Yale Architecture School to Host Visiting Faculty

Four distinguished architects will hold visiting endowed professorships at Yale University’s School of Architecture during spring semester, Dean Robert A.M. Stern has announced.

Each visiting professor will teach a studio course and present a public lecture. Lectures are held in Hastings Hall, Art and Architecture Building, 180 York St., at 6:30 p.m.

Sir Colin St. John Wilson and his partner, M.J. Long, will share the William Henry Bishop Visiting Professorship. Zaha Hadid will be the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor, and Greg Lynn will be the Davenport Visiting Professor (Please see the following fact sheet for information about these endowed chairs).

“We are delighted to bring architects of such distinction to Yale to interact with our students and faculty,” said Stern. “This semester’s visiting professors represent a range of styles and approaches to design, and a combination of hands-on experience, computer innovation and theory that represents a cross-section of today’s architectural debate.”

Sir Colin St. John Wilson

The architect of the British Library, one of England’s most important new buildings, Wilson is director of his own architectural firm in London, England. Born in 1922, he was professor and head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge for 14 years and now serves on the board of advisers for the Architecture Program at Helsinki University of Technology. He has been a visiting professor at several universities worldwide, including Yale.

Wilson has served as chair of the Royal Academy’s Architecture Committee and as a member of the boards of the Arts Council of Great Britain, the Tate Gallery and the National Gallery in London. In addition to the British Library and the extension to Cambridge University’s School of Architecture, his buildings include the City Polytechnic (Hong Kong), an extension to the British Museum, the Queen Mary College library (University of London) and several private houses. Among his publications are “The Design and Construction of the British Library” (1998), “The Other Tradition of Modern Architecture” (1995) and “Architectural Reflections” (1992).

M.J. Long

Long, American born and Yale-educated, is a principal of Long and Kentish architects in London and a partner/director of Colin St. John Wilson and Partners. One of their most significant collaborations is the British Library, which houses the 12 million volumes of the British Museum Library, formerly in 16 locations around London, plus the Library of Science and Patents. Evolving over 35 years from concept to completion, the library opened in 1998.

Long’s other projects include the Cornwall Maritime Museums complex, several buildings for the University of Sussex (England) and a public library in Newport, R.I. Her remodeling project in West London, turning light industrial buildings into artists’ studios and residences, is now under construction. Long’s work has been published widely in trade magazines and journals, and she has written numerous articles for magazines and newspapers.

Long has been a visiting critic at the Yale School of Architecture since 1973, and a faculty member or lecturer at the University of Maryland, University College (London) and Case Western Reserve University.

Wilson and Long will give a public address titled “The Design and Construction of the British Library, 1962-1999: A Modern Epic” on February 7.

Zaha Hadid

Born in Baghdad in 1950, Hadid studied at the American University in Beirut and the Architectural Association in London under noted architect Rem Koolhaas. Now based in London, Hadid combines teaching and research with a design practice that ranges from large urban complexes and buildings to interiors, stage sets and furniture. She designed the Mind Zone P part of the Millennium Dome in London, which was dedicated on New Year’s Eve. The dome itself was designed by Lord Richard Rogers, an alumnus of Yale’s School of Architecture. Hadid is currently working on a set for the Pet Shop Boys.

Hadid won the 1982 British Architectural Design Gold Medal. She first garnered international recognition with her 1983 competition entry for The Peak, a luxury clubhouse in Hong Kong. Her designs have won first prize in competitions around the world, including the opera house for Cardiff, Wales, and the Contemporary Arts Museum in Rome. Her built projects include the Tomigaya office building in Tokyo, the IBA social housing in Berlin, the Monsoon restaurant in Sapporo (Japan), and a hotel and residential complex in Abu Dhabi. Her office was recently selected to design a new contemporary arts center in Cincinnati, her first project in the United States.

Hadid has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Columbia and other universities. Her paintings and drawings are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (both New York and San Francisco) and the Deutsches Architektur Museum in Frankfurt. Her work has appeared in many architectural publications.

Hadid will present a talk titled “Recent Work” on April 6.

