Top of the News

  • The schedule for our new academic building construction is online. Please check this site frequently for changes. A full scale mock up of the façade of The Cooper Union's academic building is now being tested in York, Pennsylvania. Visits for students and faculty as part of the curriculum are being coordinated by Clark Wieman.
  • F.J. Sciame Construction earned Contractor of the Year honors with the leadership of Joseph Mizzi and Frank Sciame.
  • Congratulations to Kevin Bone (Arch. fac.) and Gina Pollara (AR'90), editors of the book Water-Works: The Architecture and Engineering of the New York City Water Supply (Monacelli Press), which documents the fascinating and monumental undertaking of engineering and building the New York City water system. Featured in "Skip the Snow Globe" in The New York Times (December 10, 2006), it appears on a list of holiday suggestions for lovers of New York who love to read. Water-Works complements an exhibition of the same name held at The Cooper Union in early 2001. A symposium addressing global water supply and management as a critical issue of 21st-century social, political and economic development is scheduled for February 8, 2007 in The Great Hall of The Cooper Union.

Congratulations

  • Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean William Germano has been appointed chair of the Board of Supervisors of the English Institute at Harvard University. The Institute organizes an annual scholarly conference held in Cambridge each autumn.
  • Congratulations to Lance Jay Brown (AR'65), winner of the 2007 AIA/ACSA TOPAZ Medallion, which honors an individual who has made outstanding contributions to architecture education for at least 10 years, whose teaching has influenced a broad range of students and who has helped shape the minds of those who will shape our environment.
  • Evan Douglis (AR'83) received the 2006 Award for Emerging Digital Practice from the Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture (ACAIDIA) at their annual conference at the University of Kentucky in October.
  • Delhf Records has released a new CD of sound compositions by Charles Fambro (Instructional Coordinator, Saturday Program) titled Apartment House 2006.
  • Professor Diane Lewis (AR'76, Arch. fac.) is a recipient of an Arnold W. Brunner Grant awarded by the AIA New York Scholarship Committee for advanced study in architecture. Her project is: NY 150+: A Time Line, Ideas-Civic Institutions-Futures...
  • In fall 2006, CE Professor Constantine Yapijakis was awarded the honorary life membership of the American Water Works Association.
  • Congratulations to students Jessica Williams (A'08), Sam Rudy (A'08), Caroline Rosebrough (A'08), Momoko Kina (A'08), Krista-Rae Anderson (A'08), Caitlin Gianniny (A'08), Jenna Dublin (A'08) and Sharon De La Cruz (A'08) for being awarded the O'Brien Scholarship for Study Abroad and Sofia Berinstein (A'08) for being awarded the Helen Dubroff Dorfman Travel Scholarship from the School of Art.

