Michael D. Sorkin (born 1948) is an American architect, author, and educator based in New York City.
Video Michael Sorkin
Life and career
Michael Sorkin is an architect and urbanist whose practice spans design, planning, criticism, and teaching. Sorkin received a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1970, and a masters in architecture from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.Arch '74). Sorkin also holds a master's degree in English from Columbia University (MA '70). He is founding principal of Michael Sorkin Studio, a New York-based global design practice with special interests in urban planning, urban design and green urbanism.
Sorkin is considered an invigorating architecture critic. He was house architecture critic for The Village Voice in the 1980s, and he has authored numerous articles and books on the subjects of contemporary architecture, design, cities, and the role of democracy in architecture. and he serves as an international consultant on urban and architectural design and participates in numerous juries, seminars, and symposia worldwide. Mr. Sorkin is an active board member and adviser to many civic and professional organizations, including the ARCHEWORKS, a social-mission driven design school in Chicago, Illinois, and the London Consortium; he co-president is the Institute for Urban Design, an education and advocacy organization, and vice- president of the Urban Design Forum in New York. In 2013, Sorkin was awarded the Design Mind award by the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
Maps Michael Sorkin
Urban planning
Michael Sorkin Studio in New York City focuses primarily on professional practice in the urban public realm. Sorkin has designed environmental projects in Hamburg, Germany, and proposed master plans for the Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem, and the Brooklyn waterfront and Queens Plaza in New York City. [ His urban studies have been the subject of gallery exhibits, and in 2010, he received the American Academy of Arts and Letters award in architecture. He is an international consultant. Sorkin presents regularly at regional, national, and international conferences, and he has served as adviser and juror on numerous professional committees, including The Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition, The Aga Khan Trust for Culture's Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Chrysler Design Award, the New York City Chapter of the American Institute of Architecture, Architectural League of New York, and in the area of design writing and commentary, for Core 77.
Urban planning projects (selection)
- 1994: Masterplan for the Brooklyn Waterfront.
- 1994: Proposal for Südraum Leipzig
- 1998: Alternative University of Chicago campus masterplan.
- 2001: Proposal for Arverne Urban Renewal Area on the Rockaway peninsula, Queens, N.Y.
- 2001: A Plan For Lower Manhattan.
- 2004: Project for Penang Peaks, Penang, Malaysia.
- 2005: Masterplan for New City, Chungcheong, South Korea.
- 2009: Seven Star Hotel, Tianjin Highrise Building, Tianjin, China.
- 2010: Case Study: Feeding New York in New York. 3rd International Holcim Forum 2010 in Mexico City.
- 2010: Plan for Lower Manhattan. Exhibition, Our Cities Ourselves: The Future of Transportation in Urban Life Center for Architecture, Greenwich Village, N.Y.
- 2012: concept for Xi'an, China Airport Office Building
- 2013: 28+: MOMA PS1 Rockaway.
- 2013: New York City Football Stadium Site Survey.
- 2013: An alternative proposal for NYU.
Professional recognition
- 2009, 2010: American Academy of Arts & Sciences Fellow.
- 2010: Graham Foundation Architecture Award
- 2013: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Design Mind Award.
- 2015: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow in Architecture, Planning and Design
Academic experience
Sorkin is an educator at the collegiate level. He held positions of professor of urbanism and director of Institute of Urbanism of the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna from 1993 to 2000, He has been a and visiting professor to many schools, including, for ten year, the Cooper Union of New York. Sorkin has also held the Hyde Chair at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Architecture, the Davenport Chair at Yale University School of Architecture, and the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Eliel Saarinen Visiting Professorhip, University of Michigan. He has been a guest lecturer and critic at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, University of Illinois: Urbana Champaign, Aarhus School of Architecture, Copenhagen, Denmark, and the London Consortium. Dedicated to architectural education for social change, Sorkin has overseen fieldwork in distressed environments such as Johannesburg, South Africa and Havana, Cuba. Since 2006, he has co-organized "Project New Orleans" with collaborators Carol McMichael Reese and Anthony Fontenot, to support post-Katrina In 2008, Sorkin was appointed Distinguished Professor of Architecture of the City University of New York.
Writing
Sorkin has had a broad career as an architecture writer. He writes on the topics of contemporary architecture and urban dynamics, along the dimensions of environmentalism, sustainability, pedestrianization, public space, urban culture, and the legacy of modernist approaches to urban planning. He is a member of the International Committee of Architectural Critics. For ten years, Sorkin was architecture critic for The Village Voice, and he has written for Architectural Record, The New York Times, The Architectural Review, Metropolis, Mother Jones, Vanity Fair, the Wall Street Journal, Architectural Review, and The Nation. As a volume editor, he has organize multi-authored publications, and he has contributed essays to a range of architecture publications. He has also authored many books.
Books
- Sorkin, M. & Beede Howe, M. (1981) Go Blow Your Nose. New York: St. Martin's Press.
- Sorkin, M. (1991) Exquisite Corpse: Writing on Buildings. London: Verso.
- Sorkin, M. (1993) Local Code: The Constitution of a City at 42° N Latitude. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. (1993)
- Sorkin, M. (1997) Traffic In Democracy. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
- Sorkin, M. (2001) Some Assembly Required. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Sorkin, M. (2002) Pamphlet Architecture 22 : Other Plans: University of Chicago Studies, 1998-2000.New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
- Sorkin, M. (2003) Starting From Zero: Reconstructing Downtown New York. New York : Routledge.
- Sorkin, M. (ed.) (2005) "Against the Wall: Israel's Barrier to Peace." New York : Norton.
- Sorkin, M. (2008) Indefensible Space : The Architecture of the National Insecurity State. New York : Routledge.
- Sorkin, M. (2009) Twenty Minutes in Manhattan. London: Reaktion.
- Sorkin, M. (2011) All Over The Map: Writing on Buildings and Cities. London: Verso.
Reporting, selected
Editor, contributor, selected
References
External links
- Michael Sorkin Studio
Source of article : Wikipedia