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State of The Cooper Union

Tuesday, October 25 at 12 noon in The Great Hall: annual report on the State of The Cooper Union. The president will recap key academic and administrative developments of the past year and offer a strategic outlook for the future.

Museum of Modern Art Exhibition

Twelve students from the second, fourth and thesis years of the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture are working with Shigeru Ban (AR’85) Architects and Dean Maltz (AR’84) Architects to reconstruct Shigeru Ban’s "paper log house" for the Museum of Modern Art exhibition "Safe," which will open on October 11. The paper log house was originally designed by Ban as an answer to the dire housing needs of a community of residents of Kobe, Japan, made homeless by the 1995 earthquake. Students are working with David Karlin in the shop on the pre-assembly phase of the project. For more information, visit the Museum of Modern Art's Web site.

Security

Protect your belongings – keep them out of view. Please note that our building is open to the public for many events and some visitors do not remain in public spaces. Do not leave valuables unattended in your classrooms or studios.

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Congratulations

Awards

  • Gearoid Dolan (Director, Computer Studio) is the recipient of a 2005 NYSCA Individual Artists Film, Media and New Technology Production Award for his multimedia performance series Separate. Versions of Separate can be seen at this year's DUMBO Art Under the Bridge Festival on October 15 during the Simultaneous Projections Event. Separate will also be shown at the Tulca Arts Festival in Galway, Ireland from November 25-27. Details can be found at www.screammachine.com.

  • Cooper Union Continuing Education faculty member Barry Lewis, architectural historian, tour guide and WNET/Thirteen television personality will receive the Historic Districts Council's 17th Annual Landmarks Lion Award on October 26.

  • Thomas Tsang (AR’00) was awarded third place in the International Central Glass + Shinkenchiku-sha Competition for his submission "Landmark as Imaginary Fabrication" (Tiananmen Square, Beijing).

  • Cooper Union Constitution Day contest winners, who answered questions related to the United States Constitution that were submitted by each student club were David Eis (EE2), first place: Grace Chen (EE2), second place; eleven students who tied for third place: Yasha Okshtein (BE1), Preethi Moorthy (ME2), Logan Yu (BE2), Jan-Kristof Louis (CE2), Teena Kurian (ChE4), Maksim Beygelman (ChE2), Kara McElhinney (ME3), Jae Kim (CE4), Talia Fuss (ChE4), Linda Lam (ME3), and Sebastien Tilmans (CE3).

Publications

  • Architecture Professor Sue Ferguson Gussow: review of the book Tranquil Power: The Art and Life of Perle Fine by Kathleen L. Housley, published in The East Hampton Star, July 21.

  • Elizabeth Diller (AR’79) and Ricardo Scofidio (AR’55) contributed to Architourism: Authentic, Escapist, Exotic, Spectacular edited by Joan Ockman and Salomon Frausto.

milestones

  • Daniel Libeskind (AR’70) designed a 45-story apartment tower to be built in downtown Warsaw.

  • Gerardo del Cerro, Assistant Professor, Adjunct, of Social Sciences and Director of Assessment at The Cooper Union, was invited by the University of Burgos (Spain) to conduct an assessment workshop for engineering and technology faculty in July 2005. He has also been invited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) to be part of a visiting team in MSCHE's ongoing accreditation process of colleges and universities. Dr. del Cerro is currently serving as an assessment advisor for a joint project with the Mitsubishi Research Institute in Japan and the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

  • Will Villalongo (A’99) has been selected by the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation as a recipient of their annual Space Program, which provides free studio space in Tribeca for working artists.

  • Leonardo Drew’s (A’85) solo show (February 12 – March 12, 2005) at Brent Sikkema is reviewed in the September issue of Art in America.

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Welcome

  • Welcome to new faculty members of Humanities and Social Sciences including Ted McCormick and Sarah Sachs (ME’00) who will team teach the urban environment seminar with Acting Dean Peter Buckley. Ebony Coletu has assumed a new fellowship, teaching in the Writing Center.

  • Ruben Savizky (ChE’98) joins the Chemistry faculty of the Nerken School of Engineering as a full-time Assistant Professor. Savizky earned his B.A. from Cooper Union and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale University.