Publications and papers

  • EE Professor Kausik Chatterjee contributed an article entitled "A Monte Carlo Algorithm for the Solution of the One-Dimensional Wave Equation," to the Proceedings of the 45th WSEAS International Conference on Applied Electromagnetics, Wireless and Optical Communications (Electroscience '06), Venice, Italy, in November. Professor Chatterjee, Christopher Yu (E'08)and J. Poggie's article "A Parallelized Monte Carlo Algorithm for the 1D Steady-State Burger's Equation," was accepted for publication in the Far East Journal of Applied Mathematics, Vol. 25, No. 3, December 2006.
  • Gerardo del Cerro has been invited to talk about his new book, Bilbao: Basque Pathways to Globalization (London: Elsevier, 2006), at the Urban Research Centre (London School of Economics and Political Science), the Barlett School of Architecture (University College London) and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. The book is a socio-economic analysis of globalization in the Basque region of Spain, including a discussion of Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum Bilbao as a Basque strategy to change the region's image abroad.
  • The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston re-opened in December 2006. Designed by Diller Scofidio & Renfro (Elizabeth Diller [AR'79], Ricardo Scofidio [AR'55/Arch. fac.]), it was featured in two New York Times articles on 12/8/06, one an architecture review by Nicolai Ouroussoff and the other an art review by Holland Cotter.
  • "The House at the End of the Road" in Interior Design (October 2006) documents the renovation of a 6,400-square-foot house in Burlington, VT, by Dufner Heighes (Gregory Dufner [AR'99]).
  • Senior electrical engineering student Ebele Emelumadu (E'08) was profiled in a Crain's New York Business article reporting on the recent increase of engineering students pursuing careers in the financial sector (December 4-10, 2006).
  • Dean William Germano's essay "Climb Every Montaigne" (on the difficulty of writing essays) was published in the November/December 2006 issue of PN Review.
  • Michael Kwartler (AR'65) was among the participants in Visualizing the City, a conference at the Center for Architecture covered in eOCULUS.
  • Tom McGrath (A'00) has a book of monoprints out titled Scenic Route Obstructed published by One Eye Pug.
  • Peter Nadin (Adjunct fac., School of Art) has a new book out titled The First Mark: Notes on Unlearning How to Make Art, published by Edgewise Press.
  • Mariya Panteleyeva (AR'05) wrote "Memory Spaces" for The Architect's Newspaper (11/03/06) about "Inner Spaces," an exhibition in the Chanin School of Architecture of the work of the late Danish architect and professor Svein Tønsager.
  • Jesse Reiser (AR'81) and Nanako Umemoto (AR'83) of Reiser+Umemoto RUR are working with Dubai Properties to develop a 70-story skyscraper in Dubai, featured in Interior Design (10/25/06) and The Architect's Newspaper (11/17/06).
  • Humanities Professor Gail Satler's book Two Tales of a City: Rebuilding Chicago's Architectural and Social Landscapes 1986-2005 has just been published by Northern Illinois University Press. Her article "Spaces of Silence: The Quiet Order of Architecture" will appear in the fall/winter 2006 edition of CRIT.
  • The Flight 587 Memorial in Queens was dedicated by Mayor Bloomberg on November 12, 2006 (the five-year anniversary of the crash that took the lives of 265 people on their way to the Dominican Republic). The memorial was designed by Freddy Rodriguez with consultants Situ Studio: Sigfus Breidfjord (AR'05), Basar Girit (AR'05), Aleksey Lukyanov (AR'05), Wes Rozen (AR'05) and Bradley Samuels (AR'05).
  • "Letting in the Light, Natural and Not" (The New York Times, December 3, 2006) featured a design for an apartment at 100 West 57 Street by architect Lee Skolnick (AR'79) of the Lee H. Skolnick Architecture & Design Partnership. "Sketch Pad" is part of the Times' Real Estate section in which an architect or designer is asked to realize the potential of a seemingly lackluster space or property.
  • Professor of comparative literature David Weir's essay "Luis, Sí; Louis, No: Literary Avant-Gardism in the Cinema of Buñuel" has been accepted for publication by West Virginia University Philological Papers.
  • In December 2006, the book Hazardous Industrial Waste Treatment was published by CRC/Taylor & Francis Group, co-edited and co-authored by CE Professor Constantine Yapijakis.

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giving to cooper union

  • The Cooper Union recently received $450,000 from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust, which will go to support the Trust's $1.5 million pledge to the Building Fund, along with the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Exhibition Foyer in the new academic building and continuing support for the Saturday Outreach Programs.
  • The Helena Rubinstein Foundation has also renewed its support for the Saturday Outreach Programs.
  • The Cooper Union has received its tenth annual gift from the Switzer Foundation which supports scholarships for women in the engineering school. The recipients are Sevanne Halajian ('06), Linda Lam ('07), Min Kyoung Park ('08), Xinning Ye ('06) and Christiana Tu ('09). Lam also received Switzer Scholarships in 2003-4, 2004-5 and 2005-6, and Park also received a Switzer Scholarship for 2005-6.
  • For the 15th year, the Solon E. Summerfield Foundation has added The Cooper Union to its endowment fund for the Solon E. Summerfield Scholarship, which is given annually to a student in the School of Art.
  • Thanks to the generous support of alumni and friends, the Annual Fund is up 13% over this time last year with $750,000 committed toward our $2.6 million goal.

