Nir Buras
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Nir Haim Buras (born January 25, 1952) is an Israeli-American architect, urban planner, author, educator, and endorser of the New Classical Architecture movement. He founded the Classic Planning Institute in Washington, D.C. after having published his book, "The Art of Classic Planning: Building Beautiful and Enduring Communities", with support from the Driehaus Foundation.
Education
Buras holds a Bachelor's degree in Architecture & Town Planning from the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion); a Master's degree in Architecture from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and a Ph.D. in Architectural Design History and Theory from Technion. His dissertation topic was "Josef Neufeld in Eretz Israel: Romanticism in Modernism".
Career
Buras began as a military architect and planner in the Israeli Army (Tzahal). Following that, he worked for Gensler in San Francisco; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in Los Angeles; as well as architect Ron Goldman (Goldman Firth Rossi) in Malibu. Following his Ph.D. studies, Buras served as Senior Architect and Design Principal at HNTB, and later as Lead Designer at AECOM for the East Side Access project at Grand Central Terminal, New York City. Freelancing in Washington, D.C., Buras worked on buildings in the US Capitol Complex[1] and established his own firm in Washington, D.C. (closed 2012)[2]. Since 2005 he is in charge of the famous Anacostia River Masterplan–also named MacMillan II–that envisions future urban growth and Parisian riverfronts and quays at Washington, D.C.[3][4] He founded the Washington, D.C. Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Arts (ICAA) and after publishing his book, "The Art of Classic Planning: Building Beautiful and Enduring Communities", Buras founded the Classic Planning Institute in 2021[5]. Buras has taught at the Technion, Israel, the University of Southern California and the Woodbury University, both in Los Angeles. He has been a guest critic as well at the Notre Dame University, Indiana, the University of Maryland and the National Civic Art Society[6]. Buras continues to teach and engage in academic research at the Classic Planning Institute.[7]
The Art of Classic Planning
Buras’ book, "The Art of Classic Planning: Building Beautiful and Enduring Communities,” (2020) documents and extends the urban practices put in place prior to the professionalization of planning and urbanism. "The Art of Classic Planning" has received mostly positive reviews from professionals[8] and academics aligned to the New Classical Architecture movement–including such exponents as Léon Krier, Nikos Salingaros[9], and James Stevens Curl[10], as well as from American conservative outlets[11]. A favorable review mentioned that "by so memorably reestablishing the fundamentals of urban design and planning, The Art of Classic Planning will be a strategic addition to any architecture or urban planning library" (Favermann, 2020)[12]; whereas an architectural historian criticized the book for using "spurious and historically flawed arguments" as well as having a "polemical, skewed history of urbanism and architecture" (Hewitt, 2020)[5]. A significant aspect of the book may be its intersection of neuroaesthetics, evolutionary psychology, urban design, and architectural experience[13].
References
- ^ "[The U.S. Capitol: Its Architecture and Its Decoration] | C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
- ^ "Veteran Architect and QTECT Founder Dr. Nir Buras Offers Tips on Hiring Architects. - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
- ^ "Paris on the Anacostia: A Provocative Idea for DC's Waterfront". The Kojo Nnamdi Show. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
- ^ Dobson, Amy Rose (2013-01-31). "Paris & Anacostia". Curbed DC. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
- ^ a b Hewitt, Mark Alan (December 2, 2021). "BOOK REVIEW: THE ART OF CLASSIC PLANNING: BUILDING BEAUTIFUL AND ENDURING COMMUNITIES, BY Nir Haim Buras" (PDF). New Design Ideas. 5 (2): 220–223.
- ^ "Human Wellbeing: Good Urbanism Requires Good Architecture". The American Conservative. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
- ^ Buras, Nir Haim; Birelmann, Aenne A.; Salingaros, Nikos A.; Taylor, Richard P. (January 7, 2022). "What Happens in Your Brain When You Walk Down the Street? Implications of Architectural Proportions, Biophilia, and Fractal Geometry for Urban Science". Urban Science. 6 (1).
- ^ Webb, Patrick. "Book Review: The Art of Classic Planning". Traditional Building. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
- ^ "An Important Book for our Time — and After". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
- ^ Curl, James Stevens (2020-02-20). "The Art of Classic Planning: Building Beautiful and Enduring Communities, by Nir Haim Buras". Times Higher Education (THE). Retrieved 2022-05-31.
- ^ "Learning From a Century of Bad Urban Planning". The American Conservative. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
- ^ Favermann, Mark (April 1, 2020). "Book Review: "The Art of Classic Planning" — How to Build Beautiful and Enduring Communities". The Arts Fuse.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "'The Art of Classic Planning' Critiques a 'Century of Bad Planning'". www.planetizen.com. Retrieved 2022-05-31.