  • The School of Architecture welcomes new faculty members:

    • Jennifer Lee, Fall 2005 Semester, Design IV

    • Thomas Leeser, Spring 2006 Semester, Thesis

    • Daniel Sherer, Spring 2006 Semester, Design IV

    • David Turnbull, Spring 2006 Semester, Thesis

    • Nanako Umemoto, Spring 2006 Semester, Thesis

    • Mersiha Veledar (AR’03), 05-06 Academic Year, Design IV

    • Michael Young, 05-06 Academic Year, Design III, Fall 2005 Semester, Descriptive Geometry/CAD

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giving to cooper union

  • Morris Shane (ME'47) has contributed more than $1 million to Cooper Union for a Charitable Gift Annuity -- a gift that pays an income for life of the donor or the person he or she designates, and then provides deferred support for the college. This remarkable gift entitles Mr. Shane to membership in The Peter Cooper Heritage Society.

  • Jane E. Deed, who worked in Cooper Union’s admissions office in the 1950’s, contributed $750,000 to name a classroom in the new academic building after her late husband Dr. Donald W. Deed (ChE’37) who taught at Cooper Union. An additional $100,000 gift will establish two scholarships in both of their names, one in art and one in engineering. In addition to Mrs. Deed's remarkable outright contributions, she has named Cooper Union as a major beneficiary of her estate. Mrs. Deed's lifetime giving to the college now exceeds $1 million, making her also a new member of the Peter Cooper Heritage Society.

  • Trustee Douglas A. P. Hamilton made a very generous $500,000 pledge to the new academic building fund.

  • Cooper Union's planned giving recognition society, The Society of 1859, has two new members; Sylvia Dornblum and Marvin B. Schaffer (ChE'50).

  • The New York State Energy Research & Development Authority has approved Cooper Union's cogeneration proposal, which covers energy saving cogeneration-related expenses for the New Academic Building. The NYSERDA program covers 30% of total costs, or approximately $360,000 of an estimated $1.2 million budget.

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Don't Miss

General Interest

  • Congratulate new Dean of the School of Art Saskia Bos and Dean of Admissions Mitchell Lipton at our annual Faculty Reception and Staff and Administrators Luncheon both to be held in October. Please look for your invitation.

  • It's My Park Day! Please join us to clean and prune Peter Cooper Park on Saturday, October 15 from 10am to 2pm. It's My Park Day! brings New Yorkers together to care for and celebrate their shared neighborhood parks by participating in clean up and restoration projects, enjoying free cultural events or just getting outside to enjoy their community. For more information contact Erin Bogart Johnson, Manager of Public Affairs at bogart@cooper.edu.

  • Our annual Pumpkin Carving Contest will be held in the foyer of the Foundation Building on October 28 from 2-4pm.

  • The 13th Annual Cooper Union Engineering Career Fair will be held on October 11 from 12 noon-3pm in the Wollman Lounge.

  • This year, Cooper Union is part of the 2nd Annual Engineering Consortium Career Fair to be held at Columbia University on October 27 and 28. This consortium consists of more than 30 leading engineering schools and will host over 75 employers.

  • The on-campus recruiting season for engineers begins with Bloomberg LLP on October 17 and continues throughout November. A full schedule is available on the Career Services Web site.

  • The Shanahan Lecture series will present Scott Berkun, "Confessions of a Microsoft Project Manager" on October 17 at 12 noon in the Driscoll Room (136E). Mr. Berkun is a former team manager at Microsoft and author of a book entitled "The Art of Project Management."

Alumni Events

  • Thursday, October 20 – CU on Wall Street Fall Reception with guest speaker Dr. Arnold J. Shapiro (ChE'71), Managing Director and CIO of Global Fixed Income, ABP. Ray Falci (ME'86) and Larry Ng (EE'78) will host this networking reception for alumni in financial services and students interested in the field. 6 to 8 pm, Wollman Lounge, Albert Nerken School of Engineering. Please RSVP by October 14. For more information and to register, please go to www.cualumni.com or call 212-353-4171.

About CU Alumni on Wall Street
Led by Co-Chairs, Ray Falci (ME'86) and Larry Ng (EE'78), CU Alumni on Wall Street is a professional network for Cooper Union alumni pursuing careers in financial services. CU Alumni on Wall Street benefits alumni, students and the Cooper Union community at large through networking, professional development and mentoring activities.

  • Saturday, October 29 – Art Auction Casino Night – always a favorite event, this evening will feature two floors of games, including poker, craps and blackjack, and a silent auction featuring artwork by recent alumni, several one-of-a-kind experiences and gift baskets. Please contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 212-353-4164 or RSVP online at www.cualumni.com.