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Don't Miss

General Interest

  • Each month, President Campbell hosts the President's Roundtable to give Cooper Union students the opportunity to engage in an informal dialogue over lunch with distinguished alumni or friends of the institution. The Roundtable series has been enormously successful in providing a platform for the exchange of ideas and giving students a chance to hear success stories from individuals they admire. Guests have included Trustee and Newmark Knight Frank CEO Jeffrey Gural, President Emerita of MoMA Agnes Gund, chairman of Rudin Management Co. Jack Rudin, orthopedic surgeon and director of the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletics Trauma Dr. Stephen Nicholas, sculptor-turned-engineer Chuck Hoberman (A'79) and Trustee and CEO of Helicos BioSciences Stanley Lapidus (EE'70).

    On January 30, Kevin Burke (EE'72) will join Dr. Campbell for the Student Roundtable discussion scheduled at noon. Students interested in participating should contact the student ad-chairs in their respective schools to sign up.

    Kevin Burke is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Consolidated Edison, Inc., the holding company, and chairman and chief executive officer of its largest subsidiary, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, the regulated utility.

    Mr. Burke serves on the boards of directors of many industry and nonprofit organizations, including the American Gas Association, Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the Energy Association of New York, the New York State Business Council, the New York Botanical Garden, Partnership for New York City, the United Way of New York City and the YMCA of Greater New York.

Alumni Events

  • The West Coast Florida Alumni Luncheon and tour of Graphicstudio will take place in Tampa on Saturday, January 27, 2007 at 12pm. Hosted by the Florida Chapter of The Cooper Union Alumni Association, guest speakers include Margaret Miller, director of Graphicstudio and the Contemporary Art Museum and Deli Sacilotto, former Cooper Union professor, currently serving as a consultant for technical research to Graphicstudio.
  • Engineering Career Night will take place on Monday, January 29, 2007 in the Wollman Lounge, at 6pm. Engineering students and Cooper Union alumni will meet to explore career paths. The event is sponsored by the Albert Nerken School of Engineering, the Center for Career Development and the Office of Alumni Relations.
  • A luncheon for Cooper Union faculty and staff who are alumni will be held in the downstairs lobby of The Great Hall on Tuesday, February 6, 2007 at 12 noon. Come meet fellow alumni and get to know your alumni representatives on the Cooper Union Alumni Association Executive and Faculty Committees.
  • The Cooper Union Annual Wreath Laying Ceremony will be held in Peter Cooper Park Tuesday, February 13, 2007 at 12 noon. 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.
  • President George Campbell Jr. and the Parents Council hosted a reception for parents of Cooper students and graduates last month. Eighty people attended to hear Dean Germano speak and mingle with other parents. Attendees were buzzing about the continued momentum and formalization of the young Cooper Union Parents Council. To become involved, please email parents@cooper.edu.

Exhibitions

  • Earlier this year, the work of School of Art student Reed Burgoyne (A'09) was included in an exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, "The Art of Design: The Architecture and Design Collection." As a partner in the graphic design studio Urban Inks, Burgoyne's hand printed, limited-edition posters of contemporary rock groups were on view.
  • Matthew Cusick (A'93) had a one-person on exhibition at the Lisa Dent Gallery in San Francisco.
  • Sharon Hayes (Adjunct Instructor, School of Art) is in a group show titled Media Burn at the Tate Modern in London through February 19th.
  • Visiting Artist Nina Katchadourian's project Office Semaphore is on view at One Chase Manhattan Plaza through January 14th. For more information visit www.publicartfund.org.
  • LightShowers, an installation created by Michael Morris (AR'89) and Yoshiko Sato (AR'89), with video images by Paul Ryan, will travel from the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in Wilmington, DE, to the Lucas Schoormans Gallery in New York City, opening on January 25, 2007 and running through February 24, 2007.

