The Department of Architecture at Cal Poly Pomona will present the 2015 Richard Neutra Award for Professional Excellence to Enrique Norten, a prolific architect whose Mexico-based design firm TEN Arquitecos (Taller de Enrique Norten Arquitectos) is the creative force behind major projects such as the Guggenheim Museum in Guadalajara, the Rutgers University College Avenue Campus redesign, and most recently the CENTRO University campus in Mexico City.

Mr. Norten will accept his award and give a keynote lecture at the University Theatre (Bldg. 25) on Monday, Oct. 26 at 6:30pm. This free event is open to media, the public and the Cal Poly Pomona campus community.

"The faculty and I enthusiastically supported giving Enrique Norten the Richard Neutra Award for Excellence and we couldn’t be happier that he will be giving a lecture at Cal Poly Pomona,” said Sarah Lorenzen, chair of the Department of Architecture. “What I most admire about Norten's work is how skillfully it mediates between the universal expression of globalization and the idiosyncratic character of a specific place or group."

The Richard Neutra Award for Professional Excellence is an annual honor conferred by the Department of Architecture at the College of Environmental Design. Past honorees include former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Tadao Ando and SCI-Arc founding member Michael Rotondi.

Active in international juries, Mr. Norten transcends disciplines and cultural boundaries. He has completed over 50 architecture projects, including the National School of Theater and Arts, the Habita Hotel, the Americano Hotel, the High Museum of Villahermosa, the National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity, the University Museum of Chopo, the Amparo Museum, the Emblematic Monument of the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Puebla, Santa Fe Eurocenter, and the Mercedes House in New York.

Additionally, Mr. Norten has made significant contributions to academia. He has lectured around the world, and has taught at University of Pennsylvania, Yale, UCLA, University of Michigan, University of Texas, Cornell University, Parsons, Pratt Institute, and Harvard. Since 1998 he has held the Miller Chair at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Smithsonian Institution’s 2007 Legacy Award. He is also an appointed board member of Deutsche Bank’s International Forum, the Mexican Cultural Institute in New York, and the Americas Council and Council of the Americas.

The College of Environmental Design at Cal Poly Pomona is one of the few university-level programs bringing together architecture, art, landscape architecture, and urban and regional planning. DesignIntelligence ranks Cal Poly Pomona’s undergraduate Architecture program in the top 5 in the West and in the top 20 nationwide.

MEDIA CONTACT                                                                                                           

Samantha Gonzaga                                                         

(909) 869-4806 | sbgonzaga@cpp.edu