  • December 3 – Art Basel Miami Beach Alumni Luncheon - The Florida Chapter of the Cooper Union Alumni Association invites all alumni and friends to their fall gathering, this year connected to the world-renowned art fair, Art Basel Miami Beach. Saskia Bos, the new Dean of The Cooper Union’s School of Art, will speak about current trends in the contemporary art world and review the show’s highlights, including featured Cooper Union artists. For more information, please contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 212-353-4164 or alumni@cooper.edu.

Exhibitions

  • Professor Dennis Adams, School of Art, has a video installation, Make Down, at the Kent Gallery through October 16 www.kentgallery.com.

  • Professor Robert Bordo, School of Art, will have a solo show at Alexander and Bonin from September 6 to October 22, titled Another Day. For more information visit www.alexanderandbonin.com.

  • Professor Christine Osinski, School of Art, has a photography exhibition Drawn to Water on view at the historic Alice Austen House on Staten Island now through October 15 www.aliceausten.org.

  • Lisa Lawley, adjunct faculty, School of Art, will display a selection of new paintings in her show Iceland and Cambodian Landscapes at the Tompkins College Gallery at Cedar Crest College in Philadelphia. The exhibition will be on view through October 9. Please contact Vicki DaSilva at 610-606-4666 for more information.

  • Trenton Duerksen’s (A’02) solo show Trenton Makes the World Takes opened on September 7 at Guild and Greyshkul. His show will be on view through October 8.

  • Amy Westpfahl (A’00), staff member, School of Art, is in a group show at Priska C. Juschka Fine Art (now located in Chelsea) titled New Found Land. The show runs through October 8 www.priskajuschkafineart.com.

  • Larry Brown, adjunct faculty, School of Art, will show new work in Things and Events at Sears-Peyton Gallery. The show will be on view through October 22. For more information visit www.searspeyton.com. 

  • Jacob Burckhardt, adjunct faculty, School of Art, will show new photographs at Silo through October 16. For more information visit www.silonyc.com. 

  • Carrie Moyer, visiting artist – fall semester, School of Art, will open a new painting installation as part of the Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Art on Tuesday, October 4. The installation will be on view through December 20 www.bam.org.

  • School of Art alumni Aaron King (A’05), Johannes Vanderbeek (A’04), and Boris Rasin (A’05) all have new work in Helter Skelter, an exhibition at Capsule Gallery, which will run through October 8 www.capsulegallery.com.

  • Matthew Cusick, visiting artist – fall semester, School of Art, is participating in an exhibition at Exit Art titled Traffic, which will be on view from October 1 through December 23 www.exitart.org

  • Glenn Goldberg, adjunct faculty, School of Art, will show new paintings at the Eli Marsh Gallery at Amherst College. Titled For Huxley, Kant, and Robert Clemente, the exhibition will be on view through October 22. Glenn will give a lecture at Amherst on Thursday, October 6 at 4:30 pm with a reception to follow in the gallery www.amherst.edu/~finearts/.

  • Louis Cameron, adjunct faculty, School of Art, will have an exhibition of new work at Purchase College as part of the Schwartz Projects, a new series of artists’ projects in the Richard and Dolly Maass Gallery. Paul Brewer curated this year’s project series. Louis Cameron will give a lecture on October 19 at 6:00 pm at the gallery www.purchase.edu/art+design.

  • Lothar Osterburg, adjunct faculty, School of Art, will have a series of temporary installations, Waterworks, on view through October 27 at various locations all along a stretch of Sawkill Creek at Bard College. A new installation goes up each week (since September 7) and is left to stand against environmental forces, and be discovered by passersby. For more information contact the School of Art Office at artschool@cooper.edu.

  • Joan Waltemath, adjunct faculty, Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, has an exhibition at Victoria Munroe Fine Art in Boston through October 15. For more information visit victoriamunroefineart.com/exhibitions.htm.

  • Paul Villinski (A’84) will have a solo exhibition of sculptural work at Gallery 138 from September 29th to October 27th www.gallery138.com.

  • Wangechi Mutu (A’97) will have work in the fourth installment of The Triumph of Painting at the Saatchi Gallery in London (February 10 – May 7, 2006).

