Top of the News

  • Newt Gingrich, who served as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999 and represented the State of Georgia for 20 years, and Mario M. Cuomo, who served as governor of the State of New York from 1983 to 1995, will meet to discuss issues facing presidential candidates in the 2008 election for The Cooper Union Dialogue Series: A Lincoln-Inspired Event on February 28 at 6:30 pm in the Great Hall. Journalist and host of "Meet the Press" Tim Russert will moderate the discussion. Gingrich and Cuomo will issue a challenge to all declared presidential candidates to come to the Great Hall and address the American public in person and in detail—in the same manner Lincoln did 147 years ago. This event is free and open to the public, with limited seating.

  • Our construction webcam is up and running -- watch us build!
  • Interior demolition has been completed on our new academic builing—the exterior demolition will be completed in late March. The schedule for construction is online. Please check this site frequently for changes.
  • An open and expansive space carved into the set-backs on the north and west sides of the new academic building, the Alumni Roof Terrace will provide rare, outdoor urban space that overlooks the Foundation Building and historic Cooper Square. Easily accessible from the express elevator on the eighth floor, the Terrace will be both an everyday social destination and a venue for special events. Individual alumni donors will each be recognized on the Terrace, which will bear the engraved names of alumni who have contributed $2,500 or $20,000 to the new building. Parents of Cooper Union students who contribute to the Building Fund at this level will be giving their children a meaningful and enduring gift to last through the generations.
  • Show your Cooper Union spirit! The Cooper Union Annual Wreath Laying Ceremony will be held in Peter Cooper Park Tuesday, February 13, 2007 at 12 pm. Commemorate the 216th birthday of our founder Peter Cooper and celebrate the 148th anniversary of The Cooper Union. Cake and cider will be served following the ceremony.
  • The Cooper Union Alumni Association is pleased to announce its 2007 alumni awardees. The Gano Dunn Award for outstanding professional achievement in engineering: Steven D. Silberstang (CE'70); The Augustus Saint Gaudens Award for outstanding professional achievement in art: Roy DeCarava (A'40) and Mark Alan Stamaty (A'69); The John Hejduk Award for outstanding professional achievement in architecture: Carmi M. Bee (AR'67) and Michael Kwartler (AR'65); Alumnus of the Year: chairman of the Board of Trustees Ronald W. Drucker (CE'62); and Young Alumnus of the Year: Athena Caramichael DeNivo (CE'94).

    The awardees will be honored formally at the annual Founder's Day Dinner Dance on Friday, April 27, 2007 (note this is a new date) at the historic Hudson Theatre, 145 W. 44th Street in the Millennium Hotel. Event co-chairs are Robert F. Marano (EE'93) and Deanna Marano. In conjunction with this event, the class of 1982 is celebrating its 25th reunion at a special reception.

Congratulations

  • The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has given Cooper Union a grant to subsidize 50 percent of the estimated cost of installing a cogeneration facility in the Foundation Building, part of an overhaul that includes upgrading the HVAC, elevators, ADA compliance and IT/AV systems.
  • Distinguished professor and urban planner Lance J. Brown (AR'65) FAIA has been awarded the 2007 Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education by the A.I.A. Board and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA).
  • The University of Auckland's National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries (NICAI) announced the appointment of Peggy Deamer (AR'77) as head of NICAI's School of Architecture and Planning.
  • T.J. Gottesdiener (AR'79) was a member of the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill project team that worked on 7 World Trade Center, which won a Best of the Year/Innovation Award from Interior Design in December 2006.
  • VIA Architecture (Erika Hinrichs [AR'90] and Frederick Biehle) is celebrating 10 years of partnership.
  • Clarke Caton Hintz (John Clarke [AR'66]) was co-winner of a design award for Best Parking Structure (Ascent, fall 2006) for the Essex County Sportsplex in Newark, NJ.
  • Mitchell Lipton, dean of admissions and records and registrar was recently appointed to The National Advisory Board for The Friendship Public Charter School located in Washington D.C. This school is slated to be the first ever K-12 pre-engineering school in the country.
  • In Architecture Boston's 2006 Year in Review awards issue (January-February 2007), Barry Stein (AR'80) was a member of the Cook + Fox project team that won a Housing Design Award for Front Street, Block 97, New York City and Victoria Tentler-Krylov (AR'97) was a member of the Gensler Boston project team that won an Interior Architecture Design Award Citation for The Foundation Lounge of the Hotel Commonwealth in Boston.