Upcoming Lectures and Public Programs

  • Professor of art history in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Andrew Weinstein will discuss the works of the artist Valentin Lustig in the exhibition, "The Holocaust Paintings of Valentin Lustig," on January 9 (6 pm) at the Yeshiva University Museum Art Gallery at the Center for Jewish History. The artist, born in Cluj after World War II, portrays the pre-war landscapes of his native Romania with Holocaust victims hovering overhead. Weinstein will show how Lustig's surrealist paintings relate to the work of other contemporary artists whose work references the Holocaust.
  • The Lubalin Center will be hosting the lecture Letter as Image/Image as Letter, featuring Michael Doret, Louise Fili, Tom Nikosey, Daniel Pelavin, Gerard Huerta and Tom White, on Tuesday, January 9, at 7:30 pm in The Cooper Union, Wollman Auditorium. Focusing on new ways of seeing the 26 characters of the alphabet and how to use them as expressive tools in a contemporary vocabulary of design is what binds these six letterform artists together. Blurring the distinctions between illustration, lettering and graphic design, this work has endeavored to "push the envelope" and give birth to a hybrid form of design where the letter is the image and the image is the letter.
  • School of Art Dean Saskia Bos will be a panelist on January 10th at 6:30 pm in The Great Hall as part of the New Museum's public programming series. Location, Location, Location! will discuss the rise in importance of regional culture in the wake of global culture. Other panelists include Nicolai Ouroussoff, architecture critic, The New York Times; Roger Buergel, artistic director, Documenta 12; Teddy Cruz, architect and recipient of the Sterling Memorial Prize; and Julie Mehretu, artist and MacArthur Fellow. Location, Location, Location! will be moderated by Richard Flood, chief curator, New Museum. For more information visit www.newmuseum.org.

  • Lawrence Wright: The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
    Wednesday, January 24, 6:30 pm, free lecture and book signing, The Great Hall

    Lawrence Wright, renowned author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11—a 2006 finalist for the National Book Award—is coming to The Cooper Union to talk about his book as well as reveal his assessment of Al-Qaeda's current activities and what we may expect of them in the future. While interviewing more than 500 people, including Osama bin Laden's best friend in college; a reporter for Al Jazeera, the Arabic news network; and Richard A. Clarke, the former White House counter terrorism chief, Wright's book delves into the history of terrorism and provides a step-by-step recount of the terrorist attacks leading up to and including September 11. Heralded as a "remarkable new book about Al-Qaeda" by the New York Times Book Review (8/1/06), the author's compelling ability to describe events in a larger cultural and political context has made The Looming Tower "one of the best books yet on the history of terrorism," according to Publishers Weekly (11/6/06).

    Lawrence Wright is an author, screenwriter and a staff writer for The New Yorker. He is a graduate of Tulane University, in New Orleans, LA, and the American University in Cairo, where he taught English and received an M.A. in applied linguistics.

    This lecture is made possible by the Benjamin Menschel Distinguished Lectureship, established with a generous grant from The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.

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Did You Know?

  • Gail Buckland, the Olympus Visiting Professor of the history of photography, served as a consultant on images of global warming to former Vice President Al Gore on his presentations and documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
  • Resistance to Oppression and Genocide is the subject of a conversation by Anne Griffin, professor of political science at The Cooper Union, and Aaron Dorfman, director of education at the American Jewish World Service, and a leader in activism to stop genocide in Darfur. The event took place in November along with a presentation, "Resistance and Genocide," at the Yeshiva University museum. Professor Griffin also curated the exhibition, Resistance and Memory in Belgium, 1940-1945 at the museum. Her installation, which premiered at The Cooper Union's Houghton Gallery in 2005, has been extended through January 14th, 2007 at the museum. Professor Griffin is serving for a second year on the Fulbright Foundation's National Screening Committee for fellowship applications to Belgium and the Netherlands.
  • The South Orange (NJ) Performing Arts Center is a 46,000-square-foot entertainment complex recently completed by RKT&B and featured in eOCULUS (11/14/06). Bernard Rothzeid (AR'49), and former Alumni Trustee Carmi Bee (AR'67) are principals in the firm.
  • ChE Professor Ruben Savizky gave a talk, "Pattern Analysis using NMR Spectroscopy (PANSY): Applications to Pharmaceutical and Organic Chemistry" at the Eastern Analytical Symposium in Somerset, NJ in November. He also presented a poster for the American Chemical Society National meeting in San Francisco in September.
  • Dean Anthony Vidler (Arch. fac. and dean) presented a colloquium at the TU Delft (The Netherlands) about contemporary research in architecture and its impact. Dean Vidler also participated in "Households: Reconfigured Interiors of Iconic Modern Residences in Amsterdam and Rotterdam" with Mark Robbins at the Center for Architecture.

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