  • As part of its new commissions program, Art in General presents After Before, a new performance-based work by Sharon Hayes, adjunct faculty, School of Art, dealing with the politics of public discourse. Art in General has also commissioned a second project titled In the Near Future, for which Hayes will stage five hypothetical and imaginary protests throughout New York City during 2005-2006. Each of these events will be documented on video and then projected as a three-channel installation. A performative presentation of this project in progress is part of the city-wide biennial of new visual performance art, PERFORMA05, taking place at Art in General on November 9th from 6-8 pm www.performa-arts.org and www.artingeneral.org.

  • Upcoming School of Art lectures for Doug Ashford’s Intra-Disciplinary Seminar:

    • October 4 – ANOKA FARUQEE is a California-based artist who has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Vermont College, and Cooper Union. She recently received grants from Artcouncil, Inc. and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.

    • October 11 – NAEEM MOHAIEMEN is a digital-media artist specializing in Political Islam. He is the Editor of Shobak.org, Associate Editor of AltMuslim.com, Board member for the Progressive Muslim Union, and the Director of the art collective Visible.

    • October 18 – JOHANNA BURTON is a New York-based critic and writer. She is the 2002 Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo Curatorial Fellow at the New Museum of Art and a doctoral candidate in the Department of Art and Archeology at Princeton University.

    • October 25 – NILS NORMAN is a London-based artist whose work is informed by local urban politics and ideas on alternative economic and ecological systems that work within the city, merging urbanist utopic alternatives with a humorous critique of the history and role of public art.

Lectures are free and open to the public
Hewitt, Room 207, 7pm artschool@cooper.edu

Lectures and Public Programs

  • A Celebration of the World of Peter Cooper: Social Justice and Entrepreneurship in 19th century New York

Panel discussion
Thursday, October 6, 7pm
The Great Hall, 7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue
Free

For almost 150 years, The Great Hall of The Cooper Union has served as a popular stage for educational lectures, political movements, campaigns for social reform and the creative arts. These meetings have embodied what Peter Cooper meant by "civic culture." The impact of The Great Hall on American society has been immeasurable. This panel discussion, produced by The Gardner Documentary Group, led by Janet Gardner (A’65), and funded by the New York Council for the Humanities, features a string of impressive speakers such as Professor Barbara Balliet, Deputy Director of the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, Rutgers University-New Brunswick; Professor Peter Buckley, Acting Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of History, The Cooper Union; John Steele Gordon, journalist and author of The Business of America; and Professor Sean Wilentz, Dayton-Stockton Professor of History and Director of American Studies, Princeton University.

  • Self-Help, Inc.: Makeover Culture in American Life
    Micki McGee
    Lecture and book signing
    Tuesday, October 18, 6:30pm
    Wollman Auditorium, 51 Astor Place, 8th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues
    Free

The market for self-improvement products—books, audiotapes, life-makeover seminars, and regimens of all kinds—is exploding and there seems to be no end in sight to this trend. Cultural critic Micki McGee explores this seemingly insatiable demand for self-help and what we can learn about ourselves from this phenomenon.

  • 95th Anniversary Celebration: The Poetry Society of America
    Poetry reading
    Thursday, October 27, 7pm
    The Great Hall, 7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue
    $9/$5 members and students

Poets Paul Muldoon, Sonia Sanchez, Vijay Seshadri, Mark Strand and many others will read. For more information, please call 212.254.9628

  • Images of Belgian Resistance
    Curated by Anne Griffin, Professor of Political Science, The Cooper Union
    Exhibition
    Friday, October 28–Saturday, December 10 (Hours: Monday–Friday, 11am–7pm, Saturday, 11am–5pm, closed Sunday)
    Gallery tours: Tuesday, November 1 at 1pm and Saturday, November 5 at 3pm
    Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. Gallery, 7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue
    Free

Following Germany’s attack on France and the Low Countries in 1940, a resistance movement developed in Belgium. Belgian citizens who joined the resistance did so at the risk of their lives. They managed to save the lives of thousands of Jewish children and to rescue over 800 allied airmen who had been shot down over the country. In this exhibit contemporary portraits of members of the resistance are paired with wartime photos of the same people in the context of an overview of the invasion and resistance.

  • Friday, October 28, 1–6:30pm
    The Belgian Resistance Panel discussion
    The Great Hall, 7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue
    Free

  • Saturday, October 29
    Films in Conjunction with the Exhibition: Belgian Resistance
    The Great Hall, 7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue
    Free

"Comete" about the rescue of downed Allied aviators at 11am.

