Photo: Leo Sorel
At 12:30 PM on Tuesday, September 15th, a brilliantly sunny day, we hosted a ceremony in front of 41 Cooper Square to officially dedicate The Cooper Union's amazing new academic facility. It was a glorious event, with brief speeches by college and government luminaries followed by the cutting of a bright green ribbon (in keeping with the environmental friendliness of the building) and cannons shooting confetti in the college logo's colors over the assembled crowd. Afterward, more than 100 major donors and friends devoured an alfresco lunch on the eighth-floor Alumni Roof Terrace, while many faculty and students enjoyed a festive picnic in Peter Cooper Park.
The ribbon cutting ceremony was an important milestone in the college's rich 150 year history. Segments spotlighting the event aired on WABC-Ch.7 morning news and WCBS-AM radio; an Associated Press article ran on the wire and was featured in local papers from Vermont to Pennsylvania.- 41 Cooper Square was recently the subject of a New York Times architecture review by senior critic Nicolai Ouroussoff.
Photo: Juliana Thomas
On Saturday, September 12th more than 250 alumni and guests raised a champagne toast to open the Alumni Roof Terrace! With room for 150 more alumni names on the terrace, we have officially reopened the opportunity to secure a place in Cooper Union history—if you'd like to join your fellow alumni and have your name inscribed on the Alumni Roof Terrace please contact Claire Michie at 212-353-4171 or michie@cooper.edu
- Dean Anthony Vidler has been named a recipient of the American Institute of Architects prestigious New York 2009 Educator's Award. The AIANYS Honor Awards program was instituted to provide appropriate recognition to individuals who have influenced the profession of architecture in New York State. These awards reflect notable contributions, outstanding service, or specific actions taken by architects, legislators, or organizations who demonstrate a pattern worthy of distinction.
- Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell, dean of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and wife of Cooper Union President George Campbell, was appointed by President Obama as vice chair the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. The committee will work with federal cultural agencies and in the private and public sectors to further the White House's cultural objectives.
- Toby Cumberbatch (fac.) was awarded the best paper prize at the 2009 Northeast American Society of Electrical Engineers Conference in Bridgeport, CT, last April for his paper entitled "Lessons from Africa — Sustainable Design and Engineering."
- David Berger (CE'09) won a Steelcase Award to attend the "Greener by Design" Conference in San Francisco in May.
- Last winter and spring Atina Grossmann (fac.) served as the Walter Benjamin Guest Professor of Jewish Studies at the Humboldt University, Berlin. She also directed the Leo Baeck Summer University, an international program for students from North America, Eastern Europe, Israel, and Germany, at the Humboldt University Berlin.
publications, presentations and major exhibitions
- Free as Air and Water Symposium I: Artistic Responses to Self-Sustainability and Climate Change, Rose Auditorium, September 16 from 5 to 7 pm: Amy Balkin, Hans Haacke (fac. Emeritus), Yates McKee, Andrea Polli, Marjetica Potrč, moderated by Doug Ashford (fac.).
- Free as Air and Water Symposium II: Art in Relation to Human Rights and the Freedom of Expression, Rose Auditorium, October 12th from 7 to 9 pm: Doug Ashford (fac.), Amy Franceschini, Andrea Geyer (fac.) and Paul Ramirez Jonas.
- Eric Lima (fac.), Art Under the Bridge Festival, September 25 – 27, Brooklyn, New York.
- Nina Tandon (fac.), Electrical stimulation of human embryonic stem cells: Cardiac differentiation and the generation of reactive oxygen species, Experimental Cell Research, 2009 August 29.
- Robert Bordo (fac.), solo exhibition, Mummery + Schnelle (London), October 14- November 21.
- Andrea Geyer (Adjunct fac.) and Sharon Hayes (fac.), Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland, through November.
- Jill Magid (Adjunct fac.), Authority to Remove, Tate Modern, London, through January 3; Objects to be Handed Over of Destroyed, Yvon Lambert, New York City, through October 24.
- Lothar Osterburg (Adjunct fac.), solo exhibition, Leslie Heller Gallery (NYC) through October 17.
- Wangechi Mutu (A'97) and Lorna Simpson (Henry Wolf Chair, Fall 2009), Dress Codes: The Third ICP Triennial of Photography and Video, International Center of Photography, New York City, through January 17, 2010.
- Miriam Ghani (Adjunct fac.), screening, Visual Foreign Correspondents, Berlin, on October 26.
- Sharon Hayes (fac.), public project at New York Marble Cemetery, Allan Kaprow YARD, Hauser & Wirth, New York City, through October 24.
- Adia Millett (Visiting Artist), solo exhibition, The Birth of Bardo, Mixed Greens, New York City, October 8 through November 7.
- Jeremy Jacinth (AR'13), "AIAS Corner," BLUE LINES, August 2009.
