April 15, 2004

Mohsen Mostafavi was named dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, at Cornell University on April 14. Mostafavi, a U.S. citizen who studied at London's Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA) and the University of Cambridge, has served as chairman of the AA since 1995. His Cornell appointment will begin July 1.

Mostafavi's Cornell appointment crowns an already prestigious career that includes a stint as director of the Master of Architecture 1 Program at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. A much-recognized author, he also taught at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Cambridge and the Frankfurt Academy of Fine Arts (Staedeschule). A member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Architects' Registration Board of the United Kingdom, Cornell's new dean served on the Royal Institute of British Architects' Gold Medal Selection Committee and is a member of the steering committee of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

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Mostafavi is credited with bringing breadth and innovation to the highly influential London school, which has produced such stars as Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid, among others. His projects and writings underscore a keen interest in building surfaces and how they change over time. Surface Architecture, a book by Mostafavi with David Leatherbarrow (MIT Press, 2002), received the CICA Bruno Zevi Book Award 2003 for the most significant contribution to architectural criticism. His book On Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time, also with Leatherbarrow (MIT Press, 1993), won the American Institute of Architects' commendation prize for writing on architectural theory. He is the co-author of Delayed Space, with Homa Farjadi (Princeton Architectural Press, 1994).

Mostafavi attended Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, from 1981 to 1984, the University of Essex Department of Art from 1976 to 1981 and the AA from 1972 to 1976. When he assumes his new responsibilities as dean of Cornell's College of Architecture, Art and Planning, Mostafavi will succeed Porus Olpadwala, who, having served in this capacity since 1999, will return to his former position of professor in the college's Department of City and Regional Planning.

Tony Illia