Renowned architect, urbanist and writer, Michael Sorkin has passed away on the 26th of March, in Manhattan due to complications resulting from COVID-19. Principal and founder of Michael Sorkin Studios and president of the non-profit research group Terreform, Sorkin was famous for his writings for the Village Voice, the Nation, and many other publications.
Michael Sorkin is the second loss in the architecture world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, following modernist Italian architect Vittorio Gregotti's death earlier this month.
Based in New York, Michael Sorkin’s work covers design, criticism, and pedagogy. In fact, he was the principal and founder of Michael Sorkin Studios, Professor of Architecture and Director of the Graduate Program in Urban Design at City College of New York, the President of Terreform and Editor-in-Chief of Urban Research (UR).
Famous in the academic world, he previously held the position of Professor of Urbanism and Director of the Institute of Urbanism at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Gensler Chair at Cornell University, Hyde Chair in Nebraska University, Saarinen Chair in the University of Michigan, Gilbert Chair in the University of Michigan, both the Davenport and Bishop Chair at Yale University, and professorships at the Architectural Association, Cooper Union, Harvard University, and Columbia University.
Member of the International Committee of Architectural Critics, Sorkin collaborated with The Nation, was a contributing editor at Architectural Record, and wrote or edited around twenty books. His published work includes Variations on a Theme Park, Indefensible Space, New Orleans Under Reconstruction (edited with Carol Reese and Anthony Fontenot), All Over the Map, and Twenty Minutes in Manhattan.
Recipient of the Design Mind prize from the National Design Award in 2013, and Fellow in the field of architecture planning and design from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in 2015, Sorkin has founded in 2005, Terreform. He was also the editor-in-chief of its imprint UR (Urban Research), launched in 2015.
News via Terreform.
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