- Gina Pollara (AR'91), "Changing Skyline: One more masterpiece by Kahn nears reality," THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, August 23, 2009; "At Last, Kahn's Park for Roosevelt Island," DOCOMOMO New York tri-state newsletter, Summer 2009.
- Anthony Vidler (Arch dean and fac), participant, Deans' Roundtable and Exhibition Opening: Arch Schools 2009; Visions of the Future, Center for Architecture, New York City, September 17.
- Stanley Allen (AR'81), participant, Deans' Roundtable and Exhibition Opening: Arch Schools 2009; Visions of the Future, Center for Architecture, NEW YORK CITY, September 17, 2009 Visions of the Future
- Toshiko Mori (AR'76), "Toshiko Mori: Works and Projects," lecture, November 4, SCI-ARC, Los Angeles, CA; moderator, POSTDUCTILITY conference, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, September 30-October 2, New York City; "Utopia Across Scales: Talk and Roundtable," participant, September 22, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA.
- Elizabeth Diller (AR'79), "The Return of Nature: The Limits of Sustainability," participant, October 7, 2009, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA; Diller Scofidio Renfro, 2009 AIA Honor Award: Interiors, School of American Ballet, New York City, ARCHITECTURAL RECORD, May 2009; Diller Scofidio Renfro, "New York, New York: Alice Tully Hall," DOMUS, #926, June 2009; Diller Scofidio Renfro, discussion, "Design, the Arts and Everything Else," the Center for Architecture, New York City, October 5.
- Diane Lewis (AR'76, Arch fac), "The Return of Nature: The Sublime Plan," participant, November 17, 2009, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA.
- Karen Bausman (AR'82), "Parks on Par," THE ARCHITECT'S NEWSPAPER, September 9.
- Ysrael A. Seinuk (Arch fac), CIB (Concrete Industry Board) 2009 Award of Merit, 785 8th Avenue, New York City; CIB 2009 Award of Merit, Out of Country, Dubai, UAE.
- Daniel Libeskind (AR'70), juror, First Henry J. Lehr Prize from The Jewish Museum, New York City; "Matters of Design: outside the white box," INTERIOR DESIGN, August 2009.
- Carlos Little (AR'98), "Jewelry Factory," group exhibition, West New York, New Jersey, June 2009.
- Anthony Titus (AR'98, Arch fac), "Jewelry Factory," group exhibition, West New York, New Jersey, June 2009.
- Situ Studio: Sigfus Breidfjord, Basar Girit, Aleksey Lukyanov, Wes Rozen, Bradley Samuels (all AR'05), "The Guggenheim celebrates 50 with a Frank Lloyd Wright show," ARCHITECTURAL RECORD, July 2009.
- Ricardo Scofidio (AR'55/Arch fac emeritus), "One good fit and one bad in New York City," ARCHITECTURAL RECORD, July 2009; Diller Scofidio Renfro, 2009 AIA Honor Award: Interiors, School of American Ballet, New York City, ARCHITECTURAL RECORD, May 2009; Diller Scofidio Renfro, "New York, New York: Alice Tully Hall," DOMUS, #926, June 2009; Diller Scofidio Renfro, discussion, "Design, the Arts and Everything Else," the Center for Architecture, New York City, October 5, 2009.
- Diana Agrest (Arch fac), "Designwire: The Great Outdoors," INTERIOR DESIGN, August 2009.
- John Hejduk (AR'50/Arch fac) and Dean emeritus (deceased), "Thought Process," THE ARCHITECT'S NEWSPAPER, July 29, 2009; "Crit: 41 Cooper Square," THE ARCHITECT'S NEWSPAPER, July 29, 2009; "Portfolio: Judith Turner," THE ARCHITECT'S NEWSPAPER, July 29, 2009
- Martin Finio (AR'88), Christoff;Finio, 2009 AIA Honor Award: Interiors, The Heckscher Foundation for Children, New York City, ARCHITECTURAL RECORD, May 2009.
- Lyn Rice (Arch fac), 2009 AIA Honor Award: Interiors, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, New York City, ARCHITECTURAL RECORD, May 2009.
- Gerard Sullivan (AR'89), design team member, Diller Scofidio Renfro, "New York, New York: Alice Tully Hall," DOMUS, #926, June 2009.
- Mateo de Cardenas (AR'86), design team member, Diller Scofidio Renfro, "New York, New York: Alice Tully Hall," DOMUS, #926, June 2009.
- Jesse Reiser (AR'81), speaker, POSTDUCTILITY conference, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, September 30-October 2, New York City.
- Nanako Umemoto (AR'83), speaker, POSTDUCTILITY conference, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, September 30-October 2, New York City.