in memoriam

  • George Chaikin (AR'69), former School of Architecture faculty member (1985-2004) died on January 3rd. Our sympathies to Eliza Chaikin (AR'02) and the Chaikin family.
  • Professor Dan Raichel, formerly of the mechanical engineering department and director of the acoustics laboratory, died on December 21st of malignant melanoma. He is survived by his wife, son Adam and daughter Dina.
  • Professor Darrel Ellison, formerly of the physics department, passed away December 28th from bladder cancer. He is survived by his son.
  • They will all be missed.

publications, presentations and major exhibitions

  • Jameel Ahmad, professor and chairman of the department of civil engineering, co-author, Hydro Review, "The Fine A.R.T. of Staffing: Attraction, Retention and Training," January 2007.
  • Paul Amatuzzo (AR'69), Paesaggio Urbano, "House on a Rocky Hillside."
  • Karen Bausman (AR'82), Katherine McGraw Berry (AR'80), Peggy Deamer (AR'77), Diane Lewis (AR'76/Arch. fac.) and Toshiko Mori (AR'76), Architectural Record, "Not Only Zaha: What is it like to be a female architect with a solely owned firm in the U.S. today?," December 2006.
  • Kevin Bone (Arch. fac.), editor of Water-Works and Gina Pollara (AR'90), associate editor of Water-Works, The New York Times, "Reading New York: Badillo's World, One Tenement's Tale and Eau N.Y.C.," December 31, 2006.
  • Dean William Germano, The Chronicle of Higher Education, "The Other Side of Academe," January 19, 2007; CAA News, "What Pictures Don't Do."
  • T.J. Gottesdiener (AR'79), Interior Design, "Living History," November 2006.
  • John Hartman (AR'00), Architect, "Seven-Point Perspective: Architects in Search of a Profession."
  • John Hejduk (AR'50/Arch. fac. and dean emeritus), Dan Hoffman (AR'76) and Daniel Libeskind (AR'70), essays in Archipelago: Essays on Architecture, edited by Peter MacKeith.
  • Seth Labenz (A'06) and Roy Rub (A'06) of Topos Graphics, illustrators, The New York Times, "The Year in Health Fads," December 27, 2006; New York Magazine, "High Priority," January 15, 2007.
  • Pablo Lorenzo-Eiroa (Arch. fac.), Architectural Record, November 2006.
  • Peter Nadin (Art adjunct fac.), The First Mark: Notes on Unlearning How to Make Art, Edgewise Press.
  • Thomas Schropfer (AR'95), co-author with Liat Margolis, Journal of Architectural Education, "Integrating Material Culture," November 2006.
  • Robert Thill, director of the Center for Career Development, art project in "The Work of Art and the Historical Future," in End of Art—Endings in Art, edited by Gottfried Boehm and Gerhard Seel, 2006.
  • Jesse Reiser (AR'81), University of Toronto, Spring 2007 Bulthaup Lecture Series, February 27.
  • Robert Boyd, visiting artist, Xanadu, Ezra and Cecile Gallery, Wesleyan University, through March 4th.
  • Diane Lewis (AR'76/Arch. fac.), curator, Center for Architecture, NY 150+: A Timeline, Ideas, Civic Institutions, and Futures, April 9-June 23.
  • Christine Osinksi (Art fac.), Silo, "To be continued…," through February 17th.
  • Walid Raad (Art fac.), Palazzo Papesse Centre for Contemporary Art in Siena, "System Error: War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning," February 3rd-May 6th.
  • Emily Roz, archive associate in the Lubalin Center, Front Room, "Multiples and Editions," January 19-February 11.
  • Roy Rub (A'06), 2007 Rhoda Lubalin Fellow, Lubalin Center, "Promise Lands," March 1-March 24.
  • Martha Skinner (AR'95), New Center for Contemporary Art, "Motion Mapping."
  • Will Villalongo (A'99/Art fac.), Longwood Art Gallery at South Bronx Contemporary, "Black Now," through March 10th.