"As If It Were Yesterday" about the rescue of Jewish children at 4pm.

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Did You Know?

  • Cooper Union Annual Etiquette Lunch: Will elbows on the table mean no money in the pocket? Does business casual really mean a casual attitude towards business? About forty Cooper Union engineering and art students brushed up on the ABC’s of business etiquette at a special luncheon designed to translate social skills into business power on Tuesday, September 13 at the National Arts Club. Experts, along with Associate Dean of Students, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Stephen Baker and Associate Dean of Student Services, Director of Career Services Melissa Benca, gave students a "first impression exercise" and even an "Eat-I-Quette" game, where table manners get a once-over, polishing undergrads for a first-hand-look as to whether the image they’re projecting will put them on the career fast track or stuck in the no-passing lane.

  • 9 architecture schools expo(sed): For the first time, the New York metropolitan area's nine schools of architecture had a formal opportunity to interact with one another. In this exhibition at the Center for Architecture, they showed what they are doing, what makes each one unique, and how they incorporate technology, sustainability, and research. The exhibition ran from September 10 – October 1 and Architecture Dean Anthony Vidler participated in the Dean’s Roundtable discussion which was held on September 21.

  • In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a New York Times article on September 6, "Filling a Desperate Need for Shelter Begins With Cruise Ships and Proposals," discussed Daniel Libeskind’s (AR’70) design for a low-cost modular shelter along with Shigeru Ban’s (AR’85) paper tube structures.

  • Cooper Union Students Learning about Emergency Planning: In the Senior Capstone Design course, CE 363, a group of students under the supervision of Professors Joseph Cataldo and Vito A. Guido is undertaking a year-long project on flood protection systems in the context of New Orleans rebuilding and the Gulf Coast vulnerability to hurricanes. Also, in the interdisciplinary first year introduction to exploratory design course, Professor Ann Ronan (CE’83, MCE’84) is leading a section on a project on flood protection and levee design criteria. Professor Jameel Ahmad has selected the broad area of blast mitigation design strategies to protect against both natural and man-made disasters as a vital area of research under the auspices of the Cooper Union Research Foundation.

  • Bennett Austin (A’04), Christian Dietkus (A’05), Theo A. Rosenblum (A’05), Dimitri Scheblanov (A’05), Zander Vaubel (A‘05), and Jesse White (A’05) were part of No Nouns Allowed (Drawing As A Verb), a group exhibition curated by Danny Balgley (A’04). The exhibition was on view from September 7-27 at The LeRoy Neiman Gallery at Columbia University.

  • On September 27, Career Services and Alumni Relations co-sponsored CU@Lunch with Martin Finio (AR’88). Mr. Finio was called "one of America’s most promising young architects" in July 2005 by Esquire magazine. Mr. Finio has taught at both Columbia University and Yale University, conducting a design studio and coordinating a course entitled "Systems Integration," where he has brought together some of the brightest minds in high-performance, environmentally sound design strategies. He was a founding member of Existing Conditions, a not-for-profit art and architecture collaborative. His ten-person firm, Christoff: Finio was named this year’s "Emerging Voices" as selected by the Architectural League of New York. Mr. Finio discussed his design projects, education, professional development, and urban activities.

  • The fall Continuing Education term began on September 24 with 750 students enrolled in 70 courses. Among our partners in offering courses this term are the Congress of International Modern Architects, the New York Botanical Garden, the Hollywood Film Institute and Five Points Fitness. New offerings include: Storytelling with Images, Architectural Photography Workshop, Glories of the Old Masters (at the Metropolitan Museum), Monoprinting with Stencils and Introduction and Advanced Topics in 3D Modeling.

  • To increase resources for the support of the professional development of students, faculty, and staff, last spring the Office of Career Services acquired an online subscription to the database of The Foundation Center's Grants for Individuals. Many have already taken advantage of this database to locate support for individual projects and enterprises. This resource is available to the entire Cooper Union community. Due to the terms of the subscription, access must be made on an individual basis in the Office of Career Services at 30 Cooper Square, 6th Floor. To arrange access to search the database, please contact Robert Thill, Director of the Professional Internship Program and Career Counselor for Art and Architecture, at 212/353-4384 or thill@cooper.edu. In addition, a selection of grants, fellowships, and scholarships are available on the Office of Career Services Web site.

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