Thom Mayne

Mayne's New Academic Building for Cooper Union (2009)

Thom Mayne (b. January 19, 1944, in Waterbury, Connecticut) is a Los Angeles-based architect. Educated at University of Southern California (1969) and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (1978), Mayne helped found the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in 1972 and now serves on the school's Board of Trustees. Since then he has held teaching positions at SCI-Arc, the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is principal of Morphosis (/mɔːrˈfoʊsɪs/), an architectural firm in Santa Monica, California. Mayne received the Pritzker Prize in March 2005.

Diamond Ranch High School in Pomona, California (1999)

University of Toronto Graduate House (2000)

Caltrans District 7 Headquarters, Los Angeles (2004)

University of Cincinnati Rec Center (2006)

Morse Courthouse in Eugene, Oregon (2006)

San Francisco Federal Building (2006)

NOAA National Satellite Operations Center (2007)

Part of the street-level base of the New Academic Building (2009)

Firm

Thom Mayne, with Livio Santini, James Stafford and Michael Brickler, founded Morphosis in 1971. Michael Rotondi joined the firm in 1975 to develop an architecture that would eschew the normal bounds of traditional forms.

Morphosis’s design philosophy arises from an interest in producing work with a meaning that can be understood by absorbing the culture for which it was made.

Beginning as an informal collaboration of designers that survived on non-architectural projects, its first official commission was a school in Pasadena, attended by Mayne's son. Publicity from this project led to a number of residential commissions, including the Lawrence Residence.

Since then, Morphosis has grown into prominent design practice, with completed projects worldwide. Under the Design Excellence program of the United States government's General Service Administration, Thom Mayne has become a primary architect for federal projects. Recent commissions include: graduate housing at the University of Toronto; the San Francisco Federal Building; the University of Cincinnati Student Recreation Center; the Science Center School in Los Angeles, Diamond Ranch High School in Pomona, California; and the Wayne L. Morse United States Courthouse in Eugene, Oregon.

The work of Morphosis has a layered quality. Visually, the firm’s architecture includes sculptural forms. In recent years, such visual effect has been made possible increasingly through computer design techniques, which simplify the construction of complex forms.

Awards and honors

• The Edward MacDowell Medal / 2008
• Top Ten Green Project Award, American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment / 2007
• Pritzker Prize / 2005
• Design Futures Council Senior Fellow
• Chrysler Design Award of Excellence / 2001
• Los Angeles Gold Medal, American Institute of Architects / 2000
• Alumni of the Year, University of Southern California / 1995
• Brunner Prize or Award in Architecture, American Academy of Arts and Letters / 1992
• Member Elect, American Academy of Design / 1992
• Eliel Saarinen Chair, Yale School of Architecture, Yale University / 1991
• Elliot Noyes Chair, Harvard University Graduate School of Design / 1988
• Rome Prize Fellowship, American Academy in Rome, Italy / 1987

Major projects

Completed

• New Academic Building at 41 Cooper Square, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, New York, 2009
• National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Satellite Operation Facility, Suitland, Maryland, 2007
• Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, 2009
• San Francisco Federal Building, San Francisco, California, 2006
• Wayne L. Morse United States Courthouse, Eugene, Oregon, 2006
• Public housing in Madrid], Spain, 2006
• University of Cincinnati Student Recreation Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2006
• Science Center School, Los Angeles, California, 2004
• Caltrans District 7 Headquarters, Los Angeles, California, 2004
• Hypo Alpe-Adria Center, Klagenfurt, Austria, 2002
• University of Toronto Graduate House, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2000
• Diamond Ranch High School, Pomona, California, 1999
• Sun Tower in Seoul, Korea 1997
• Blades Residence, Santa Barbara, California, 1995
• Salick Healthcare Office Building, Los Angeles, CA, 1991
• Crawford Residence, Montecito, CA, 1990
• Cedar Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1988
• 6th Street Residence, Santa Monica, CA, 1988
• Kate Mantilini / Beverly Hills, CA, 1986

In progress

• Phare Tower (Tour Phare), also known as "Le Phare" and "The Lighthouse", "green" wind-powered office building, La Défense, Paris, France, 2012
• Perot Museum of Nature & Science, Victory Park, Dallas, Texas, 2013

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Ayyuce, Orhan ""Thom Mayne in Coffee Break" - Archinect, July, 2007
• Orlandoni, Alessandra ""Interview with Thom Mayne" - The Plan 014, May2006

External links

• Media related to Thom Mayne at Wikimedia Commons
• Morphosis.com - Official Website
• Morphopedia.com - Official Directory of Projects
• Online profile of Thom Mayne as principal of Morphosis
• American Maverick Wins Pritzker Prize New York Times, March 21, 2005
  • Free version of the above article
• Metropolis article on Mayne
• ARCH'IT article on NewCity Park
• ARCH'IT article on Caltrans District Headquarters
• Pritzker Prize Media Kit
• Thom Mayne's Guest DJ Project on KCRW KCRW Guest DJ set
• TED Talks: Thom Mayne on architecture as connection at TED in 2005