- Laurie Hawkinson (AR'83), speaker, POSTDUCTILITY conference, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, September 30-October 2, New York City; "Sign of the Times?," THE ARCHITECT'S NEWSPAPER, September 9.
- Maren Stange (fac.), talk in connection with the photography exhibition "Bare Witness: Gordon Parks," Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, Evanstown, Illinois, May 2009; speaker, "Richard Wright and Photography," Seminar: Reading Richard Wright, Faculty Resource Network Summer Program at New York University, June 2009; peer review panelist, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship applications in American Studies, Washington, D.C., July 2009.
- Robert Uglesich (fac.), "Stimulus size dependence of information transfer from retina to thalamus," Frontiers in System Neuroscience, September 2009 issue.
- George Delagrammatikas (fac.), "Make no Mistake," Magazine of American Society of Mechanical Engineers, June 2009 issue.
- Toby Cumberbatch (fac.), Caitlin Martusewicz (AR'11), paper presentation, "Learning from Earth: An Exploration and Reinterpretation of Vernacular Building, "African Perspectivs '09 Architecture Conference, Pretoria, South Africa.
- Toby Cumberbatch (fac.), guest speaker, Scarsdale Teachers Institute Sustainability Workshop, July 21; invited speaker, NCIIA Sustainable Vision AI2V workshop for Base of the Pyramid projects, Cambridge, MA, August 16.
- Atina Grossmann (fac.), ed., After the Nazi Racial State: Difference and Democracy in Germany and Europe, University of Michigan Press, 2009; "Living On: Remembering Feldafing," Approaching an Auschwitz Survivor: Holocaust Testimony and its Transformations, ed. Juergen Matthaeus, Oxford University Press, 2009.
- Brian Swann (fac.) poetry published in: The Yale Review, Notre Dame Review, Raritan, The Missouri Review, Salmagundi, North American Review, Iowa Review, The Southern Review, Southwest Review.
- Leonid Vulakh (fac.), "The Markov Spectra for Cocompact Fuchsian Groups," The International Journal of Number Theory, Vol. 5, No. 4, 2009.
- Debra and Richard Samuels, parents of Bradley Samuels (AR'05), have established a charitable gift annuity at the college. As a result of their generous planned gift, the Samuels are the newest members of The Society of 1859.
- The Cooper Union received generous bequests from Virginia Kester (A'48) and from Daniel Eisen, widower of Antonya Eisen (A'62).
- It is now possible to make your mark on the fabulous Rose Auditorium by "naming" one of the 198 seats. The possibilities—and benefits—of naming a chair are many: honor a friend or relative, memorialize a family member or classmate, give an unusual and original birthday or graduation gift and demonstrate your support for The Cooper Union in a tangible and recognized way. If you're interested in learning more about naming a seat in the Rose Auditorium please contact Claire Michie at 212-353-4171 or michie@cooper.edu
- The Engineering Mock Interview Night will be held on Thursday, October 1, 2009 in The Foundation Building, 6:00-8:30 p.m. Sponsored by the Albert Nerken School of Engineering, the Office of Alumni Relations, and the Center for Career Development, the event encourages alumni to provide valuable insight to assist current students prepare for interviews for internships, jobs, and graduate school.
- SAVE THE DATE! ALL COOPER REUNION
The Cooper Union Alumni Association will celebrate 150 Cooper Years at an all class reunion on Saturday, October 24, 2009 from 2:00-10:00pm. The All Cooper ReUnion will be held in the Foundation Building and in 41 Cooper Square.
Festivities include viewing the new Great Hall Exhibition created by Lee Skolnick (AR'79), a private film screening of Mechanic to Millionaire: The Peter Cooper Story by Producer/Director Janet Gardner (A'65), guided tours of 41 Cooper Square and new art and architecture exhibitions, and an evening cocktail party with music.
For more information go to www.cualumni.com. To volunteer or work with your Class Representative email Madeline Kilroe in the Cooper Union Alumni Relations Office at kilroe@cooper.edu
- "Architecture Moves", presented by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, Thursday October 1, Friday October 2, Saturday October 3. The first two events will take place at the Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Avenue (at E. 2nd St) and will be free with Cooper Id. The final event will take place at the Rose Auditorium in 41 Cooper Square. Architecture Moves probes the intersections of architecture and the aesthetics of movement from the 19th to the 21st century, exploring rhythm and spatial relocation, displacement of vision, temporality and animation in space. More information is available on The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture's website
- "Art in relation to Human Rights and the Freedom of Expression," the second of two symposia organized in conjunction with the Free as Air and Water exhibit currently on view at 41 Cooper Square's gallery space, will be held on Monday, October 12 in the Rose Auditorium, also at 41 Cooper Square. For more information on this event and the exhibition, please see This Month at Cooper.
