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 to one of the school's best-known and celebrated figures, whose contributions to teaching, scholarship and public thought are irreplaceable. He will be deeply missed by the entire community of The City College of New York."
The architect and critic Michael Sorkin has died. I am heartbroken. This is a great loss. He was so many things. He was a supremely gifted, astute and acerbic writer. He wrote with moral force about big ideas and about the granular experience of life at the level of the street.1/
— Michael Kimmelman (@kimmelman) March 26, 2020
Sorkin is widely celebrated as one of the top architectural minds of the last half-century and his influence has been felt across the world, particularly through his teaching.
Sorkin has held a variety of prestigious appointments at universities around the globe, including most recently at CCNY, where he taught since 2000. Sorkin also taught at Harvard University (1992, 2015), the Southern California Institute of Architecture (1988-90; 2014), University of South Florida (2011), Wuhan University (2007), University of Michigan (2006), North Carolina State University (2003), Auburn University (2003), University of Utah (2001), University of Texas (2000), Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (1993-2000), SUNY Buffalo (1999), Pratt Institute (1999), University of Minnesota (1999), University of Nebraska (1992), Yale University (1990), Columbia University (1990-91), Cooper Union (1983-1993), University of Illinois Chicago (1986-87), and others.
Since the 1980s, Sorkin served as the architecture critic for The Village Voice in New York City while also contributing critical works to publications like Architectural Record and The Nation, among others. In 2009, Sorkin published Twenty Minutes in Manhattan, a set of reflections focused on the 20-minute walk Sorkin took everyday from his home in Greenwich Village to his studio in Tribeca. He has published nearly a dozen books in total, covering topics that range from urbanism to the Israeli border wall and issues of sustainability, urban planning, and urban history. Sorkin’s Variations on a Theme Park, a collection of contributed essays published in 1992 that highlights the changing nature of American urbanism, continues to be a touchstone of contemporary architectural theory and discourse read by architecture students across the globe.
The architecture world has lost a brilliant mind to #covid19: the acerbic + effervescent architect, urbanist + writer, Michael Sorkin, who taught at @PrattInstitute in the 90s. As Michael said of bad political leadership, “Let us not be complicit!” In his memory, we owe him that. pic.twitter.com/dCBaOuj6UW
— Dr. Harriet Harriss (@HarrietHarriss) March 26, 2020
Sorkin was the founder of his independent architectural and urban design practice, Michael Sorkin Studio, as well as of Terreform Center for Advanced Urban Research, a non-profit urban research studio and advocacy group founded in 2005 by Sorkin “to investigate the forms, policies, technologies, and practices that will yield equitable, sustainable, and beautiful cities for our urbanizing planet.”
Sorkin earned degrees from several top universities, including a BA from the University of Chicago in 1969, an MA in English from Columbia in 1970, and architecture degrees from Harvard and MIT in the 1970s.
News of Sorkin’s death has rocked the architecture community. Archinect will continue to highlight Sorkin’s legacy in future editorial efforts.
This is a developing story and Archinect will update this post as more information becomes available.
At The Architecture Lobby Think-In Sorkin spoke about public space in the city - while grade is real estate, everything above belongs to the public.
We are sorry for the loss of our good friend Micheal Sorkin — a mentor and teacher during our foundational years at Terreform ONE. In that spirit the legacy will continue. We will miss him dearly and think of him often.
Michael was the real thing, an incorruptible and independent thinker, who invariably spoke the words that others hesitated to mouth. And he was viciously funny, making difficult concepts easier to take on board.
He was every person's person and really was the Voice of the Villager, caring for the little guy who played by the Constitution's rule book, but got dealt a crap hand of cards for one reason or another. Micheal lived for that person, neighborhood and state of being, and he did it with grace. Thank you Michael, you brought joy to our lives.
When I first asked Michael to teach at our University this was intended as a visiting professorship for urban design. But Michael soon realized he would need more time to invest for changing a traditional system of teaching architecture. He stayed for seven years and became my most charized partner in these common efforts. The University owes him the link to the world – to his world and shall be always grateful for a contribution to an institution himself being one of the most outspoken architectural minds of the present.
We are shocked by the news of his passing away due to covid19. For myself I am heartbroken having lost a dear personal friend.
Carl Pruscha, rector emeritus at the University of Fine Arts, Vienna
All 13 Comments
Unbelievable.
At The Architecture Lobby Think-In Sorkin spoke about public space in the city - while grade is real estate, everything above belongs to the public.
So tragic. Going to go read some of his work now.
Very sad news.
Great teacher, critic, and a thinker of cities, sad and alarming news. Rest in Peace MS.
Let's continue his legacy. Let's keep his ideas and spirit alive in how we practice.
this guy was good!
Devastating to lose a brilliant voice. And one of our own.
May God rest his soul.
We are sorry for the loss of our good friend Micheal Sorkin — a mentor and teacher during our foundational years at Terreform ONE. In that spirit the legacy will continue. We will miss him dearly and think of him often.
Michael was the real thing, an incorruptible and independent thinker, who invariably spoke the words that others hesitated to mouth. And he was viciously funny, making difficult concepts easier to take on board.
He was every person's person and really was the Voice of the Villager, caring for the little guy who played by the Constitution's rule book, but got dealt a crap hand of cards for one reason or another. Micheal lived for that person, neighborhood and state of being, and he did it with grace. Thank you Michael, you brought joy to our lives.
When I first asked Michael to teach at our University this was intended as a visiting professorship for urban design. But Michael soon realized he would need more time to invest for changing a traditional system of teaching architecture. He stayed for seven years and became my most charized partner in these common efforts. The University owes him the link to the world – to his world and shall be always grateful for a contribution to an institution himself being one of the most outspoken architectural minds of the present.
We are shocked by the news of his passing away due to covid19. For myself I am heartbroken having lost a dear personal friend.
Carl Pruscha, rector emeritus at the University of Fine Arts, Vienna
Can't think of a greater architect-critic. Though there are many imitators. RIP
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