timing couldn't be better to get to know Heatherwick.

Currently the Deputy Director at the Cooper Hewitt's National Design Museum, Hodge casts Heatherwick not as architect or designer per se, but as an inventor – the tinkerer who sets out to solve problems, not develop a style. The LA Forum interview posted here is a quick overview of Hodge's organizational strategy for the exhibition.

"Provocations" is currently on display at ...