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giving to cooper union

  • The Altman Foundation has renewed its support for the Saturday Outreach Programs with a grant of $50,000. The foundation is a long-time generous supporter of the programs.
  • Joyce Anderson and Mark Epstein (A'76) and Joan Morris and Ed Durbin (EE'48) are the newest members of The Sarah Bedell Cooper Society, which celebrates lifetime giving to the college surpassing $500,000.
  • Helmuth Knapp (ChE'41) is the newest member of The Abram S. Hewitt Society, which honors lifetime giving to the college surpassing $250,000. In addition to his generous current support, Knapp has also informed Cooper Union of his plan to leave the college a generous bequest.
  • Jane Deed, who worked at Cooper Union in the 1940s and celebrates her 101st birthday this month, has made a generous addition to scholarship funds that she established in 2005. Deed's recent gift to the Jane E. and Donald W. Deed Engineering School Scholarship Fund and the Jane E. and Donald W. Deed Art School Scholarship Fund supports today's students as it honors her and her late husband's very special connection to Cooper Union. Donald Deed (ChE'37) also taught at Cooper Union after earning his M.S. at the University of Michigan and his Ph.D. from Columbia.
  • Cooper Union recently received generous bequests from Frederick Lebowitz (EE'56) and Harry Roistacher (ChE'41).
  • Kathleen Susmann (A'63) and Mr. and Mrs. Donald Wade (EE'63) have established charitable gift annuities at Cooper Union—gifts that pay individuals an income for life and then provide deferred support for the College.
  • Several members of the Cooper Union community have inquired about the new IRA Rollover Provision and many are planning gifts from their IRAs in 2007. At year-end 2006, several alumni and friends made IRA rollover gifts the Annual Fund, the New Academic Building Fund and endowment funds. The new law permits individuals who are age 70˝ and older to rollover up to $100,000 per year from an IRA directly to a charity now through December 31, 2007. For more about the new law please visit: http://www.cooper.edu/administration/development/ira.html
  • Thanks to the committed Cooper Union alumni community for maintaining the success of this year's Annual Fund. Alumni giving is currently up 20 percent with the average gift up by 35 percent. More than half of the donors who gave more than $1,000 to the Annual Fund between December 20 and December 31 increased their gifts over last year—many doubled or gave their highest gift ever! This made December 2006 one of the most successful periods ever for the Cooper Union Annual Fund.

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Don't Miss

General Interest

  • On February 14, Gina Kolata will join Dr. Campbell for the President's Roundtable discussion scheduled at noon. Students interested in participating should contact the student ad-chairs in their respective schools to sign up.

    Gina Kolata has been a science reporter for The New York Times since 1987. Her coverage of silicon breast implants earned her the Sound Science Journalism Award from The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition in 1995. Previously Ms. Kolata worked as a senior writer for Science magazine where she began as a copy editor in 1973 before being hired as a writer in 1974. She has a bachelor's degree in microbiology and a master's degree in applied mathematics from the University of Maryland. Ms. Kolata also studied molecular biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    Ms. Kolata's published books include: Ultimate Fitness: The Quest for Truth about Health and Exercise (2003); Flu: the Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It (2001); Clone, the Road to Dolly and the Path Ahead (1998); Sex in America: a Definitive Survey (1995, co-author); and The Baby Doctors: Probing the Limits of Fetal Medicine (1991).

