Little is known about American architect Christian Francis Rosborg other than a few projects and drawings attributed to his name that rest in Cooper Hewitt’s collection. Trained early on under the mentorship of New York-based architects Ernest Flagg and Haydel & Shepard, the obscure figure was part of the early twentieth-century stylistic transition from French-influenced...
Recorded live on February 4, 2016 at Cooper Hewitt. David Adjaye OBE is an architect and designer known for combining the aesthetics of his African heritage with classic, modernist design. His studio, Adjaye Associates, has established projects on four continents, including the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, scheduled to open...
During the second World War, the French city of Le Havre was severely bombed. August Perret, a pioneering French modernist architect, was tasked with rebuilding the city. Perret’s reconstruction is considered exceptional for its seamless integration of the city’s extant historic structures with modern concrete construction and design innovations. Perret’s new buildings for Le Havre...
Why does this trompe l’oeil architectural model that is also a bird house have anything to do with night clubs? It was a wonderful present to Bobby Short in honor of his many years crooning at the Café Carlyle in the Carlyle Hotel. It combines the artistic talent of Richard Haas, an unknown model maker,...
Step Up on Fifth, located in the heart of downtown Santa Monica, is a five-story affordable housing complex built to offer support services and rehabilitation for the local homeless and mentally disabled population. Completed in 2009 by Los Angeles-based architecture firm Brooks + Scarpa, the building, a former parking structure, integrates 46 studio apartments with...
Santiago Calatrava’s work explores the significance of place and its human context by considering both topographical and cultural landscapes. In this sense, Calatrava believes that it is fundamental to form a relationship – a feeling and sense of spirituality – with a physical site. In the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on...
“Located on a larger tract of land in the transportation area, the aviation exhibit gives the visitor a realistic picture of a busy metropolitan airport. The dome-like rear portion holds an invisibly suspended transport plane in full flight against a projected night sky.”[1] Published in the 1939 New York World’s Fair brochure, this description and...
Bjarke Ingels speaks with Cooper Hewitt Curatorial Director Cara McCarty. About Bjarke Ingles: From the shoreline of the East River to the site of Ground Zero, the large-scale vision of Bjarke Ingels, founder of the Copenhagen-based BIG, is reshaping the architectural landscape of New York City. Ingels’ spectacular designs, which he calls “promiscuous hybrids” for...
Video recorded live at Cooper Union on October 8, 2015. Full talk not available due to permissions restrictions. Included in this video: opening remarks from Nader Tehrani, Dean of the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union; Caroline Baumann, Director of Cooper Hewitt; and Brooke Hodge, Deputy Director of Cooper Hewitt. Conversation...