Greg Lynn

Lynn, 35, is at the forefront of the new generation of architects. Known for his inventive use of the computer as an expressive medium, he has taught throughout the United States and Europe. He is presently on the faculty at UCLA and Columbia as well as at the ETH in Zurich. His office, Greg Lynn FORM, is currently working in collaboration with a variety of architects on projects that include designs for a new complex for the Cincinnati Country Day School, an energy efficient model house for the OMV Corporation in Austria, and networks of outdoor museums dedicated to contemporary art and the environment in Costa Rica and Spain.

Lynn’s first built project, designed in partnership with Michael McInturf and Yale Architecture School alumnus Douglas Garofalo, is the recently completed Korean Presbyterian Church of New York City P adjudged one of the decade’s most innovative buildings. In partnership with Eisenman Architects, Lynn is preparing a master plan for Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.

Author of two books, “Animate FORM” and “Folds, Bodies and Blobs: Collected Essays,” Lynn has published articles in many periodicals and co-edited and designed “Fetish” with Yale Architecture School critic Edward Mitchell and Yale College alumna Sarah Whiting. Lynn’s work has been exhibited in Austria, Germany, France, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, Japan and Turkey. Lynn will give a public talk titled “On the Surface” on April 10.

Visiting Professorships at the Yale School of Architecture

The Yale School of Architecture has a tradition of bringing the best and brightest architects from around the world to campus, where they work closely with students as visiting professors. Funded by three long-standing endowments and one recently established chair, the visiting professorships allow the School to open students to an extraordinary range of ideas and experiences.

The Davenport Visiting Professorship was established through the generosity of Professor Shepherd Stevens (B.F.A 1922), in honor of his uncle and aunt, William B. (B.A. 1867) and Charlotte Shepherd Davenport. Since 1966, the Davenport chair has allowed the Yale School of Architecture to invite a distinguished architect to join the faculty each semester. Previous holders of the chair include Tadao Ando, Frank O. Gehry, Volker Giencke, Samuel Mockbee, Eric Owen Moss, Demetri Porphyrios, Moshe Safdie, Frank Stella, James Stirling, Stanley Tigerman, Bernard Tschumi and Robert Venturi.

The Bishop Visiting Professorship was established through the bequest of William Henry Bishop (B.A. 1876) for the appointment of a distinguished visiting architect to the faculty. Since 1973, when the first appointment was made, outstanding practitioners and theorists have held this chair, including Raimund Abraham, Thomas Hall Beeby, Henry N. Cobb, Peggy Deamer, Mario Gandelsonas, Charles Gwathmey, Steven Izenour, Gerhard M. Kallmann, Sir Leslie Martin, and Jaquelin Taylor Robertson.

The Saarinen Visiting Professorship was established in 1984 through the generosity and effort of architect Kevin Roche and other former colleagues and clients of Eero Saarinen. Saarinen, who received his B.Arch. from Yale in 1934, died in 1961 at the age of 51. Besides being a brilliant architect, Saarinen was a devoted alumnus and the force behind Yale’s remarkable building program during the 1950s and 1960s. The professorship endowed in his honor has enabled Yale to invite many distinguished architects to teach design studios. Previous holders of the chair include Karen Bausman, Denise Scott Brown, Michael Dennis, Homa Fardjadi, Philip Johnson, Ada Karmi-Melamede, Juhani Uolevi Pallasmaa, Cesar Pelli, Albert Pope, Richard Rogers and Kazuo Shinohara.

The Louis I. Kahn Visiting Professorshipwas established through the generosity of faculty, alumni and friends of the Yale School of Architecture. The first holder of the chair was Daniel Libeskind, who taught a design studio at Yale during fall semester 1999. Kahn was a great architect and teacher. He made an indelible impression on the history of architecture with buildings that were at once archaic and modern, monumental and spiritual. While he was a member of the Yale faculty, he designed his first building of consequence, the Yale University Art Gallery. His last building was created for Yale as well, the Yale Center for British Art. These two museums, facing one another across Chapel Street in New Haven, bracket Kahn’s career.

Architecture has been taught at Yale University since the late nineteenth century, initially as a course within the Yale School of Fine Arts, which was founded in 1869. The School of Architecture today offers a three-year program leading to the degree of Master of Architecture and a two-year post-professional program. In addition, the School offers a two-year program for advanced, independent research leading to the degree of Master of Environmental Design. Since 1963, the School has been located in a striking building designed by Paul Rudolph at 180 York Street in New Haven, Conn.