    For recent articles by Gina Kolata, please visit www.nytimes.com.

Alumni Events

  • School of Engineering Forum, February 2nd, 2-5pm, Wollman Lounge, reception to follow
    The Forum is designed to bring alumni, faculty and staff together as part of the process of strategic planning. The faculty would like the input of everyone present as they formulate ideas for the future. There will be break-out sessions for the various engineering specialities, and the gathering will conclude with a cocktail reception. We urge all engineering alumni in the region to come and be part of this important process. If you can attend, please respond to Xavier Pires at: pires@cooper.edu or telephone Susan Dorsey on 212-353-4286.
  • A luncheon for Cooper Union faculty and staff who are alumni will be held in the The Great Hall Gallery on Tuesday, February 6, 2007 at 12 pm. Come meet fellow alumni and get to know your alumni representatives on the Cooper Union Alumni Association Executive and Faculty Committees.
  • Florida Founder's Day Luncheon will be held Sunday, February 11, 2007 in the Lauderdale Yacht Club at 12 pm. Hosted by the Florida Chapter of The Cooper Union Alumni Association and chairman of the Board of Trustees Dr. Ronald W. Drucker (CE'62), the event will feature guest speaker Anthony Vidler, architecture dean and faculty, Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture.
  • On Saturday March 3, 2007, basketball players Steve Demotropoulos (CE'01), Pierce Cleary (ME'99), and Dino Plakas (BSE'00) and tennis players Arthur Carmichael (CE'89/MCE'90), Adrian Jovanovic (BSE'87), Prem Krishnamoorthy (ChE'95), and dual athlete Brian O'Kane (ChE'93/MChE'96) will be inducted into Dean Steve Baker's Dean's List of Cooper Union Scholar Athletes. This is a great evening to be shared by teammates, classmates, friends and family.
  • The 2007 Phonathon will take place on March 12-15 from 6:00-9:00 pm and March 19 from 6:00 to 12:00 pm to benefit the Annual Fund. We seek to surpass the 2006 Phonathon record of $400,000. You can help by volunteering or making your gift now! Send annual fund contributions to 30 Cooper Square, 8th floor, New York, NY 10003 or e-mail annualfund@cooper.edu to volunteer.

Upcoming Lectures and Public Programs

  • INSIDE COOPER UNION:

  • Galway Kinnell 80th Birthday Gala
    With E. L. Doctorow, Mark Doty, Cornelius Eady, Marie Howe, Yusef Komunyakaa, Anne Marie Macari, Sharon Olds, Grace Paley, Gerald Stern & C.K. Williams
    Thursday, February 1, 7 pm, gala and reading, The Great Hall

    An 80th birthday celebration for the beloved bard whose career as a poet, translator and teacher has influenced generations of emerging writers. The gala, which culminates with a reading by Kinnell, is co-sponsored by The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science & Art and Poets House.

  • World Water: Perspectives on Freshwater Resources in the 21st Century
    Thursday, February 8, 6:30 pm, panel discussion, The Great Hall

    Global water consumption is growing twice as fast as the world's population. According to the United Nation's 2006 Human Development Report, more than one billion people are currently living without safe water and 2.6 billion without adequate sanitation, "a violation of a human right that destroys human potential on an epic scale." Access to clean, fresh water in developing societies is becoming one of the most critical, social and environmental issues facing humanity this century. This event is sponsored by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, in connection with the release of Water-Works: The Architecture and Engineering of the New York City Water Supply (Monacelli Press, 2006). The panel discussion is co-sponsored by The Architectural League of New York. The event will be moderated by Kevin Bone (Arch. fac.), the editor of and a contributor to Water-Works. Additional speakers include Albert F. Appleton, David Barkin, Peter Gleick and Gerard Koeppel.

