World-renowned architect Rem Koolhaas to deliver next installment of University Lectures

Monday, November 11, 2002, By News Staff

World-renowned architect Rem Koolhaas to deliver next installment of University LecturesNovember 11, 2002Patrick Farrellpmfarrel@syr.edu

Internationally acclaimed architect Rem Koolhaas will discuss his recent work Nov. 14 during the next installment of The University Lectures. The Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate’s lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. in Schine Student Center’s Goldstein Auditorium.

Koolhaas’ controversial yet critically acclaimed style is redefining the role of the architect in society. “Architects, for the first time in several decades, are being solicited for their power to physically articulate new visions,” he told The New York Times in a 1994 interview.

Best known for his Bordeaux House in France, the Educatorium in the Netherlands and the new Seattle Central Library, Koolhaas was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 1944. He began his career as a journalist and later tried his hand at screenwriting both his native country and Hollywood. By 1968, his interest turned to architecture, and in 1972 he received a Harkness Fellowship for research in the United States.

Koolhaas’ writings on architects gained him recognition as a visionary early in his career; later, his interweaving of architecture, urban planning, research and writing solidified his reputation. Called a modernist by some and a deconstructionist by others, Koolhaas’ style defies easy definition. He considers this a compliment-working in so many different environments and under so many different conditions, each finished work must be unique.

Koolhaas has been a professor at Harvard University since 1995. He is currently leading a student-based research group that is studying different issues affecting the urban condition. Projects include a study of five cities in the Pearl River Delta in China; a study called The Roman System, focusing on the ancient Roman city; an analysis of the role of retail consumption in the contemporary city, and a study of the African city; focusing specifically on Lagos, Nigeria.

Koolhaas’ design firm, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), was founded in London in 1975 with Madelon Vriesendorp and Elia and Zoe Zenghelis.

The University Lectures is a cross-disciplinary lecture series that brings to the University individuals of exceptional accomplishment in the areas of architecture and design; the humanities and the sciences; and public policy, management and communications. The series is generously supported by the University’s Trustees, alumni and friends.