- The unusual story of how The Cooper Union came to have one of the marble Penn Station eagles perched on the green roof of 41 Cooper Square ran in the print and online edition of The New York Times "City Room" section.
- Caitlin Martusewicz (AR'10) and Noah Garcia (AR'10) built a house in Jirapa, Northern Ghana using mud and bamboo.
- Gaurav Namit (EE'07), aided by David Berger (CE'09), taught students at Wa Polytechnic the elements of electrical engineering and aspects of SociaLite—the Cooper Union lighting system. They held a parallel set of classes in Jirapa. The Cooper Union sold a SociaLite lighting system to Tampala community (Northern Ghana) and a lot of new lanterns to Baazing, a village with an existing SociaLite system. The improved Cooper Union Pito stove meanwhile was embraced by the Jirapa District Assembly and a series of workshops given by David Berger, Gaurav Namit, Madeline Foster (Eng'12) and Lili Ehrlich (Eng'11) were well attended by representatives of the local Pito brewers. Madeline Foster and Lili Ehrlich also undertook an energy audit in Jirapa; they concentrated on the supply of wood.
- In Bongo (northern Ghana) Andy Okuneff (Eng'11) and Jessica Friscia (Eng'11) gathered data on the consumption patterns, usage and supply of water in the Bongo District. This data will be used in conjunction with those from Katherine Alfredo (CE'05), a Fulbright Scholar in Ghana (2008-09) who mapped the incidence of fluoride in the entire Bongo District to provide critical input to the de-fluoridation filter design. Prof. Francis Momade of Kwame Nkrumah University Of Science and Technology (KNUST) came to Bongo for a three day visit during which time a series of meeting were held with The Cooper Union, KNUST, the District Assembly and the Chief.
- The Cooper Union's Center for Sustainable Engineering, Architecture and Art - Materials, Manufacturing and Minimalism (SEA2M3) is part of a consortium in Accra working on the design of affordable urban housing in West African Cities. The goal is to build attractive dwellings that are truly sustainable from a holistic perspective. SEA2M3 is also working with the National University of Rwanda on similar ideas. Toby Cumberbatch helped roll out The Cooper Union lighting system in Rwanda on June 25th. The system was built by his students from the National University of Rwanda. Cumberbatch also held a workshop in Kampala (Uganda) on June 29 with UgandaSPACE—a rural women's cooperative to discuss their establishment of a small business for the assembly and distribution of SociaLite. He also taught a course on Microprocessors and Microcontrollers at the National University of Rwanda in June. He was has been appointed external examiner for the Department of Computer Engineering, KNUST, Ghana and is a member of the international advisory board for the 3rd International Symposium for Engineering Education, Cork, Ireland.
- The Cooper Union's SociaLite system continues to appear in the news and was recently featured in National Inventors Month, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology's website and National University of Rwanda's website. The system currently has interest from 23 countries spanning three continents. It was recently represented at MakerFaire Africa (Accra) by Wa Polytechnic. The SociaLite team hosted Worldpulse representatives from California in New York City. SociaLite was also represented at the PACE University Convocation on Sustainability in September.
- The play "Lament and Fragmentation" by Dale Perreault (Library Technician) was performed as part of the evening of one-acts 'Infiltrage 2' at the Flea Theater in Tribeca from June 11-22. Dale was also a finalist for the 2009 Princess Grace Foundation Playwriting Award.
- The Cooper Motorsports Team is sponsoring a BBQ Day at Nassau Coliseum on Sunday, September 27. Please contact Professor George Delagrammatikas if you can make it. The team started off the Fall semester with a second-place showing at the New York Region Sports Car Club of America race on September 12. Not so bad if you realize that two of the student drivers had never driven the car before the race. A video of one of our fastest laps can be viewed online.
- Jay Leboff of HotSeat Chassis, Inc. has very generously donated a driving simulator to the ME Automotive Laboratory. As you might imagine, it's not so easy for the team to train their drivers in the city without this important tool. Steven Silberstang (CE'70) and friend Jay Leboff have co-sponsored the ME Experimentation Laboratory with a flight simulator also developed by HotSeat Chassis, Inc. More information about these simulators can be found online.
- Just in case you missed the World Science Festival this past summer, the Formula Team participated in this community outreach event by presenting its designs in Washington Square Park.
- The Advanced Vehicle Technologies Team has started its second year at The Cooper Union. They have been researching alternative fuels and powertrains and intend to convert the 2008 Formula SAE vehicle into an electric racecar with hub motors. ME and EE students are collaborating to build this plug-in electric vehicle to serve as a transitional research platform for hybridized automobiles. The team plans to enter the Formula Hybrid competition in the near future. Contact Prof. George Delagrammatikas (fac.) for more information.
- Gerardo del Cerro (Director, Assessment and Evaluation) was part of a Middle States team reviewing Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.