  • Jim Oakes: The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics
    Thursday, February 15, 6:30 pm, lecture and book signing, The Great Hall

    Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass were two towering figures in American history. The one-time frontier lawyer and the former slave, although originally opponents, came to work together as allies and even as friends. James Oakes, professor of history at the CUNY Graduate Center and author of The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics, brings these two iconic figures to life and sheds new light on the issues of slavery, race and equality in Civil War America during his talk at The Cooper Union.

  • Auden Centennial Celebration
    Wednesday, February 21, 6:30 pm, reading, The Great Hall

    W.H. Auden, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, was born on February 21, 1907. To commemorate Auden, the Poetry Society of America and The Cooper Union present a reading by Nicholas Jenkins, James Fenton and Adam Gopnik.

  • Elizabeth Ewen and Stuart Ewen: Typecasting: On the Arts and Sciences of Human Inequality
    Tuesday, February 27, 6:30 pm, reading, The Wollman Auditorium

    Typecasting, a pervasive cultural practice, has long found support in pseudosciences and quasi-sciences like phrenology, a theory that claims to be able to determine character, personality traits and criminality on the basis of the shape of the head. Co-authors Elizabeth Ewen (professor of American history at SUNY, Old Westbury) and Stuart Ewen (professor of film and media studies at Hunter College) examine the history of eugenics, the popularization of stereotypes and the traces of prejudice in the scientific enterprise.
  • OUTSIDE COOPER UNION:
  • "Smart Housing: An Infill Prototype," a panel discussion at the Center for Architecture on January 10, included Carmi Bee, FAIA (AR'67) as one of the speakers and Michael Kwartler, FAIA (AR'65) as one of the panelists.
  • Elizabeth Diller (AR'79) will be participating in a panel discussion in the conference "A New Lens for the Urbanistic Project: Cities: X Lines" February 8 and 9 at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
  • Jennifer Lee (AR'97/Arch. fac.) and Pablo Castro of OBRA Architects will participate in the Museum of Modern Art's Conversations with Contemporary Artists series on February 23.

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Did You Know?

  • The Center for Career Development launched the first phase of its new web site in January 2007. The Cooper Union community is encouraged to visit the site for information on programs and for their own professional development. The Career Center thanks Dennis Robertson (ME'09) for designing the site; Inessa Shkolnikov, assistant director of the Center for Design & Typography, for creating the sidebar logo; Ebele Emelumadu (EE'07) for developing online resources;, and consultant Beth Haviland for technical assistance.
  • Did you know that curators from the U.S. National Gallery of Art used Cooper Union payroll records in the Cooper Library's Archives collection to verify the signatures of artists George deForest Brush and Douglas Volk? Both taught in the Women's School of Art during the 1880s, when payroll ledgers were signed by employees upon receipt of their pay.
  • More people than ever attended the Continuing Education program's open house for the spring 2007 semester. After a fall term which saw our highest enrollments yet (more than 1,000 students,) the program will continue to offer a number of professional development courses aimed at architects, engineers, and designers. Many of these advanced courses meet the state requirements for license renewal.
  • Samuel Anderson (AR'82/Arch. fac.) announced that his office has moved to a new, larger space.
  • Elizabeth Diller (AR'79) participated in the Harvard Design Magazine Forum on January 17, which took place at and discussed the new Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, recently opened and designed by Diller Scofidio (AR'55/Arch. fac.) + Renfro.
  • Joanna Fuhrman and David Shapiro (Arch. fac.) gave a poetry reading at the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church after which David's 60th birthday was celebrated.
  • Thomas Tsang (AR'00), currently in residence at The American Academy in Rome, gave a lecture "Depth of Field" in December in Palma, Balearic Island, Spain.
  • Comparative literature professor David Weir gave a lecture on January 8, 2007 for the Culinary Historians of New York. His talk was entitled "The Dark History of Absinthe."

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